TME > Video > Commercial Releases
The Curse of Fatal Death
The Curse
of Fatal Death started out as a 4-part Comic Relief sketch in
1999, starring Rowan Atkinson as The Doctor (along with Richard E. Grant,
Jim Broadbent, Hugh Grant and Joanna Lumley), Jonathan Pryce as The Master
and Julia Sawlha as assistant Emma. For this video release, it was re-edited
into two parts with new opening and closing sequences (giving credit to
those ignored in the original broadcast version), and also added the
documentary 'Doctor Who: Uncovered', hosted by Harry Enfield and looking at
the making of the special, and three sketches from other BBC comedy shows:
Victoria Wood's As Seen On TV, The Lenny Henry Show and an unbroadcast
sketch from French And Saunders.
The video was released first in the UK on 6/9/1999 (BBCV6889), where at least £2 from
every sale went to charity, and in Australia by Roadshow in October 1999 (cat# Z00362), and
then later in American by CBS/Fox (cat# unknown, reclassified by WHV in 2001
as E1469).
The Curse of Fatal Death was classified 'PG' by the BBFC on 19/9/99 in
three batches - the show itself (21'17"), the documentary (26'55") and the
sketches (13'34" - classified as a 'U' only). In Australia, the OFLC
classified it 'G' on 26/8/99 (62'00").
This has never been released on any format other than VHS.