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Category:    Home > Reviews > Drama > British Mini-Series > World War II > Enemy At The Door (British Box Sets)

Enemy At The Door (Series/Season One & Two DVD Boxed Sets/Goldhil)

 

Picture: C     Sound: C+     Extras: D     Episodes: B-

 

 

NOTE: This out of print WGBH DVD title has been reissued by Acorn Media and you can see more at this link:

 

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/8219/Enemy+At+The+Door

 

 

The German Nazi’s never got England, but they came as close as invading the Channel Islands in 1942, which is the subject of the British TV series Enemy At The Door (1977), which is spilt into 8 DVDs and two seasons from Granada Television and Goldhil DVD.  This comes from the last golden age of British TV which was at the same time as the last such period for American TV, though the Big Three Networks (ABC, CBS, NBC) rarely supported programming as ambitious and smart, so most of these shows went to PBS.

 

The most amusing thing was seeing Anthony Head as Clive Martel, the actor who became best known in the U.S. for the man in the “seductive” Taster’s Choice commercials.  Otherwise, the only actor you are likely to recognize is the perennial British character actor Bernard Horsfall, but outside of him, even a very seasoned viewer of British TV and cinema like myself did not recognize the rest of the cast.  They were good though.

 

Like other such British series of the time, it is on the quiet side, slowly building it storyline, but that always runs the danger of boring the audience.  Here, it feels like an old Saturday Morning movie serial without much action.  All the Nazi’s happen to speak English and have British accents for the most part, which dates it a bit more.  The writers and directors never fall into the “filler-zone”, though, so there will be those who will still find it engaging if they can get involved with the characters.  It never degenerates into a soap opera either, which is a plus.

 

The full frame image is usually in color and a mix of the film and video look British TV had at the time on many of their productions.  However, this is the analog PAL format form 1977 and in this case, that means color poor images and weak definition.  There are also tape flaws here and their on both boxes, but it looks like it was transferred as well as possible for its age.  The Dolby Digital is available in the original 2.0 Mono and a 5.1 AC-3 remix that does the best it can to boost the original, dated audio.  It cannot cover up its age, but is easily the better choice.  Weblinks and photo galleries are the only extras over and over across both boxes.

 

Credit should also be given for bringing light to this little-discussed aspect of WWII, though it is still a fictionalized account.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo


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