Look Around You : Complete BBC Series 1 [2002] [DVD]

This spoof comedy series is so firmly entrenched in its origins - a very small pocket of British television history known as Programmes for Schools, which were TV shows intended to be videotaped and shown in classrooms for educational purposes - that it's full genius can only be appreciated by those of us around and at school in the 1970's, or awake at night watching those hideous Open University programmes.But luckily I was one of those people, and I I found "Look Around You" to be hysterical. The dry-as-dust delivery of the presenters and the totally bonkers ideas for educational experiments and scientific reports that populate each segment have to be seen to be believed. Each short segment passes itself off as a serious investigation into some scientific theme or other, and experiments or reports are carried out on screen to supposedly teach the viewer about various scientific facts. Of course, the facts and figures quoted or discovered during the show are all totally and hilariously fictitious, such as discussing what the highest number in the world might be, or setting a maths problem about ladies buying shoes for spiders, Sample experiments vary from the laugh-out-loud crazy to the very subtley skewed, and they include a study of ants building a miniature igloo, opening up a garden pea to extract its brain (yes it has one!), and programming a computer to compose a pop song about a mouse.The interior studio scenes are all filmed in a clinical and stark lab setting with lots of close-ups, while the outside reports use faux grainy (or sometimes genuine recycled) 1970's stock footage. In a way, obvious ploys like getting you to laugh at bad haircuts and ugly fashions are almost overkill, but they still add extra appeal, and something to look at while you think carefully about whether "mafipulation" is a real word, or try and recall just what on earth some of the elements appearing on that Periodic Table being displayed actually were.The narration, sets, graphics and film clips are all spot-on 1970's pastiches and the series quickly developed a cult following, albeit a small one as there are only 8 episodes and they last a tiny 10 minutes long each. Nevertheless, it did lead to a second series, which to my mind is more successful, as it spoofs "Tomorrows World", and the episodes were extended to half an hour for that format. Although this DVD is short there are some funny extras as well as a commentary by the cast and writers who are obviously very fond of the subject matter they are spoofing, and make lots of very comical remarks.A great investment for anyone with a love for archaic British television. Anyone that "gets" it will find themselves in the fortunate position of laughing solidly throughout the whole series.

Humour is a very subjective thing; I, for instance, do not find "The Office" at all funny. Whether anyone reading this will find "Look Around You" as funny as I do I can't say, but I think it's one of the finest things ever to have been broadcast, for what it is - eight ten-minute programmes. Peter Serafinowicz takes his ludicrous "experiments" absolutely seriously, and Nigel Lester's commentary similarly betrays not the slightest sign that he is reading out a spoof - even when he has to say things like "The gas was allowed to mafipulate through the water for five minutes." The programmes perfectly capture the style of those dreary Schools Programmes on science we saw in the late 70s and early 80s, and - if you didn't pay close attention - you might almost believe it was for real. Until you notice the ants building the igloo, that is. "Thanks, ants," as Nigel Lester says, politely. "Thants."The DVD is very well presented, and allows the usual writers' and director's commentary as an alternative to the original soundtrack. From this I learned how the show was first conceived: Robert Popper and Peter Serafinowicz produced a one-off parody programme on "Calcium" basically to amuse themselves, and the BBC eventually took it up and commissioned the series we have now enjoyed. "Calcium" is included on the DVD; the interrogation of "intelligent calcium" is perhaps the highlight, though there are many other things to cherish. You also get a series of mock "Pages from CEEFAX", with news, farming, financial and sport reports which combine realism and madness very much as the programmes do; a quiz for what you have learned from each episode, with suitable punishments should you do badly; and a parody test card ending with a few seconds of animation from a cartoon that I wish went on for a whole five minutes. Until we see a complete edition of "The Hexagons", though, I just have to repeat their names - Moffaty, Gideon, Vincent, Slingsby and Wilson - to make myself laugh.Highly recommended.