Lovejoy Christmas Specials + The
Private Life Of A Masterpiece - Christmas Masterpieces (BBC DVD)
Picture:
C/C+ Sound: C+ Extras: D
Episodes: B-
Even the
BBC gets into the act for the holidays and for 2008, has issued two titles of
some similar interest that take two different approaches to the holidays. The Lovejoy
Christmas Specials simply offer two episodes form the successful Ian
McShane series we have looked at on the site before that happen to have an
affiliation with Christmas. The two long
telefilms include The Prague Son
(with guest stars Peter Vaughan, Donald Pleasance, Dinah Sheridan and Leonie
Mellinger) and The Lost Colony (with
guest stars Barbara Barrie, Sir John Gielgud, Ken Kercheval and Kate Vernon)
working as samplers of the actual series more than specials. We have reviewed the show elsewhere on this
site.
The Private Life Of A Masterpiece series is also one we have
covered before and this one of Christmas
Masterpieces includes Jan van Eyck’s The
Annunciation, Pieter Bruegel’s The
Census At Bethlehem and Paul Gauguin’s God’s
Child. Even if you are not a fan of the holiday or even paintings, the
shows are once again highly detailed and seeing footage of the original work is
always a plus in understanding the importance of each work. However, like Lovejoy, it is for fans only, even if it is of a higher quality
that other holiday shows.
The 1.33
X 1 image on both Lovejoy shows are
once again, soft and look like shows shot on film that were sadly finished on
videotape, while the anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image on Private were likely shot in digital
High Definition video, but are a bit softer than they should be here. In both cases, they would make fine Blu-rays,
but Lovejoy is going to need more
work. Both also have Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo,
with Lovejoy showing some age, but a
little more detail than the other.
Oddly, nether have any extras.
- Nicholas Sheffo
