Dave Allen

Told by family and friends, with rare unseen archive, this documentary reflects on the career of Dave Allen, relative of poet Katharine Tynan, and a natural performer who cut his teeth at Butlins. He became a TV star in Australia in his twenties, before returning home to dominate the schedules here in Britain with his unique blend of sketches and stories in a career that took in films, plays, documentaries and chat shows, alongside award winning comedy series.

Dave Allen was an alternative comedian before the phrase even existed. He was an innovator who set the agenda for comedy and comedians for more than thirty years. All he needed was a stool and a glass of something and he was in his element, reflecting laconically on such subjects as sex, the Irish and God, traffic, smoking, the Bible, Life and Death. Also sex, the Irish and God... This DVD contains his very own personal choice of sketches, gags and monologues. It's a vintage display from a unique raconteur - a man who observes out guilt, weaknesses and doubts and makes us laugh at them and at ourselves.

Compilation of favourite gags, routines and observations, selected from across the groundbreaking comedian's thirty years in showbusiness and including trenchant reflections on life, death, smoking and the nature of the Irish, all delivered from his trademark stool with a glass of whisky in hand.

With his trademark props - the stool and the whisky glass - Dave Allen proves the essentials of great comedy are simply a microphone, an audience and an hour-and-a-half of your time! Undoubtedly Dave Allen On Life showcases this most original stand-up comedian at his unsurpassable best. Hand-picked by Dave from his self-titled BBC series in 1993. These classic monologues on the idiocy of life include over 20 minutes of footage never seen on TV before.

A personal selection of 1½ hours of the finest gags from the grand master of innovative comedy

British comedy legend Victoria Wood entertains a star-studded audience including Julie Walters, Judi Dench and Dawn French in this 1988 special. Watch her crack jokes, play the piano and answer light-hearted questions.

Alan Bennett's play about the mid-life crisis of an estate agent.

An All-Star salute to Sir Lew Grade, featuring Julie Andrews, Tom Jones, and the last public performance by John Lennon.

A 1974 documentary in which comedian Dave Allen meets a variety of eccentrics including Alexander Stuart Wortley who lives in a box on wheels, a cowboy vicar and the artist/filmmaker Bruce Lacey showing his set-up where he pretends to fly a Lancaster bomber in his garage.

Sequel to the documentary ‘Dave Allen in Search of the Great English Eccentric’.