Not the Nine O'Clock News

Forget everything de_niro_2001 said about Not the Nine O'Clock News. This is absolutely brilliant comedy that relied heavily on the events of the period it was made in. This makes it sometimes a little bit out of date but if you know anything about the period it was made in, or remember that period, you can still laugh very hard. Too bad they don't offer the complete series for sale on DVD. I would certainly buy it. All members of the cast went on to have great careers. The young Rowan Atkinson is hilarious and Griff Rhys Jones and Mel Smith are very very funny. Pamela Stephenson, as the only woman of the cast, is great in doing impressions of news readers. She also often plays an interviewer providing the other cast members with the setting to deliver their material. Like in the interview with Mel Smith as the trainer of a talking gorilla (played by Rowan Atkinson). For now you can only buy 2 compilation DVD's. If you love sarcasm and irony, this is a series for you. If you loved Blackadder, this is a series for you. Just give it a chance, to watch it is to love it.

Not the Nine O'Clock News is a brilliant combination of satire, visual and verbal humour, the topical and the downright silly. Although some of the more topical, particularly political, humour doesn't age too well most of it is timeless comedy gold. My personal favourite is the Government statement performed by the marvellously deadpan Rowan Atkinson on the current unemployment figures, a 30-second sketch of 'oh dear, oh dear oh dear oh dear'. For the people who lived through the 80s era of strikes and recession the biting humour will kindle some memories and put a happier face on what was doubtless a trying time. For non-Brits or those of us who were too young to remember, it's just really very funny. "And we would like to point out that we exhibited less cruelty to hedgehogs per se that whoever it is who goes around stuffing them".

This show was practically compulsory viewing for teenagers and students in the late 1970s and early 1980s. It introduced the British public to Griff Rys-Jones, Mel Smith, Pamela Stephenson and Rowan Atkinson. Chris Langham was in the first season but seemed to get replaced by G R-J after that.

It consisted of a series of sketches, some purely comedic, others with political overtones. The pizza parlour worker, played by Rowan Atkinson, sneezing on the pizza and declaring "Extra mozzarella" is the former, the close-up of a yobbish Griff R-J talking about him and his mates picking on some black blokes "because we 'ate 'em, right?" and the camera gradually pulling away during the monologue to show he's a uniformed policeman would be the latter.

Some great writing (Clive Anderson, Andy Hamilton, a pre-"Four Weddings and a Funeral" Richard Curtis), go-for-it acting and sketches that hit frequently enough to forgive the ones that didn't. The sketch with the trendy lefty social worker declaring the only way to deal with young men who misbehaved was to "cut their goolies off" is still a classic, as is Gerald the talking gorilla.

This show was so funny. I especially liked the toilet sketch involving the assistant and the weird bloke trying to design a bathroom for the weird bloke and all he ever puts in it is a toilet. that was the best sketch ever.

De niro 2001, you really need to lighten up, not all the sketches involved plane crashes. Only about 2 or 3 did. the rest of the sketches were just funny things about everyday life. The humour isn't in the plane crash, it's how they edited together two completely different news stories and made them look relevent. People weren't sitting at home saying "Hahahaha look at those people on that plane dying". The thing is, if they did have to acknowledge the fact those people died, they would have done it in a funny sketch anyway. like they did when they had complaints about a (stuffed) hedgehog being run over. for god sake it was stuffed. they didn't ask the local nature reserve for a fresh hedgehog to run over but anyway they then did an apology the following week involving them saying "We probably exibited less pain to hedgehogs per-say than whoever it is who goes around stuffing them". Anyway, sorry about all this writing but this show was just great and i'll love it forever. Overall 10 out of 10.

When I went to school in Denmark the greatest joy was to recite the surreal dialog from the team behind Not the Nine o'clock News with my mates. Granted, some of the more malicious jokes must have appealed more to the younger audience than grown-ups with true knowledge of famine and war - but on the whole - it was the greatest introduction to British society and language usage next to Monty Python. Some of the gags were so classical - I've never forgotten them: The court sketch with the judge and the lawyers arguing over how to prenounce "alibi" or the smash-hit-music-video "Good video - shame about the song - oh oh" with the title repeated again and again while all effort was put into making a state of the art video worthy of MTV. I do hope that the DVD will be released in Denmark too - it's classic fun from the eighties! :0D