Review: The Kenny Everett Video Show
DVD: The Kenny Everett Video Show (1978 – )
I was 13 years old when The Kenny Everett Show made its debut on British TV and it immediately became a firm favourite of mine because it was funny, rude and naughty…so much so that a segment of the show was called ‘The Naughty Bit’. This section had the dance group ‘Hot Gossip’ performing a choreographed piece to a popular song of the time…usually wearing revealing outfits. Their performance to the Cerrone song ‘Supernature’ was a seminal part of my youth in both senses of the word!
So I was of course delighted to see that Network have released, for the 1st time ever, all 35 episodes on DVD that spanned the shows Thames Television’ years between 1978 – 81, albeit with a few cuts for copyright reasons. The cuts are for music reasons (Kate Bush being the big omission), but you still get to see fantastic performances by David Bowie, The Boomtown Rats, Thin Lizzy, David Essex, The Police and many more. A lot of the artists also joining Kenny in impromptu chats where anything can happen…witness what happens when Kenny sits down for a chat with Rod Stewart!
The Young Ones is often cited as being the beginning of ‘alternative comedy’, but I would argue that Kenny Everett was pioneering it long before Rik ever read a poem to Neil about Cliff Richard…who coincidently appears more than once in Kenny’s show…even being hung by a rope at the end of one show as…wait for it…a cliffhanger.
Kenny’s madcap humour is certainly appreciated by the studio crew, who not only are often heard laughing at the madness playing out before them, but are also roped into the action on occasion…fear the moment that it is your birthday while working on a show!
Though Kenny’s most famous character ‘Cupid Stunt’ didn’t appear until the later shows on the BBC, this is still a treasure trove of Sid Snot, Brother Lee Love, and my favourite Frenchman; Marcel Wave. The rants of ‘Angry of Mayfair’ still had me in hysterics too.
Add in the animated comedy sci-fi of Captain Kremmen and you have a show that was never dull for even a minute of every episode that was aired.
Now is the perfect time for longtime fans such as myself to reacquaint themselves with the comedy genius of Kenny, while everyone else has the please of watching these shows for the very 1st time.
You can buy The Kenny Everett Video Show clicking HERE. ALL money raised by purchasing from Amazon via our website is given back to our listeners and followers in upcoming competition prizes. The more people buy, the bigger our prizes.
Review by Dave (host of 60 Minutes With) from discs kindly supplied by Blue Dolphin Films for Network On Air.
