Spaced - series 1

I missed the first series of Spaced first time around, so it was through the DVD I got to know it. A simple idea - a man and a woman pretend to be a couple to rent a flat - done with style and filled with references to pop culture, great characters, well acted. How could it fail?

They did such a good job with the second series DVD, they went back and redid this one in the same style with all the same features, so I thought it was about time I replaced it - especially with Amazon having the double pack on sale.

Then Amazon put the price back up! Grrrr.

Spaced - Series 2

An almost-perfect second series which ended on a cliffhanger... then the makers got interested in other things and never returned to it. Perhaps there'll be a "ten years after" special like "Before Sunset" or "This Life".

The DVD has a great subtitle feature which constantly points out all the references which are constantly made to films, TV, games and music. I'm disposing of it merely to get hold of the double pack with the updated first disc.

Although... I'm not sure I really need that.

Blackadder: The Whole Damn Dynasty by Richard Curtis, Ben Elton and John Lloyd

I'm starting to realise how big a problem gifts cause me.

This is a great collection of scripts from the Blackadder television series. And I'm not going to read it. I've seen every programme - at least once - and they're probably available on-line somewhere if I ever need to refer to them.

(Note to self: don't offer any more hardback books to buyers in the USA!)

Jerky Boys by Jerky Boys

An NME cassette from the late 80s featured an amusing prank phone call from this album titled "The Egyptian Magician", featuring a character named Tarbash describing his act to a potential agent on the phone ("Then I take fork and stab customer in eye. But in my country, that is considered art.").

I bought the album, listened to it, laughed and put it on my shelf.

Now, nearly 20 years later, I'm taking it off my shelf.

Shazam!

It's gone.

Police Squad

A friend spotted the first episode of this on late-night TV in the mid-80s. We managed to tape most of the rest of the series and watched the tapes repeatedly until the series was reshown in the early evenings on the release of The Naked Gun several years later and we finally had to share our secret with the world.

The DVD includes all six episodes, interviews, a "gag reel", and commentaries from Zucker, Zucker, Abrahams, Weiss and Wuhl.

Sadly, the packaging is poor. It employs clichés the series avoided (three references to doughnuts - or "donuts") and playing up the wackiness the series studiously avoided by always playing it straight. The Lord preserve us from marketing people.

Now I can free up more space by selling the tapes. Maybe.

Zoolander

Zoolander made me laugh. But again, do I need this sitting on my shelf? Will I ever watch it again?

No.

(I even watched it with my partner after we got together, just to be sure.)