Eurotrash — Eurotrash( DVD boxset)

Eurotrash stands as one of the key/ classic back-from-the-pub watching series of 1990s UK TV. It ran between the years 1993 and 2004, clocking up an impressive sixteen series/ one hundred and fifty-three episodes. The best way to describe the series to the uninitiated is a bright/ buoyant/ camp take on the Mondo genre. With quipping French presenters Antoine de Caunes and Jean-Paul Gaultier showing the viewers a selection of quirky/ bizarre folk from around western and central Europe, and later on around the world.  Here from Network is a twenty-disc set, bringing together all sixteen series of the show- taking up a whooping fifty-four hours of playtime.

The show premium in September 1993 in a late-night slot on Channel Four, which at the time was seen as one of the edgier/ risqué of the then only four UK TV channels. Each episode ran thirty minutes (with adverts) and found co-hosts Antoine de Caunes and Jean-Paul Gaultier in a brightly colourful & tacky studio set. The whole show's presentation was deliberately camp and low budget- with an often comic/ mocking tone, with the European clips often overdubbed in a playful manner by British speakers.

There was certainly a focus on a fair bit of nudity, and playful softcore content- though it wasn’t exclusive to the focuses, and now revisiting the show all these years later I really notice how mixed/ generally bizarre and wacky the clips featured are. To give you a very rough idea of what was featured, here’s a rundown of the type of content- but really each and every episode had its gems…with the quality largely staying up (pun intended) though out the eighteen series.  So there was French nude golfing,  visits to both the Bulgarian human magnets convention & Italy's Ugly Festival. We had adults dressing up as babies, we checked out Germany's biggest tantric sex school. There was a Spanish restaurant that just severing bull testicles,  we had a guide to Italian hand gesticulations, French old-age erotica, Finland's annual Kissing Championships,  a naked sushi restaurant in Hamburg, and Europe's only lederhosen-wearing and yodelling Elvis impersonator. As well as features about some of the quirky-to-flesh bound genre directors like Jean Rollin, Coffin Joe, Russ Meyer & Bigas Luna. As well as interviews with Euro porn stars too.

For most of the shows run the two lead presenters remained Antoine de Caunes & Jean-Paul Gaultie- who traded some amusing and fruity quips in between the clips. Gaultie stepped down in 1997, though De Caunes stayed to the end with a host of guest presenters being brought in from time to time.

For review purposes, we have been just sent screener discs for the first three DVDs in the boxset, with a selection of later episodes to screen online. And throughout both the tone and quality of the clips/ shows presentation remain good. Sadly, there are seemingly no extras throughout the set, and the episodes are presented pretty much as they looked when they first showed- so no HD treatments here.  If you are looking for a curated release you may be disappointed- but really with this type of thing, I’d rather have the show speak for its self- instead of possible now jaded/ embarrassed interviews with those involved.

In finishing, it certainly is wonderful to see this fun & often cheeky 1990s UK classic getting a full reissue by the folks at Network. I know I’m probably biased to a certain extent, as I have found memories of the show from my pub drinking days in the 1990s. But much of what the show had to offer still amuses and entertains today- though I’m not sure if some of it will go down very well with the woke/ PC crowd- so take from that what you will!.