Customer Reviews

Super, top-drawer alternative comedy! - By: Irish Reader, 12 Sep 2008
Stephen Fry & Hugh Laurie are two phenomenally talented comedian/actors. I'd first seen them actingin various episodes of Blackadder. Then one Friday night earlyin 1989 I stumbled across their first full "Bit of Fry & Laurie" series. From that moment I've been a huge fan!

There's a classic send-up of the OTT drama "Howard's Way",in which a Uttoxeter health-club is run as though it were a huge multi-national! There's hilarious, deliberate bad acting when Tony Merchison (Laurie) works for the Secret Service & reports to his incredibly naïve boss "Control" (Fry). But my personal favourites are the "one-off" sketches; Mr. Nipple is embarrassed about his surname so calls himself "Mr..." then drops a stapler on the table. Gelliant Gutfright tells us the spooky tale of "Pat Ferrick & his red hat". You'll find clever, original dialogue popping upin a Head-teacher's office,in restaurants, on airfields,in courtrooms, at baptismal fonts, around shopping malls & at a myriad of other locations. There's also convincing impersonations of David Coleman, Richard Whitely, Jonathan Ross, Robert Robinson, Henry Kelly & many others...

This tastefully presented boxed-set also contains some bonus material, such as the 1987 "Pilot" plus the 1982 "Cambridge Footlights Review", which includes Tony Slattery & the exceptionally talented Emma Thompson (Hugh Laurie's girlfriend at the time).

---

A must have for fans of british comedy - By: smkemper, 15 Jan 2008
I agree with the previous reviews. This box set is a must have.
I've discovered Hugh Laurie onlyin 2007 (yes, I know....) & saw those sketchesin a place you know. If I had never seen the sketches on this place I wouldn't have known they existed.
It's a pleasure to have them all. I just have a complaint : there's no booklet with the titles of the sketches, the titles of the songs (once again, there's a place where you can find them...).
As I'm french, I appreciate the english subtitles.
There's another extra : The Cambridge Footlights review (1982) on disc 2.

---

Entertaining although self-indulgent - By: Jonathan Oakey, 24 Jun 2007
I'm generally a fan of both of the stars of this series, having watched much of their work & read most of their books. This was a reasonably successful TV comedy sketch show which I remembered as having some funny moments but being rather mannered & self-indulgent. Well, I was right - but it is generaly quite entertaining, & they do their best to break a lot of the clichés of comedy sketches.
It's not brilliant & some of it is repetitive, such as the end-of-show cocktail, but if you like the two actors, you'll probably find quite a lot to enjoy here.

---

Damn, double damn, and an extra pint of damn! - By: Wodehouse Freak, 02 Dec 2006
I'd already purchased the first three when this came out, but I got it anyway. There are five discs for four series, with series four comprising two discs, but really, the only thing I can see different is the box; there are no bonuses, unless you count the box.

Series one & two flow into each other quite well with recurring characters such as the yelling promoters of Utoxeter (Daaaaamn!!!) & Tony & Control of MI5, but it seems Fry & Laurie had not expected to continue on to three & four, & so came up with conclusions for many of their regular sketches. Holding this thought, series three has a very different air. For instance, there are more musical segments (like my favorite "Kickin' Ass"), & Mr Music playing out each episode while Stephen Fry mixed a strange (often frightening) concoction. I thought they had found their groovein this series... Only to lose itin series four.

Word is that the series was moved to BBC1, & Fry & Laurie lost much of their creative freedoms. For example, they now had guest stars, such as Caroline Quentin (Men Behaving Badly) & Robert Daws (Jeeves & Wooster), who didn't really play any vital roles. Hugh Laurie did a musical segmentin each episode, all of which were wonderful & helped the series like a crutch. While series four was awkward, it still had its moments (usually having nothing to do with the guest stars). Why seven episodes had to be broken into two discs, I don't know.

While series one & two were united by recurring characters, series three & four were connected by Mr Music. But what made this programme "A Bit of Fry & Laurie" (besides Stephen Fry & Hugh Laurie, duh) were the vox pops between sketches.

This is definitely a must-have for fans of Fry & Laurie.