Glad All Over: The Dave Clark Five and Beyond

I wish I could be more complimentary about this documentary. The Dave Clark Five originated from Tottenham, North London, and initially made their name performing live shows in dance-halls to ecstatic audiences.

With hits such as "Glad All Over," and "Bits and Pieces," they hit the big-time in Britain, and (according to this documentary) managed to crack the American market as well. They were much more dedicated to live performance than The Beatles, which helped to enhance their popularity.

Sadly the facts don't stand up to scrutiny. The group were certainly more popular than The Beatles for a time in the mid-Sixties, but by the late Sixties they had dropped out of favor. They enjoyed a brief renaissance between 1967 and 1970, but then disbanded. The eponymous leader of the group then made it as something of a tycoon; he bought the rights to the ITV series READY STEADY GO, and arranged for selected episodes to be re-broadcast on Channel 4 in the Eighties.

At times this documentary veers towards the self-parodic - a kind of serious THIS IS SPINAL TAP, perhaps. Celebrities of various ages and professions are wheeled on and off to contribute their reminiscences, which seldom depart from the usual collection of mealy-mouthed clichés ("oh, yes, they were great"). The narrative is often lost amidst the sheer amount of reminiscence, while Dave Clark (who directs the piece) makes sure he appears frequently in archive footage as well as interviews.

This is a self-indulgent documentary, of interest, perhaps, to aficionados of Sixties British bubblegum, but few others.