Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em - The Specials (DVD)

Author's product rating:   

Did you enjoy it?	Loved it
Story	Good
Characters / Performances	Outstanding
Special Effects	Standard
How does it compare to similar films?	Good

Advantages:	The same old Frank Spencer
Disadvantages:	Not as many episodes

Recommend to potential buyers:

no

Full review

Some mothers do 'ave 'em is a British comedy that was first transmitted between 1973 and 1975 on BBC 1. Only 3 series of the comedy were made but with the many reruns of these series on TV the program has become well known to people of all ages and the star of the show, Frank Spencer (Michael Crawford - a pre-phantom version), has become a celebrity in his own right.

The two main characters, Frank Spencer and his wife Betty (Michelle Dotrice) tell another part of their life story in each episode.

Frank is just about as accident-prone as anyone can be. Everything he touches falls apart. Everybody he meets ends up on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Every job that he does actually manage to get lasts less than a day.

His wife Betty somehow manages to cope with all of the problems involved in living with Frank, which is an outstanding achievement. However, unfortunately the same cannot be said of their neighbours who call, angrily, at the Spencer house at all hours of the day and night threatening Frank if he happens to keep having his mishaps.

This specials DVD contains only three episodes:

Jessica's first Christmas - In this episode it's time for Frank's favourite Chrsitmas event, even better than seeing the Queen on TV on Christmas day - its the nativity play. After some disappointment about over not being casted in the play Frank steps in when the angel of the Lord phones in sick and so he puts on the wings and starts up his special flying effect (one that he designed) and so, like everything Frank builds, it goes wrong and he ends up flying higher than expected.

Christmas '75 - In this episdoe Frank has a driving lesson and loses the car. So he comes home and finds out that he has been chosen to appear on a BBC DIY programme - a chance to show off his home improvements and wreck the nerves of the TV crew. Finally, he goes to do his driving test and ends up on a bridge that begins to rise to let a boat under.

Christmas '78 - Frank wants to learn to fly and says "my father was in The Battle of Britain. He was shot down seven times. I want to be just like him." After offering some "encouraging" words to another person wanting flying lessons he eventually gets into the plane, knocks his instructor unconscious and is left in control of the plane!

This DVD is another good DVD of Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em, with the same humour and comic value as all the other disks. It definitely is a DVD for all the family - my 5 year old sister got as much enjoyment out of these DVDs as the rest of the family.

However, the main disadvantage of this DVD is the number of episodes on the disk. Although the episodes are slightly longer than ones on other disks there are only three episodes - the three specials. Personally, the cost of this disk is too much compared with the cost of the other disks. I paid £7.97 for this disk off amazon.co.uk, and paid the same amount for the Complete First, Second and Third series where there were six or seven episodes per disk. So really with this DVD the buyer is paying almost twice as much per episode and really in my opinion it isnt worth it. Sure, the episodes are good, much better than the normal episodes - but I just dont think its worth buying the disk at that price.