Do Not Adjust Your Set (partially lost British sketch comedy TV series, 1967-1969)

The show's cover on Britbox.

Status: Partially Lost

Taking its name from the message that would appear on televisions when there was a problem with the transmission, Do Not Adjust Your Set was a British sketch comedy series starring David Jason, Michael Palin, Eric Idle, Denise Coffey, and Terry Jones that ran from 1967-1969. Though it was initially conceived as a children's program, it quickly grew an adult following due to the satirical, and absurd nature of its sketches. Do Not Adjust Your Set is notable for launching the careers of Terry Jones, Michael Palin, and Eric Idle, who would go on to form the comedy group Monty Python along with John Cleese, Graham Chapman, and Terry Gilliam.

With material written by Jones, Palin, and Idle, episodes were 25 minutes long (excluding commercials), and featured a variety of sketches and small animation segments, along with musical interludes by The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band. The band members would also occasionally appear as extras in the background of sketches. During the second season of the show, a few animations were provided by Terry Gilliam. One notable recurring segment was Captain Fantastic, a superhero parody in which each episode, Captain Fantastic (Jason) would have to defeat the villainess Mrs. Black (Coffey) by overcoming whatever new gadget she had contained in her "horrible handbag." After the run of Do Not Adjust Your Set had ended Captain Fantastic was incorporated into the children's magazine show Magpie.

Availability

The first series was released on DVD in 2005, minus the (at the time) missing episodes: 1, 4, 7, and 8. This release consisted of telerecordings of the original videotapes, and although it was advertised as having animations by Terry Gilliam, they did not actually appear.

In 2019, the British Film Institute released another DVD set of the series.^[1] This one included the previously missing Series 1 episode 4, as it had been found when a copy of it that had been sent to the jury of the Prix de Jeunesse award was rediscovered. The DVD also features the Christmas Special episode, Series 2 episode 2 (the only surviving episode of the series), and some Terry Gilliam animations restored from his own masters.

All surviving episodes are currently available to watch on the Britbox streaming service.

Episode List

Series 1

#	Episode Title	Air Date	Status
Special	A Happy Boxing Day And A Preposterous New Year*	Dec 26, 1967	Found
1	Episode 1*	Jan 4, 1968	Found
2	Episode 2	Jan 11, 1968	Found
3	Episode 3	Jan 18, 1968	Lost
4	Episode 4	Jan 25, 1968	Found
5	Episode 5	Feb 1, 1968	Found
6	Episode 6	Feb 8, 1968	Found
7	Episode 7	Feb 15, 1968	Lost
8	Episode 8	Feb 22, 1968	Lost
9	Episode 9	Feb 29, 1968	Found
10	Episode 10	Mar 7, 1968	Found
11	Episode 11	Mar 14, 1968	Found
12	Episode 12	Mar 21, 1968	Found
13	Episode 13	Mar 28, 1968	Found
Special	Special Edition	Jul 29, 1968	Found

^{*The boxing day special, meant as an introductory episode, was accidentally switched with the first regular episode in all regions except London.}

Series 2

#	Episode Title	Air Date	Status
Special	Do Not Adjust Your Stocking	Dec 25, 1968	Found
1	Episode 1	Feb 19, 1969	Lost
2	Episode 2	Feb 26, 1969	Found
3	Episode 3	Mar 3, 1969	Lost
4	Episode 4	Mar 12, 1969	Partially Found*
5	Episode 5	Mar 19, 1969	Partially Found*
6	Episode 6	Mar 26, 1969	Lost
7	Episode 7	Apr 2, 1969	Lost
8	Episode 8	Apr 9, 1969	Lost
9	Episode 9	Apr 16, 1969	Lost
10	Episode 10	Apr 23, 1969	Lost
11	Episode 11	Apr 30, 1969	Partially Found*
12	Episode 12	May 7, 1969	Lost
13	Episode 13	May 14, 1969	Partially Found*