At Last The 1948 Show DVD (import)

This groundbreaking, fantastically funny and surreal comedy sketch series, written and performed by John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Tim Brooke-Taylor, and Marty Feldman, also featuring the wonderful Aimi MacDonald, was an important milestone on the road to Monty Python's Flying Circus, The Sweets, and everything that came after. This lovingly compiled new deluxe three-disc set restores all existing episodes from both series of the program in the correct order and is as complete as possible at present. It contains all ten surviving episodes, two almost completely reconstructed episodes, and the complete audio of an additional episode with restored film fragments; all retrieved from the vaults of the BFI National Archive, and proudly presented alongside a range of newly filmed and archival extras.

Extras

• Something About the Year 1948 (2019, 32 mins): John Cleese on working with Humphrey Barclay, David Frost, and Graham Chapman, At Last The 1948 Show, and the path to Python. Tim Brooke-Taylor recalls his comedy influences and the making of At Last The 1948 Show. John Cleese joins comedy historian Dick Fiddy at BFI Southbank to reflect on At Last The 1948 Show.(2000, 44 mins, audio): the BFI's Steve Bryant in discussion with Aimi MacDonald, Tim Brooke-Taylor and audiophile Ray Frensham
• John Cleese Introduces At Last The 1948 Show (2003, 2 mins): an introduction recorded for the BFI's Missing Believed Wiped event
• At Last It's Dee Time (1967, 12 mins, audio): the At Last The 1948 Show team's unruly guest appearance on the BBC chat show
• Now and Then: Marty Feldman (1968, 26 mins): Feldman discusses the nature of comedy in this unedited interview, shot for a never-broadcast Bernard Braden documentary series
• The Humphrey Barclay Scrapbook: rare photos and drawings from the legendary TV producer's personal archive
• At Last Some Pictures: image gallery of promotional material
• Reproductions of two scripts for the incomplete episodes