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Category:    Home > Reviews > Drama > Publishing > Business > Biritsh TV > Gazette – The Complete Series (1968/Network U.K./PAL/Region Two/2/DVD Import Set)

Gazette – The Complete Series (1968/Network U.K./PAL/Region Two/2/DVD Import Set)

 

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

 

 

PLEASE NOTE: This DVD set can only be operated on machines capable of playing back DVDs that can handle Region Two/2 PAL format software and can be ordered from our friends at Network U.K. at the website addresses provided at the end of the review.

 

 

As Associated British broke up and new networks arrived to great success, Yorkshire needed a debut show to launch their network and wanted one that took place in Yorkshire.  The writer Robert Barr came up with a show about a newspaper and the result was Gazette.  At first the show was not doing well and was ignored, but a strike that affected all the networks but Yorkshire (color TV shows had to go black and white again because those technicians were part of the walkout) and the show suddenly picked up.  Network U.K. has issued The Complete Series on DVD for the first time.

 

Jon Laurimore (The Avengers, Callan, The Prisoner) played the editor Frank Walters, who has been running the paper well, but is unhappy the local rival has news about the son of their late owner moving back to town.  James Hadleigh (Gerard Harper, fresh off of Adam Adamant Lives!) is ready to get involved somewhat, but the rich young man and heir to his father’s estate is having mixed money situations, so he gets involved in the paper more, trying to fire Walters.  They do not get along, but Hadleigh’s father gave him a contract too expensive to be bought out, so they have to put up with each other for a while.

 

A fine series premise, the writing is excellent and this is one of the best, smartest shows I have seen about the newspaper world to date.  In the Internet age, all of the social issues discussed are as relevant as ever and the acting is by a fine cast that also includes Gillian Wray as a female reporter dealing with obstacles but is good at her job, plus Michael Blackham, Norman Claridge, Ralph Michael and Christopher Hodge rounding out a palpable publishing world.  I liked the energy, pace, realistic conflicts and mature interactions of the show too.

 

Barr wrote some of the teleplays, but also had help from Elwyn Jones (who also edited on the show and worked on early Doctor Who) and James Doran, who co-wrote the screenplay to the Spy classic The Ipcress File (1965), yet despite its success and large, expanded audience gained during the strike, the show was cancelled after only 13 hour-long shows.

 

That was a mistake because this would have likely moved on to be a classic, eventually shot in color and was far from finished in exploring the ideas of the press it did so well to begin with.  Yorkshire used the success for a spin-off, but more on that in a minute.

 

The relationship between the Wray and Laurimore characters is the biggest loss, with the most possible potential and the Hadleigh character could have still shown up plenty of times.  His portrayal as more of an unknown, private person (think George Jefferson on All In The Family before that spin off) was also sadly trashed.  Too bad, because Harper had more to offer of this side of Hadleigh and commercial consideration was put above great TV and we all lose in the end.  That is why the release of Gazette – The Complete Series is one of the year’s most important releases, because it is a lost British classic unveiled once and for all.  All serious British TV fans will want to see it.

 

 

The 1.33 X 1 image was shot in black and white analog PAL videotape (with very limited 16mm) and can be soft and limited in depth.  Flaws include staircasing, aliasing, some video noise, video banding, some tape scratching, tape damage and even PAL cross color despite the fact that these are all black and white.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono is about a generation down throughout and can be distorted, but it sounds better than these look, which is a plus.  Extras include stills, some in color, and a featurette Man On The Hill about the making of the show.

 

 

The show was cancelled as noted, but Harper’s Hadleigh character was given his own show in the aforementioned spin-off, which lasted four seasons.  You can read more about that and Harper’s Spy series Adam Adamant Lives! at the following links for these complete series sets:

 

Hadleigh

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/9191/Hadleigh+%E2%80%93+The+Complet

 

Adam Adamant Lives!

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/9526/Adam+Adamant+Lives!+-+The+Compl

 

 

 

As noted above, you can order this DVD import set of Gazette exclusively from Network U.K. at:

 

http://www.networkdvd.net/

 

or

 

www.networkdvd.co.uk

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo


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