RSC Nicholas Nickleby (Region 2) (1 Viewer)

If I remember rightly, the production was shown over 3 or 4 nights.

Howard, at the risk of being a total trainspotter, that was the re-run of the show, which was shown in that format over Christmas week a couple of years later. I remember sitting with my parents on my Christmas visit home watching it broadcast in that form (and trust me, anything that could make that sort of occasion bearable *has* to be good). Indeed, I persuaded my father to videotape them all for me (at the time, I didn't have my own player - I just was saving them up for future enjoyment). When it was first shown, it was done in much shorter 1 hour or even half hour episodes that ran in competition with Boulez's famous production of the Ring Cycle on BBC2. So the 'bleeding chunks' version of Nick Nickleby was probably there from the start.

I have the R1 version, and I've got to say that technically it's okay, but not special. The jaunty music cutting in every hour with the cast taking curtain calls is a bit jarring, I must admit, but there's always the chapter jump button, I guess. However, I hope that the picture and sound are better than the R1 version, which aren't all that hot. A shame, because I recall that when Nicam stereo *finally* arrived in the UK, scenes from NN were used as demonstration broadcasts. On the plus side, I don't think that *all* that much has been clipped from the R1 DVDs compared with the TV broadcasts. Of course, a fair amount was removed that was in the stage production, but on the whole, I thought those cuts were reasonably judicious.

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4 x 2 hours television adaptation of the RSC production for the opening of Channel 4 by Primetime Television.

So I guess I could be wrong, and the bleeding chunks version I recall was the first re-run. However, the 1 or half hour version definitely *was* shown on Brit TV. I know, because I was at college at the time and had the option of watching on my tiny B&W portable either NN or the Ring Cycle (Das Rheingold intact and then one act of the other three operas per week), and they ran in tandem. There was a rather nice girl who wanted to see the Wagner, and who didn't have a TV. So guess which I chose? And guess who then turned up to watch it with boyfriend. :frowning:

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