Crimson Petal & The White (2011)/The
Kent Chronicles (The Bastard/The Rebel/The Seekers/1978 – 1979)/Story
Of The Costume Drama (2008)/Thomas & Sarah (1979/Upstairs,
Downstairs spin-off/Acorn DVD Sets)
Picture: C/C/C+/C Sound: C+/C/C+/C+ Extras: C/D/C-/D Episodes: B-/B-/B/B-
Now for
four mini-series releases, including one on mini-series…
A
surprisingly good, new is The Crimson
Petal & The White (2011) with Romola Garai as a popular hooker in the
Victorian-era London who gets involved with a rich family man (The IT Crowd’s very comically talented
Chris O’Dowd surprisingly effective in his first outright dramatic role) who
has a wife becoming increasingly mentally ill, but some would like to see her
put away altogether. Based on the Michel
Faber novel, this is well acted, directed, has production values and the cast
(also including Gillian Anderson and Richard E. Grant) is very integrated and
believable throughout.
Though we
have seen some of this before, so much of this is still so well done that it
makes for compelling viewing and will remind one of the great British costume
drama mini-series of the past. I can see
why it is getting so many raves and doing so well in the ratings. All four episodes are here on 2 DVDs and if
you are interested, you will not be disappointed. Extras include 20 minutes of cast/crew
interviews, text character biographies and 11 minutes of Deleted Scenes that
work.
We
actually have three hit mini-series in The
Kent Chronicles including The
Bastard (having a hit book as the only way to get that word on TV back in
the day), The Rebel and The Seekers based on the best-selling
novels by John Jakes. The books and
these programs were big sensations in their time and now you can get the whole
trilogy in this three-DVD set.
Andrew
Stevens is the title character in the first series, The Bastard, who finds his way from France
to England, then when his
family there rejects him, goes to North America
in time for the Revolutionary War. Well
done for its time, the Lee H. Katzin-directed series has quite the cast
including Kim Cattrall, Lorne Greene, Buddy Ebsen, Olivia Hussey, Harry Morgan,
Cameron Mitchell, Patricia Neal, Donald Plesence, Barry Sullivan, Noah Berry
Jr. Herbert Jefferson Jr., John Colicos, Keenan Wynn, Peter Bonerz, John de
Lancie, Russell Johnson, Raymond Burr, Alan Napier, Elizabeth Shepherd, Stephen
Furst, Philip Baker Hall, Tom Bosley as Benjamin Franklin and William Shatner
as Paul Revere!
With a
cast like that, you have got to see this one.
That was the kind of casting these shows got in the wake of the
commercial success of so many hit mini-series from Roots onward. It success
guaranteed at least one sequel.
Russ
Mayberry took over directing on The
Rebel with Stevens, Catrall and Bosley returning as Philip Kent becomes
both participant and witness to the formation of the United States. At least as good as the first series, they
are joined by Richard Basehart, Doug McClure, Don Johnson, Macdonald Carey,
Joan Blondell, Anne Francis, Pamela Hensley, Wilfred Hyde-White, Forrest
Tucker, William Smith, Warren Stevens, Robert Vaughn, Tanya Tucker, Jim Backus
as John Hancock, William Daniels as John Adams, Kevin Tighe as Thomas Jefferson
and Peter Graves as George Washington.
Finally
we have The Seekers, directed by
Sidney Hayers and as well as the other entries.
The next Kents
are here and the star power is grittier and less Hollywood as far as not
playing stars in historical roles as much as the two predecessors are
concerned. The cast this time out includes
Randolph Mantooth, Neville Brand, John Carradine, Edie Adams, Julie Gregg,
Delta Burke, Roosevelt Greer, Brian Keith, George Hamilton, Gary Merrill, Ross
Martin, Alex Hyde-White, Donald Mantooth, Vic Morrow, Martin Milner, Robert
Reed, Barbara Rush, Eric Stoltz, Stuart Whitman and Ed Harris as Lt. William
Clark.
You
should watch these in order. Even when
they become unintentionally funny or show their age in some ways, they were top
rate productions for their time (made by Universal Television) and worth seeing
all these years later, while fans will enjoy revisiting them too. Unfortunately, there are no extras.
The Story Of The Costume Drama (2008) is a great documentary
mini-series with great interviews and plenty of film and video clips of many classics
from British TV. The program treats hit
TV series and mini-=series equally, starting with 1950s British TV using basic
costumes on action shows (usually produced by Lord Lew Grade and ITC or ATV)
and how this expanded into all kinds of television programming. We see early black and white classics, the
rise of costume mini-series of the 1970s (and not enough of them) and the 5
hour-long shows work their way to 2008 when this was first broadcast.
Classics
(many of which we have covered, including many issued by Acorn Media) are
discussed, as well as some that need to be issued or reissued on DVD and even
Blu-ray. It also makes the case that
British TV is the world capital of such productions, even today. Keeley Hawes narrates and especially if you
are a fan of quality television and literate TV, you’ll really enjoy this
show. A photo gallery is the only extra.
In
speaking of classic mini-series, the original Upstairs, Downstairs is covered in that show as well, a show so
successful that hat in 1979, a spin-off with John Alderton and Pauline Collins
was made and the result was another hit with Thomas & Sarah. Servants
from the original surprise worldwide hit, they are now out there on their own
and actually not together at first, but that will all soon change.
You do
not have to have seen the first show (or its recent remake) to enjoy or
understand what is going on here, though that does produce some context. Either way, the actors were a couple in real
life and that again translates well here in the 13 hour-long ambitious episodes
here. 33 years later, the series holds
up well on its own and is as entertaining as any mini-series we have seen of
late. Nigel Hawthorne and Anton Rodgers are
among the good supporting cast and this is a curio and maybe minor classic
deserving of DVD release. There are no
extras.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image on Crimson
is a little softer than expected because of style choices and makes it barely
better than the 1.33 X 1 vintage images off of Kent (all shot on 35mm film, but here in older video masters) and Thomas (a mix of 16mm outdoor film and
PAL analog indoor video shooting) so it is Costume
that is best here with its better video clips, new HD interviews and stills
mixed with analog PAL video footage that has been cut to fit the wide frame
from 1.33 X 1 originals as well as 1.33 X 1 filmed footage (usually 16mm, but
sometimes 35mm) also cut the same way.
The lossy
Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo on Crimson
is the slightly most consistent of all four sets, while the same on Costume is a mix of Stereo and much
vintage mono sound, then we get lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono on Thomas which is about as good, leaving
the lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono on Kent
the weakest of all being a generation down like its image.
- Nicholas Sheffo