Videos

‘I’m going to have to locate the wound and suck out the poison…’

Before the execrable Johnny English: Reborn, there was the enjoyable Johnny English; and before that, there was a series of excellent adverts for Barclaycard starring Rowan Atkinson as a character called Richard Latham – Johnny English in everything but name. Here, the secret agent’s hapless howlers (always solved in the pre-credit crunch age by Bough … >

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‘Please may I have some more plum pudding and custard?’

The zenith – or possibly nadir – of Dalekmania during the 1960s saw the production of a pop record so extraordinary that it still bewilders the brain and affronts the ears almost fifty years on. Recorded by the Go-Gos – sadly not the American group featuring Belinda Carlisle and Jane Weidlin, although it is vaguely … >

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‘This is the Night Mail crossing the border…’

Anyone who laments the current state of Britain’s privatised rail network, with its high fares, overcrowding and delays (and the buffet car? Let’s literally not even go there), may well feel a pang of wistfulness at this truly epic commercial, made in the days when trains were run for the benefit of the passengers rather … >

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‘The thing about perfection is that it’s unknowable. It’s impossible, but it’s also right in front of us all the time.’

It’s okay, you’re among friends, you can admit it: Despite all its flashy neon visuals, refreshingly justified use of 3D and that stonking Daft Punk soundtrack, Tron Legacy was actually pretty tedious. The plot? Er, something to do with fathers and sons and big business that got swamped in the eye-bleeding and the ear-exploding. Possibly. … >

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‘Convenience forever, freshness never!’

It’s easy to say The Simpsons’ peak is long behind it. It’s easy to say because it’s true. In fact, the most enjoyable parts of latter-day, widescreen, HD Simpsons are frequently at the very beginning of the episode, in the title sequence and the couch gag. There’s just such an instance of opening inspiration in … >

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‘It all comes down to what I want and what’s expected of me…’

Just in time for the long-awaited new series of Mad Men – which begins on Sky Atlantic tomorrow night – this is a truly inspired piece of mashup magic by Marc Faletti and Elisa Kreisinger which combines the backing track from the monumental Supremes song ‘You Keep Me Hanging On’ with some painstaking cut ‘n’ … >

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‘Have you seen Bungle’s twanger?’

Back in the 1970s and 1980s, the relationship between the BBC and ITV was a friendly rivalry rather than a bloody war of attrition for ratings. Each Christmas, the teams at each channel would exchange tapes of outtakes and rude spoofs that were never intended for general viewing… just because it was a nice thing … >

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‘Sha-dooby, shattered…’

The spectacularly violent but ludicrously camp 1980s sci-fi Schwarzenegger vehicle Total Recall is being remade as a spectacularly violent and not-at-all camp 2010s sci-fi vehicle for Colin Farrell. The new re-imaginingmakeboot is due out in August this year, and while it’s tragically unlikely that the wooden-faced sub-Bondian gags, the triple-bosomed hooker or the exploding woman’s … >

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‘Cider is very good, but it makes people sleepy.’

What was the first television series for young people to show its youthful viewers the unvarnished truth about the shocking effects of alcohol abuse? Byker Grove? Press Gang? Hollyoaks? Wrong, wrong and wrongest. It was, in fact, a show which predates them all: Camberwick Green. In the middle of the day, while he should be … >

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