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