Coogan;Steve Collection

If you're a fan of any of Steve Coogan's many, wonderful TV shows, this set is definitely the way to go. You get all of his Alan Partridge incarnations (from failing talk show host to failed), the complete run of Saxondale (about the life of a former rock music roadie in the later years of his life) and everything else. Considering the normal price of a single series of most of these shows, the value here can't be beat (and there's a lot in the set that can't be found elsewhere in North America).

My only complaint, and the reason I won't rate this 5-stars, is the packaging.
In theory, the packaging should be pretty good. Each disc has it's own thin, plastic tray and all of the trays are connected on one side (like the spine of a book). However, the problem is with the way these trays were produced - the production left a plastic burr facing the underside of each disc in each tray. These burrs could have easily been filed down (I did so with my fingernail) or the trays could have just been produced so the burr was located anywhere else on the tray and not under the disc (since it's on every tray in the same spot, it must be a problem in the mold).

As it stands, ALL 13 discs in my copy were left with marks or scratches from this production defect. I still think and hope that everything will play fine (I don't know, yet, as I haven't watched the entire set) but it's indeed a shame that such poor quality control could ruin an otherwise outstanding set.

A quick bit of advice for those in the US:
If you own a DVD player capable of region 2, PAL playback, then save yourself a bundle and buy this and just about every other UK TV series DVD that has been released in the US for NTSC at Amazon.com UK for Region 2, PAL. Even after the currency conversion you save as much as 50% on most of these DVD's (US for this Coogan DVD is $119, but at Amazon.UK it sells for--as of this date--$59.00 USD). Such titles to have been released in the US for NTSC are The IT Crowd; Spaced Definitive Collector's Edition (truly overpriced here in the States for NTSC; a real bargain at Amazon.UK Region 2, PAL); and just about every other title that has been released here in the US. In fact, the US prices are so high, that I now buy UK series exclusively Region 2, PAL. The studios here (Warner Video, in some cases) get really greedy.

It isn't really fair to bring up Ricky Gervais in a review of a Steve Coogan boxed set but, as this is Amazon's American site and as the American audience for Ricky Gervais is exponentially larger than Coogan's, I would like to put Coogan in perspective for those who may read this and are not familiar with him.

It essentially amounts to this: as comedically brilliant as much of his work is, Gervais is second to Coogan on every level. Coogan had already mastered his awkward and annoying Alan Partridge on radio and television years before The Office, presumably while David Brent was still working his way up the management ladder at Wernham-Hogg. With less pathos and a broader appeal but equally as funny as the Brent character, Coogan crafted Partridge into a "man you love to hate" with razor sharp timing, brilliant writing (with help from people such as Armando Ianucci, another very talented Brit who has not seen much success in the States) and a sense of style somewhere in between Heathcliff Huxtable and Alex P. Keaton. Along with a stellar supporting cast the three Alan Partridge series (Knowing Me Knowing You plus series 1 and 2) are squirmy, irritating, tragicomedy gold. These alone are worth the price of admission, especially since Series 2 has never been released in the States. Without Steve Coogan there would be no Ricky Gervais. Far from being the "Gervais of the 1990s", as someone somewhere put it, Coogan is still relevant and funnier than ever and still doing brilliant comedy. Incidentally, it may come as a surprise to some people that Coogan is four years younger than Gervais.

If that weren't enough you also get both series of Saxondale, a show about an eccentric, good-natured ex-roadie/current pest controller with one foot in the present and one foot the good ol' days. When all is said and done Saxondale is even more brilliant than Partridge. Less broad and much more psychologically perceptive than Partridge Tommy Saxondale is too old to be cool but too cool to know it. Wearing Wrangler jeans, driving a lemon yellow Mustang and playing Genesis (early Genesis, that is) way too loud for someone "his age", he battles aching knees, rat infestations, the bad taste in music that kids have these days and his longing for Jim Beam breakfasts in America.

If I have done my job you have already added this to your cart. But if you are still not convinced then I must tell you that you also get Paul Calf (the staggering, drunken, chain-smoking dolt who bloody hates students), his sister Pauline Calf, Tony Ferrino (the smarmy, possibly homicidal, sex addicted singing sensation from Portugal), and plenty of other characters from live shows and other projects that Coogan has done over the years, notably the charming "Coogan's Run" featuring a number of one-off characters who should be resurrected in this humble reviewer's opinion (eh, Steve?).

I should also note that this set is packed with special features: all the ones that were available on the original UK releases of the individual DVDs plus one or two others that are, to the best of my knowledge, new to DVD. The only exception to this, and it is the only problem with this collection, is the strange absence of the Alan Partridge Series 2 special features.

Thirteen discs of prime British comedy, the best of which is on par with Fawlty Towers, Black Adder or any other classic you care to name.

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 5 reviews  4.8 out of 5 stars