COMPETITION

Here's your chance to win a copy of Absolutely: Everything DVD box set, courtesy of Fremantle Home Entertainment!

ABSOLUTELY: EVERYTHING!

Back in the Dark Ages of Television (well, the late 1980s), Channel 4 managed to get its hands on a comedy sketch show so brilliantly funny and original they selfishly endeavoured to keep it to themselves by burying it in the mid-week, post-pub schedules. Fortunately, a horde of a comedy fans (including the likes of Ian Hislop, Jo Brand, Paul Whitehouse and David Baddiel) successfully stumbled home from the boozer in time to catch this hidden jewel and bestowed upon it the cult comedy status it so richly deserved. That show was Absolutely, starring Jack Docherty, Morwenna Banks, Gordon Kennedy, Moray Hunter, Peter Baikie and John Sparkes.

Now, the "hugely underrated" (Ian Hislop) and "influential" (Paul Whitehouse) Absolutely is finally coming to DVD - just in time for its 19th-and-a-bit anniversary! – in the form of Absolutely: Everything, an eight-disc boxed set that includes every episode from every series of the show, along with unmissable extras (all of which have been produced by the team especially for this release) such as never before seen footage of early work by the team, audio commentaries and interviews with the cast, producers and many of the show's famous fans.

Absolutely ran for four series, with a total of 28 episodes, between 1989 and 1993 on Channel 4 and introduced a nation of unsuspecting viewers to a collection of comical characters such as Bert Bastard the old man, the Nice Family, Calum Gilhooley and his omnipresent blue anorak and plastic carrier bag, the extremely anti-English Scotsman Mac McGlashan, and Jo Brand's personal favourite character, Frank Hovis (usually seen reporting on his life from the seat of a filthy public toilet).

For many fans, though, the show's most memorable moments featured the eccentric councillors of a certain local village… Stoneybridge! In fact, the Stoneybridge Olympic Bid sketch was voted as Number 30 in Channel 4's Top Fifty Comedy Sketches, making it officially funnier than both Monty Python's "Nudge Nudge" sketch and "The Lumberjack Song".

Affectionately described by celebrity fan Jo Brand as "a lot of emotionally disturbed people gathered together in one space," and by Time Out magazine as "silly and compelling," Absolutely: Everything presents the perfect opportunity for nostalgic comedy fans to relive one of comedy television's best kept secrets and for those who missed out the first time around to discover one of the medium's truly innovative and most memorable sketch shows.

The eight-disc Absolutely: Everything (cert. tbc) boxed set will be released on DVD (£34.99) by Fremantle Home Entertainment on 5th May 2008. Special Features include: Selected Episode Commentaries (2 per series); Absolute Beginnings; Absolutely Remembered; Absolutely Characters; Absolutely Music and Animations; Absolutely Other Bits; Absolutely Pictures

The usual competition rules apply. 

This competition closes on the 11th of May 2008.