This is a double series set of DVDs to celebrate 25 years since the creation of the young ones on BBC.
The Young ones was a sitcom broadcast on BBC two in the 1980's, written by Rik Mayall and Ade Edmunson it is about 4 students who attend 'Scumbag College' North London. Although set in north london it was actually filmed, well most of it actually in Bristol. The four students are called Rik Prick, Neil, Mike, and Vyvyan. Each can be seen to portray teenagers of different decades. Neil as the 1960's Hippy who studies peace studies, Mike as the 1950's 'happy days - like' Fonze (aka lady killer), Vyvyan as the 1970's Punk rocker (ironically studying to be a Doctor!), and Rik the anarchist studying Socailism. Although through all of the series's not once do we actually see any of them spend any time at thier institution, or working, nor do they actually ever seem to do any work for school what so ever. Except Vyvyan is seen with a severed leg from the morge where he brought it home from one of his classes to write an essay on it. He decides to strap it to the front of his car instead in the 1st episode! The DVD is a simple set up and plays striaght on to the episodes, you can select play all, or view one by one. It contains the whole of series one of the young ones. The episodes are as follows; 1. Demolition. This is the first one ever and we see an intro duction to all the characters, including the landlord who has various other
roles throughout the series. The basic plot appart from setting up and introducing characters is that the guys are living in their accomodation they have done for some time when one day they recieve a letter from the council informing them that their house is to be demolished. Naturally Vyvyan throws a tantrum and decides to beat them to the job so starts destroying the place as soon as he gets in that evening. Eventually events lead on and they have to move house - to find new student accomodation.
2. Oil - Thye move into a new house, just down the street from the old residence. They find out that the old tennants were philopspy students, who seem to have been illiterate due to the pile of mail in the hall way. However mike suggests they're probably bills, to which Neil asks 'who's Bill?'. Other adventures include Vyvyan discovers Oil in the basement and Neil accidentally hammers Vyv through the head with a pickaxe. 3. Boring - The four boystry to relive themselves of boredom in various unconventional methods and ironically some very exciting things go on unnoticed around them.
4. Bomb - A bomb is dropped and ends up crashing through the young ones roof and lands stright infront of the fridge. Thus causing havoc in the house hold - including frustration, confusion and results in Vyvyan having to steal Rik's ketchup to put on his cornflakes as he can't get any milk out if the fridge due to the obstructing bomb. Mike tries to sell it, whilst Rik tries to use it as a threat against Thacter and the Conservative party as a leverage tool to get them to listen to 'the youth of today'. 5. Interesting - Rik decides to hold a house party, but it gets a bit out of hand and the police are called out. In this episode we discover Neil does have some friends. Well two any way, one also called Neil, a fellow hippy and another called Warlock who encourages Neil to inhale some magic herbs.
6. Flood - In this episode we discover Vyvyan has a creative side and as part of his extra curricular studies has invented a cocktail medicine to treat homicidal maniacs, which turns peiple into homocidal mainiacs and puts it in a coke can so no-one would drink it. Meanwhile heavy rains result in London flooding and the boys are trapped in the house with a homicidal, axe-wielding Mr. Balowski.
Series 2: Bambi 1. In this episode neil has something very important to say, but gets distracted by rick. Later in the episode he remebers and tells the guys they have been chosen to appear on University Challenge game show agaist a posh uni, but the opposition proves too tough,so they get through it the only way they know how......cheating!
2. Cash The fours guys hit on hard times and have to burn everything in the house to stay alive. Neil trys writing a letter to his bank manager to ask for an extension on his overdraft but then is forced to join the police to earn money to support Vyvvan who believes he is having a baby.
3. Nasty In this one Mike and Vyvvan try to get their rented video running to watch a video nasty while Neil has a bath and a vampire is delivered to thier door.
4.Sick All four boys have bad colds,and this ends up causing a mass riot on their street,and they get taken hostage by the most violent and highly dangerous escaped criminal madman,Brian Damage Bolowski.Not what you need when Neil's parents are coming to tea.
5. Time A Dallas spoof segues into the morning after when Rick wakes up with an axe murderess. My favourite part in this is where rick tries to convince the other guys the girl who appeared in their house is his girl friend.
6. Summer Holiday Summer term at college has ended,but Mike didnt know it had even started,and the boys have all summer to laze around.But Mr Bolowski evicts them,and they decide to rob a bank using water pistols.They make their getaway in a London bus,but end up doing a nosedive into a quarry. A good and hilarious ending to a fantastic t.v. series CLIFFFFFFF..... (to understand you'll just have to watch;)
A fantastic 5 stars even though in my opinion one of the very best British sitcoms ever written. It is rather disappointing that the visual quality is poor and just as blurry as the original t.v. broadcast. Still the episodes are amazing and it's great that I can watch these again given that we no longer have a video and only a dvd player and the fact that they brought out the two series boxset for the anniversy is great even though theres no extras what so ever! Still would make ace xmas gift for any fan! Thank you for reading, boomshanka, mintz x x
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I was going to write my own review, but you've saved me the job. Was veering between VH and E but the Boomshanka at the end made up my mind for me.
JM1234 01.12.2007 13:31
Very good review. Young Ones rule! I've got both separately on DVD series 1 and 2 but i'm dissapointed now that a 25th anniversary box set has come out. Nice Review ;)
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