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Dead Ringers 'Dead Ringers' is a satirical impressionist show, which brings us the sexiest woman on television in the early part of the 21st Century - Jan Ravens as a rampant seductress version of newscaster Fiona Bruce. Originating on BBC Radio 4, 'Dead Ringers' has made a successful transition to television, on BBC2. The TV version includes an impressive list of impersonators - Ms. Ravens, Jon Culshaw, Mark Perry, Kevin Connelly, and Phil Cornwell. Jon Culshaw is probably the star of the TV show, with impressions which include a surreal American President George W. Bush, whose sentences are full of malapropisms, and also notable are Culshaw's rather brave impressions of actors Tom Baker and Russell Crowe, TV/radio presenter/interviewer Michael Parkinson, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, and art critic Brian Sewell - all in public. Other impressive impersonations include Jan Ravens' Clare Short and Kirsty Wark; Mark Perry's late, lamented Labour MP Robin Cook, Professor Robert Winston, and TV presenter David Dickinson; Kevin Connelly's Mark Lawson, David Starkey, Andrew Marr, Bill Oddie, and Andrew Neil; Phil Cornwell's Michael Caine, Jack Nicholson, Jimmy Hill, and Jimmy Saville. - Paul Rance/booksmusicfilmstv.com.
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Dead Ringers DVD available from booksmusicfilmstv.com - in association with Amazon.co.uk
Dead Ringers Video available from booksmusicfilmstv.com - in association with Amazon.co.uk |
| Amazon.co.uk Series
1 DVD Review The standard of the impressions in Dead Ringers is never less than superb, even when some of the more obvious characters (Rolf Harris, Nigella Lawson and Parkinson, for example) seem over-familiar thanks to the BBC's other similar series, Alistair McGowan's Big Impression. Others, such as Thora Hird or Tom Baker as Doctor Who, simply lack the contemporary edge present throughout the rest of the show. But for the most part the large and talented cast provide enough variety to ensure that the sketches are a pleasure to watch: be it George W Bush's "shockerating" and "erogenous" use of the English language, interviews with the aggressive Lothario Russell Crowe, the reinvention of Michael Buerk as a threatening celebrity kingpin, or the appropriately pretentious Newsnight Review send-up. One of the most unique and rewarding segments of the show captures the cast on hidden cameras interacting with members of the public while in disguise. Thus we are treated to the unusual sight of Tony Blair addressing a confused bus queue, Jimmy Hill attempting stand-up at a hostile open-mike night, and Gladiator's Maximus Decimus Meridias getting quotes from real-life builders for the reconstruction of his ransacked Roman estate. "I'm not sure I like the sound of decking, how about some Saxon paving?" On the DVD: Dead Ringers DVD features all six episodes from the first series, including the Christmas special plus the original Pilot. The only features are episode and scene selection. --Paul Philpott DVD Description |
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