Product Description

Look out Hollywood! Watch your back, TV-Land! The silver screen will never be the same once it's been processed through the mad minds of Britain's greatest comediennes, Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders (the creator and star of Absolutely Fabulous).

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #44720 in DVD
• Brand: Warner Brothers
• Released on: 2003-09-30
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 30 minutes

Amazon.com
Is this compilation of sketches from groundbreaking British comedy duo Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders' 1987 BBC series absolutely brilliant or, to quote one especially inspired performance artists sketch, "mindless, pornographic, pretentious, and total crap"? Though hit and miss as any compilation tends to be, it is mostly brilliant as our fair ladies engage in Pythonesque absurdity (an extended conversation that begins when a couch-bound Jennifer refuses to answer the door because she has no leg bones), silliness (the girls pay homage to popular dances), and savagery (two matrons who prefer their blood-splattered furs freshly killed). Some of this is inevitably dated, and there are references that will soar over the heads of non-Anglophiles, but fans who discovered these two titanically talented women from their breakthrough series, The Vicar of Dibley and Absolutely Fabulous, respectively, will enjoy seeing the roots of their comedy. --Donald Liebenson

Customer Reviews

My personal favorite of the F & S DVDs
This collection has what is some of the earliest material from any of the French & Saunders DVD collections and some of the best. Whereas the other DVDs rely more of parodies of well-known films, this DVD features some of the ladies' best repeated characters and aggressively bizarre but hilarious scenes (like a profile of two strange performance artists). The scenes, as a result, succeed more as the comedy is not limited to the confines of movie plots or characters that must be lampooned. There are many classics bits here which the girls have kept around for years in live appearances (i.e., a discussion between two schoolgirls - "worldly" Dawn & naive Jennifer - about contraceptive devices). And, as a bonus, the DVD features their early '90s Christmas special which includes guests shots by Adrian Edmondson (Vyvyan of "The Young Ones," Eddie of "Bottom," and Jennifer Saunder's husband) and Christopher Ryan (Mike of "The Young Ones," Dave Hedgehog of "Bottom," and Marshall of "Absolutely Fabulous"). Also, look for Dawn French's husband, comedian Lenny Henry, in a fine Dinner Party sketch. Other highlights: a history of dance crazes and the absurd conversations which take place in Jennifer's sparse flat. Great stuff!

Horrible!
I love Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders, but I guess an entire tape of them together, well, I just couldn't take it. I think they're were certain parts that were OK, but on the whole it was awful.

F&S -- whatever they do is fabulous
These are the two funniest people ever. However, this DVD is from an early, formative time and the material is little uneven. That said, it's still French and Saunders, and there's nothing better.