Pie In The Sky – Series One (1994/Acorn Media DVD)
Picture:
C Sound: C+ Extras: C Episodes: B-
In one of
the better twists on the police procedural, Pie In The Sky stars Richard Griffiths as Detective Inspector Henry
Crabbe, who in the first episode, is shot by a would-be classy thief (Michael
Kitchen, playing yet another so and so) leaving Crabbe in the hospital and more
determined than ever to open the restaurant of his dreams. Good thing his wife (Maggie Sneed in a clever
performance) is an accountant. Too bad
the police want to keep him employed and use a long and drawn out investigation
of his shooting to keep his retirement papers from going through.
That still does not stop him from opening up
his restaurant, so we get some amusing intertwineings of cases, investigations
and some really delicious-looking and sounding food. Yes, you could get heavy watching if you keep
eating every time you watch. This 3-DVD
set has all ten nearly-hour-long shows from the first season and they are pretty
consistent for the most part. I was
surprised how the show managed to stay interesting and if it is not the tour de
force some of the food is, Griffiths and company pull off a fun, smart show
that has not been seen by enough audiences.
This DVD set should change that.
The 1.33
x 1 image is poor throughout with a soft, fuzzy digititis-accompanied
transferred from what looks like filmed shows.
The BBC needs to upgrade these for a future Blu-ray release and
hopefully did not loose the film prints.
The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo sound performance is better but has some
distortion and limited range just the same.
Extras include a recipe, Maggie Sneed interview, text on Griffiths and
text production notes.
- Nicholas Sheffo
