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Menu and Extras

>Once you get past the overly long, albeit rather funny, introduction screen, the menu system is cleverly animated with plenty of road signs and scored with each episode given its own animated set of menus with clips from the episode playing in the background. There's also a nice transition effect between the menus. Extras wise, it up to Peter Kaye's usual high standards with the Outtakes section being the pick of the bunch, whilst there's some additional features which I can't possibly tell you about.

>First up are the twelve minutes worth of Deleted Scenes. Although there is no explanation as to why they were deleted, the majority will have been trimmed for pacing and timing purposes in order to get the show to fit into its half hour television slot. Although some scenes run for literally seconds some do have some baring on a few of the shows plots so they're all definitely worth a look, plus there's a few laughs to be had too. Next up are the twenty four minutes worth of Outtakes. Whilst blooper reels can sometimes be as funny as a heart bypass operation, the simple fact that it contains Peter Kaye and his equally funny cast members makes it well worth a watch, with the highlight being Max trying to get his collapsible cups to stay up. However, this exclusivity has been somewhat diminished by Channel Four screening the outtakes as a special feature. And as with the DVD release of Phoenix Nights, viewers with very delicate ears you can also watch with the swear words bleeped out

>With the main extras out of the way we're left with a one and half minute set of Trailers for the series plus one minute and forty seconds worth of automatically advancing publicity stills in a Gallery set to music. They're nothing special, but with Peter Kaye's cheeky grin on nearly every picture, they round off everything quite nicely indeed. All in all, it's a good selection of extras which fans of the series are sure to enjoy, which are made even better with subtitling available throughout.