Beyond The Fringe (British Sketch Comedy)
Picture: C
Sound: C+ Extras: C Episodes: B-
If you want to see the early work of Peter Cook and Dudley
Moore on British TV, Acorn Media has issued this set of early 1963/1964 shows
called Beyond The Fringe.
Jonathan Miller and Alan Bennett join the duo, in what was some
innovative and different comedy for its time.
The comedy holds up very well for its time and was no doubt influential
as much as anything Peter Sellers was doing at the time. Not as overtly British as you might think,
this is classy comedy everyone can enjoy, as long as one has an attention span.
The 1.33 X 1 image is a muddy black and white from masters
that might be old film-to-tape transfers, plain PAL monochrome videotape or something
on the level of kinescopes. In any
case, they are not the clearest, but as tolerable as the videotaped Avengers
with Honor Blackman from the same time.
The Dolby Digital 2.0 boosts the monophonic sound to a very simple
stereo at best, but the harmonic distortion and aged fidelity cannot be mixed
away. Extras include a DVD-ROM feature
that lets you print out the original Playbill for the stage version of the
program, plus everyone can access the cast biographies and production notes.
- Nicholas Sheffo
