Pleasure at Her Majesty's

Usually I would give something like this a 10/10. I dock it two for a couple of reasons. First, I was never much for the Dame Edna character by Barry Humphries. Didn't find it too funny. Second, the fact that some of the sketches were chopped up really bothered me. In particular, Peter Cook's "Sitting on the Bench" miner sketch had about half of it cut out. Bothersome...you can see it in the "Beyond the Fringe" DVD in full, though. Other than that, there are moments of unparalleled hilarity. The courtroom sketch is a mish mash of Monty Python's courtroom sketched rolled up into one. And the result is marvelous, with Peter Cook as the defendant. "Dead Parrot" is also a real treat, with Michael Palin cracking up in the middle of the sketch...pure classic. Eleanor Bron's sketch is great. The rendition of "So That's the Way You Like It" was great. It seemed as if Terry Jones was made for that sketch. However, the best part of this whole video is Peter Cook's "Not An Asp" sketch. Once again, he gets the foil (John Fortune) to "corpse." He even corpses a bit himself. He is god, old Cookie... All in all, a great video, probably too short, the backstage bits are great, though. Great stuff, watch more British comedy!!!

The Amnesty International benefit shows began here - later transmogrifying into the Secret Policeman's Ball. It's essentially a bundle of well-worn Beyond the Fringe skits, Python bits and fragments of stand-up as well as the Goodies doing their single. As a film it's more of a lean piece documentary than anything, capturing moments across the three nights and some behind the scenes capering. It's a fascinating bit of UK comedy history and lovely to watch a wild smorgasbord of luminaries in their element but it has a deeply "random collage" vibe that robs it of some energy and tonally it feels very patchy.

This is THE best thing to happen in the history of all time! Being able to watch Alan Bennet, Peter Cook, and Jonathan Miller perform together is bloody amazing!

I am unfortunately too young to remember beyond the fringe and have never seen any footage of it as it was mostly all lost back in the 60's, but this DVD gave me the chance to see the 3 of them perform together, and even though Dudley Moore isn't there Terry Jones makes a GREAT replacement and the Shakespearean sketch works fabulously.

It was also great to see Barry Humphreys do his wonderful Edna Everidge performance before he became tainted by ally McBeal.

The only (and I mean ONLY) down side was Bill Oddie who I hate but I do love the funky Gibbon song and Tim Brooke Taylor and the one with the chuffs are fab so it balances itself out.

All in all this is a fabulous watch and well worth buying.

It was the meeting of the giants of British comedy from the 1960's and 1970's, Monthy Python(minus Eric Idle), Fringe (minus Dudley Moore),The Goodies, Dame Edna, Elenor Bron, Neil Innes... pretty much everyone other than the Goons performing in the first of the Amensty International events that were later the stuff of legend in the Secret Policeman's Balls. The legends of comedy performing the classics of comedy to mixed results.

The show is funny. Of that there is no doubt but its strangely put together. Mixing both on stage material with the performers backstage it shows you stuff that no other film of the events does. Its mostly wonderful stuff always bringing smiles if not down right laughs to the viewer but whom ever put it together chopped up the bits in a very awkward way so that you get the Peter Cook piece on being a miner broken in parts by backstage talk or the lecture on comedy inter-cut with Jonathan Miller talking about the bit on stage. Its nice for a documentary, but not as a record of a comedy performance in that it kills the timing.

The film also suffers from the fact that the film was shot in an almost archaic style of one or two cameras in one position filming all of the action. There are almost not cut aways only a shift in focus or a turn of the camera to follow the action. Its quaint, but they never considered how it might look years later with changes in camera technique.

The problem of time ravaging the print is a serious one. Although the running time is 75 minutes the print I saw runs several minutes shorter and is extremely scratchy. Its sad that a cultural document like this wasn't better cared for. I would love to see all the footage shot (especially the backstage stuff) but my guess is that its probably gone or in in such poor condition there could never be a restoration. Then again considering how some of the later Policema's Ball films of more recent vintage are also in bad shape and are now missing entire performances we should feel lucky to have what we have.

If you want 70 odd minutes of mirth see the film. And if you can buy it, the money goes to a good cause.

Gets more and more enjoyable the further into the future we hurtle (RIP TBT most recently) although I take the points about the annoyance of breaking up the sketches and not everything being included. I like seeing behind the scenes with these talented and funny people. Nowadays we'd have the whole show filmed, from all the angles, and all the backstage bits as endless dvd extras, but this was the 70s (and a new type of event) so we have to understand the gaps.

Apparently, The Goodies also performed 'Funky Gibbon' in Stone Age-style fake fur outfits during a lull in this event. I have indeed seen a photo of them adopting 'gibbon' poses in said outfits - it looks staged for publicity rather than taken during the show. I'd love to find the source.