The Fonejacker is addicted to making prink telephone calls, taking on the guises of various characters to ensnare his victims...

Many moons ago, as a teenager I discovered a number of cassette tapes in my local library that went under the heading of Noel's Funny Phone Calls. These were a collection of spoof phone gags performed by Noel Edmonds on his radio show. Now, while I laughed like a fool back then I really didn't think that the format could be updated and served up to a modern audience.

I have to admit that I hadn't seen Fonejacker before reviewing this DVD, and I was expecting the worst. I mean, come on... there's only so much mileage you can get out of prank phone calls isn't there?

What I was expecting from Fonejacker was a series of rude, crass and very cheap jokes in a bid to appeal to a younger generation. To my complete surprise, Kayvan Novak not only has one of the best vocal ranges you're ever likely to hear, but he's also funny without resorting to cheap gags.

What helps raise the level of the show is the stylised animation that accompanies each phone call. Each gag includes a hilarious animation of how the creators of the show imagine the victim may look along with a look at how the Fonejacker's character may appear. Other gags see a hidden camera crew nearby to capture the expressions of the victim and there are also video segments that illustrate other things going on in the joke. For example we get to see a video surveillance camera during a bank robbery and the Fonejacker himself, Kayvan Novak, makes numerous appearances, most notably in the Mr Doovde spoof ads.

Everyone will have their favourite characters, but for me the Mouse, poor telephone scamster George Agdgdgwngo and the Indian call centre employee were my favourite.

Extras include Unseen Material (26 min, 51 sec worth of behind the scenes footage of filming of the various video sequences - most notably the Mr Doovde spoof ads. There are also two unaired sketches: 'The Death of the Mouse' and 'Prawn Crackers'); Pilot (21 min, 51 sec pilot episode); Christmas Message (5 min, 34 sec Christmas themed jokes); Character Index (which allows you to play all of a certain character's segments as one long feature); and audio commentaries for every episode.

New characters in series two include Dufrais, the nation's number one complainer; Janec, a Polish immigrant who doesn't quite understand the British approach to privacy, manner or work ethics; Steve, a prison inmate who's looking for a good job on the outside, preferably with accommodations; and Mendoza, a master of the Dark Arts. Returning favourites include Terry Tibbs, a car salesman who makes dodgy dealing an art form; Mr Doovde, who can't quite grasp the concept of British abbreviations; George Agdgdgwngo, the scamster who wants your bank account details and sort code; and the Mouse who can talk.

Out of all the characters I think my favourite had to be the well meaning Sachin alias, Mr Broadbandings - a young Indian man who works at a call centre and is employed to push the many different business concerns of the Internet Service Providings company.

The one thing that did surprise me is just how rude real customer service staff can be - especially the directory enquiry staff that Mr Doovdé gets through to. I also noticed that there is obviously quite a lot of creative editing done to really tighten up the gags. For example a couple of the Mr Doovdé sketches showed the victims visibly laughing and passing the phone between each other before he's really started singing properly.

Extras include Christmas Special (23 min, 30 sec episode that came between series one and two); Opening Shots (1 min, 55 sec behind the scenes on the filming of the opening credits); and six video shoots (averaging about 2 mins each) of the footage that accompanied some of the gags).

Disguised with the aid of prosthetics, Kayvan Novak plays a dazzling multitude of fictional characters in Facejacker, some familiar and some brand new, including the charismatic and many times divorced millionaire car salesman, Terry Tibbs; scamster Augustus Kwembe, who hypnotises people to stop smoking but is really eliciting their bank details; and irritating complaint monger, Dufrais. All are thrust into real-life situations where they butt up against unsuspecting members of the public...

Facejacker: Series 1 sees Fonejacker series maturing from prank telephone call to visible character pranks. So instead of Terry Tibbs or Augustus Kwembe talking to unsuspecting "victims" on the phone, they now get to meet their prey face to face.

Out of all of Novak's characters, I have to say that Brian Badonde was by far my favourite. Badonde is an art critic with a speech impediment and touch of tourette's (which he pronounces "bourette's"). He's the host of Voyage into Art with Brian Badonde a fake TV show in which Badonde tries to bring the wonders of various arts into the homes of ordinary members of the public. So over the series we see him at an art gallery, at an art class, in a pottery, learning about whiskey and how to rhyme with a young Hip-Hop emcee.

I also loved Augustus Kwembe, a scammer from the Republic of Uganda who tries to get money out of people in the most bizarre ways. These include posing as a hypnotist in order to gain cash card pin numbers; dressing up as a Beefeater and charging tourists £20 to take photographs of him (which is actually a common foreign scam usually involving a monkey); posing as a traffic warden in order to get people to ring him and give over their credit card details to pay for their parking; and sitting at an empty supermarket till and hoping that customers are going to pay with their credit cards so he can copy down the details.

Dufrais Constantinople, a young disabled Jewish man who fancies himself as a writer/director, is also another enjoyable character. He's arrogant, demanding and basically gets away with murder due to the fact he's in a wheelchair.

Good old Terry Tibbs, millionaire cockney used care salesman, seems to take up the lion's share of this collection though. And while he's a funny character, I did find him very annoying and couldn't help feeling he'd overstayed his welcome as a character just a little.

Extras include Characters (a handy feature that lets you play all of a character's segments back to back); Stings (all of the sketch links played as one feature); Inside the Lizard's Lair (3 min, 26 sec behind the scenes footage with Tibbs); Augustus Green Screen (1 min, 41 sec of ad libbed material); The Making of Terry Tibbs Car Advert (3 min, 04 sec); Dufrais Green Screen (3 min, 41 sec - I wish to make a complaint! This is Blue screen and not Green screen as advertised); The Making of the Headcast (4 min, 25 sec which shows Novak having his head cast); Terry Green Screen (1 min, 14 sec); Aramis on Iraqi TV (2 min, 55 sec look at a cut sequence showing spoof Iraqi singer Aramis); Trailer (1 min); Trailer Bloopers (2 min, 21 sec); Terry Tibbs Car Lot Recce (2 min, 50 sec footage of Novak visiting the used car lot to be used in the Terry Tibbs ad); Kayvan's Fone Footage (10 min, 57 sec worth of videos from Novak's phone showing him in various hidden locations - but mainly in public toilets); Brian's Makeup (2 min, 18 sec look at removing the Brian makeup); and Dufrais's Wheelchair (48 sec of footage from various wheelchair cameras).

What's interesting about this collection is that some of the best sketches (eg the broken lift and automated fast food drive through) actually hark back to the days of the Fonejacker series. While the prosthetics make for interesting viewing, it's fair to say that it does limit Novak's ability to put his vocal talents to good use.

For £30 you really can't grumble - this is an almost faultless collection.

10

Darren Rea