Croft, David

Are You Being Served? The Complete Collection (Series 1-14 Volumes)

There's plenty of laughter in store when an unbelievably quirky contingent of sales clerks makes shopping at Grace Brothers the comic experience of a lifetime. For the first time all 69 episodes of this classic Britcom have been gathered together in one deluxe collection. Each episode is presented uncut and has been lovingly restored. Also included are two bonus discs containing over five hours of extra material!Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY Rating: NR UPC: 794051206329 Manufacturer No: E2063

The definitive British sitcom is almost certainly Are You Being Served?, which depicts the squabbles, misadventures, and flirtations of the staff of Grace Brothers department store. The show was originally conceived as a vehicle for an irreverent junior salesman named Mr. Lucas (Trevor Bannister), but it soon became clear that mocking a social hierarchy isn't half as funny as taking it all too seriously. The show really revolves around Mrs. Slocombe (Mollie Sugden), whose wildly changing hair color and mercurial moods terrorize the rest of the staff, and cheerful but sly Mr. Humphries (the effervescent John Inman), one of the first gay characters on television treated with dignity--or at least no more indignity than anyone else (the show makes some noise about not being sure if Mr. Humphries is gay or not, but no one in the audience will have any question). But the rest of the cast is superb as well: Frank Thornton as the elegant but leering floorwalker Capt. Peacock, Wendy Richard as the sexy, impish Miss Brahms, Arthur Brough as cantankerous Mr. Grainger (who, sadly, died after the fifth season; other characters took his position on the sales staff, but never quite matched up), and Nicholas Smith as the self-serving but incompetent manager Mr. Rumbold form a comic ensemble that has rarely been equaled.

These characters, written with affection and played with superb comic dash, endlessly jockey for status and salary while simultaneously creating an alternative family (the core structure for any sitcom on either side of the Atlantic). Are You Being Served? deserves its devoted fan base, who will revel in this comprehensive 14-DVD box set (which includes specials about Inman, Sugden, and Richard, as well as other extras). --Bret Fetzer

'Allo 'Allo - The Complete Series One

Meet Rene the most wanted man in occupied France. Women want his body. The Resistance want his brain. And the Nazis want his sausage. In a small cafe in Nouvion France this harassed proprietor is having a difficult war. With the German Army in residence at the bar Rene is risking his neck to aid the Resistance by hiding two British airmen and a radio transmitter upstairs. As if this wasn't enough Rene has also got involved in hiding a priceless painting in a garlic sausage which even now is being sniffed out by the Gestapo. But Rene's real problem is his wife Edith and what she will do to him when she finds out about his affairs with two sexy waitresses!Running Time: 360 min.System Requirements:Run Time: 250 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY UPC: 794051186720 Manufacturer No: E1867

The central character of 'Allo 'Allo, a cafe owner in occupied France during World War II, is cowardly, venal, adulterous, and yet ineffably charming, thanks to the whimsical performance of Gorden Kaye. Rene (Kaye) helps the local Nazi commandant hide a valuable painting of a bare-breasted Madonna, helps the local Resistance hide British airmen until they can be smuggled back to England, and helps himself to the lovely charms of his two waitresses, Yvette (Vicki Michelle) and Maria (Francesca Gonshaw). The farce flies fast and thick; the Nazis are greedy clods, the Resistance fighters are neurotic obsessives, and the British airmen are jaunty dimwits--'Allo 'Allo cheerfully offends everyone, including old people, homosexuals, and onion sellers. The humor isn't subtle, but the cast enjoys themselves and Kaye keeps the show moving with a world-weary shrug. --Bret Fetzer

'Allo 'Allo - The Complete Series Three

Poor Rene. He is having a most difficult war made no easier by the fact that he keeps getting his sausage stuck into all kinds of tight places! First the Communists kidnap Rene's sausage. Then Gruber's dog steals it. The sexy waitress Maria straps it to her bosom only to be subsequently detained by von Klinkerhoffen and imprisoned in his chateau with Rene's sausage still tucked under her blouse. Finally Rene's mother-in-law gets hungry and takes a bite out of it! How can such a tangled web of mystery deceit and double entendre ever resolve itself? Find out in the third series of this hugely popular sitcom from the BBC!Running Time: 220 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY UPC: 794051230621

'Allo 'Allo - The Complete Series Two

Rene is having a difficult war. He is not frightened by the Gestapo; he is not frightened by the Germans; he is not even frightened by the French Resistance. But his wife Edith scares the living daylights out of him! And now that he has been shot dead and is posing as his own twin brother it appears he may have to woo her all over again and even remarry her in order to gain back his cafe which he left to her in his will. But he has also promised to marry Yvette and Maria his two sexy waitresses. Throw in three garlic sausages one of which contains "The Fallen Madonna with the Big Boobies" one of which contains a forgery and the third of which is an actual sausage and you have a very difficult war indeed!Running Time: 230 min.System Requirements:Run Time: 230 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY UPC: 794051210425 Manufacturer No: E2104

Are You Being Served? Christmas

Come visit Grace Brothers during the holidays where there's plenty of laughter in store with this unbelievably quirky contingent of sales clerks. Nothing makes Christmas as special as stuffing four hilarious episodes of this classic comedy in your stocking. Each episode is presented uncut and has been lovingly restored. Also included is a never before seen "On Set Interview"!Running Time: 120 min.System Requirements:Running Time: 120 Min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY Rating: NR UPC: 794051238528 Manufacturer No: E2385

The holiday season bring s out the best in Grace Brothers' department store: Bickering, bribery, lechery, snits, and of course silly musical numbers while dressed in ridiculous costumes. Classic Britcom Are You Being Served? thrives on the comedy of petty squabbles and this collection of Christmas-themed episodes is prime stuff. The four episodes have been plucked from seasons 1-7; in one episode, the staff is forced to dress as fairy-tale characters for a holiday promotion; in another, they try to entertain young Mr. Grace by doing a children's ballet; in another, they apologize for not joining a strike by putting on a full-sized Punch-and-Judy show---and in the remaining episode, the temptation of a large bonus leads the entire staff to dress up as Father Christmas. The pleasure in such hijinks, as with most sitcoms, depends heavily on the audience's indulgence of the characters, but the cast of Are You Being Served? was rich with goofy charm (the effervescent John Inman is in particularly top form). A perverse Christmas display unit, from "The Father Christmas Affair," remains one of the show's all-time comic highlights. --Bret Fetzer

Are You Being Served? Vol. 2

There's plenty of laughter in store when an unbelievably quirky contingent of sales clerks makes shopping at Grace Brothers the experience of a lifetime. This ready-to-wear collection of classic episodes has been lovingly pressed and polished for DVD.Running Time: 88 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY UPC: 794051167422 Manufacturer No: E1674

Are You Being Served?, Vol. 1

There's plenty of laughter in store when an unbelievably quirky contingent of sales clerks makes shopping at Grace Brothers the experience of a lifetime. This ready-to-wear collection of classic episodes has been lovingly pressed and polished for DVD.Running Time: 89 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY UPC: 794051167323 Manufacturer No: E1673

Are You Being Served? Collection 2 (Series 6-10)

Attention shoppers! Your favorite dysfunctional sales staff is back with more mischief more hilarity and more hair colors! Join Mr. Humphries Mrs. Slocombe Miss Brahms Captain Peacock Mr. Lucas and the rest of the gang as they make shopping at Grace Brothers the comic experience of a lifetime. The staff has been hard-at-work polishing and pressing all 35 classic episodes from series 6-10 of this beloved BBC comedy series most of them never before available on video. Also included is a bonus disc containing interviews television specials and other goodies featuring the Are You Being Served? cast.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY Rating: NR UPC: 794051179821 Manufacturer No: E1798

The later series of definitive British sitcom Are You Being Served?--set in the hierarchical world of the sales staff of a department store--lost several of its original cast members, but this only gave more room for the antics of its most popular characters: The not-so-ambiguously-gay Mr. Humphries (sterling John Inman) and the multi-hued Mrs. Slocombe (Mollie Sugden, as regal and petulant as Queen Victoria), ably supported by lecherous floorwalker Capt. Peacock (wonderfully snooty Frank Thornton), affable Miss Brahms (helium-voiced Wendy Richard), and woefully incompetent Mr. Rumbold (jug-eared Nicholas Smith), who form a squabbling dysfunctional family within the strict rules, bowler hats, and neck frills of Grace Brothers store. Though the plots grow more absurd--one episode has the staff forced to sleep on a giant waterbed in the store basement, dressed like albino Teletubbies--the comfortable but never complacent rapport of the cast keeps the show sharp. Even the most groan-inducing sexual double-entendres (and there are many) gets carried off with aplomb; no matter how many times Mrs. Slocombe refers to her poor pussy (that is to say, her cat, Tiddles), it still gets a laugh from Sugden's unbeatable poker face. And though the writing occasionally wears thin, some episodes are among the series' best: When Mrs. Slocombe is temporarily given a managerial position, the overturning of the established order is comic gold; the staging of a Punch and Judy show lets everyone indulge in some topnotch slapstick. Are You Being Served? is a twinkling star in the Britcom firmament, guaranteed to turn any viewer into a delirious fan. --Bret Fetzer

Woodstock 1999

For all but the most apathetic viewers, this concert souvenir is enjoyable in inverse proportion to familiarity with the real-life Woodstock '99 festival: the less you know about the hour-to-hour experiences of the audience and the event's violent denouement, the more you can enjoy the show. This 2½-hour summation, which offers one song each from 29 of the artists that appeared, can be viewed as a grab bag of funk, rock, hip-hop, and pop spanning several generations of performers, from show opener James Brown ("Sex Machine") to bad-boy rockers Limp Bizkit ("Show Me What You Got"), congregating under the would-be "brand" (as event promoters have baldly called it) first established on Yasgur's farm 30 years earlier.

The '99 edition, however, wasn't your father's Woodstock, despite the involvement of one of the original event's promoters. Moved to a decommissioned military airfield, cordoned by pricey concession and crafts stands, and designed to feed pay-per-view and cable TV (and, of course, the eventual home video version), Woodstock '99 seems far removed from the "peace, love, and music" mission of its namesake. Shooting on videotape, the production crew delivers a smoothly edited, crisply rendered concert with equally good audio resolution; if the team of directors occasionally cuts to the crowd, and to such mild (and mildly exploitative) provocations as topless female fans, dancing to the nonstop music, this is much less a cultural document than a straightforward concert video largely shorn of the drama. Given that the program's executive producers were the event's promoters, no one would reasonably expect them to 'fess up to deteriorating site sanitation or the eventual rape and riot that cast a dark shadow over the event.

With those indignities edited out, we're left with a lineup including G. Love & Special Sauce, Jamiroquai, Lit, Live, Sheryl Crow, DMX, the Offspring, Korn, Bush, Kid Rock, Everclear, Dave Matthews Band, Alanis Morissette, Metallica, Rage Against the Machine, Everlast, Elvis Costello, Jewel, Megadeth, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers, among others. Even with some individually lackluster turns, the sheer length of the bill is impressive--and, unlike the real event, you can fast-forward through the occasional "feel-good" interludes that try to graft some semblance of community onto the event, or such musical low points as the "feel-bad" rap-rock of Insane Clown Posse ("F* the World," an utterly pointless exercise in obscenity).

Die-hard fans of the headliners will probably want to take a peek at the stronger performances, however. But parents should be forewarned that the title carries an advisory sticker for lyric contents and those clips of less inhibited fans. --Sam Sutherland

Are You Being Served?, Vol. 3

Episodes: German Week No Sale New Look. On sale this week! A few less than stellar ideas for perking up sales. In these three episodes Grace Brother's tries a German Week (Mr. Humphries in lederhosen) the Great Gatsby look and Opening Early!Running Time: 89 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY UPC: 794051167521 Manufacturer No: E1675