TotalTelly.co.uk
Devoted to Popular, Cult and Retro TV
Chef - Series 1
RRP: £15.99
Our Price: £3.30 (subject to change)
Poor Lenny
Review date: 2007-08-28 Rating: 6 out of 10
This series was the start of Len's more serious time. And it shows. being an angry black chef was I guess unique, but placing him with a group of staff (as his comedic foils) whose IQ was little more than 70 really places this badly written piece of slop way down the list of great British comedy.
Want decent comedy with a lot of laughs? Desmonds.
Similar Products
- Chef - Season 2
- Chef - Series 3
- The Detectives - Series 1 [1993]
- The Thin Blue Line: Complete BBC Series 1 & 2 [1995]
- Chef - Complete Box Set
Reviews
A Welcome Return for a Missing Comedy Classic
Review date: 2007-04-20 Rating: 10 out of 10
I'm so pleased Series 1 of Chef is back. I remember it being a superb comedy series (Lenny's finest hour in my view) with an orginal concept, a nice satire on the celebrity chef scene (which seems even more appropriate now, given the recent Hell's Kitchen), very funny supporting characters, great set-pieces, intelligently written, superb 'Yes Minister' witticisms, and a central character you love despite his tough exterior at work and then his weakness once at home. I'm sorry to hear some of the Big Cheese scenes have been chopped - that episode is a personal favourite (thankfully I'm certain the retail VHS version of the show at the back of my bookcase has it intact). The 2nd series wasn't quite as strong for me (but still good), as I missed some of the original kitchen cast, although the introduction of the drunken 'French' chef was a compensating plus point. Don't even bother with Series 3 in my view, when they just seemed to lose the entire plot when it came to writing, dreadful new characters and the separation/hotel loss storyline. If you like your comedy a bit more sophisticated and well-thought out, you'll find this show (Series 1 & 2 at least) a missing BBC comedy gem that deserves to be mentioned much more in retrospective 'Top 100 comedies' type shows on C4/5 than some of the dross you get these days. Enjoy!
And you thought Gordon Ramsey was bad tempered....
Review date: 2006-07-04 Rating: 8 out of 10
It has been quite a while since I saw Chef on TV, and I must admit it is still as funny as ever.
I was rather upset by the removal of the scene from "The Big Cheese", as has been mentioned in an earlier review. Why this was edited out, I don't know. But without this scene, it makes the rest of the episode incomplete.
The best part for me has to be the interaction between Chef and Everton. Everton's constant mistakes made this an unmissable comedy. (The episode with the elastoplast is a classic.)
I wonder if Gordon Ramsey is a fan? I wouldn't be surprised......
Excellent series, but beware this DVD...
Review date: 2006-05-26 Rating: 8 out of 10
I was delighted to see that the Beeb had finally released this vastly-underrated series (possibly Lenny Henry's best work) on DVD. However, there is one serious problem with this transfer of it. The episode "The Big Cheese" has been seriously edited, to the extent that there is a good 5-6 minutes chopped out of the middle. There is a very obvious edit point, and the episode makes no sense thereafter, as characters are referring to events that happened during the deleted section. It utterly ruins the episode for me. To add insult to injury, in the episode select menu there is even a still from the deleted scene... (For those who remember the series, the deleted scenes are those where Gareth leaves the Chateau in an attempt to purchase Stilton from a farmer and gets entangled with the police).
I've also bought (but not yet watched) series 2, and the running time on that is quoted as 170 minutes for 6 30 minute episodes, so I fear something on that disc has been butchered as well.
It's an excellent comedy - it deserves better treatment than this!
Great fun, a series that not enough people have seen!
Review date: 2005-09-19 Rating: 10 out of 10
Though it does not seem to be recalled fondly like comedy classics such as The Office and Fawlty Towers (as another reviewer also mentioned), there are enough funny moments and great character acting to really make Chef! worth checking out. Lenny Henry's amusing one-liners and insults are worth the price of the disc alone!
Product Details/Specifications
Actor(s):
Caroline Lee-Johnson
Roger Griffiths
Lenny Henry
Director(s):
Recording label: Cinema Club
Manufacturer: Cinema Club
EAN: 5014138301880
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 1
Format: PAL,
Release date: 2005-08-01
Audience rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
Region code: 2
Running time: 205 minutes
Language: English (Original Language)