How one fan resurrected a cult comedy

The cult comedy Joking Apart is coming out on DVD, after a dedicated fan became so frustrated it wasn’t available he decided to release it himself.

Craig Robins, who has no previous experience of distributing DVDs, is thought to be the first individual to have gone to such lengths to make a favourite show available this way.

Joking Apart, which ran for two six-part series in 1993 and 1995, was written by Steven Moffat after he had created Press Gang, but before he moved on to Coupling. It starred Robert Bathurst, of Cold Feet fame, as a would-be stand-up comedian trying to come to terms with his divorce.

Despite winning critical acclaim – including a prize at the Montreaux TV festival and an Emmy nomination – the farcical series never found a big enough audience, and the BBC has never  released it on video.

So when Robins, 41, searched the internet in search of a DVD, he discovered forums and newsgroups were full of fellow enthusiasts keen to see it released. It was that which prompted him to believe there would be a market for the title, even though he had no knowledge of how to go about releasing it.

‘I thought it was probably the best comedy I'd ever seen,’ he told the website Off The Telly. ‘Periodically I'd try to see if it was available on video, and would always be amazed that it never was.

‘When I realised there were quite a lot of people desperately looking for Joking Apart episodes, I wanted to mount some sort of a campaign to get the show released on DVD.’

After weeks of phone calls and discussions with 2Entertain, the BBC’s commercial operation responsible for licensing DVDs, his business plan was accepted and was given the go-ahead to release it. But throughout the process of releasing the title, the BBC insisted on checking every stage matched up to their standards.

However, he has still not found a distributor to put the title into stores, so it will only be available through his website, http://www.replaydvd.co.uk/

Writing on the site, Robins said: ‘The Joking Apart release is the culmination of twenty months of hard work and a substantial personal investment. It's been far from easy, but against the odds, it's now a reality.’

But although he might not have known much about releasing a DVD, as a former BBC videotape engineer Robins did have the technical know-how to put the disc together – and the DVD also includes commentaries from Moffat and Bathurst, among other extras.

‘As a huge fan of the show, I was determined that it had to be absolutely perfect and I'm more than happy with the result,’ he said.

But he remains surprised the BBC never released Joking Apart itself, or that no other independent labels have put it out. Other comedies   including The Goodies and A Very Peculiar Practice have been licensed to established indies.

Talking to the Daily Telegraph, Robins, added: ‘It does seem strange to me that all the new BBC Three comedies get rushed out on DVD no matter how poor they are, while other more worthy candidates in the archives remain neglected.

‘It's clearly a very political decision, but at least it creates opportunities for myself and other independent labels.’

After the first series of Joking Apart is released on May 29, Robins' next challenge it to release series two – and after that, he says he’s open to suggestions about what other fan favourites might find a market.

>> Replay DVD
>> Read the full story of how Robins released Joking apart on Off The Telly

Published: 14 May 2006