People Like Us Series 1 & 2 DVD BBC Comedy Mockumentary PAL 4 VGC

People Like Us Series 1 DVD BBC Comedy Mockumentary PAL 4 VGC

In his first ever TV series, BBC Reporter Roy Mallard goes around the country talking to ordinary folk:

The Managing Director - Roy travels to Nottingham to spend a day with Peter Wilson, Managing Director of Zenoteca company fighting to keep afloat in the stimulating environment of Surface Mount Technology.

The Estate Agent - "It's no surprise that estate agents are so often compared with synchronised swimmers. A glimpse beneath the surface of the underwater lipstick, however, can reveal a different story".

The Police Officer - PC Dave Knight's routine day is transformed into a tense roof-top drama when an insurance company employee threatens to commit suicide.

The Solicitor - Roy interviews the partners of Cheshire solicitors, Broadbent & Broadbent, a firm specialising in matrimonial cases... but it transpires that Nicola and Graham Broadbent have a matrimonial case of their own.

The Photographer - "There can be few professions outside artificial insemination and parachuting where equipment is as crucial as it is for a photographer."

The Head Teacher - In the course of a day spent with Stuart Symonds, the Head Teacher at King Edward VII Comprehensive, Roy almost discovers the difference between pupil-centred teaching and teacher-centred learning.

WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY JOHN MORTON PRODUCED AND CO-DIRECTED BY PAUL SCHLESINGER

People Like Us Series 2 DVD BBC Comedy Mockumentary PAL 4 VGC

The second series of the BBC's award-winning mockumentary series sees Roy Mallard (Chris Langham: Alas Smith & Jones; Not the Nine O'Clock News) back on assignment recording the working-lives of 'people like us' - Britain's under- acknowledged professionals. But true to form, his sincere attempts at fly-on-the-wall reporting are turned upside-down as he manages to bring out the worst in his subjects and to become the unwitting protagonist in their stories. Mallard's knack of driving his interviewees to distraction with erratic questioning and senseless, convoluted commentary will have you cringing and laughing out loud at his idiocy.

In this series, Mallard tests the faith of a country vicar (Michael Fenton-Stevens: KYTV). becomes a stand-in nanny for a young mother suffering from sleep-deprivation (Tamsin Greig: Black Books: Green Wing) and finds a tenuous link between actors and 'people like us' (with David Tennant: Doctor Who?).

Langham's deadpan personification of a well- intentioned but socially-inept documentary-maker is so convincing that the BBC received complaints in both the first and second series about his inappropriate commentary, unprofessional antics and appalling use of the English language.

If you are a fan of The Office, you will love People Like Us, a clever satire about observational documentaries and the pseudo- intellectual insights they sometimes provide.