Eurotrash: The Series [DVD]

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To put it more simply, it’s a 30-minute magazine-format programme covering all manner of alternative and surreal topics.

Over 16 seasons and 150+ episodes, it introduced viewers to all manner of strange and bizarre European bands, artists, celebrities and sub-cultures that were most definitely not anything you’d find on the BBC! This newly unearthed clip, which you can watch in full below, coincides with the release of all 16 seasons of Eurotrash on DVD and digital download later this month. None more than Eurotrash presented by Antoine de Caunes and designer Jean-Paul Gaultier, and produced by Rapido (French) Television. Imagine trying to keep a straight face when there’s a naked guy behind you, doing the helicopter with his dick. Hosted by French duo Antoine de Caunes and Jean-Paul Gaultier, the late-night programme was renowned for its segments involving unusual - and often nude - people and practices from around Europe, from naked golf to rubber fetish weekends and official brothel testers.Anyone remember Lars von Trier tobogganing down his back garden in Copenhagen, or a freshly permed Pedro Almodóvar chewing over his 1993 film Kika on a lipstick-red sofa? As a young teenager, this show was like a discovery session, I'm sure others learned and discovered as much as I did. Review by Tina from selected discs and streaming links kindly supplied by Network On Air via Alternate Current. And now Network gives a whole new generation a chance to admire the suave Antoine, the child-like Jean-Paul, the frequently PVC-clad Melinda Messenger and the late, great Lolo Ferrari with her… huge tracts of land. They bestowed fame on so many of their guests –who can forget Yvette Horner and her accordion, Pipi and Popo (cardboard giraffes) and the tragic Lola Ferrari.

All in all, it’s been great to see Eurotrash again, and to remember just what a strange little show it was. He’d be reading Proust backstage but as soon as the red camera light came on, he’d turn into a comedy Frenchman: “’Ello my British chums! Not only is the font they’ve chosen to use on screen jaggy and low-resolution, like something you’d expect to see on the screen of a Commodore 64, but spelling mistakes and wild mistranslations abound. Naked golf, rubber fetish weekends, pubic coiffeurs, Latino drag queens, the world's only brothel-tester, a human penguin, a man who convinced the world that cats can paint and Poland's erotic version of Jeremy Clarkson: if the thought of any or all of these lights up your humdrum existence then this 20-disc set of all sixteen series is just for you!De Caunes and Gaultier being the ‘dream team’ of presenters, sort of a French Morcambe and Wise, but with Eric wearing a skirt/kilt.

When I meet Brits aged between 30 and 50, they tell me, “We weren’t allowed to watch Eurotrash, we had to hide behind the sofa while our parents were watching.Now I happen to be a huge fan of old Bergy and if I felt like it, I could discuss his films until the cows come home.