Please Can We Have All The Shows?
Obviously this is only a small selection of all the available material. Can we have the lot please? God knows we've waited long enough and now all we have is these 3 DVDs. Also: the DVD description is rather ambivalent isn't it? The reviewer says the programmes "are biased and indifferent to 'balance'." Perhaps it's not that they're indifferent - perhaps it's that what is often taken for 'balance' is not only the fond illusion of people who are decidedly unbalanced, but also achingly dull.

Jonathan Meades reminds me of Wayne Rooney: clearly he's exceptional and altogether brilliant and much too good not to have cameras pointed at him at every available opportunity, while he does his thing. It's just that I've never been quite sure what his thing actually *is*. There may be no natural home for people with such an excess of ability. I feel as unnerved to see Meades on the telly schedule next to Live Bowls as I feel mildly hysterical when I see Rooney standing next to Wayne Bridge during the national anthem.

Anyway. Everything please. No 'greatest hits' or 'christmas selections' or 'best ofs'. Everything. Tell me what I owe you and I'll count out the bills.

Almost there...
The programmes are some of the most intelligent and witty polemics since TV began. Someone further back in the thread mentioned music rights. Well, despite the brilliant content, the vast majority of the carefully selected music used in these films has been replaced by synth washes and one-man and a laptop guitar so one star lost.

On the market at last!
Possibly the smartest (certainly the sharpest!) man on telly finally makes his DVD debut. Thanks, God!

Be warned - Jonathon Meades loses a considerable amount of body weight between the opening of the early films and the closing of the latest. Mr. Meades assures us he is not bulimic out of deference to the sacred memory of Diana, Princess of Wales.

I look forward to further releases - 'Jerry Building' is a particular favourite of mine.

Lobbying the BBC certainly seems to work! Enjoy!

Bring back Johnathon Meades
Bring back Johnathon Meades - the 'uber-cool' writer and presenter.
The best ever; most entertaining; challenging collection of series on our built environment: Education with attitude!
When can we buy this set?
Give it too me now ... and no-one gets hurt!

And finally- hopefully just part one
When this was due for release earlier in 2008 it was going to cost a stonking 75 quid and contain something like 8 discs. This has now dropped in price and slimmed to 3 disks. We are presented with a selection from the 50 programmes Mr Meades made between 1989-2007 (that's 4 prime ministers worth!) A well mannered surrealist, who gets more confident and inventive as time goes on. He "peels off the drab grey overcoat of preconception, to reveal the lime green posing pouch of reality beneath," as, in his words, his waistline expands and shrinks.

Extras (apart from subtitles) include a helpful introduction by Mr Meades and a rather scary interview with Dominic Lawson where he goes completely to pieces and ums and ahs all the way through.

Abroad In Britain : Severn Heaven
The Black Country playground of the Severn Estuary contains 700 "structures" of bodged together housing, (a more ambitious version of the allotment shed) delightful in their eccentric construction and now sadly viewed as eyesores.

Abroad In Britain : In Search of Bohemia
There are four places in Britain called "Bohemia"- why did people view this area of Czechoslovakia as a way to typecast an alternative racy sub culture.

Further Abroad : Get High
Jonathan unwisely tries to get over his fear of heights by making a documentary. It doesn't quite work out for him. His blow up body double has to perform some of the stunts.

Further Abroad : Belgium
My favourite. Was Magritte not a surrealist, but an accurate portrayer of Belgium life- only you and the man in the penguin costume can decide. The fantastically diverse Brussels suburbs are featured where every terrace house is different (due to lawyer-happy architects).

Even Further Abroad : Remember The Future
So much for the white heat of the technological revolution! Jonathan looks at the unashamed "futuristic" radio masts, power stations and cold war listening devices of the 50s and 60s.

Even Further Abroad : Absentee Landlord
Church architecture from Gothic to present day. Featuring a choir boy singing "Bat out of Hell".

Even Further Abroad : Double Dutch
The influence of Dutch culture on Norfolk- vast expanses of drained agribusiness fields and gables. Although there are also similarities with Alabama.

Meades Eats... Fast Food
We owe our national obsession with fried food to Sephardic Jews (Fish and chips first appeared in the mid 19th century). Fast food is all about appearance and deception. The vegetarian in me laughed as he constructed a sausage- first take your condom.....

Abroad Again: Father To The Man
Jonathan explains how the influence of his father formed his obsession with architecture.

Magnetic North - 1+2
Bored with banal phrases such as "the Venice of the North", Jonathan seeks to reaffirm the rights of the North of Europe to be considered as an architectural and cultural gem. We explore the still telling influence of the mediaeval Hanseatic League cities. A very impressive essay with lots of shots of spirit and herring.

I was very impressed by the whole collection and frankly I'm baying at the moon for some more!

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