Product Details

• Actors: Giles Thomas, Ewan McGregor, Louise Germaine, Douglas Henshall, Peter Jeffrey
• Format: Box set, Color, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 3
• Studio: New Video Group
• VHS Release Date: December 23, 1996
• Run Time: 360 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6303615600
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #112,414 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars McGregor Rock n Rolls the War Office, June 8, 2001

By 

azindn (Arizona, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lipstick on Your Collar [VHS] (VHS Tape)

The late Dennis Potter knew how to write music and satire transforming it to brilliant comedy productions that Baz Luhrmann can't match. Lipstick on Your Collar is a dazzling example of Potter's brilliance. It features baby face, 20-year old Ewan McGregor (Pvt. Mick Hopper) and bumbling Giles Thomas (Pt. Francis Francis) as two low level clerks in the Army's War Office. Poking jest at classism, rank and intelligence in the military, and age versus wisdom, the young men are seperated from their elder officers by more than just education and experience. A generation gap that would later erupt in Britian with the Beatles, glam rock, and punk is exposed at its sexual roots. Lipstick holds little reverence for conventional society. Hopper's rock 'n roll fantasies move the staid officers to the beat of "Little Bitty Pretty One" with homoerotic gyrations that laughably strip any iota of dignity from British military precision. The boys moon over girls they can't have, worry over the pending invasion of Egypt by old Brits who still believed in Empire, and are the brunt of a conservative mindset that was post-WWII society. Staging and costumes melt 50s settings into 90s PoMo pastiche to combine the Brit love of staged extravaganza with Hollywood Rebel Without a Cause acne. This set of three videos is required for any lover of the late Potter's work. Fans of Ewan McGregor will see the first glimmer of talent that would later mature in stellar films like Moulin Rouge, Nora, and Trainspotting. A Keeper!

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent piece of work! (And an anglofile MUST!), December 22, 1999

By 

F. Van Doorn (Holland) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Lipstick on Your Collar [VHS] (VHS Tape)

In one word: Brilliant! I've seen this video over and over again and still can't get enough of it. The film portays the life of two clerks in the Military Intelligence Battle Order department (MI bracket BO bracket) of the War Office in the year 1956 and spans a period of about 3 weeks. It has a sort of Dickensian flavour about it (contrast between the powers that be and the relatively poor life of the two clerks in Walham Green, Fullham). One of the clerks is mad about rock music, the other one about russian literature and they both fall in love with a girl that doesn't not share their interests. In between MI(BO) is facing disaster as the Egyptians are moving toward nationalising the Suez Canal. At the department there's also an American Officer who doesn't always share the views of the English, which potrays the contrast between the Americans and the English in the crumbling days of the British Empire.

By the way, the first reviewer stated that this was Potter's last work. It is not. When Potter was diagnosed with cancer of the pancreas (I think this would have been 1995), he worked like a madman to get his last work finished, which are actually two (linked) works.

1. Karaoke 2. Cold Lazarus

Both are made into television series. Karaoke is sort of an autobiography (it deals with a man (played by Albert Finney) who's dying of cancer). After his death his body is frozen in. Cold Lazarus is set in the future where scientists are trying to extract memories from the frozen man's brain. It's too surrealistic to behold!

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely brilliant, October 27, 2000

By 

Nicola Ferguson (North Vancouver, B.C. Canada) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Lipstick on Your Collar [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Do you become irritated at musicals and the way that the songs are disjointedly thrown into the story? If so you will love this show. If you love musicals you will also love this show. It is a masterpeice of wit, music and a socioeconomic statement of 50's London. Highly amusing, highly entertaining and foot-tappingly atmospheric.It needs much more exposure and PBS show have bought it and aired it long ago. They were probably put off by the amount of sex and swearing, prudes beware!