:: Editorial

It would seem that the last update didn't actually happen - I'm pretty sure I did it, and when I came to do this one, I could find all the files I used, except the final page. I can certainly remember the uploading - as that was when my ten-year-old P4 finally bit the dust - but I was sure that the upload made it to the before the computer went phut. I now learn it didn't, and I had obviously created this untroubled and perfect image in my imagination, as the true aftermath of a computer dying wasn't quite so pretty. Of course, all of my data was backed up on another drive, and sectional back-ups are made to DVD, but it is all the software, little apps, and personal settings that accumulate as you go along that are the real casualties.

This isn't the first time I have had a system crash, so I am well versed with the majority of my software, and have chosen packages that I can store all the data from in convenient little bundles for a quick rebuild. Email, web-browser, address book etc., were all a doddle, but all the photoshop filters, the accrued updates and little-used peripheral drivers are all taking time to find on disc and reinstall, and the ftp software has resolutely refused to reinstall (change of OS) and recognise the existing settings from a previous version. Finally, if you can read this, there is a light at the end of the tunnel, and the updates will flow once more.

The crash has brought about some long-overdue sorting out of folders and I hope that it will mean that I will finally get around to making sense of the many folders of snippets of information that I have accumulated over the last 10 years. In the meantime here are details of a few forthcoming releases...

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:: The Good Life

To celebrate 35 years since its original broadcast, Acorn Media is delighted to announce the digitally re-mastered release of one of the great British TV comedy classics The Good Life. Starring a cast of outstanding British acting talent including Richard Briers, Felicity Kendal, Penelope Keith and Paul Eddington this is the comedy series that put organic foods, self-sufficiency and green thinking on the map years before anyone else.

The Good Life will be released throughout 2010 for the first time ever in series order. The first release, The Good Life Complete Series One, comes as a fantastic two disc set, on 29 March 2010 courtesy of Acorn Media.

On his 40th birthday Tom Good (Briers) decides he’s had enough of the daily grind, he packs in his job and convinces his wife Barbara (Kendal) that they should become self-sufficient. Overnight they convert their suburban garden into a farm for organic living, complete with crops, pigs and chickens and homemade beer, much to the disapproval of their snooty neighbour Margo (Keith) and her henpecked husband Jerry (Eddington).

Created by John Esmonde and Bob Larbey, the programme ran for four series from 1975-1978. Its popularity has rarely waned and it was voted ninth best sitcom of all time in a BBC poll. Unique in its vision, and a truly brilliant British sitcom, The Good Life is entertainment at its finest. Special features include an interview with series writer Bob Larbey, and subtitles

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:: Vintage Beeb

“We’ve just heard that a cement mixer has collided with a prison van on the Kingston Bypass. Motorists are asked to be on the lookout for sixteen hardened criminals.”

Emanating, of course, from the newsdesk of Messrs. Barker and Corbett (1975 vintage) this two-liner forms part of the opening news feature on one of the next tranche of Vintage Beeb releases, available on 4th February 2010. The Two Ronnies LP, first released in 1976, features sketches from the pens of Gerald Wiley (Ronnie Barker), John Cleese, David Nobbs and a host of others. As well as some of Barker’s best wordfoolery and Spoonerisms, it also contains Cleese’s classic Grublian sketch (“That’s the problem with you British – no sense of cruelty”) and Wiley’s About a Bout.

As with the rest of the Vintage Beeb range, classic BBC LPs are now being reissued on CD with packaging that replicates that of the original LP and sleeve notes, while the onbody artwork for the CD is marvellously designed to resemble the grooved surface of an original 33 1/3 RPM record, with the base of the CD itself also coloured black. As the blurb says, they recapture “a little slice from the golden age of the vinyl spoken word LP.” I can't believe that no-one at Auntie had thought of this before - I bought some special blank CDRs a few years abck that were printed to resemble LPs specifically for this purpose!

Also available on the same day are It's Morecambe and Wise and a Hancock doubler of The Lift and Twelve Angry Men. Another 1976 release, Hancock features sleeve notes by Galton and Simpson and two shows which, by any yardstick, are rightly judged as classics. The Lift, from Hancock’s final BBC series, features The Lad ‘Imself in full outrage mode, trapped in a lift at the BBC because he ignored the weight restrictions and insisted that everything would be fine – but now it's gone midnight, the building is empty and Hancock won't stop talking… Twelve Angry Men, from 1959 and co-starring Sid James, contains one of the most quotable Hancock monologues, delivered as he’s trying to convince the rest of the jury to change their verdict: “Does Magna Carta mean nothing to you? Did she die in vain?”.

Jumping back five years to 1971, It’s Morecambe and Wise showcases some of Eddie Braben’s finest material for arguably comedy’s greatest double-act. Actually, there’s no ‘arguably’ about it – they were, and remain, the greatest. Lifting choice selections from The Morecambe & Wise Television Show, this set includes ‘Ern's magnificent body’, ‘A visit from the police’ and Ernie foolishly believing he’s going to be employed as Bob Hope’s chief scriptwriter…

Other titles include Round The Horne, Willo The Wisp, Fawlty Towers, The Magic Roundabout and Camberwick Green, and all for the ludicrously low price of around 3 quid each as Amazon at the moment. Yes, that was THREE QUID EACH. Stone me, I have paid more than that for second-hand copies of the original vinyl. If someone is lucky enought o have a birthday looming these will make ideal presents, and it not, stach a few away int he back of the wardrobe ready for when there is a special occassion.