Quote: Kenneth @ April 8 2009, 12:24 PM BST

I bought series 1-4 and the special (haven't been able to find the final series, filmed in New Zealand) only last year.

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See Amazon product listing
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Quote: Kenneth @ April 8 2009, 12:38 PM BST

Yellowbeard ... arguably better than Bedazzled.

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By numerous country miles.

Thanks for the Worzel DVD links. Typically annoying - I only need the two 'Down Under' series, which cost a total of 24 pounds (my keyboard doesn't have a £ symbol on it), or I can get them with the first 4 series and the special (which I already have) for 27 pounds. Would that they were available Down Under. Fact is I'm saving my shekels for The Goodies though.

Quote: Kenneth @ April 8 2009, 10:00 AM BST

I've refuted that horribly mendacious statement before on this site. Have you seen The Adventures of Barry McKenzie and Yellowbeard? And the Wrong Box and Bedazzled? He's great. He never tried to be a dazzling thesp, he's just very amusing.

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Nothing especially mendacious about a personal opinion, surely. As a statement in and of itself, the veracity is undeniable.

Bedazzled, as far as I recall, is rather boring. And Yellowbeard I haven't seen since it came out.

Great performer, genius writer, rubbish actor. *nb opinion to potentially be mitigated at some future date once I've seen every single f**king perfomance!

Quote: john lucas 101 @ April 8 2009, 2:01 PM BST

Nothing especially mendacious about a personal opinion, surely. As a statement in and of itself, the veracity is undeniable.

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Unwitting mendacity perhaps? Hearing Peter Cook described as a crap actor is like hearing Fawlty Towers and The Office described as boring, unfunny shite. It just doesn't make sense.

Unwitting mendacity, indeed! But then, to follow your logic, how would I know? Damn, so many questions.

Supergirl the movie has long been sitting in the specials bin at my local DVD store. I've ignored it for a while, but next week I shall buy it, because Peter Cook has a major supporting role. I shall watch it and endeavor to give you an unbiassed assessment of his acting merit.

Quote: Kenneth @ April 8 2009, 2:16 PM BST

The Office described as boring, unfunny shite.

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Well...

I'm a devout Sherlock Holmes fan and have seen so many versions of The Hound of the Baskervilles, Peter Cushing's one being my favourite (not the 1959 Hammer Film version starring Cushing, but the 1968 BBC TV series version, the first to be set on Dartmoor), it is a superb version and I really liked Basil Rathbone's 1939 version.
But one Peter C I've not seen playing Holmes is Peter Cook. It is one of them films that you always see in the 3 o'clock in the morning slots and I've never been bothered staying up for it. But as it has shocking reviews and as nobody on this site liked it, I'll give it a miss.

I like it, mainly because Spike Milligan's in it.

This is one of the problems with this film- it has EVERYONE in it- one of the straplines was 'anyone who was ever funny is in it'- albeit for only 2 minutes. They tried to shoe-horn so many people in that it doesn't work. Penelope Keith working in a massage parlour? Prunella Scales in the Post Office? So you end up watching it. And regretting it.

I have a massive DVD collection and just *needed* this film- I'd always wondered what the fuss was about and thought it couldn't be that bad... I gave the DVD away after I saw it; I didn't even want it in the house!

I still can't get over T-T in this- not only is his hand out of control but he licks his lower lip a lot because one of the side effects of his disease was drooling. Its so sad to see him like that. Its actualy one of those life-defining moments...

Save yourself! Avoid this film!

Peter Cooke has been in some stinkers.

He was in that ruddy awful US sitcom as a butler for a start.
But judge people by their best not their worst stuff I say.

I'm reading Goodbye Again at the moment and some of their scripts are laugh out loud funny.

Quote: Jack Massey @ April 9 2009, 4:48 PM BST

I'm a devout Sherlock Holmes fan ...

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Any thoughts on Without A Clue, the 1988 Sherlock Holmes spoof starring Michael Caine and Ben Kingsley (and featuring Peter Cook in a minor role as publisher of The Strand magazine)? Also, were any of the Sherlock Holmes movies faithful to the books by showing Holmes injecting drugs into his arm?

The BBC did a Holmes story recently with Rupert Everett doing all sorts of naughty druggy things. I'm not sure if it was a Conan Doyle story or their own concoction though; there was a lot of airtime given to a feisty female psychotherapist who, in typical modern drama style, showed him things he had missed and opened his eyes. Because of course Holmes always was a bit clueless, like a man in a soap powder advert... *hurrumph*

I find myself in a real quandary trying to write something praiseworthy about Peter Cook's acting in Supergirl. Judging by his performance, it seems he did not care; it's as if he was just playing the part of a warlock as a dull stereotypical Englishman (named Nigel, to boot) for dumb American audiences. Peter O'Toole (now there's a double phallacy) also appears rather ashamed to be in the same film. Best to drag out Harry Thompson's biography of Peter Cook at this point:

In 1984 came what was perhaps the nadir of Peter's cinema career: an appearance as Nigel the Warlock in Supergirl, a failed female version of Superman. His contribution took four months to film at Pinewood, was extremely well-paid, and was so atrocious that the details are best omitted. In a career littered with 'lots of trash', as Peter put it, Supergirl was the only film he was prepared to concede that he sincerely regretted doing. 'It was awful,' he concluded.

Nevertheless, Supergirl was quite watchable, despite Supergirl's skirt constantly defying gravity by refusing to fly upward. Peter Cook's character in some respects looks and sounds a bit like Alan Rickman's Snape in the Harry Potter films, which in my opinion are just as poor as Supergirl.

I thought Peter Cook was wasted (meaning his comic acting talent was not put to good use, not that he was munted) in Without A Clue, but his performance in Supergirl makes his brief appearance in Without A Clue look worthy of an Oscar.