Independent review :read:

✔︎ Helpful Review?

https://youtu.be/HWc3WY3fuZU

✔︎ Helpful Review?

WhyNow review - 3/5 :read:

✔︎ Helpful Review?

The first series was an Irish production by the team behind Zig & Zag, Double Z Enterprises for Channel 4 / E4. I think Zig & Zag worked mainly because they timed it right. In the late 80s\early 90s there was a penchant for slightly risqué humour as well as TV that appealed to both children and (stoned) adults see also Maid Marion and Her Merry Men, The Crystal Maze and Rainbow.

The puppets Teddy T (a giant panda with a cigarette in his mouth) and Bronx Bunny (a brown bunny) some how manage to be even more grotesque than Zig & Zag. I'm not doubting the talent of Mick O'Mara and Ciaran Morrison, especially when it comes to voice acting and improv. I just don't like the characters.

This came out in 2003. The "American" series was 2007 and featured bigger guests. Unfortunately like a lot of TV at the time it suffers from featuring celebrities who were of the moment: Steve-O, Judy Reyes, Jessica Alba, Seymore Butts. And occasionally household names: Hugh Hefener, William Shatner, Bryan Cranston. It's basically interviews with the puppets swearing in every sentence with really crass comedy sketches such as, Teddy T (a giant panda) having sex with a woman to spoof porn films! And Sesame Street-style spoofs spelling out words like Skank Ho. I'm not offended or bothered by it, there's just no cleverness to it beyond the basic premise of spoofing Kid's educational TV. There a lot of crude comedies I find hilarious: Bottom, The Young Ones, Nathan Barley, Curb, F Is For Family, even the odd Hale and Pace sketch; unfortunately this isn't one of them.

Series 1 is still available on All4 for the curious. Series 2 is available on Prime USA.

✔︎ Helpful Review?

I remember this sitcom and great acting from Keith Barron and Gwen Taylor,and well acted and very soon this series will be screened again on Forces TV later this year,and I can`t wait to see the series screened again.

✔︎ Helpful Review?

I always found this the funniest of the all the Croft/Perry sitcoms, including Dad's Army.

✔︎ Helpful Review?

The earlier episodes were shown on Australian Televsion ABC in the late 1970's and early 80's And never seen again


✔︎ Helpful Review?

Here in Australia, this(the Australian version) has come to represent the nadir of TV journalism! All that's trashy and tabloid-style, as if it came directly out of Murdoch's gutter-press! I used to watch it years ago(1977 when it first started on Station TCN-Sydney, and through Station NBN-Newcastle) but it quickly degenerated and now sits in the gutter with the rest of the scum.

✔︎ Helpful Review?

Forget Monkey and The Water Margin, they have nothing on this epic 81 episode long series. Telling the legend of Jumong, the son of Hae Mo-Su, who was taken in by the then Prince Kum Wa and raised as his own son, even after he became king. Jumong founded the kingdom of Goguryeo in 37 B.C. which became one of the three kingdoms that united to become Korea.

If there is anything to fault this series, it is that Song Il-Guk looks a little to old to play Jumong, given that the real person on who the character is based founded Goguryeo before his death at the age of 27.

Like a lot of Korean shows, the pace of this drama is a little slower than the shows on TV in the UK today and it does drag in the middle somewhat. Not that I'm complaining about that. This isn't something for the low attention span kids of today, it demands your attention like the dramas I grew up on in the seventies (Doomwatch, The Onedin Line, Poldark etc).

DVD's of this series are hard to find in the West, but it is available in the US as a 4 volume set (and obviously in region 1). Each volume contains 7 DVDs in Korean with English subtitles. With over 80 hours of programming, the set is not surprisingly a bit pricey (Amazon are selling each volume at around $75 to $160 each, depending on whether the volume comes with extra booklets or not). So, not something the casual viewer is likely to buy. All of which makes it a glorious little secret gem.

If you're lucky enough to track it down, and totally irresponsible, there's a Jumong drinking game that can get the maximum fun out of your DVD (chug your drink every time someone says "yeah", twice if its Jumong), but, of course, I could never recommend you try something like that.

✔︎ Helpful Review?

Travel Channels would be worth watching if they could produce shows of this quality. Superb travelogue documentary series introduces viewers to those parts of Japan that normally get overlooked. With so much Japanese tourism promotion focused on Tokyo and its districts, this show makes a refreshing change, and has a knack of finding gaijin presenters who have a warmth and magnetism that will make you want to come back for more.

Of all the shows on NHK, this has done more to make me want to live in Japan than anything else they've broadcast, with the possible exception of Begin Japanology.

✔︎ Helpful Review?