Lytton’s Diary – The Complete Collection (1985 – 1986) + Monarchy – The Complete Series (Acorn DVD Sets)
Picture: C/C+
Sound: C/C+ Extras: D/C- Episodes: B-/B
Acorn is back with two Complete Series sets, one of which has never been issued in the U.S., the other
combining two sets Acorn previously issued.
One is a short-lived series called Lytton’s
Diary with the great Peter Bowles (The
Bank Job, Blow Up) as the title
character Neville Lytton, a Fleet Street reporter covering the latest in the
world of celebrity gossip among the top stars in the U.K. and leading his own
interesting life behind the scenes.
Before the world of gossip became so dirty are arguably
fatal and the mainstream news became as bad as the worst tabloid press. Thanks to Bowles, the show works and he was
not surprisingly working behind the scenes as a writer on some shows. Now a throwback to a relatively better time,
only 12 nearly hour-long shows were produced in the period that bad movies like
Perfect, hilarious nighttime soap
operas like Dynasty and
entertainment shows like Lifestyles Of
The Rich & Famous surfaced in.
The show was smart enough not to just jump on that
bandwagon, but it is hard to compete with the real thing and that may be one of
the reasons why the series only lasted so long.
Now, it has become an interesting time capsule of its time and the
character development is not bad here throughout. It definitely deserves a DVD set like this
and with writer/creator Philip Broadley (Department
S, Jason King, Van Der Valk) and directors like
Herbert Wise (Roald Dahl’s Tales Of The
Unexpected, Man In A Suitcase, The Plane Makers) on board, this is a
very ambitious show worth revisiting.
The other show is David Starkey’s Monarchy, which I covered in the following brief reviews:
One
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/4987/Monarchy+with+David+Starkey+(Britis
Two
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/6105/Monarchy+with+David+Starkey+%E2
Since seeing the show a few years ago, I can say it holds
up well, but is one of those extensive documentary programs that you have to
see to believe for all the trouble he and the makers went through to add rich
information and history throughout the show.
These are the same discs with the same picture, sound and extras as
before.
Diary has a weaker 1.33 X 1 PAL analog
video image (here in NTSC DVD) that is weak in color and definition as the PAL
source has not aged as well as some other older material we have seen (Brian Clemens’ Thriller) while the
Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono is also weaker than expected. The box has small print warning that the source
material may not be in great shape and it is likely because the tapes did not
hold up well. There are sadly no extras,
though Bowles is still alive as are some of the others involved.
- Nicholas Sheffo
