Heroes of Comedy

This series was also issued as a single two-and-a-half hour single compilation programme, as reviewed herewith.

A bit of a curate's egg... good, but only in parts.

My main objection is the highly fragmented and frenetic nature of the programme - as if speaking to an audience with the attention span of a slightly concussed bee. Flick, flick, flick: two seconds of this, three seconds of that, four seconds of the other person speaking - just as you get interested, it's gone again. I must say, I find this approach to the viewer to be somewhat demeaning, not to say insulting.

However the glimpses, albeit distressingly fragmented, are nevertheless of great interest; the whole thing is well worth wading through if one is interested in the history and evolution of comedy. It contains several rarer items not easily to be found elsewhere.

Worth persevering with, on the whole.