The quest begins

Having searched several times over the past 10 years to try and buy Grim Tales presented by Rik Mayall I have become worried that this series will disappear from history.

This would be a tragic failure of existing copyright law which is espoused as the best way to serve both the producers and consumers of media.

So it was off to Google. Searching for "grim tales" + mayal brought back results like,

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Grim-Tales-Rapunzel-Rik-Mayall/dp/B00008T748, where there is one second hand tape of four episodes advertised.

and

http://www.amazon.com/Grim-Tales-Rik-Mayall/dp/B00008T350, which tells you
Availability: Currently unavailable. We don't know when or if this item will be back in stock.

But it also found me this Rik Mayal fan site -

http://www.orangeneko.invisionzone.com/index.php?s=b21c9be6c8bea02a6492568c50bff888&showtopic=2211&pid=46649&st=0&#entry46649

where I saw I was not alone in wanting the series. It even had this episode listing.

Episode List

The valiant little tailor
Bremen Town musicians
Hansel & Gretel
King Thrushbeard
Rapunzel
Rumplestiltskin
Sweet porridge
The boots of buffalo leather
The fisherman and his wife
The frog prince
The gnome
The griffin
The hare and the hedgehog
The little peasant
The spirit in the bottle
The three doctors
The three feathers
The three little men in the wood
The turnip
The twelve huntsmen
The witch among thorns
The wolf and the seven little kids

From all this it was pretty clear that a DVD version just wasn't avaiable.