Prolific DVD distributors Network are adored by archivists and collectors of classic British television series for their hundreds upon hundreds of releases from the archives of ITV.

From sitcoms like George & Mildred and The Larkins to dramas such as The Prisoner and the Beiderbecke Trilogy and sketch shows including The Arthur Haynes Show, they've been delighting viewers for more than a decade. However, until recently the company's range of films has been somewhat more limited.

Big screen sitcom adaptations like Bless This House The Movie have been released, as have a selection of comedy and drama titles such as The Crazy Gang's Gasbags - and this Spring, the company launched the first titles of its highly anticipated new collection celebrating and showcasing the golden age of British cinema: The British Film.

In partnership with STUDIOCANAL, who own the catalogues of just about every British film distributor since movies began, from the likes of the Rank Organisation to Hammer Films and Anglo-Amalgamated, Network's epic plan is to release something nearing 400 films as part of the collection over the next couple of years.

Most of the titles have never before been available on DVD and, unlike the practice of many other distributors, Network have taken brand new, high-quality transfers from the original film stock. Unfortunately they're not issuing high-definition Blu-rays in the majority of cases, but even on DVD the new transfers look stunning, whether the film is from the 1930s or 1960s.

Many of The British Film's titles are from the drama, thriller or sci-fi genres - such as Devil Girl From Mars, Konga, Edgar Wallace Presents: The Terror and Horrors Of The Black Museum - but Spring and Summer 2013 have already brought a number of great comedy titles.

One of the first releases in the collection is sublime 1973 horror spoof The House In Nightmare Park, starring none other than comedy legend Frankie Howerd. Penned by Clive Exton - best known for his smash-hit Jeeves And Wooster adaptation starring Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie - and Terry Nation, who is probably now best remembered as the creator of Doctor Who's Daleks, it's an unhinged tale of a hammy actor (Howerd) who finds himself in grave danger of being killed by a very peculiar family indeed. DVD Details

Another great addition to DVD shelves everywhere, On The Fiddle is a Second World War-set comedy following a reluctant serviceman and his slow-witted pal as they attempt to avoid seeing action at any cost. Produced in 1961, it stars Alfred Lynch as wide-boy Horace Pope, with a pre-Bond Sean Connery giving a surprisingly amusing performance in the role of dim but well-meaning Pedlar Pascoe. The film skips around a little as the boys venture across the country, but there's plenty of fun to be had. DVD Details

Spanish Fly, meanwhile, is a sex comedy from 1975, starring British screen legends Leslie Phillips and Terry-Thomas. The film tells the tale of a bored English ex-pat, Sir Percy de Courcy, who hopes to top up his dwindling bank account by selling on some local Spanish wine at a profit. Unfortunately the stuff is near undrinkable, and when he asks his Chauffeur to help improve the taste a rather curious local ingredient ends up turning all 100,000 gallons into a rather potent aphrodisiac! DVD Details

One of the most exciting additions to The British Film collection is not just one title, but a series of obscure productions from the considerable history of Ealing Studios - the oldest continuously working film studios in the world - starting with The Ealing Studios Rarities Collection Volume 1.

Each collection comprises four films. Not every film is a comedy, and sadly not all collections promise even one comedy title, but the first entry includes two.

Cheer Up! is the earliest film, having been made way back in 1935 and released early the following year. It's a part-musical comedy starring Stanley Lupino and Roddy Hughes as a playwright and composer, best friends who are down to their last few pennies and desperately in search of financial backing to produce their own original script, a musical play called London Town. There's some lovely early visual comedy in this one, and more than a little influence from Laurel & Hardy in certain sequences. Sally Gray is the female lead and love interest. DVD Details

Penny Paradise, released in 1938, stars a pre-Coronation Street, teenage Betty Driver alongside Edmund Gwenn, best known for 1947's Miracle on 34th Street. Gwenn plays Joe Higgins (and Driver his daughter), a poor tug captain working amidst Liverpool's docks who correctly predicts the results of 15 football matches in the penny pools and begins celebrating an expected £20,000 windfall (almost £1.2 million in today's money). DVD Details

Here's a trailer for Cheer Up!:

Amidst three dramas in The Ealing Studios Rarities Collection Volume 2 is a fascinating 1942 movie, The Big Blockade. Wartime propaganda, it utilises a sketch-like segmented format to illustrate to audiences the importance and nature of the work being carried out by the Ministry of Economic Warfare against Nazi Germany. Some of the segments are far more akin to a scene from a serious war drama, but others - particularly one starring Will Hay as the captain of a small ship somewhere in the English Channel - go for laughs, and there are some lovely bits of satire and fun at the expense of national stereotypes in the inter-linking theme of a German businessman trying to travel across mainland Europe. DVD Details

Coming up in July will be The Ealing Studios Rarities Collection Volume 4, including 1958's Davy, in which a young music-hall entertainer aspires to stardom on his own terms but faces a dilemma as to whether he should go it alone or stick with his family troupe; and - going way back again - a 1934 production called The Secret Of The Loch, in which a newspaper reporter sets out to test the claims of an elderly professor who is seeking to prove the existence of the Loch Ness Monster. DVD Details

Sadly there are no comedy titles in either Volume 3 or 5 of the Collection, but Volume 6 - looking ahead to September now - is currently planned to include The Fortunate Fool, released in 1933. It follows a wealthy author who 'adopts' an incorrigible thief he finds in the streets, together with an attractive typist who is down on her luck, in the hope of finding new inspiration. DVD Details

Out in just a week's time, however, is a somewhat forgotten sitcom adaptation: The Lovers!, starring Paula Wilcox and Richard Beckinsale. Released in 1973 and based on his hit 1970 ITV sitcom The Lovers (also available from Network), the film was written by renwoned playwright Jack Rosenthal and follows two wannabe-trendy 20-somethings living in Manchester, attempting to tiptoe through the perilous routines of young love and courtship. With, Geoffrey hopes, a little bit of Percy Filth along the way. DVD Details

Also out on 27th May is another sex comedy, 1976's Keep It Up Downstairs. Set in 1904, this is a spoof of classic TV drama Upstairs Downstairs, starring Willie Rushton, screen goddess Diana Dors, Artful Dodger Jack Wild, blonde beauty Sue Longhurst, 'The Lovely' Aimi MacDonald, and sex legend Mary Millington. When stately home Cockshute Towers is threatened with bankruptcy, both family and staff rally around to find a solution to their problems and preserve their privileged - and frequently saucy - lifestyle. DVD Details

Based on a 1968 ITV Playhouse programme of the same name, The Best Pair Of Legs In The Business stars Reg Varney as 'Sherry' Sheridan, an entertainer working on a caravan site who's "low on talent but high on ambition". DVD Details

Not Now, Comrade is a mid-1970s farce, loosely following on from 1973's Not Now Darling, and with a staggering list of credits. Written by Ray Cooney, who also directs with Harold Snoad, it follows a Russian ballet dancer who defects to the West, and the chaos that follows those who try to help him - not least a stripper called Barbara! The cast includes Leslie Phillips, Richard Marner, Roy Kinnear, June Whitfield, Ian Lavender, Windsor Davies, Don Estelle, Michele Dotrice and Cooney himself. DVD Details

The final comedy title in the Spring and Summer 2013 line-up of The British Film collection is joyous song-and-dance number Three Hats For Lisa. Co-scripted by celebrated Carry On scribe Talbot Rothwell, this 1965 movie stars comedy legend Sid James, early English rock and roll star Joe Brown, Una Stubbs and French movie pin-up Sophie Hardy as Lisa Milan.

Milan's an actress adored by Brown and his friends, who head to the airport in hopes of seeing Lisa arrive in the country. Before they know it, the feisty starlet joins the group on a jaunt across London with Sid as their taxi driver. This infectious film serves up a delicious slice of swinging sixties London, and is well worth it for the rarely-seen singing and dancing talents of Sid James alone... DVD Details