Son of Cliche MP3s?

[JohnnyW]

Listening to Wrinkles (the second series is by far the best) I got to wondering if there are MP3s around for Son of Cliche or the ultra rare “Six of the Best” CD? (I’ve heard that only a segment is used on the DVDs?)

[John Hoare]

I think nearly all of the Six of the Best CD was used on the DVDs in the end – the bonus commentary for The End, and then the animated eggs, used practically all of it. I haven’t got my CD here to check, but maybe Andrew knows if there were any little bits that weren’t used…

The White Hole, which merged into this site, used to host MP3s of Son of Cliche – but someone (we have no idea who) complained about them, and Cappsy was ordered to take them down by his hosting company. Due to the fact they’ve been complained about once, we’re loathe to put them up for download again at the moment… but also, there is still the slim possibility that the BBC might want to release them properly (I think they’re more commercially viable than Wrinkles), and so we’re holding back for now.

At some point, if we pursue it and the BBC still show no sign of wanting to release it, we might chance it and put them back up for download. Same goes for Cliche, which we’ve got all six episodes of – including the episode that wasn’t transmitted on the BBC 7 repeats a few years back.

[JohnnyW]

Wahhh :(

[Andrew]

> I think nearly all of the Six of the Best CD was used on the DVDs in the end – the bonus commentary for The End, and then the animated eggs, used practically all of it.

There’s very little missing from that CD when you put all the bits together. Nothing major was omitted, I don’t think.

[JohnnyW]

Considering the CDs were meant as commentaries (am I wrong in thinking this?), why didn’t they just, you know, use them as commentaries (or were they too long?).

I’d still prefer the original CDs/MP3s to the weird animations on the DVDs, though.

If anyone wants to, ahem, “donate” them (or any other MP3s which may be of interest) please send me an email here: thunderpeel@sbcglobal.net

Thank you!

[Danny Stephenson]

One of them was used as a Commentary on the Series I disc.

[John Hoare]

The CD was meant as just that – a discussion CD, to listen to separately. It was never designed to be a commentary.

Apart from The End (which really discusses the genesis of the series, rather than the episode itself), there’s not half an hour’s worth of discussion on each selected episode – only five minutes or so. So it wouldn’t work as a commentary for the rest at all.

[JohnnyW]

Five minutes or so? That sucks. I thought there was about 30 mins. I still don’t know how this release passed me by. I would have done anything to own it. When were the CDs recorded, does anyone know?

[Danny Stephenson]

Around 1996/97, I think. Someone may have to correct me. Andrew? John? Capps? Am I right with this?

[John Hoare]

It was recorded in 1996, for release in 1997. And it’s only one CD, so whilst I haven’t got the exact length to hand, it’s under 80 minutes…

I’ve always been intrigued by the CD, as it’s the last Red Dwarf-related thing that Rob and Doug did together before Bodysnatcher. (And how I love those last two words.) And it happened after the Rob/Doug split, which occured during The 10%ers. And yet it all sounds very amicable on the CD…

[Andrew]

> Five minutes or so? That sucks.

Not really. It was a 70-odd minute discussion – which completely fills a CD. The first half hour or so covered the genesis of the show, the rest discussed one ep from each series – the titular ‘six of the best’ – each topic running five to ten minutes. And, because we’ve tried to be all-inclusive on the DVDs, you get the first section as a The End commentary, and the rest with animations. We could have left the screen blank, I guess, but our way felt a bit more fun.

Not sure what part of all that sucks, though.

As with the Smegs VHSs (and their inclusion of deleted scenes), this was Dwarf being pretty ahead of the game – long before DVDs were a big deal (though I guess laserdisc commentaries were around?), here was an early version of ‘bonus material’.

[Jonathan Capps]

I love that CD so much. I was totally unaware of its existence before I spotted the set on eBay. It’s lovely to hear the three of them having an obvious laugh and being the most interesting men in the world at the same time.

[John Hoare]

The first laserdisc commentary was for the 1933 King Kong on laserdisc, in 1984. Wikipedia has more.

I love the CD too – I bought SOTB at the time, mainly for the CD (I’d recorded all the eps off telly), and it was worth the cost price alone. And I got to sneer at Howarth and Lyons stating in the programme guide that the included hologram was stuck to the side of the box, wheras in fact there’s a second one inside the box. Proving that they didn’t ACTUALLY pick up the release for themselves, and just made up what they were writing.

[Pete Part Three]

Yeah, the CD made the whole release worth while (“Best of” Videos? Urgh!). The boxset actually constitutes the only videos I still own.

The most interesting bit is when Ed Bye talks about how one idea cut from the series was about the crew riding cockroaches which sounds startingly similar to Garbage World in BTL. The novel’s Garbage World was, of course, Earth which would have been very interesting if it had occured in series 1-VI.

[Andrew]

Yeah, Garbage World was going to be in Series IV – but in the end they adapted a different part of the second novel for White Hole.

[Mr Flibble]

and the rest with animations. We could have left the screen blank, I guess, but our way felt a bit more fun.

And without it, we wouldn’t have had the wonderful eyebrow raising when Ed Bye mentions himself in the Future Echoes one – which still cracks me up…

[John Hoare]

The Six of the Best release is pretty canny. It’s a perfect introduction to new fans of the series because it’s the best episodes, but it’s also got something of value for the hardcore fans with the CD – and then the hologram is for the collectors…

Canny, perhaps bordering on rip-off, if you’re a huge fan who just wants the CD. But it didn’t feel like that at the time.

[Andrew]

> But it didn?t feel like that at the time.

It did to me…

[Danny Stephenson]

>The novel?s Garbage World was, of course, Earth

Oh, give away the ending why don’t you :)

[Danny Stephenson]

> which would have been very interesting if it had occured in series 1-VI.

See, you don’t goad HIM for it, do you?

*cries*

[John Hoare]

But it didn?t feel like that at the time.

It did to me?

It’s fair to say that I was a lot younger then, and not as critical of that kind of stuff.

Certainly, I can’t imagine GNP doing tke same thing now.

[John Hoare]

And I got to sneer at Howarth and Lyons

Speaking of which – in one edition of the Programme Guide, when they “review” the Smeg Ups release, they state that the actual cut ending of Out of Time – the Margarita/foam moustache scene – wasn’t actually included on the Smeg Ups tape as promised. But, erm, it was – my copy certainly includes it.

Did a preview copy of the tape not include the scene? Are they getting confused with the “Smeg! I’m a hero!” scene, which wasn’t included on the Smeg Ups tape, and made its first appearance on the VI DVD? Did the first batch of tapes not include the scene by mistake, but the second duplication did? Or – and not for the first time – were Howarth and Lyons just talking bollocks full stop?

[Carlito]

There’s an episode of Cliche on iPlayer at the moment… http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00nbwzv

[dddontshoot]

I’ve been looking for the “Dave Hollins: Space Cadet” for a while. It’s very hard to pin down.

From what I gather there was a BBC show called “Cliche” and the second season was called “Son of Cliche” but I can’t find CD’s with any of those titles.

I also heard a rumor that it was available as an extra on a Red Dwarf DVD. But I don’t know which one.

Does anyone have more specific information?

Or failing that a Torrent?

[(deleted)]

The series 5-8 DVDs have all the Dave Hollins sketches between them.

There are no commercial releases of the series as archivally its survival rate is very poor (four SoC eps over the two series) and most people’s copies are low quality, low bitrate things from the dawn of the internet – these were even used for the missing episodes on the Dwarf DVDs.

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