British titles coming to R1 format (1 Viewer)

For those interested in R1 DVDs of British titles, a number of older, Classic BBC dramas from the 60’s and 70’s, along with other titles are being released in the coming months.

Currently scheduled for release:

Jan, 10, 2006
Rebus
Agatha Christie's "The Pale Horse"
Hands of a Murderer (a Sherlock Holmes' Mystery)

February 7, 2006
Wire in the Blood (Complete Season III)

March 7, 2006
Pornography: The Secret History of Civilisation

April 4, 2006
Take Me
BBC's David Copperfield (1974)
BBC's The Old Curiosity Shop (1979)

May 2, 2006
BBC’s The Fall of Eagles (1974)
Omega Factor
Dick Francis Mysteries
BBC's Nicholas Nickleby (1977)

Other titles will follow and will include the R1 version of The Three Musketeers (1966), an early mini with Brian Blessed and Jeremy Brett. Hopefully, even more older BBC shows currently in deep freeze will get to see the light of day!

Not to mention,The The Bucaneers and Mill on the Floss in April and the Anthony Hopkins version of War and Peace coming later in the year
Best
Greg.

Hi Greg,

Do you know who is putting out the Anthony Hopkin's War and Peace later in the year? According to info obtained from their sales dept., Koch Vision, which is releasing the titles listed in my post had been unable to get the R1 license for this title from Strawberry Ent. Is someone else putting it out instead? That would be GREAT NEWS!

I'm hoping other countries will follow suit with some of their own shows. Such as Australia's Kath & Kim, which I recently discovered on Sundance Channel.

Alfred
I am basing the War and Peace information on the response
from the BBCAmerica forum in which an individual stated that he was mastering it and it would be coming sometime next year.Since it is already available in England,I presumed it was being released by BBCAmerica for Region1 Incidentally we can now add the Irish R.M. season 3 (which was never shown in the states) and the final season of Alleyn both to come out in Feb from Acorn. House of Elliott 2, and Hetty Wainthrope 3are coming from Acorn in January . Bleak House (the new 8 hour version) from BBCAmerica in Feb. And finally the rest of the Seargeant Cribb series from BFS (after a 2 year delay) from BFS in late January. Hope this helps but I wish I could be more certain about the War and Peace.
Best
Greg

At least BBC America may be a possibility! Strawberry Entertainment has the distribution rights to 19 BBC Classics titles and is in the process of releasing them in R2 via DD Video. They also made a deal with Koch Vision to distribute them in R1 but the deal included only 17 of the 19 titles, the exceptions being War and Peace and the 1976 Our Mutual Friend. Perhaps the BBC kept the R1 rights to these two classics in order to distribute both themselves. At least we can hope!

Region 1 now available for preorder at both Amazon.com and DeepDiscountDVD.com
(also available for preorder on the Koch site but at full retail price):

1979 Old Curiosity Shop (Natalie Ogle)

1974 David Copperfield (Anthony Andrews)

Looking for Region 1 Fall of Eagles and Nicholas Nickleby to be available for preorder sometime next month.

The Koch Vision region 1 (US/Canada) DVDs of the BBC's 'Fall of Eagles' and 'Nicholas Nickleby' (Nigel Havers, 1977) are now available for pre-order at DeepDiscountDVD and at DVD Planet. I imagine they will be listed soon as well on Amazon.

For THE MILL ON THE FLOSS, it says it is the 1978 version. That would be the one that aired on PBS as part of the "Once Upon a Classic" series, isn't it?

I remember watching it back then (it was shown on Saturday afternoons) and never thought I would see it again. I've already pre-ordered it.

For those in the USA interested in BBC Classic Dramas, the following titles in DVD region 1 are now available for pre-order:

The lost Boys (1978) – Ian Holmes (not to be confused with the 1987 movie which is an entirely different story!)
Orde Wingate (1976) – Barry Foster

These previous DVD releases are also in region 1 and available for preorder:

Fall of Eagles (1974) – Michael Aldridge. Frederick Alexander, Patrick Stuart
Nicholas Nickleby (1977) – Nigel Havers
David Copperfield (1974) – David Yelland
The Old Curiosity Shop (1978) – Natalie Ogle

They appear to be available at most of the larger U.S. DVD outlets on the internet.

If only they would release "Count Dracula" with Louis Jourdan, I'd be a happy camper.

Got to get my hands on the new Cribb set. Is that all of the episodes now available in R1, or are there more to come?

If you have a DVD player capable of converting a PAL singnal into an NTSC one, this title was release by BBC Learning in the UK. SendIt.com were the only authorised online sellers (outside of the BBC) when it was released. Don't know if this is considered "out-of-print" now or not. If so, you might try eBay UK.

It was released alongside Peter Cushing's "Hound of the Baskervilles" and "Portrait of Dorian Grey."

True Andy, but they dropped these not long after they were released a couple years ago. Don't know why they were marketed as they were (mainly for educational use, as I remember), but there are "copies" on ebay even now. Perhaps that'll have to do.

One word for lovers of classic British titles: "Flickers"!

This wonderful mini series that aired on Masterpiece Theater in its glory days is finally available on DVD on April 25. It stars Bob Hoskins in one of his best roles--a feisty, driven, would-be movie maker in the early days of the "flicks"--the silent movies. Co-stars Frances de la Tour. It is great fun, and merits a blind buy for lovers of British comedy.

A cautionary tale: I *loved* that particular version when it first came out (early 1980s?) and really hated the fact that I didn't have a video recorder in those days. Fast forward twenty years, and the series was repeated on a UK satellite channel, and I was there, armed with a hard disc recorder. I don't think I got through the first half hour before giving up - what I'd found atmospheric and intense I now found unconvincing and boring. Before you splurge a large amount of rhino on this one, it might be a case of try before you buy. Old television programmes are like old girlfriends/boyfriends - some that are good in the memory don't necessarily age well.

Interesting perspective, Andrew. The Jourdan DRACULA was a particular favorite in my house growing up, but I haven't seen it in well over 20 years. I seem to remember that much of it was shot on video - I wondered if that would diminish the atmosphere, making it seem a bit more stagey from my current (adult) perspective.

It's good to hear these updates on these old British series that played here in the States back in the 1970-1980's. I recently finally picked up the entire run of RUMPOLE OF THE BAILEY, and have been having a great time revisiting one of my favorite British series of the 80's. Also, it was nice to see THE FLAME TREES OF THIKA again after so many years.

Now hearing about SGT. CRIBB, I would love to see that one again. FLICKERS was also great. Anyone remember the 1980's adaptation of Noel Coward's STAR QUALITY? That was a wonderful tele-series of some of Coward's short stories (BBC, I think) that aired on Masterpiece Theatre. A definite must-buy for me if ever released in Region 1.

Much of what I remember liking from the pre-'90s PBS British imports were done on video, the most notable exceptions being the Sherlock Holmes, Poirot and (I think) Miss Marple serieses that began in the 1980s. The early Jane Austen, Charles Dickens and other literary adaptations were pretty much all shot on video, with film used for outdoor scenes (as with Count Dracula).

I remember thinking it a little jarring back then to see the change from video to film to video in these programs, but the quality of the writing and acting always made up for any lack in visual presentation. The use of videotape is not (for me) a reason to avoid them.

I saw Count Dracula as a teenager when it was first shown. I later recorded it (on Beta) when it was last shown near me on PBS (prolly around 1990), and later transferred that to VHS. Very crappy picture, at this point, but still watchable on a small TV.

I don't consider myself a fanatic of the story nor the actors (wouldn't drop any more $$ on a DVD copy than anything else I own), but I still find it the most faithful and interesting adaptation of the Dracula story that I've seen, and very much worth watching.

Now if only Quatermass was coming out...

RoyM--yes, I remember Star Quality well, and hope it will be released on DVD, although I do still have the VHS I taped when it aired on MPT. I note that many SETS are coming out--The Last Viceroy, The Last Place on Earth, etc., that played on MPT, but I don't hold out hopes for many of my favorites, which were only 2 episodes or 1 hour--such as Memento Mori (the Michael Hordern, Maggie Smith dark comedy, not the recent movie) and other favorites like L'Elegance (Geraldine McEwan) which was part of a series called All for Love. Or Tenko, which showed on A&E, before it only became interested in Law and Order type shows.

But I remain somewhat optimistic. I nearly gasped when I saw Flickers listed in DDDVD's upcoming release line-up. I never thought to be able to own that on DVD.

Somebody give details on the 2d Cribb set, please. With the first, does this give us al the episodes?

PatH