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Joyful noise

Customer Rating:

In many ways, Joyce Grenfell represents another age - one of comedy in post-war Britain. But watching Joyce properly for the first time (I'd only seen the excellent Mureen Lipman in Re:Joyce before), I couldn't help feeling slightly shocked by how fresh the material is. I suspect this is because Joyce's observations are exceptionally sharp; and they just go to show that, essentially, people don't change. There's the neurotic and over-analysing Mrs Moss; the wile wife of a celebrity who knows exactly what her philandering husband is really up to; and the delinquent school child, Sidney, who's told: "don't shoot Neville - it's not nice." Of course, this is seeing the sketches through modern eyes, but the resonances are unmistakable. And if you like music, there are satirical jibs at opera, encores and amateur productions. There are two DVDs included: the first is two 50-minute programmes from 1964, which are in black and white and the sound quality is a little aged (as you'd expect); the second disc contains four good quality, half-hour programmes from 1972. There is very little cross over in material between the two discs, so both contain gems. Joyce said that the older she got, the more she understood why people were the way they were and, consequently, it became harder to be funny about them. It's the 30th anniversary of her death in 2009, but certainly her humour doesn't seem to diminish with age and, so, here's to decades more enjoyment from Grenfell monologues.

'' George Don't Do That ''

Customer Rating:

Joyce Grenfell - The BBC Collection [1964] It is wonderful this 2 disc DVD set has been released. Joyce Grenfell was beautiful, elegant, well spoken and a very clever lady who seemed ageless. Hinge and Bracket once said that when Joyce was 60 she looked 40. Joyce observed everyday people and turned all her observations into very funny and sometimes touching monologues and a collection of beautiful and funny songs, (All the words of the songs and monlogues are by Joyce herself). All the favourite monologues are here. 'Shirley's Girlfriend' who has a boyfriend Norm that drives a lorry with big ears, 'The Terrible Worrier' Mrs. Moss who wins a (dead) Rabbit at the raffle, but she doesn't want the rabbit, she thinks about leaving it on the bus ( in the end she 'posts' it through the window of a car). There is the wife of the vice chancellor of the Oxbridge university who sits in her book lined study with many group photographs around and a pair of crossed (H)oars! and of course the famous 'Nursery school sketch' where Neville is pretending to be a train and insists on ''getting into the station'' before joining his chums for story time, Tim has discovered he has some toast and marmalade in his pocket and is advised by Joyce not to eat it cause it is covered in ''Fuzzy bits'', of course we must mention George who's only contribution to the story time is to ....well ... i think it's best to say he is told ''George Don't do that''. The lovely songs are here too such as 'Stately As A Galleon' (We Sail Across The Floor), 'The Women On The Bus', 'Three Brothers', 'Time' (When I Was A Young Women There Was Always Time) and many more. Everything about this DVD is lovely, Joyce represents an England that was a much nicer place to live in and people were kinder to each other, Joyce Grenfell is enchanting and this DVD is a must for all fans Joyce.