Ricky Martin Video:

		List Price: $24.98		Label: BBC Warner Salesrank: 41542 Released: January 16, 2007
		Our Price: $18.12
		Used Price: $14.99
		MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated) Media: DVD

Editorial Review:
Studio: Warner Home Video Release Date: 01/16/2007 Rating: Nr

The Royle Family - The Complete First Season Reviews:
Vulgar, hilarious and disturbingly real
2009-10-26 - Whenever a comedy becomes a hit, a big hit, in the UK, there will be Britons who say. "It'll never work in America. They just won't 'get it'". The Classic example was Monty Python's Flying Circus, which had a devoted following in the UK, but which everyone agreed - especially the Month Python team themselves- could never succeed in the US. Of course, they were wrong. With a quirky comedy like that, there will be, on both sides of the Atlantic, people who will find it hilarious, and others who will stare blankly at it and wonder what the fuss is all about.

The Royle Family is like that. You'll likely either find it hysterically funny - as I did - or you will be entirely bemused. I suppose it helps if you come from a working class background.

Americans will probably find the accents difficult. Carolin Aherne is Mancunian and the series is set near Manchester, so Ricky Tomlinson's Liverpudlian accent was a bit of a surprise. Anyway, you may want the subtitles on. I assume the occasional rhyming slang ("I'm going for an Eartha Kitt") will be understood well enough.

The show has a reality feel to it, being filmed in 16mm film using a single camera and mostly normal lighting. This, together with the fact that there is no laugh track, gives it a wonderful intimacy. Try it, and see if it's your cuppa tea.
[PeterReeve]


Brilliantly clever comedy
2009-09-25 - If you understand the culture, this is brilliantly observed and written comedy. If you don't, it will fly right over your head. For anyone who grew up in working class northern England, it cuts very close to the bone.

THE ILLOGICAL CONCLUSION
2009-09-07 - The couch comedy form can probably get no smaller -- or no more perfect -- than "The Royle Family". This minimalist, keenly observed comedy is terrific precisely due to the fact that it's "not for everyone". The first season is in some ways stronger than the second if only for its unrelenting, single-minded focus on one small space, shot (almost) entirely with available light and written with a complete absence of sitcom cliché, dramedy affectation or any inkling of any sort of denouement. It would be hard to find a better written comedy (including even The Gervais/Merchant "The Office"). The scripts are always working on at least three levels: the humor that the characters share with each other; the humor the characters don't recognize themselves that is delivered solely to the viewer; and the often subtle and wry interplay between the character dialogue and whatever happens to be playing on the ever present television, the television that implicitly controls the sitting room and by extension, large chunks of the characters' lives.

Not to mention the nagging feeling that we might just be watching ourselves watching television.

As casual as the enterprise may seem, the acting is immaculately detailed, especially given the intimate scale of the program. The writers, cast and directors must be given credit for invoking such a genuine sense of place and character. Like the excellent character work in "Saxondale" and the even more cramped quarters of the monologue-driven, short-form "Marion & Geoff" (thanks in all cases, including TRF, to the talent of Henry Normal), "The Royle Family" is more innovative than it first appears, letting you laugh in unexpected ways. Even at the typestyle used for the credits -- it's called "Windsor".

Classic British Comedy
2008-03-29 - A classic BAFTA award winning British comedy that may not be for everyone's taste, especially if toilet humour is not for you, but what makes this satire show so funny is how close it is to the reality of many of the working class of England.

Performances of Craig Cash (Dave Best) & Ricky Tomlinson (Jim Royle) are pure genius.

Nope
2008-03-14 - I would like to thank these folks for showing me what a one-star DVD looks like, because I've never ranked anything that low before. Now can I please have a refund?

Realistic, probably. But not funny. Realistic in that life is, as its most boring, this. But I have better things to do than watch it.