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The Best of Not the 9 O'Clock News | 
 enlarge | Directors: Bill Wilson, Bob Spiers, Geoff Posner
Actors: Rowan Atkinson, Pamela Stephenson, Mel Smith, Griff Rhys Jones, Chris Langham
Studio: AE Home Video
Category: DVD
List Price: $24.95
Buy New: $4.38
You Save: $20.57 (82%)
New (50) Used (14) from $4.08
Rating:  6 reviews
Sales Rank: 17602
Format: Color, Dvd-video, Ntsc
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Number Of Items: 2
Running Time: 197 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: AAE-74705
UPC: 733961747058
EAN: 0733961747058
ASIN: B000CRR37Y
Theatrical Release Date: 1999
Release Date: March 28, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Not the 9 O Clock News The Best ofAttention comedy fans: NOT THE NINE O'CLOCK NEWS is the real thing. This is scathing no-holds-barred Brit humor at its best. Rapid-fire skits starring Rowan Atkinson (Mr. Bean) are as politically incorrect as they are side-bustingly funny sparing no one as they take on the British Royal Family Margaret Thatcher Scotland Yard country music Christianity devil worship punk rock and bathroom etiquette. NOT THE NINE O'CLOCK NEWS is so irreverent that when the pilot was due to air in April 1979 the BBC cancelled it due to its incendiary political content. When at last it aired the greatest comedy group to hit England since Monty Python's Flying Circus stormed the airwaves and revolutionized British and American television alike. Discover the show that set the standard for the anarchic cynicism that defined the alternative comedy of the 80's.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre:nbsp;COMEDY UPC:nbsp;733961747058 Manufacturer No:nbsp;AAE-74705
Amazon.com
This two-disc set doesn't collect the best of INot the 9 O'Clock News/I per se, but, more accurately, eight extremely funny episodes of this 1979 British sketch comedy series that launched the careers of Rowan Atkinson (IBlackadder/I, IMr. Bean/I), Pamela Stevenson (later wasted on ISaturday Night Live/I), and Mel Smith and Griff Rhys Jones (IAlas Smith Jones/I). Between a squashed hedgehog and a dead parrot, comparisons with IMonty Python's Flying Circus/I are inevitable. INot the 9 O'Clock News/I is more aggressively paced, with a riot of sketches, fun-with-real-video segments, non-sequitur bits, visual gags, and musical spoofs. It was also more topical, so it has perhaps not aged as well as IPython/I. But one doesn't have to be familiar with the British politicians and personalities being pilloried (sorry, Britt Eckland) or the television game and talk shows being spoofed to enjoy the commitment of the performances and the savvy and sometimes savage writing. In the first episode, talk show panelists respond to news that Russian bombs are 4 minutes from England, prompting a leftist to decry "the appalling record of this conservative government... that three million people will die unemployed." The silly bits are the most lasting, including footage of a golf tournament repurposed as the "Pro Am Silly Pants Tournament" and Atkinson and Smith as an urbane gorilla and his trainer ("He was completely wild." "Wild? I was absolutely livid"). This marks I9 O'Clock/I's DVD debut, and that's good news for British comedy fans. I--Donald Liebenson/I
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| Customer Reviews: Read 1 more reviews...
 Just clips? May 2, 2008
Mark Bundy
The content is funny, but it's incomplete. The snips are too short and you can tell there's more. I'm disappointed.
 Must have for fans of British sketch show August 16, 2007
Ella V (OR USA)
Besides Monty Python's Flying Circus, Not the Nine O'Clock proved to be one of the leading sketch shows of British television. This DVD is a great one to add to your collection, whether you are a fan of the show itself, a fan of British comedy, or a fan of Rowan Atkinson. This DVD does not disappoint. However, it has to be noted that the DVD is highly edited, compared to the original aired version of the episodes. But since there are no plans to release the full series any time soon, this is probably the only thing to have at the moment.
Alternative Car Park November 13, 2006
Robert I. Hedges
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
"Not The 9 O'clock News" took the baton from "Monty Python's Flying Circus" in the world of British comedy in the early 1980s. Like "Python," the show features fast paced sketch comedy intermixed with real footage and musical numbers, and blends them into an amalgam that is sometimes very original, yet occasionally noticeably derivative of earlier work (notably of "Python" and Peter Cook.) Of the four principals involved here, Rowan Atkinson, of course, became the standout, and in fact already was even at this early stage. Atkinson excels at quirky roles, and is a wonderfully visual performer. His portrayal of the performance artist mime "Alternative Car Park" is the funniest single sketch of the series by far. br / br /I find the quality of the segments to vary dramatically. I recall watching this many years ago and thinking it was hilarious: while I still think most of it is funny, it has not aged as well as "Python," largely because so much of the humor revolves around then-current governmental affairs in England. I generally found most of the musical numbers to be repetitive, with the only true standout being the song "Nice Video, Shame About The Song" by "Lufthansa Terminal," in a hilarious satire of early 1980s art-videos. The trucking sketch, while not especially creative musically, opened up Pandora's box of complaints with the squished hedgehog gag (giving rise to the hilarious "Hedgehogs: An Apology," and "We Want to Know Who Stuffs Hedgehogs.") br / br /Students of Atkinson can find traces of the future Mr. Bean in some of the sketches, particularly where he orders a bathroom from an architect with a rather excessive number of toilets. Stock footage is liberally used (generally with added sound effects) in what is an equivalent linking device as Terry Gilliam's animation in "Python." I found some of it amusing, but not nearly as funny as it seemed twenty-five years ago. Once again, the reason seems to be watching multiple episodes in proximity to one another on the DVD set (versus weekly on television) where repetition becomes more obvious, and also because much of the humor was very specific to people and events that were topical twenty-five years ago. This time I found the show to be much more biased to the left, although one sketch did mock the Social Democratic Party (SDP.) I also found some of the religious pieces to be in poor taste. br / br /Having detailed all the pros and cons, I still recommend this two DVD set to Anglophiles and lovers of anarchist humor. While I definitely think that "Python's" place at the head of the comedy table is assured, this is still a worthwhile venture, and while many of the gags will pass you by if you aren't familiar with the government and economy of Great Britain in the 1980s, the majority of this material is still funny after all these years.
Hey BBC, why'd you move the hedgehog-squashing? June 26, 2006
Brian T (Canada)
4 out of 7 found this review helpful
My only beef with this set is the same beef I had with the import versions - THEY MOVED THE SQUASHED HEDGEHOG!! br / br /One of my favourite bits from this show, ever since I watched it on PBS in the early 80's, is the "I Love Trucking" music video. This sketch originally began with a shot of a truck running over a little fake whitish colored Hedgehog on the road, spilling what appears to be several pieces of deli meat from within. Always loved the gross-out laugh it gave the audience, followed by a bigger laugh as Rowan Atkinson, as the truck driver, adds another hedgehog sticker to the outside of the door or the truck, much like a WW2 fighter pilot might cross off another Gerry on the side of his plane. br / br /On this set however, which was simply ported over from the R2 U.K. edition, which I also own, the song OPENS with Atkinson placing the sticker on the door. Later, right near the end of the song, and as a SEGWAY to another bit, they show a military truck of some kind pulling into a compound, then cut to a close-up of a truck tire (from the truck Atkinson's driving during the song!) running over the hedgehog. br / br /These DVDs bring back a lot of memories, though none as strongly as the re-editing of this sequence, which leads me to wonder what OTHER tampering may have been done on the sketches. I did notice the footage of Griff Rhys-Jones drying his hands in a men's room under a blow dryer that emits one of Margaret Thatcher's speeches also turns up later in another episode, only this time they've looped in the voice of a different politician. While I could see this being something they might have done on the original show to fill up space, it still smells fishy considering the blatant re-edit of the trucking song. br / br /Loved the bit with Rhys-Jones helping Atkinson design a bathroom using scale models. You never see them, only their arms in front of the miniature bathroom. Atkinson is clearly doing an embryonic version of Mr. Bean in this bit, right down to the froggy voice, as he insists on adding toilet after toilet to the room, including one in the shower. The concept was honed to perfection in Merry Christmas Mr. Bean many years later, but one can easily see its origins in this sketch. br / br /Overall, this collection is a good deal, though as others mentioned, it would be nice if the stingy BBC would give fans the entire series in season sets.
What Python Hath Wraught? April 4, 2006
epsteinsmutha (At the bottom of Juan Epstein's excuse note)
9 out of 11 found this review helpful
It's really thrilling to see this out on DVD stateside, even though if you don't recall much of the late 1970s/early 1980s and aren't up on government history in the UK during the time (and if not, a few hours with the Young Ones will help), you might be at a bit of a loss on certain parts. If you are still moping over Princess Di being in the past tense namewise, you might be squeamish over parts of this as she still had that new Windsor smell at the time these were made. br / br /Okay, caveats aside, the rapid fire satire sketch comedy of the Pythons is prominent here, probably due in large part to Rowan Atkinson's work with the Pythons on the Amnesty International concerts during this time period (this is before Mr. Bean/Black Adder/Thin Blue Line), but Stephenson, Rhys-Jones and Smith (second only to John Tuturro on the humor scale in the blatant Marx Bros. ripoff (albeit still funny as H---) _Brain Donors_) are just as great in this double-disc set. br / br /Highlights? Mel Smith and Rowan Atkinson's parody of the debates over the brouhaha surrounding Life of Brian at the time ("Jesus Christ is John Cleese right down to the same initials!"), the Oi! band parody song about Moseley with Mel Smith singing, Atkinson's ska parody "I Like Bouncing," the cast take on ABBA, footage of the Pope edited to where it looks like he's singing "Jungle Rock," the Royals entering a room to "In the Mood" as fanfare music, and the list goes on and on. br / br /Best line: "Nurse, I can't feel my legs." "Yes, sorry we had to amputate your arms." br / br /This DVD set also has cameo appearances by Amnesty alum Chris Langham of the "How to Speak Japanese in Three Steps" fame, so that's always nice to see. br / br /Rik Mayall said in the Young Ones that he wanted to capture the spirit of the Pythons in that you didn't know what was coming next. Not the Nine O' Clock News did. Sorry Rik, but that's what you get for being a Cliff Richard fan, clever trousers! br / br /BUY IT NOW OR PAY LATER! br / br /Signed, br /epsteinsmutha
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