Harry Hill's TV Burp Gold (DVD)

...family are avid fans of Harry Hills TV Burp, a comedy show that makes fun of last weeks TV, so I'd like to do a review on the TV show and then mention the DVD specifically.


- The Show -

Harry Hills TV Burp has been on TV for many years now and I originally stumbled on it a few years back, when it used to be shown on ITV1 at about 11pm on a Monday evening. Its a comedy show that basically pokes fun at TV shows ...
...shown but before its shown, Harry will make a comment about whats said in the clip or what appears in it (a particular object in the background that you might not have even noticed otherwise, for example) which, when watched on its own as an isolated clip, will seem pretty silly or daft and it makes you laugh. He pokes fun of all types of shows too, including the most popular soaps such as Eastenders and Emmerdale, Coronation Street and so on, drama ... more

Me and my family are avid fans of Harry Hills TV Burp, a comedy show that makes fun of last weeks TV, so I'd like to do a review on the TV show and then mention the DVD specifically.

- The Show -

Harry Hills TV Burp has been on TV for many years now and I originally stumbled on it a few years back, when it used to be shown on ITV1 at about 11pm on a Monday evening. Its a comedy show that basically pokes fun at TV shows that have been broadcast in the last week and this includes shows on all the terrestrial and Freeview channels, as well as some cable/satellite channels.

After I saw the show a few times back when it was shown late on Monday nights, I knew this was something that my family would enjoy, so when it was announced that the next series would be broadcast on Saturday evenings, as it was gaining in popularity, I encouraged my parents to watch it and give it a go. Ever since then, its a weekly tradition for us all to huddle around the TV every Saturday evening its on and watch it and we all find it very funny. Normally the show is broadcast once a week between January and April and I used my PVR to tape the last series, so I could watch it again before the next series started, which I presumed wouldn't be until early next year. I even recorded them to DVD disks, which I took on the family holiday this summer, so we could re-watch some episodes at night and have another laugh, so it does stand up to repeat viewings.

Back to the show itself and the humour in it is really quite irreverant. Its pretty clever at times and pretty random and zany too. It is somewhat difficult to explain quite how it works but it definitely does, for me and my parents anyway. Most of the jokes come from isolating a few seconds of a show, which is shown but before its shown, Harry will make a comment about whats said in the clip or what appears in it (a particular object in the background that you might not have even noticed otherwise, for example) which, when watched on its own as an isolated clip, will seem pretty silly or daft and it makes you laugh. He pokes fun of all types of shows too, including the most popular soaps such as Eastenders and Emmerdale, Coronation Street and so on, drama shows such as The Bill and Through The Wire, shows such as X Factor and Strictly Come Dancing and he shows clips of, uh, how shall we put it, rather lower quality TV shows, that we may never have heard of and that are perhaps funny in their own right, due to what their about, the main example of this that springs to mind being a show called Freaky Eaters that was shown on BBC Three earlier this year.

Its the randomness of the jokes and the creativity used that really makes me laugh though, I wonder how much TV he and the other researchers/writers of the show, must have to watch and how they manage to spot the really small details that lead to such funny jokes. Its one of those shows, I feel, that you have to watch to really understand and if its your sort of humour, you'll really enjoy it but it may not be for everyone either, I concede.

Another thing I like about the show and where more laughs come from, is when at times, Harry will appear re-enacting some scenes from shows and adding a funny aspect to it. For example, if there is a character who does something really annoying, he might suddenly appear on set and walk up and shove a cream pie on his face or something, or in the last series, he hid under James bench and chuckled to himself as he tied Jamies shoe laces together in a fake re-enactment of the scene and we heard Jamie fall over when he tried to move away. Yes it is rather childish but trust me, it is pretty funny too. Another thing he did sometimes, which I also found very funny, was when they would show clips of Deal or No Deal, where the phone would ring and it would cut to the TV Burp set, where Harry would have a phone that rings and he'd answer the phone, pretending to be the banker and saying things to Noel, which were quite funny.

It is good to have a programme that pokes fun of TV, I think there can be too many shows that take themselves that little bit too seriously and this show isn't done in such a way that you feel Harry really just wants to totally ruin the image of these shows or that he's really spiteful or anything, its all just a bit of silly, amusing fun really. Plus its become so popular and successful that since the last couple of series, some actors and actresses from ITV shows have even got involved and appeared on the show itself, poking fun of the characters they play on the show(s) or soap their on.

TV Burp is a bright, colourful, rather zany and daft show that gently pokes fun of all sorts of TV programmes in a funny and enjoyable way, where you don't feel guilty for laughing along with the audience. It is filmed in front of a live audience and the set is quite bright and breezy, which works well. There are some things that happen in each and every episode, such as just before the advert break, where Harry will find two really random items that have been mentioned in the last couple of video clips and he'll pose the question 'which is better? there's only one way to find out - FIGGHHHTTT!' so both items will suddenly appear in front of Harrys desk (the costume department must have real fun with this!) and they start to fight, as the title screen appears in time for the ad break.

Also, at the very end of the show, someone from one of the TV show clips shown previously, will appear and sing a song, to end the show just before the credits appear. Either it'll be the person (actor/actress/reality TV contestant etc.) themselves or a look a like-y.

As well as these things, on this show they pick some clips to have a certain accolade, the one that they've used most being 'TV Highlight Of The Week' (hence my title to this review being a link to the show itself, get it?!), which will usually be a pretty short clip of something really boring or random and that will be it, making you think huh? that was it?! but somehow it is quite funny. On last nights episode, they had a new accolade, if thats the right term, being 'Poetry Corner', which involved a clip from The Bill, I believe.

It genuinely is one of those shows where you get it once you've watched it and if you do, your hooked and you have to keep watching but if you don't enjoy it after watching one or two episodes, you might as well not bother, its not for you.

If this sounds like something you'd enjoy, I'd really recommend it. It may sound a little stupid or weird or whatever but trust me, this is a very popular show that has gone from being shown late night on Mondays to being given a decent Saturday evening slot and I find it genuinely really funny. Its certainly my favourite British TV comedy show by a long mile, or even my favourite British TV show in general, I think the idea behind it is genius and as much as its true that I haven't particularly noticed Harry Hill in his other TV shows, I think my parents didn't find him very funny before this but this show is different, I've made my family big fans of it and now we look forward every week, to sitting down and watching the latest episode of Harry Hill's TV Burp.

- The DVD -

Harry Hill's TV Burp Gold is the first official DVD of this TV programme to be released and its about time too as far as im concerned!.

The footage on the DVD is mainly from the last series and it doesn't feature any footage from the first few series of the show at all, which is a shame (though if you go to youtube, you can find a wide variety of clips from different series of the show). Also, you'd hope for quite a long DVD given the amount of episodes of this show that have aired to date and the length of time its taken for an official DVD to be released and yet the total time dedicated to footage from the show only adds up to an hours worth, which is a bit paltry in my opinion.

There are, however, a fair few extras or bonus footage, which adds up to about an extra half hours worth of viewing (on the back of the DVD it claims the DVD lasts 90 minutes, though this includes both the main footage from previous episodes of the show and all of the bonus footage too). Some of the bonus footage includes out takes, deleted scenes and a montage of the infamous 'figghhhtt!' scenes, which are always quite amusing and there's also a 'Freaky Eaters' top 10 as well.

- Conclusions -

Well basically the TV show itself is brilliant, in me and my parents opinion anyway. Its great silly, amusing fun and its one of our favourite TV shows of the week, one that we look forward to getting together and watching every week and so I really can't fault the TV show itself.

However, the DVD is a different thing. I think that its a real shame that everything put together, it only lasts 90 minutes, when there are many 100s of episodes and many different spoof/parody scenes shown through the years on the programme, I can't help but feel that they could have maked more of this DVD. I can't really fault the show or the footage in as much as the show is great and its great to have an official DVD of it, rather than home recorded DVDs of lesser quality, also the bonus features are quite good but I still feel that they could have made more of this, why only have 90 minutes worth of footage to cover years and years worth of episodes?!.

After having waited many years for this, I feel slightly disappointed but its still worth checking out, buying or renting if your a fan of the show and if you haven't seen the show before, I'd highly recommend it to you!

I hope this review was useful and thanks, as ever, for all r/r/c's!. 

...less