Tuesday, 22 May 2012

Review: A Knight's Tale, Corrie spin-off DVD

(This post was originally posted by Flaming Nora on the Coronation Street Blog March 2012, reposted to this blog with permission.)

We reviewed Romanian Holiday, Coronation Street's spin-off DVD here and today, months after its release I bring you the review for the most recent Corrie spin-off DVD, A Knight's Tale.

The reason it's been months since the DVD was released and my review hitting the website is that I only bought and watched the DVD this week.  Is it shocking to admit, as a staunch Corrie fan, that I find the spin-off DVDs, dare I say it - somewhat disappointing?  Romanian Holiday was better than expected so I had high hopes for A Knight's Tale but ended up enjoying it less.

Written by Joe Turner and Mark Wadlow, directed by David Kester, the Knight's Tale DVD wasn't enjoyed that much in our house. It starred Ken Morley as Reg Holdsworth, Kevin Kennedy as Curly, Patti Clare as Mary, Malcolm Hebden as Norris, Helen Flanagan as Rosie, Ryan Thomas as Jason and a lovely guest appearance from Brian Capron as Richard Hillman himself - or was it?!

It's a romp that's set in Tatlock Towers with our Corrie characters acting to form. The storylines are ok but not as strong as those in Romanian Holiday and the dialogue wasn't as funny as either that DVD or what we've become used to on Corrie itself.

There were some good moments however and having Reg and Curly back together was worth the £2.25 I spent buying the DVD from eBay. At one point Curly brought out a picture of his son, a lovely picture of nine year old Ben, a kid wearing glasses, looking just like Curly used to.  He also revealed he'd split from wife Emma, so that tidied up a couple of storylines well.

If you're a fan of Rosie Webster then there's plenty for you to enjoy with leg shots, breast shots, and scenes of her tied to a bed in her underwear while ITVs Jeremy Vine played an evil cosmetic surgeon.

There was also some honesty expressed between Mary "I want you Norris, I want you now!" and Norris "You can't force a relationship out of a friendship!" that we don't usually see on regular episodes. And while everyone acted their socks off, it just didn't work for this fan.  But if you've also seen it and disagree, please let me know you thought of it too.

Corrie managed to get its sponsor Harveys the Furniture Store into the DVD as well as other ITV Products Tombola Bingo and Friends Reunited.  None of this was done subtley but spotting the Harveys furniture van raised one of the few laughs from our sofa.

So, in short:
Is it worth watching? Yes but only because it's Coronation Street.
Is it worth buying? Only if you can get it second-hand off ebay.
Marks out of 10? I'd give it 6.

Our blogger Chewy reviewed the DVD here.

Note: This dvd doesn't appear to be available in Canada yet. Personally, I don't think it's very good. Romanian Holiday and Out of Africa were both much better.

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