Please Release Me

(Updated 15/3/11)
Collective wishlist so far - red=not yet released/no update, green=now released or due for release:
KYTV series 3
Artemis '81 
My Halcyon River
A Raging Calm
The Mary Whitehouse Experience
Newman & Baddiel In Pieces
The Pallbearer's Revue
Dream On seasons 3-6


Over the years, some things have failed to be released on DVD completely (which is bad). Others have had the first series or two released, then... nothing (which is worse). I mean, where's the justice when only one series of Rentaghost has been released, and yet there's a full release schedule for My Hero?

Introducing a new feature to Dystopian Fuchsia, Please Release Me, where we work together to draft a huge wishlist of stuff that needs to be out on shiny discs. Some stuff may not be as great as we remember (the memory can play tricks, after all), but how will we know if it isn't out (and YouTube's bereft of anything apart from the odd clip and the title sequence)?

I'm looking for submissions from yourselves, as short or as long a piece of writing as you like (space is no issue here, but try to be concise), about a film or TV show that seems to have been overlooked for release on DVD. You may have a thorough knowledge of the subject; if so, you can dazzle us all with your infallible wisdom, and convince us that your chosen subject being released on DVD would be a Really Good Idea. From there, we could start a petition, research who currently holds the rights, and direct our demands their way. It may lead to nothing, but it'll be fun trying nonetheless. Maybe draft in some of your Facebook or Twitter friends to help the campaign along. At the very least, you can let everyone else know about the film or show you're championing. It's always a great feeling knowing you've converted someone to your cause (or at least created a new fan).

Any of the films or shows that people post about on here, please feel free to add your thoughts (positive or negative) about them.

Let's kick things off with...

KYTV (1989-1993)
(Shown on BBC2; pilot broadcast 12/5/89, 3 subsequent series made plus a Children In Need special, totalling 19 episodes)
DVD release status so far:
Series 1 and 2 have been released. Series 3 was due for release in January 2007, but was pulled from the release schedule for no apparent reason, and has never been added back on.






KYTV was a comedy show starring Angus Deayton, Geoffrey Perkins, Helen Atkinson-Wood, Michael Fenton-Stevens and Philip Pope. A TV version of radio show Radio Active, it features the fictional (titular) satellite TV network (three guesses which one it's parodying), satirising the current public perception of non-terrestrial television being cheap, tacky, sensationalist and exploitative (how things have changed, eh?). Each episode was supposed to be an episode of a different show broadcast on the KYTV station, each with a specific theme, from the KY Tellython, AKA Brown Nose Day (a spoof of Comic Relief and  the then-current ITV Telethon, with the late, great Geoffrey Perkins dressed in a brown-nosed version of Lenny Henry's Comic Relief suit) to Get Away With You, KYTV's tacky (but probably more realistic due to the series of disasters) travel show. During each episode, you'd get spoof adverts, bumpers and programme previews (see the first minute or so of the above clip for some prime examples).

It's an extremely funny, endlessly varied show, and I still find it entertaining over 20 years down the line. Its style and humour is very much of its time (which is no bad thing at all), and due to what it's parodying still being very much a fixture of satellite broadcasting, it's still very much relevant. Perhaps the BBC themselves adopting a lot of what's criticised in the show in recent years struck a little too close to home, and they withheld the release of the third (best) series as a result. I don't know. Either way, you can still get series 1 and 2, which I sincerely urge you to do if you haven't already got them (currently only a fiver on Amazon as I type). In the meantime, indulge yourself in the many YouTube clips.

If you have any specific memories/thoughts of KYTV, let me know and I'll add them to this page. I really want series 3 released, and the more support we can get, we can at least let them know how much it's wanted. Watching bits of it on YouTube is not enough, damn it.

Series 1, currently only a fiver on Play.com and amazon.co.uk...
Series 2, around the 12 quid mark at present (but definitely worth every penny)...

Series 3 - Still no frigging release (even though they had the cover AND the bloody catalogue number assigned to it!). Join me in trying to get this 'oversight' rectified.

KYTV Series 1: Play.com   Amazon   
KYTV Series 2: Play.com   Amazon


Update - 4/3/11


Here's a few thingies from Stella Kordun. Any help with these would be appreciated (email address at the bottom of the page). If anyone has any memories of these they'd like to share, please do.



"I can remember spending many years of finding something on TV that I was fascinated by or a track that I loved and yearned to own only to find that no, sorry, that album, etc, has been deleted or that title is not available on DVD or even available as a download. The trouble is that over the years my recollection of those titles have become hazy. Alright, the memory is going!  But anyhow, I do recall three titles:
One was a drama series based on a novel by Stan Barstow called 'A Raging Calm'. The drama followed the tangled lives of four people living in a West Riding Town. I was mesmerised by those relationships and the characters and though the novel is freely available the series isn't
(I wonder if this is something that might crop up in something like the Bob Monkhouse archive currently being managed by Kaleidoscope. Either way, it was produced by Granada, and featured Nigel Havers and Mary "Romana" Tamm in the cast. Still both active, obviously, so perhaps they might know if it still exists somewhere... - Ian)
(Edit: the next one on Stella's list, she actually managed to find after she contacted me, but for the sake of the spirit of this discovery/rediscovery process, I've decided to include it anyway. It sounds right up my alley. You know, even though Sting's in it and that. - Ian)

The other title was 'Artemis '81'. It was an unusual, hypnotic BBC drama from the 80s that blended science fiction with ancient mysticism and it starred Sting.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082030/  http://www.davidrudkin.com/html/tv/artemis.html - This link claims that the drama has now been released but like many sources that offer moments of hope only to be dashed soon aftter, this is an example.
(Here it is on Amazon for quite cheap: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Artemis-81-DVD-Daniel-Day-Lewis/dp/B000R343IK - a banner at the top of the page reminded me that I really do need to get Flipside of Dominic Hyde back again. Very much of its time and morally dubious in parts, but enjoyable enough - Ian)
The final example was a charming wildlife display called 'My Halcyon River', not released on DVD though I've read that many viewers have been searching for it.  I've recently been able to download it though not as a general release that would please many.
(The four-part sequel series, Halcyon River Diaries, is available on DVD - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Halcyon-River-Diaries-1-DVD/dp/B004C04GPO/ref=pd_sim_b_2 - and there are clips of MHR on YouTube (plus Stella has, as she said, managed to download it), but it seems to be another example of BBC oversight, especially since their natural world DVD releases are so prevalent. Ah well. - Ian)


Cheers, Stella!


Another one from me:


The Mary Whitehouse Experience
Still no DVD release (and never even a VHS release) for this early-90s stand-up/sketch show, a spin-off of its Radio 1 namesake, the television version took a near identical format to its radio predecessor, with two very different double acts, Newman & Baddiel and Punt & Dennis, with the TV version losing radio mainstays Nick Hancock, Jo Brand, Jack Dee, Mark Thomas and Mark Hurst. Two series, totalling 12 episodes, comprising monologues interspersed with sketches, generating several recurring characters (the most famous ones being Mr Strange (AKA The Milky Milky Man, played by Hugh Dennis) and History Today (Newman and Baddiel as two professors, drawling childish insults at each other). The show was divided into themes (or 'experiences') to facilitate the change between monologues and sketches (eg "The Library Experience", "The Drinking Experience" etc). Tons of clips are available on YouTube, and I do have all the episodes (ahem), but an official DVD release is long overdue (though there is a spin-off book, which I do own - plenty of untelevised material in the same style). In all honesty, parts of it have dated (mind you, it is about 20 years old now), but it's representative of a time when comedy was "the new rock and roll", and was far less homogenised than it is today. It's a shame it didn't last too long (splitting off into two separate (and not as funny) shows, Newman & Baddiel In Pieces (which is another thing I'd like to see released, along with their live show) and The Imaginatively Titled Punt & Dennis Show), but carried alternative comedy into the 90s comfortably, retaining a cult following to this day.







Any further thoughts on Mary Whitehouse Experience?


Here's one from @sickkid1972:


 The Pallbearer's Revue

As I recall it only ran for one series on BBC2, in early 1992(?), and I'm not altogether sure they showed all six episodes because of the negative feedback it got on Points Of View and in the tabloid press.

What was the problem? Probably the star of the show, Jerry Sadowitz. It was a series of short sketches interspersed with short bursts of stand-up...Essentially it was Tramadol Nights twenty years before time. An unhinged Scotsman, shouting "offensive" jokes in an almost impenetrable accent, and some magic tricks too.

I thought it was funny, but the rest of the Universe apparently hated it enough that it has never been repeated on air, not even on Dave, and I don't believe it has ever been given a video/DVD release either.
(It hasn't, and the BBC stated back in the day that it would never be repeated or released commercially due to the record number of complaints it received, but you never know; tastes change, as do people in charge of these decisions - Ian)

It's only a rather vague memory now, but I think that if I saw a DVD of this show for sale, I would definitely grab it...
(It appears to be available for download from some torrent sites, but I can't vouch for their authenticity or quality. I honestly think the Beeb are missing a trick with this - Ian)


Updated 15/3/11
An old friend of mine from me schooldays and that has joined the fray, with a show I used to watch on Friday nights on Channel 4 back in the early 90s... Over to Mark Garforth:


Dream On
"Hello, old friend. Just seen your Please Release Me doodah, and I think there are some bloody good shouts in there ('KYTV' and 'Mary Whitehouse' are particular stand-outs for me). However, YouTube recently turned me on to a regular Friday night, early 90s favourite of mine: 'Dream On'. This was David Crane and Marta Kauffman's creation just before 'Friends' and is infinitely superior. 'Dream On' had swearing, tits and a gimmick that didn't outstay its welcome (a bloke constantly showing us what he's thinking by replaying a scene from an old b&w movie). It was (and still is) superbly entertaining - of course not everybody thinks so, as only the first two of six seasons are available on DVD (on regions 1 AND 2). This is a shame as Friends is never off the fucking telly, and I could do with putting something on that does not require me to peel off my corneas and pour piss into my lugholes. Thanks for you time."
(It was a great show; it's seemingly suffering the same fate as Cheers, which has not had a DVD release past season 7, released in 2009, with the remaining 4 seasons left in limbo. By contrast, Frasier's entire 11 season run has been released (and jolly fucking great it is too). At the time, Dream On did stand out for its use of the f-word (though not gratuitously), lack of laughter track (no bad thing), and the gimmick that Mark mentioned was brilliant, superbly researched and seemlessly incorporated into episodes to emphasise gags, almost a proto-Peep Show/Scrubs in providing the main character's inner voice. Somebody has uploaded several complete episodes on YouTube. Below is a link to one of them. It was on UK TV all too briefly, and we didn't get the later series, so it's about time they rectified that. Mind you, it hasn't been released past season 2 in the US either. In the UK at least, seasons 1 and 2 were released on Universal's Playback imprint. Universal have a bit of a shoddy track record for not releasing the bloody obvious (2 "best of" DVDs for Beast Wars, but still no complete season box sets, yet Beast Machines, the sequel series, released in its entirety, for example). What they have released so far are currently dirt cheap on most sites at the moment. Give it a bash; it's still surprisingly fresh two decades on - Ian)







Soon, I'll be adding a piece on Inside Victor Lewis-Smith, Ads Infinitum, Fist of Fun, Glam Metal Detectives, and some shows that have been victims of the most insulting type of release that you can get ("best ofs"), namely Alas Smith and Jones, Not the Nine O'Clock News and The Adam and Joe Show. If you want to contribute a piece on any of these before I do, or indeed anything else that's annoyingly out of reach on shiny coaster, email me:


dystopianfuchsia@gmail.com
Subject: Please Release Me


If you know of a TV show or a film that you think has been criminally overlooked for DVD release, or is incomplete on DVD, or you wish to add your tuppenceworth to any of the shows/films already mentioned here, write your thoughts down and email them to dystopianfuchsia@gmail.com, with the title "Please Release Me". There's no limit to the length of your article; it can be as short or as long as you like. It's always nice learning about new (old) stuff, and why people love certain films & shows so much. I look forward to hearing from you. Don't forget, follow me on Twitter (http://Twitter.com/IanHewett) and ask me a question if you have any. Or just talk about the weather or summat.
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