Incredibly inventive and influential series, as important as Fawlty Towers and Monty Python, making stars of Simon Pegg and Jessica Hynes, bringing their down-to-earth screenplay - which brilliantly captures a place and time and state of mind - into the orbit of a brilliant visual team in Edgar Wright and Chris Dickens. In fact Wright, Hynes and Pegg had worked together on Asylum, in 1996 (not on DVD).
As previously claimed, the inspiration for the 'Three Flavours Cornetto' trilogy is here, as well as Wright's later Scott Pilgrim and Baby Driver. Nightclub episode, featuring 'Tyres' Michael Smiley, is unforgettable, as is rescue of 'Colin' from animal experimentation centre. Shot on video, very cheaply made, it's success no doubt encouraged Channel 4 to commission other experimental comedies like Green Wing and Black Books.
"You don't want to go in to your party?
"They're playing The Time Warp, Mike. I hate the time warp."
"Daisy likes it."
"So what? I hate it. It's boil in the bag perversion for sexually repressed accountants and first year drama students with too many posters of Betty Blue, The Blues Brothers, the Big Blue and Blue Velvet on their blue bloody walls!"
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