National Theatre of Brent

Years ago, I saw purely by chance a few episodes of a comedy series on TV called “Massive Landmarks of the Twentieth Century”.  The series covered a range of landmark events in our history which highlight the massive achievements of 20th Century man.  The genius behind the series was the National Theatre of Brent; two actors being Sir Desmond Olivier Dingle and Raymond Box.  As it turns out there was a third member of the company who did not participate in this production.

The following is taken from TV.com:

This short series, first aired in the UK in 1999, has garnered quite a cult following through (very) late night repeats especially in Australia where the fans have literally inundated the National Theatre Of Brent’s website demanding a DVD release. Alas, to date this has yielded nothing.

The series features the pantomime skills and talents of Desmond Olivier Dingle (Patrick Barlow) and the entire cast of The National Theatre Of Brent, Raymond Box (John Ramm), re-enacting six of the pivotal events of the last century, from the death of Queen Victoria, through the Cuban Missile Crisis to the Clinton/Lewinsky Affair.

Although generally played for laughs - mostly centred around the fact that the two lead actors play every character in every scene with scant effort to disguise the fact - there are some quite poignant moments of insight especially in the Cuban Missile Crisis episode with respect to Cambodia’s role (or lack thereof) in the Vietnam War.

Most people who actually get the chance to see Massive Landmarks love it with a passion.

I have not seen the entire series but desperately wish to but because it has never been released on DVD I cannot see it … or so I thought.  Then I found this blog post where the comments section had been almost hijacked as a forum for sharing National Theatre of Brent material (radio programs and the long lost TV series).  I posted there, almost expecting no response, to see if I could get my hands on a copy and, to my surprise, in my inbox this morning was an offer to post me two DVD’s containing this fantastic series.

Thanks to the kindness and generosity of others I will be able to finally revisit this show and share it with everyone who has no idea what I’m talking about.  If you would like a copy, please leave a comment.  I want to spread the laughs as best I can.

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