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Posted 6 March 2023

Big Train : Complete BBC Series 1 & 2 DVD Used, Very Good £3.49 @ World of Books

£3.49
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Brilliant sketch show which was slightly overshadowed on first broadcast as The League Of Gentlemen was very popular at this time as well.

Warning: Overly sensitive viewers or fans of Florence Nightingale may be offended...

[Slightly cheaper at Music Magpie but only one available]

Originally shown in 1998, Big Train was the eagerly awaited follow-up to Father Ted from writers Graham Linehan and Arthur Matthews. Resisting the pressure to make another sitcom, Big Train is, instead, a sketch show in the best Monty Python tradition, updated with influences from arch-surrealist Chris Morris as well as the contemporary The Fast Show. The sketches can be joyously odd--Pythonesque firefighting showjumpers, the evil hypnotist, and the outrageous onanistic office workers, for example--but the show never neglects to keep the punchlines coming thick and fast (though the animated staring contest does rather drag after a while). The cast comprises some of the best new names in comedy, including Kevin Eldon, Simon Pegg, Mark Heap, Julia Davis and Amelia Bullmore (who went on to become Alan Partridge's Ukrainian girlfriend).

Series 2 didn't pull into the platform until 2002, by which time Graham Linehan was absent writing Black Books. But Arthur Matthews maintains the quality of the first series on the whole--the man with oversized hands, the creepy cult questionnaire, the zookeeper's recruitment agency--adding some spot-on French art house cinema spoofs and other movie-style take offs somewhat in the manner of Spaced, which Pegg and Heap had gone on to make. That duo return here for more silliness along with new cast members Rebecca Front (The Day Today, Knowing Me, Knowing You) and Tracey-Ann Oberman (better known now as Chrissie Watts in Eastenders).

On the DVD: Big Train belatedly arrives on DVD in a two-disc set which includes a plethora of deleted scenes for both Series 1 and 2. There are cast biogs plus three of the sketches as performed on a German TV sketch show. Commentary on the first series is by both writers, though happily Pegg, Heap and Eldon gatecrash halfway through. Matthews and Eldon join director and producer for the somewhat more straight-faced commentary on the second disc.
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Edited by a community support team member, 6 March 2023
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  1. dabe1971's avatar
    dabe1971
    49729331-jSxkQ.jpg
  2. stamfordblue's avatar
    stamfordblue
    Surprised Barry Davies didn't say ....Look at his face, just look at his face! (edited)
  3. Gazzie's avatar
    Gazzie
    I'd love to contribute to the discussion on this deal, but I'm sorry, I don't speak English.
  4. mocmocamoc's avatar
    mocmocamoc
    Quite a lot of it was dross, but they did a sketch about a smart arsed baker that was comedy gold.
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