Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

Before we had 'Monty Python', we had 'At Last The 1948 Show'. This Associated Rediffusion sketch show featured some of the best comedy talent around at that time - Marty Feldman ( who later would land his own BBC sketch show ), Tim-Brooke Taylor ( who later became one of 'The Goodies' ), John Cleese and Graham Chapman ( both of which would later become part of the 'Monty Python' cast ). Aimi MacDonald opened and closed each show, describing herself as 'the lovely Aimi MacDonald'.It trod the same line as 'Monty Python' later would. Surreal sketches, sometimes dark in tone, clever wordplay and musical items. The title, 'At Last The 1948 Show', was a light hearted dig at TV executives inability to get productions in the can on schedule.Not all the sketches made their mark but there were some absolute corkers, such as a men's wear department wracking a customer with guilt in order to get him to purchase a shirt, a man going to visit a psychiatrist in belief that he is a rabbit and a group of police officers going under disguise as female dancers to crack a case. The best one of all was 'The Four Yorkshiremen' in which a group of wealthy men from Yorkshire reminisce about the days when they were poor, with each trying to outdo one another with tales of how worse off they were, each tale being more far fetched than the last.The two main comedians in the show were indeed John Cleese and Marty Feldman, though without Tim-Brooke Taylor and Graham Chapman, the show would have went nowhere. Aimi MacDonald's sketches I found rather irritating ( wasn't she gorgeous, though? ). Barry Cryer and Eric Idle appeared from time to time.For years, it was believed that only two of the thirteen episodes still existed however in recent years, more episodes have been rediscovered, meaning that only two of the 11 episodes are still missing. The next stepping stone to be laid for the path of 'Monty Python' was 'Do Not Adjust Your Set!' ( another Rediffusion show ) but in my opinion it was largely inferior in comparison.

I watched the DVD release of the surviving material from "At last the 1948 show" and enjoyed it very much.The show is a funny humor show, more "classic" in its form than Monty Python and The Goodies. Ami MacDonald is a self-centered hostess pushing herself at any possible moment, while Cleese, Chapman, Brooke-Taylor and Feldman do sketches in-between.MacDonald is really the most daring part. Otherwise, much is classic punchline-driven sketches. However, beyond the punchlines and laughter tracks, you can feel the humor of what was to come. There are sketches very much in Monty Python-style (for example, "Let's speak English"), as well as Goodies style "Chartered accountant dance"). The show is most famous for including the original "Four Yourshiremen", which was written by Feldman and Brooke-Taylor, later used by Monty Python despite not really being their style. (There shouldn't be a punchline in a Monty Python sketch.)Fans of Marty Feldman, Monty Python or the Goodies (or why not all three?) will like this both for its humor and its historic/nostalgic value.

Believed lost for decades, this series is finally available on DVD (well, five episodes of it, at least), and it is definitely one of the great comedy finds. Written by and starring Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Tim Brooke-Taylor and Marty Feldman, it is one of the clearest forerunners of "Monty Python's Flying Circus" (along with "Do Not Adjust Your Set," which has also been given an archival release). Not only that, it shows four bright, young comedians clearly having fun with the medium and producing some high-quality comedy.The series even features Eric Idle in various bit parts, so some of the cross-pollination that lead to the creation of Python was already taking place. Pity the other eight episodes are still lost.

Contrary to popular belief, Monty Python's Flying Circus did not spring fully-formed out of thin air. In the heady days of the early sixties lots of young British comic performers were coming up with ideas for shows that, like radio's Goon Show of the fifties, would break the mould of the rather stuffy sitcoms of the time. In 1967, John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Marty Feldman and Tim Brooke-Taylor got together, with "the lovely" Aimee McDonald as presenter, to create 1967's "At Last the 1948 Show" (the title was based on the idea that TV executives would sit on shows for years before finally broadcasting them). The result was a surreal comic sketch show that can hold its own against the best Python material. Indeed, one sketch involving four impoverished Yorkshiremen, was later incorporated into Python's live routine, and some other 1948 Show sketches were used in the Pythons' two German TV specials. Other highlights include a rather strange English-for-beginners playlet in which Cleese refuses to stick to the script, and a Newhart-style single-header in which Cleese plays a neurotic headmaster (shades of Basil Fawlty already!) The show was produced for the commercial ITV Network, and the copyrights were held by David Frost's production company. Sadly after a few years this company decided to wipe the series, and only two complete episodes out of 26 survived. Some best-of-series compilations were later found in an archive in Sweden, of all places. While the loss of the complete series is a tragedy for students of TV comedy, I can only hope that the surviving material will someday be released on video, so we can all have a good laugh at what's left.