Jason King (The
Complete Chapters: Special Edition/Umbrella Entertainment/1971 – 1972/Region
Zero/PAL DVD set) + Image Entertainment
U.S. NTSC DVD Set
Picture:
C Sound: C+/C Extras: B-/D Episodes: B-
PLEASE NOTE: The Umbrella PAL DVD set can
only be operated on machines capable of playing back DVDs that can handle
Region Zero/0 PAL format software and can be ordered from our friends at
Umbrella Entertainment at the website address provided at the end of the
review. The Image Entertainment set is
available on line and at finer U.S. retailers.
After Department S
had been such a big hit, ITC had to calculate whether to continue the series or
not. The Avengers had just ended and it was one of its more interesting
imitators. ITC would usually continue a
show or end it, but for the first time, they decided to do a spin-off. They would focus on one character and to the
shock of many, it would be Peter Wyngarde’s Jason King, who was considered strong, but not necessarily strong
enough for his own series.
Without any cameos from his co-stars and barley a mention
of the show it came from, the series was greenlit and ran for a single season,
1971 to 1972. It would feature a few
changes. For one, it would not be an
hour, but a half-hour. Also, it would be
a bit more comic and being shorter, would have to get tot the point of its
stories. Except for one two-part show,
the stories would have the faster pace of early episodes of The Saint or Danger Man. Also, production
would switch from 35mm to 16mm film, saving costs and ITC knew that they would
not be able to splice together episodes and put them out in theaters as films
anymore. Color TV had arrived and there
was more competition now.
As their production of Spy/Action shows ended, Jason King, The Protectors and The
Adventurer would all be in 16mm and the stocks were good enough at the time
that they were able to get away with it, though it still did not make it as
good looking as 35mm. The advantage is
that King would not look like Department S and the makers too
advantage of this by bringing a different look and feel to the show.
Now free of working for the organization he would help out
on cases, he continued his own adventures independently and all along was an
author of spy novels based on his real life experiences. Another plus was he no longer had any
“Mother” or Alexander Waverly figure to report to, freeing the show up. The budgets were lower, but the show was
clever and 26 half-hour shows were produced before it was cancelled. We are going to look at the show, then
compared two DVD box sets on it.
The show came closer to the eccentricity of The Avengers to its advantage and the
team that had made so many of the previous shows in the cycle were here so they
were in tight form. Like Department S, we will not list the
titles since they might spoil some of the fun of the shows, but the titles are
witty, especially in context. I also
need to add that Wyngarde carries the show very well, is not a buffoon as some
had feared (and still accuse him of being) and the show holds up very well
considering it is a product of its time.
More on that in a minute.
The
great directors on this series included Roy Ward Baker, Cyril Frankel, Jeremy
Summers, John Moxey and Paul Dickson. Co-creators
Dennis Spooner and Monty Berman wrote many of the shows and were joined by Tony
Williamson, Donald James, Philip Broadley and even Harry W. Junkin, who had
been so busy with The Saint for so
long. It was a fun show well made,
intelligent and still a series all involved can be proud of. Though King may look dated, this is a show
that is more serious than comic.
Key guest
stars included David Bauer, Nicholas Courtney, Ronald Lacey, Philip Madoc,
Jenny Lee Wright, Frederick Jaeger, Freddie Jones, Ronald Lacey, Dennis Price,
Phillip Stone, Alexandra Bastedo, Ralph Bates, Julian Glover, Eric Pohlmann,
Basil Dignam, Michael Bates, Nigel Green, Paul Stassino, Pamela Salem, Alan
MacNaughton, Alan Cuthbertson, Gregg Palmer, Anton Rodgers, Clive Revill,
Geraldine Moffat, Sandor Eles, Ingrid Pitt, Kate O’Mara, Clifford Evans, Fiona
Lewis, Roger Delgado, William Squire, Burt Kwouk, Eric Young, Stephanie
Beacham, Anne Sharp, Stuart Wilson, Michael Goodliffe, Liz Frazer, Ivor Dean,
Roy Kinnear, Sue Lloyd, Simon Oates, Anne Sharp and Patrick Troughton.
You don’t
have to see Department
S to enjoy and appreciate Jason
King either. It stands on its own,
but from the three different covers of three box sets (including the two we
have covered here), Image decided to reference the Austin Powers films, even
though this is not outright comedy and Powers was more inspired by Michael
Caine’s character in the Harry Palmer films, thus his appearance in a
sequel. The other covers are closer to
the original spirit of the show and we have placed them on other pages starting
with a link below.
Despite
an off-screen scandal, Wyngarde never missed a beat as King and even became
better as the character as the show moved on.
Now considered one of the most popular characters in U.K. TV history,
this show can be enjoyed on so many levels and once you start watching it, it
is hard to stop. Jason King is a minor genre classic and a
must-see.
The 1.33
X 1 image is a bit soft throughout, but is still on the consistent side and was
one of the three series (besides The
Protectors with Robert Vaughn and The
Adventurer with Gene Barry, all also on this site) to be shot in 16mm film
instead of 35mm film to cut costs and by this time, 16mm could look pretty good
for professional TV production. While The Protectors had prints that look on
the faded side, Jason King in both
cases here (and The Adventurer for
that matter) may not be as faded, but still have detail limits that are from
the transfer and not the source. The PAL
editions should look better outright, but the prints from each set are
different. The PAL DVDs handle blanket
color (like the credits) better, yet there are many instances where the color
from the prints on the NTSC US set has a little better range and detail. Image’s NTSC copies are old ITC/Polygram
transfers and Polygram is no more, bought out by Universal Pictures, though
they did not retain series’ rights to any ITC shows.
Underrated
Director of Photography Frank Watts, B.S.C. (The Avengers, Department S,
The Adventurer, The Champions, The
Protectors, Space: 1999, Return Of The Saint) shot every episode
and really pushed the format and did some fine 2nd Unit location
shooting for it. It proves that even
regular 16mm from that time can look so good, that it will take Blu-=ray to really
show it off well, but both sets have fine color points no matter the
softness. 16 X 9 TV owners can zoom in
on the image and will be surprised how good this looks widescreen, as it was
still shot theatrical film safe despite the smaller camera negative.
Both sets
offer Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono and the Umbrella PAL set is clean and clear for
its age and plays back consistently better than the picture, but the NTSC set
has sound that can sound more compressed and this especially affects the theme
song. Is this from some kind of odd
PAL-to-NTSC slowdown or is it something else?
Laurie Johnson’s instrumental title
theme song is fun and even has a slight reference to The Avengers, but is more of a swinging action song than Department S.
Extras
are not included on the Image U.S. set at all, but the Umbrella set is loaded
with them including Audio Commentaries with series star Peter Wyngarde on “Variations On A Theme” and “Flamingoes Only Fly On Tuesdays”, Audio
Commentary with Director Roy Ward Baker on “Wanna
Buy A Television Series?”, Audio Commentary with Director Cyril Frankel on
"An Author In Search of Two
Characters", Insert reprint of Original ITC Publicity Booklet, Original
ITC Pressbook, Story Information and Scripts (in DVD-ROM PDF File form), Bonus
complete episodes of Department S
& The Baron with Peter Wyngarde
(both sets reviewed elsewhere on this site), Cast & Crew Profiles, Textless
Title Sequence, Production Notes, Original Memorabilia and Extensive Image
Galleries from the ITC Archives.
For more
on Department S, try this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/8656/Department+S+%E2%80%93+30th
For the
cover of the Australian DVD set, try this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/8922/Jason+King+Umbrella+DVD+Cover
As noted
above, you can order this PAL DVD import version exclusively from Umbrella at:
http://www.umbrellaent.com.au/
- Nicholas Sheffo
