Kinvig - The Complete Series

2 out of 2 people found the following review helpful:

strange one, this......

Colin Smith from Glasgow, 3rd September, 2006

Very Strange ! This is written by Nigel Kneale (Quatermass, Beasts, The Year of the Sex Olympics etc), so I think i was expecting something different from what I got. And what did I get - well, it's cheap, sitcom-ish (the laughter track is somewhat distracting) and one of the strangest productions I think I've ever seen. There are two plot strands going at the same thing - Des Kinvigs mundane life enlived by encounters with the ferocious Miss Griffin, and the rather more 'celestial' life he has as an agent of the Mercurians attempting to stop an invasion by the Xux ! Like the series itself - at the end I was left wondering was it all in my mind or was it real ? Very, VERY hard to review and even more difficult to categorise. It's not something I could ever imagine being made now.

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1 out of 1 people found the following review helpful:

MIND BOGGLINGLY POOR

charles edwards from England, 5th October, 2006

Nigel Kneale is a genius, no question, one of the greatest TV writers. I was curious about a sitcom and gave this a go, not expecting much from the general perception that this was not Kneale at his best but nothing could have prepared me for this farrago. It is so inept, unfunny and dull that it beggars belief. It is as if the programme makers had never a seen a comedy of any kind and were making it up as they went along. The laughter track is downright bizarre as the audience laugh completely at random at perfectly innoccuous lines. I watched two episodes and then started to weep tears of blood and packed it in. Avoid

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Pure nostalgic nonsense, I love it!!

Alan from Wirral. England., 21st November, 2007

I watched this when it was originally broadcast on TV, I was about 9 years old. I could only remember a few flashbacks and the odd thing about it, but I did remember that as a child I absolutely loved it and I have always wanted to see it again. After now viewing it through more mature eyes, I realise what a load of nonsense it really is, but I can't help loving it. The storyline is not the best ever created and the annoying background laughter takes some getting used to, but the whole experience was worth the long wait to see it again. I know this is not to everyones taste, especially nowadays with shows having excellent special effects, but I think it's like marmite, you either love it or hate it. Yes the effects are poor and the whole experience could probably have been better, but that is it's charm. I just wish a second series had been made to explore the idea more and answer some of the underlying questions in the plot, but sadly this never happened. I'll have to take myself off to buy the DVD so it's not another 26 years before I watch it again!

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Beware - laughter track alert

A Customer from Darlington England, 8th September, 2007

So easy to forget that almost every comedy from this period of TV came with an obtrusive laughter track. At the time I suppose we were used to them, but in this more sophisticated century they are seriously off-putting. Despite having enjoyed Kinvig enormously first time round I couldn't take more than ten minutes of this: if they are transferring to DVD anyway, would it be all that difficult to clean them up?

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