Doc Martin: The Movies (2001 Telefilms/Acorn Media DVD Set)/Horatio Hornblower – The Further Adventures (1997 – 2000/A&E DVD)/Thomas Hardy Collection (Tess... 1998/Mayor Of Casterbridge/A&E DVDs)

 

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

 

 

This latest set of British TV shows has us revisiting several reviews in our archives…

 

 

Though we just covered a box set called The Doc Martin Collection, that turned out to include the set we now have separately called Doc Martin: The Movies (2001) and you can read about the set and the whole series starting at this link:

 

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/10899/The+BBC+Tudors+Collection:+Elizabe

 

 

Horatio Hornblower – The Further Adventures (repeats two telefilms we have covered twice at these links, The Duchess & The Devil and The Wrong War:

 

Collector’s Edition Set

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/2925/Horatio+Hornblower+-+Collector%27s

 

Two Box Sets

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/557/Horatio+Hornblower+-+The+A&E+Boxed

 

 

Finally we have The Thomas Hardy Collection which includes a version of Mayor Of Casterbridge we covered a very long time ago at this link:

 

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/400/The+Mayor+Of+Casterbridge+(A&E+DV

 

You can compare that to a 1978 BBC version Acorn issued as a DVD set here:

 

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/1922/The+Mayor+Of+Casterbridge+(Acorn

 

 

This is however the first time we have covered the this 1998 version of Tess Of The D’Urbervilles with Justine Waddell in the title role, Jason Flemying, Oliver Milburn, Rosalind Knight and Brian Pringle (among others) with narration by Gerald James and it compares well to the 2008 Tess we covered here, which you can read more about at this link:

 

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/8270/Tess+Of+The+D%E2%80%99Uberville

 

 

Picture and sound are the same in all cases as it is all the same transfer material (and sometimes the same discs) as before, save Tess sounding good enough, but being a little softer than most of the presentations here (it rates a C) and has no extras.

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo