My Uncle Silas – Series
Two (British TV)
Picture: C+
Sound: B- Extras: C- Episodes: B-
Outside his great final theatrical feature film works,
Albert Finney fit in a British TV series into his resume with My Uncle Silas,
in which he played the title character.
In its second season, known in British terms and on the DVD case as Series
Two, the show was a success enough to continue into 2002 and Finney rarely
did TV. This is a comedy series without
laughtrack that does not try hard.
Think something akin to an “uncivilized Waltons” almost gone wild. Based on H.E. Bates’ stories, the following
half-hour slotted shows are:
Shandy Lil
The Race
A Funny Thing
Finger Wet, Finger Dry
A Happy Man
The Christening
Naturally, Silas is the center of the comedy and it gets
physical, something amazing for a man of his age who it turns out was having
some health problems. Finney did not
like much of the limelight and avoided it, even turning down future Hercule Poirot
films after Murder On The Orient Express (see reviews of the DVD film
and CD soundtrack elsewhere on this site) that would have put him on a new
commercial map.
Sue Johnston plays the housekeeping lady in his life and
Joe Prospero as the ten-0year-old Edward of which the show’s title quotes him. Silas he has a whole community of
good-willed people around, more of them misfits than expected. Remarkably, this never becomes a live-action
cartoon thanks to the teleplays by Alick Rowe, Robert Banks Stewart and Peter
Tinniswood. They did such a good job;
this landed up on Masterpiece Theater and is not as stuffy as you would
think. My Uncle Silas has
genuine laughs.
The full frame 1.66 X 1 image looks good, as shot by
cinematographer Kevin Rowley. It looks
like it was shot on recent digital High Definition technology, and is not
bad. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo has
Pro Logic surrounds and that decodes nicely enough. Debbie Wiseman did the amusing score, which enhances the
narrative, while upping the humor.
Extras are text-only and include cast filmographies and more about
author Bates. That rounds out a good
single comedy DVD you might enjoy more than you expect.
- Nicholas Sheffo
