Britain, Britain, Britain, thou hast been collected in this here set. The successful and hilarious series, live show, and Christmas special have been collected in one delicious set. So what is in it? Let’s ‘ave at it!
“Britain, Britain, Britain! Land of technological achievement! We've had running water for over ten years, an underground tunnel that links us to Peru and we invented the cat!”
As well you may know of the hilarity of Little Britain. Being the only DVD reviewer in my village, I can appreciate the not-so-subtle ribbing of the Britons from the creative minds of David Walliams and Matt Lucas. All lovingly narrated by Tom Baker in an absurd fashion (see quote above).
Sadly it appears that the island has sunk in that both lads have moved on to other projects (although no doubt featuring characters from Little Britain) and the show appears to be no more (although they won’t really confirm that the show is no more) since this set is labeled as the “complete” collection.
The show ran for three series on the BBC, had an extremely successful live touring show, and cumulated in a 2006 two episode Christmas special. The DVD releases that occurred for each of those incarnations have been collected together for this release. Now when I say gathered together I mean just that, as these discs are identical to the releases that have preceded this set.
Series One special features:
Commentary from Matt Lucas and David Williams, Producer Myfanwy Moore (Episodes 1-4) and Director Steve Benedelack (Episodes 5-8). Disc one has deleted Scenes (45 minutes) with Commentary, the 28-minute Pilot Episode with Commentary, 1 minute of BBC Idents (commercials), and a 12-minute Jonathan Ross interview with Walliams and Lucas.
Disc two has the 4 minute "What Does Britain Mean to You" Survey, the 28 minute “Best of Rock Profile,” the 36 minute “How to Make a Little Britain” making of feature, 14 minutes of charity sketches, and a 32 minute BBC Radio interview.
Series Two special features:
Disc one does have commentaries by Lucas, Walliams, and producer Geoff Posner and a silly feature called “Wish you were here” that just says, “DVD player says no.” Disc two has the very nice 43-minute “Little Documentary” and features lots of behind the scenes footage. The boys also produced a special seventh episode for the Comic Relief charity (it also has a commentary).
This new episode has guest stars George Michael (with Lou and Andy), Sir Elton John (interviewed by Daffyd, who does not know Elton’s gay), Simon Callow (with Sebastian and the PM), Trisha Goddard (the UK’s version of Oprah? Who has Vicky Pollard on her show) and singer Robbie Williams (who is given a makeover by Emily and Florence). There are also 3 minutes of outtakes from this episode.
Next up are 50 minutes of deleted scenes (with optional commentary) that feature a lot of characters that are new but did not make it into series two, as well as new bits with series two characters. There’s also an appearance by the granny obsessed fellow from series one, very funny that. These are hilarious and are well worth the time to watch, they probably could’ve made an eighth episode out of these. Next up is a 43-minute interview of Lucas and Walliams by Dr. Graeme Garden at the National Film Theatre.
There are also two 35-minute audio interviews from the Chris Moyles Show and the Jonathon Ross radio show. Next is a 10-minute appearance on the Friday Night with Jonathan Ross television show (their first appearance is on series one’s DVD). There’s a sketch from the Richard and Judy show where the show’s hosts play Lou and Andy. Finally, there’s a very funny 2-minute Daffyd sketch that was done for BBC One.
Series Three special features:
Disc one contains the usual commentaries on every episode by Walliams and Lucas. Special features on disc two begin with 44 minutes of deleted scenes, again with optional commentary by those chaps. This section also contains the cameo by Colin Baker in a deleted scene with Emily and Florence.
Next is an episode of the “South Bank Show Special” running 48 minutes and is like a “this is your career together” show for the duo. “Little Britain Night Highlights” runs 36 minutes and is the interview portion of what was an evening devoted to the show on the BBC. The 30-second “Little Britain Live Trailer” is for the stage show. “Richard and Judy Interview” runs 14 minutes and features the boys on a TV chat show (think Regis and Kathy Lee).
“David Walliams on Top Gear” is 9 minutes of himself on a show about cars where the guest gets to race a car around the track and is interviewed by the gay joke-cracking host (which seems forced and somewhat embarrassing). “Heresy” is a 27-minute audio only appearance by Walliams and Lucas with host David Baddiel.
Little Britain Live special features:
The 13 minute “Making the Tour,” a 1 minute “Lou and Andy in Blackpool” sketch (with optional commentary), a 2 minute Fatfighters scene (with optional commentary), 15 minutes of deleted scenes (with commentary), the 58 minute Little Britain's Big Swim (with deleted scenes), and the 11 minute “Making the DVD.” The main feature also has
Little Britain Abroad special features:
Special features include commentaries on both episodes by Walliams, Lucas, and director Geoff Posner. Next are 5 minutes of deleted scenes with optional commentary by the above. The 58-minute “Little Britain Down Under” takes a look at the touring show of their popular live show as it tours Australia. The lads even have an audience with the leader of all of those Aussies – Dame Edna Everage.
The 45-minute “Little Britain does Comedy Relief” presents the show that the lads did for the charity special. It has appearances from Kate Moss, Dawn French, Dennis Waterman (the real one), and Patsy Kensit. I should say that those were the ones I recognized, there appeared to be many other British celebs that I didn’t recognize. The optional commentary should help ugly Americans like myself get those sorted out. There’s also a 50 second trailer for the Comedy Relief special.
In whatever the format, Little Britain means one thing – hilarity. How could you not appreciate a series from the country that invented the cat?
Little Britain: The Complete Collection is now available at Amazon and AmazonUK . Visit the DVD database for more information.
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