Dom Joly's Happy Hour Series One R2 UK DVD October 1st 2007.

I know there's bound to be at least one comment on a post like this that will state Dom Joly is a waste of time, or some other such choice words to that effect, though not necessarily avoiding extreme swearing in the process of doing so. This is the man that's built more of a persona around an obnoxious variant on his own self (to a greater extent than Ricky Gervais) which some get and some just plain don't understand the purpose of (others just naturally don't like him, or the idea, or don't think there is one beneath his behaviour) so those that worry too much about unravelling the reality from the fiction, the questionable moments of potential offensiveness from the observant snipes at odd behaviour, need go no further.

You see, Dom, and best mate Pete, take a lengthy journey across the globe to look into the role alcohol takes in people's lives. Having been regarded as a hero of 90's comedy and then having taken the almost inevitable downturn in such work, to describing himself here ironically as a "journalist" as a cover for him being paid to effectively seem to be himself on a lengthy binge under the pretense of a series of hour-long light travelog shows, you need to take absolutely everything he says and does with a pinch of salt - if not a fist full. That said, he does reveal a lot of himself (or does he?) that might not have been apparent through his other work, and so the intentionally tangled web of deception continues.

That aside, it's a fantastic journey into a lot of unusual sides of life through the USA, into Mexico, Australia, Europe, and India. Folk illegally brewing moonshine from cacti, the use of absinthe in performing abstract poetry, drinking pints on a cold early morning in eastern europe in preparation for work, underground consumption of alcohol in countries supposedly free from the stuff due to religion, connoiseur consumption of numerous boutique brews, extreme party drinking, and all things in between and alternative you could and couldn't possibly imagine. And so, if you can cope with (and have perhaps a perverse taste for) cringe-worthy moments of intentional discomfort, there's a huge amount of fun to be had from trying to pick out what their true intentions actually are... one of my favourite shows in the last few year, this one.

Pre-Order Dom Joly's Happy Hour Series One on R2 UK DVD via Amazon.co.uk for Release October 1st 2007.