Reviewed by Neil Davey
Starring: Robin Nedwell, Geoffrey Davis, Ernest Clark, Bob Todd, David Jason, Eva Reuber-Staier
UK certification PG | UK RRP £19.99 | DVD Region 2 | Runtime 325 minutes | Directed by Various
It's funny how 1970s comedies vary. At the same time that the Doctor series was plying its conventional trade, Monty Python was hitting its stride. I mean, Holy Grail came out a year after this series screened on LWT (and, joyously, from a nostalgia point of view, you get the old LWT ident at the start of each episode — although sadly the End of Part One break doesn't herald a couple of minutes of Smash and PG Tipps chimp adverts).There are no prizes for guessing, of course, which one has aged better.
In this 13-episode fourth series, most of the original doctors have left, leaving just Duncan Waring (Nedwell) and posh twit Dick Stuart-Clark (Davis) at St Swithin's Hospital. But only briefly. After their nemesis, chief surgeon Professor Geoffrey Luftus (Clark) fires Dick. Duncan resigns in protest and goes to join Dick in his new role as medical officer on a cruise ship. And you'll never guess: their new boss is Captain Norman Luftus, Geoffrey's twin brother. Gosh, that was handy.
So, cue lots of bristling, "phwoar, dolly birds" ogling and episodes involving gay stewards, sexy nurses, gorgeous passengers, depressed entertainment officers, stowaways, etc. There's some curiosity value in the casting — Bob Todd as the entertainment officer, Chris Biggins pops up as the camp steward, a young David Jason (with a rubbish Spanish accent) as the stowaway — and the writing personnel, which includes luminaries such as Phil Redmond and Jonathan Lynn, but for the most part this series is creaking as badly as a wooden clipper. It's strange, because the even older movies ("you boy, what's the bleeding time?") are still utterly charming. Still, if they're re-releasing 1970s comedies (with the likely exceptions of Mind Your Language and Love They Neighbour, which have aged in a most unfortunate manner), what chance of a DVD of Get Some In? Or will the past 30 years have destroyed that too?
EXTRAS Nowt.