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The gift of laughter - the best comedy DVDs
By Bruce Dessau, Evening Standard 21.12.07
Geek alert: Richard Ayoade as Moss in The IT Crowd
Billy Connolly delivers sackfuls of raging wit in Was It Something I Said?
Sean Hughes is on great form in The Right Side of Wrong
Look here too
After groaning at the cracker jokes, raise some real belly laughs with the best of this year's comedy DVDs
White hair, white beard - but that is where the similarities with Santa end. Billy Connolly delivers sackfuls of raging wit in Was It Something I Said? (Universal, £21.99). The sixtysomething star still reigns, piling into everything from religion and women to sea-life: "Sharks don't like the taste of us, but when they find that out you are usually in three bits ..."
Anyone who could not get a ticket for Ricky Gervais's record-breaking Hammersmith Apollo run can now see Fame (Universal, £21.99) at home. If you are one of the few people to have resisted Gervais so far, watch his underrated physical comedy skills - everyone should enjoy him impersonate a commando going commando.
If you have only seen Russell Brand on television, you have not seen him in his natural habitat. Doing Life (Universal, £19.99) features the confessional comic in excelsis, boasting back-combed plumage that would make Amy Winehouse envious and a true gift of the gab. Filthy, frank and very funny.
Meanwhile, original rock 'n' roll stand-up Robert Newman has ditched the flowing locks in favour of hardcore satire. History of Oil (Tiger Aspect, £19.99) is his sublimely witty treatise on globalism and the DVD includes his previous show, From Caliban To Taliban.
Another comeback kid is Sean Hughes in The Right Side of Wrong (Universal, £19.99), which finds Hughes on great form tackling singleton middle age: "I thought when I was 41, I would be married with kids. Well, to be honest, I thought I'd be divorced with weekend access."
Those without digital channels may never have seen TV's driest, daftest sitcom. Flight of the Conchords (£25, HBO), follows the US adventures of New Zealand's self-styled "fourth best folk guitar-based jazz, techno, hiphop duo" and boasts songs about aliens, hip hop and an inept manager who makes Stephen Merchant in Extras seem like Alan Sugar.
Gavin & Stacey (2 entertain, £19.99) also debuted on digital but is surely terrestrial-bound after cleaning up at the British Comedy Awards. There is something in this Wales-meets-Essex romance for everyone - Alison Steadman for Mike Leigh fans, Love Actually's Joanna Savage as Stacey and a cracking script by co-stars Ruth Jones and James Corden.
Ruth Jones also appears as Steve Coogan's girlfriend in Saxondale (2 entertain, £19.99). The first series of this subtle sitcom improves with repeated viewing. Alan Partridge is a tough act to follow but Coogan pulls it off as the roadie-turned-rodent exterminator. Great jokes, terrible hair.
The IT Crowd, set in the computer world, does nothing revolutionary and does it brilliantly, avoiding nerdiness in favour of universal plots worthy of The Simpsons. Both series are available on Version 1.0 & Version 2.0 (2 entertain, £29.99) and if you don't enjoy it the first time, try turning it off and turning it on again, as Chris O'Dowd's Roy might say.
Finally, some history. All 37 surviving episodes of Hancock's Half Hour and Hancock are included on The Tony Hancock Collection (2 entertain, £49.99). Think David Brent was sitcom's first deluded fool? Think Captain Mainwaring was sitcom's first snob? Watch Pete Doherty's favourite comedian and learn otherwise. Conclusive proof that the more comedy changes the more it stays the same.
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