Norbert Smith: A life - Released on DVD for the first time!

Harry Enfield’s iconic mockumentary, first shown on Channel 4 in 1989, is a hilarious send-up of both the TV arts biopic and the history of British cinema.
  

Rated 8.3 on IMDB and winner of the Popular Arts Award at the 18^th International Emmy awards in 1990.

Written by BAFTA-winners Harry Enfield (The Windors) and Geoffrey Perkins (Benidorm / The Catherine Tate Show).

Directed by BAFTA-winner Geoff Posner (Little Britain).  

Melvyn Bragg (as himself) arrives at the country residence of Sir Norbert Smith (Harry Enfield) in the week of his 80th birthday, to reminisce about a distinguished acting career that ranged from a whimsical Hamlet to a coveted role as the face of Sudso washing powder.

Sir Norbert’s patchy recollections, addled by drink, are accompanied by jovial clips from the thespian knight’s greatest hits – from comedy capers Oh, Mr Bankrobber!, Passport to Puddlewitch and Whimsy Galore! to the shocking tale of 1930s juvenile delinquency Rebel Without a Tie.

It's Grim Up North reprises the unremitting misery of 1960s social realism; while the WWII epic Dogs of Death finds Norbert joining an all-star cast determinedly drinking their way through the film’s considerable budget. In belated support of the peace movement, Sir Norbert stars in the Greenham Common-inspired Carry On Banging; and in his final role he gamely plays Nelson Mandela (as Alec Guinness was unavailable).

The extensive cast includes Josie Lawrence (Whose Line Is It Anyway?), self-parodying Carry On regulars Jack Douglas, Barbara Windsor and Kenneth Connor, and Renée Asherson – Lawrence Olivier’s screen wife in Henry V – as Lady Norbert.

And you can watch a trailer for this new DVD release here:

Norbert Smith: A Life will be released on DVD by Simply Media on 16th July.


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