Paul Hogan's England

When Channel 4 launched in the UK back in 1982, one of big shows that evening was The best of the Paul Hogan Show, proving to be a hit and - along with the Fosters adverts - turned him into a beloved figure. With interest in all things British re-ignited with the recent royal wedding, the time was right to bring Hoges back to the mother-country.

Old reliables such as Leo Wanka are given airtime purely because they're popular, without the material being particularly good this time around. Happily, he also brings over Harry Bottler (a dynamite parody of Australian naturalist Harry Butler) to take a look at some of the English wildlife, whilst Kung Fu's Caine & Mater Po are found to be supplementing their income via a Chinese restaurant in Soho. Arthur Dunger fares among the best out of his stock characters, stopping off in the UK as part of a "World Discovery Tour - see Europe in 2 ½ days", chatting to the audience and getting some pretty big laughs.

With plenty of location filming in London, including some outdoor activity with World Cup Executions, followed by a trip to the beach for a comedic look at UK lifeguards in action, but best of all is (unsurprisingly) when Hoges is in the studio, playing to a live audience. It's here that his natural charm and charisma comes into play, as well his amazing ability to get viewers on his side - that he comes armed with decent material to reel off makes things even better - one gag even found its way into Crocodile Dundee.

With the popularity of The Goodies in Australia, it came as little surprise that one of them turned up, with the most enthusiastic of the trio putting in an appearance. Yep, Tim Brooke-Taylor lends his talents to sketch where he's immigration applicant looking to make a new life Down-Under - the fact that this has more than a whiff of the controversial South Africa tourism piece in The Goodies, also goes a way to explaining why he's on board. Come to think of it, a sizeable chunk of the running time is taken up by interconnected sketches about unhappily emigrating, just like the infamous Goodies episode. It's rather ironic that Hoges jokes that the entire English population will have to wait their turn, given that moving to Australia was a common gag among British comedians up 'til that point.

It was also great to see stalwarts of British comedy taking part, including loveable Please Sir thug/Kipper frontman Peter Cleall and Ronnie Brody, whilst Delvene Delaney opts for a Busman's Holiday in the UK after putting in only sporadic appearances in The Paul Hogan Show by that point.

In truth, this was a variety show, as there were also top-flight musical acts appearing, including Dexy's Midnight Runners, Paul Young and Dire Straits, and I believe that these performances are missing from the (now elusive) DVD edition due to licensing problems.

Originally filmed as two parts, but often put together as one, this was the breath of fresh air Australian viewers had been waiting for, as the show had been coasting on its reputation for a while. It's charming, funny, and great to see Hoges doing his stuff in the northern hemisphere.