Oh No! It’s
Selwyn Froggitt – The Complete Second Series (1975 – 76/Network U.K./Region Two/2/PAL DVD)
Picture:
C Sound: C Extras: D Episodes: B-
PLEASE
NOTE: This
DVD set can only be operated on machines capable of playing back DVDs that can
handle Region Two/2/PAL format software and can be ordered from our friends at
Network U.K. at the website address provided at the end of the review or at
finer retailers.
Before he
was so funny in the hit BritCom The
Gaffer, Bill Maynard played the title character in and earlier hit BritCom with
the amusing title Oh No! It’s Selwyn
Froggitt. This Complete Second Series continues the mishaps of the man who dreams
he can remedy anything and come up with new ideas to make his life better, but
all his ideas and plans tend to backfire or bomb.
The way
Maynard applies naïve enthusiasm in playing the character is one of the many
reasons he works and that leaves the others around him laughing at him or
supporting him in vain. The seven
half-hour shows here include:
1)
Daze Of Hope
2)
The Game Of The Name
3)
Raffles
4)
Selwyn Rides Again
5)
Alphabetical Order
6)
The Protection Racket
7)
Just Cause & Impediment
Those
titles should give you an idea of how wacky the shows get and thanks to the
great writing of Alan Plater (the Beiderbecke
mystery mini-series, reviewed elsewhere on this site), the shows hold up very
well and play as well as the best U.K. and U.S. videotaped situation comedies
of the time. Just as well, it has a
great producer in Ronnie Baxter, at his peak here juggling this show and the
great hit comedy Rising Damp (also
reviewed elsewhere on this site) at the same time. If you like that show, you’ll enjoy this one.
The
supporting cast is also a plus including Bill Dean, Robert Keegan, Richard
Davies and Megs Jenkins as Mrs. Froggitt.
Why this smart comedy has not been seen in the U.S. is a crime, but if
you can play other regions and you are from The States, you definitely want to
see it. The rest of the world can enjoy
too.
The 1.33
X 1 PAL image is soft including some haloing and aliasing, while the Dolby
Digital 2.0 Mono has the expected distortion you would expect for its age plus
other distortion that shows these surviving copies are not in the best of
shape. Someone did their best to clean
them up, fortunately. Unfortunately, there
are no extras.
As noted above, you can order this PAL DVD import
exclusively from Network U.K. at:
http://www.networkdvd.net/
or
www.networkdvd.co.uk
- Nicholas Sheffo
