Arnold Brown
2021How The Young Ones Changed Comedy
Sean Doherty
Keith Allen, Tony Allen
This documentary explores the legacy of one of the most notorious British sitcoms of all time. Launching alternative comedy onto our screens, the show made household names of its performers and writers and proved to be a huge influence, despite the BBC reportedly being baffled by what they'd commissioned back in 1982. Never before had a flagship comedy show contained so much violence, depravity and anarchy - it was a shot across the bow to mainstream comedians that things would never be the same again.
How The Young Ones Changed Comedy
Liam
Stephen Frears
Ian Hart, Claire Hackett
A morality tale of xenophobia, religious prejudice, mob violence, poverty, and their effect on two children in Liverpool during the Depression. When a shipyard closes, Liam and Teresa's dad loses his job. Liam, who's about 8, making his first Holy Communion, gets a regular dose of fire and brimstone at church. Teresa, about 13, has a job as a maid to the Jewish family that owns the closed shipyard. The lady of that house is having an affair, and Teresa becomes an accomplice. Liam stutters terribly, especially when troubled. Dad comes under the sway of the Fascists, who blame cheap Irish labor and Jewish owners. A Molotov cocktail brings things to a head.
Liam
Comfort and Joy
Bill Forsyth
Bill Paterson, Eleanor David
Radio host Alan 'Dickie' Bird witnesses how an icecream van is attacked and destroyed by angry competitors. This leads him into the struggle between two Italian families over the icecream market of Glasgow.
Comfort and Joy
Personal Services
Terry Jones
Julie Walters, Shirley Stelfox
The story of the rise of a madame of a suburban brothel catering to older men, inspired by the real experiences of Cynthia Payne. The story follows Christine Painter as the down-at-heel waitress who, with the help of prostitute Shirley and cross-dressing Wing Commander Morten, seeks to up her earnings by turning her suburban home into a brothel. Before long she and her girls are chaining up judges, spanking Generals and attending to the needs of Honourable Members. Christine sees herself as providing a vital service to these harmless pervs and when finally the house is busted and the case comes to court, it's fair to say that the presiding judge isn't unfamiliar with her work.
Personal Services
Arnold Brown: Jokes I Have Known
Craig Griffith
Arnold Brown
This DVD captures him in an intimate, idiosyncratic performance at Cardiff's Chapter Arts Centre. The show is interspersed with extracts of an interview with Arnold waxing lyrical on his long, unique career and in the process, revealing some of his comedy secrets. The DVD also includes a hilarious after-show chat with fellow-comedian Norman Lovett, together with a half-hour programme from Cable Access TV in New York profiling ourselves at Go Faster Stripe.
Arnold Brown: Jokes I Have Known
