No Angels

No Angels

DVD Rating: *1/2

Reviewed by: Kotleta

Read Kotleta's film review of No Angels

With 10 brilliant episodes of this fabulously funny drama series to enjoy, there's really no excuse for finding enough time to sit through the NHS standard extras. If you have a spare 45 minutes, put your feet up and watch the one where everyone has to bond through the creative medium of sculpting Spam instead.

As is often the case with these things, the Set Tour is an exercise in stating the obvious. There are a few delightfully snappy anecdotes - such as the story about why the designer thought it would be a good idea to make the nurses' house look like the kind of house that four single girls would actually live in. Or the explanation of how pubs with character and individuality are more relaxing than cultural vacuums like All Bar One. Interestingly enough, the ward and pub sets are both constructed in a genuine disused Victorian hospital building. A pub inside a hospital. It's genius. Why has nobody thought of this before?

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In A Day In The Life, we learn that everyone gets up early, goes to work, does a bit of acting, sits around a lot, goes home and then goes to sleep. And sometimes they might have a bevvy after work. Wow!

The out-takes should have been left out. These consist of clips of the cast looking mildly embarrassed and giggling inanely when they forget a line, or miss a cue. They wouldn't even make it into All New It'll Be Alright On The Night Part 409.

The Making Of is revelatory in all the wrong ways. If you haven't watched the whole series yet, then under NO circumstances should you watch this section of the extras, as it contains a particularly mean spoiler. It also manages to reduce the process of developing a hit TV show into a formula, not unlike making a sandwich. First, you decide to make a show about a gang of single young women. Single young women like watching things like that. It's sure to be a winner. Then you think of where to set it. A hospital. Everyone likes medical dramas. Then you ask nurses what their lives are like and... ta da! It seems like it shouldn't work, but it does. Just like penicillin.

Reviewed on: 02 Jun 2005
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No Angels packshot
Four nurses behaving badly in realistic TV hospital series.
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Product Code: VCD0425

Region: 2

Sound: Dolby Digital

Extras: Making Of featurette; Set Tour; A Day In The Life; Out-takes


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