Smith & Jones at last

Introduction

So why has it taken so long to get one of the most popular comedy sketch shows of the 1980s (and to a lesser extent the 1990s as there was a lot more competition) out on DVD? I'm afraid I don't have the answer to that, but you can now own some of it.

Alas Smith & Jones ran for around 60 episodes (depending on how you count them) from 1984 until 1998. Mel Smith & Griff Rhys Jones came to the attention of most of the population as part of the team behind a previous popular sketch show, "Not the Nine O'Clock News". They moved on to their own shown, and off the back of their TV success they also moved to the big screen with Wilt.



Mel Smith went on to direct films such as High Heels and Low Lifes, Bean and The Tall Guy (still one of my favourite comedies). Griff Rhys Jones is still on our screens, but is more known for his travelling now, presenting shows such as Greatest Cities of the World, Rivers with Griff Rhys Jones, Mountain and Three Men in A Boat (as well as a couple of sequels).

This 2 disc set presents the first 4 series in compilation format, with 2 compilation shows per series, running at around 30 minutes each. This distils around 12 hours of material into around 4 hours.

Video and Audio

A standard full frame transfer of a typical piece of 1980s sketch comedy, a mixture of studio footage shot on standard TV cameras and location footage shot on film. It all looks its age, but is still perfectly watchable. It certainly hasn't taken ages to release because they've been painstakingly restoring it, that's for sure!



A DD2.0 stereo transfer, which is the original mono replayed over both channels. Nothing special, but nothing wrong with it.

Extra Features

I'm not sure that the extras count as extras, as they are the sort of thing you might expect to see on a set like this. But enough of semantics. What you do get are two of the Christmas specials (and it's still a big deal to have a BBC Christmas special for your programme even now), and the entire series of four short comedy plays from the 1989 series "Smith And Jones In Small Doses". These are very welcome inclusions and it's nice to see them get an outing.



My definition of extras would be something like a retrospective documentary, some new interview footage or commentary tracks. But perhaps that's just me being spoilt with so many good comedy DVD sets available now.

Conclusion

I used to love Smith & Jones. I've still got 2 of their books up in the loft somewhere. So it was great to catch up with the TV series again. I think what made it so strong were all the teams of writers that were involved with it. If you look at the best sketch comedy (excluding Python who got lucky by having a massively talented writing team who also happened to be the stars), then having several teams of writers all contributing to the series gives you a lot more strong material to pick from. What would have improved recent BBC flop Horne & Corden? A lot more writers to give them stronger material to perform.



So during the life of the series there are sketches from Parsons & Naylor (Spitting Image, Hale & Pace, Alistair McGowan as well as their own radio series), Linehan and Matthews (Father Ted, Hippies, Big Train, Brass Eye, Alexei Sayle, The Fast Show), Paul Merton (Paul Merton: The Series), Rory McGrath & Jimmy Mulville (Chelmsford 123, Who Dares Wins), Clive Anderson, and Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin (Outnumbered, Drop the Dead Donkey, Spitting Image). All these well known names provide a wealth of good material and the 2 main stars are helped out with great guests like Brenda Blethyn, Tony Robinson and Stephen Fry.

As for the set itself, there are 2 ways of looking at it.



Firstly, you could be happy that there is some Smith & Jones out on DVD at last and appreciate what you've got.

But you can also take the point of view that you're only getting a bit of Smith & Jones. Where's the other 8 hours of material? Who decides that these are the best sketches?

So the way you look at it will probably influence your decision on whether to buy it or not. I think it's probably best to be grateful and enjoy the material that's been released and have a laugh with some 1980s comedy.