Brian and Charles (2022)

After its cinema run earlier this year, Mediumrare Entertainment are releasing the charming and eccentric British comedy BRIAN AND CHARLES on DVD & Blu-ray.

Painfully lonely Brian (co-writer David Earl) lives in a cottage on the outskirts of a tiny Welsh village. His fills his time inventing things and is keen to show them off in the semi docu-drama format the film employs. The problem is that Brian's inventions are utter rubbish (a pine cone bag, a device to suck all the air out of a diving helmet) and when he decides to build a robot out of a washing machine and mannikin parts nobody is more surprised than he when it comes to life.

The robot acquires the name Charles Petrescu (and is played by co-writer Chris Hayward) and despite being eight feet tall is very much a child in terms of what he needs to learn about the world, including its evils, which rear their head in the form of a nearby family who want Charles so they can burn him on the annual bonfire.

Based on an original short film that sadly isn't included on this disc, BRIAN AND CHARLES is the kind of comedy that British cinema excels at. Brian is initially painted as a sorry soul who lives in a ghastly house and has a life that's going nowhere, but as the film goes on both he and Charles and the people they interact with are allowed to develop as characters and by the end all have shown inner strength in a story that ultimately becomes quite poignant and life-affirming. It's a unique, charming affair with endearing characters and plenty of laughs to be had along the way.

Mediumrare's disc comes with a couple of extras: there's a three minute gag reel and another three minutes of Charles answering questions allegedly sent in on twitter. It would have been nice to have a commentary and as I said above, the original short film, but even so if you didn't catch it at the cinema BRIAN AND CHARLES is well worth picking up. 

BRIAN AND CHARLES is out from Mediumrare Entertainment on DVD and Blu-ray on Monday 24th October 2022