DVD of the Week: Milton Jones – The Lion Whisperer (Pozzitive Television)

By now, Radio 4 and Mock the Week star Milton Jones needs little introduction, and neither does his unique brand of absurd one-liners.

Half the fun is guessing where his jokes are going to go and the other half is finding out how wrong you were, as his punchlines teleport from some parallel universe: “I have my own private jet… the rest of the Jacuzzi belongs to my Mum.”

Jones’ inimitable style is unchanged for this latest release, but he has several ways of adding variety.

Regulars know how many grandfathers Jones has (“My other grandfather can’t do what he used to, bless him,” he laments, adding the punchline: “bomb the Japanese”) and Jones plays one of them here. His aged perspective on life is a subtle twist, as he wheels on a shopping trolley of props (making great play with an old person’s idea of a mobile phone). He also uses this slot to bring out a ‘little book of time’, setting off a slew of superb jokes based around dates.

Another section sees Jones use 35mm slides to link a section of travel jokes.

After lauding the benefits of new technology, he wheels on an overhead projector for a slot that contains some of the best wit of the show.

There are some tasty running gags, such as the one about having shampoo thrown at him (“…turned out it was real poo”) but his audience interaction here is not as sharp as it has been.

DVD repeat plays inevitably blunt some of the impact (the hilarious use of his car’s sunroof depends a lot on the element of surprise), but plenty of material still works, especially the OHP section and running gags.

This 68-minute no-extras disc is a fine record of outrageously creative wordplay, surreal wit and some grin-all-over-your-face visual gags.