Reviews

Kenny Everett had been on television for six years by the time the "Video Cassette" went into production. Although still preferring to work on radio, the public demand for new Everett shows was high, so he came up with the "Video Cassette".

Essentially 30 minutes of his own brand of quickfire humour, blended with his characters, silly voices, special effects and bare faced cheek to the establishment (Prince Charles, Thames TV, and many others were the butts of his jokes), the show was self indulgent to the extreme, but his excellence as a performer and entertainer made the 30 minutes such fun viewing that you would never notice time ticking by.

Celebrity guests (all were friends of Kenny) abounded (Kate Bush, Rod Stewart, Terry Wogan, Cliff Richard, et al) and all were quite happy to parody themselves before the camera. Ken had a way of making them see the lighter side of themselves.

Only six shows were made, and Kenny quit Thames TV afterwards (allegedly because he was upset that Thames had scheduled the show up against the then-all powerful "Top of the Pops" on BBC1, almost guaranteeing it a low audience share)to go under contract to the BBC - to make "The Kenny Everett Television Show".

Although only six were made, they total 180 minutes of some of the most original and fresh comedy ever seen on British TV.

This under-rated British film was unfairly slammed by critics, when it could have been a lot worse. It could have been better also, but it satisfies as a roaring bit of gangster fun and a subtle satire on the British "Lock, Stock..." genre.

John Hannah stars with Ms Janssen as a pair of crooks who are out to rip off Brian Conley for one last time. Along the way, everyone double crosses everyone, and the final scenes make one's head spin!

Brian Conley plays a rather good bad guy, given the quality of his British television shows, and great support is given by the various cast members, with special mention to Eddie Izzard who plays money lender Troy. His habit of paraphrasing songs and singing them to Leo ("R E P A Y M E - You know what it means to me" to the tune of Franklin's "Respect"), and the scene at the beach make for hilarious viewing.

One to be recommended for those with enough tongue in their cheek!

Julien Temple's inaccurate depiction of the rise and fall of British punk pioneers the Sex Pistols is nevertheless an entertaining tale of life in the music industry. Told from the perspective of the group's erstwhile manager Malcolm Mclaren, it charts the creation, development, hyping and subsequent implosion of the Sex Pistols, up to early 1979, when bass player Sid Vicious committed suicide.

Drawing on archive footage (not all of which is authentic), mixed with animation, newsreels and Mclaren's narration - the film is often as haphazard and random as the genre it speaks of, but, bolstered with music by the Sex Pistols (And peculiar partnerships of the group with odd guests, such as Great Train Robber Ronald Biggs), the film trundles along at a cheerful pace.

Much of the film is in exceptionally bad taste (The nude teenager "Sue Catwoman" - whose underwear was visibly chromakeyed in when the censors refused to pass the scene, the pedophile music boss, Martin Boormann singing "Belsen Was A Gas", for example), and its rambling plot bears testimony to the numerous rewites needed over the three years it took to produce, during which time the director was replaced (Russ Meyer was originally to direct), the financial backers changed more than once, the Sex Pistols formally split up, the film was retitled from "Who Killed Bambi?", and Sid Vicious died having (allegedly) killed his girlfriend.

In real terms, the film is not brilliant, and its factual inaccuracies have since been proven in court, but as an artistic statement and a chronicle of the punk scene in London in 1978, it's very enjoyable, and should form part of any serious music-fan's "History" section.