A Mind To Kill – Series One (1994/Acorn Media DVD)

 

Picture: C+     Sound: C     Extras: C-     Episodes: B-

 

 

For years, the great character actor Philip Madoc played endless villains, their accomplices and odd roles on British Action, Science Fiction and Spy shows for a long and enduring career.  However, he once made a turn as the good guy lead and the results were surprisingly good.  In A Mind To Kill, he plays a father and Detective Noel Bain in a series of telefilm-length mysteries that are better than expected.  Now, Acorn Media has issued this gem starting with a Series One DVD set.

 

The feature-length episodes are as follows:

 

1)     Black Silence

2)     White Rocks

3)     Gameboys

4)     Rest Not Secure

5)     Son Of His Words

6)     Rachel Hardcastle

 

 

John Rhys-Davies, Ffion Wilkins and Sian Philips are the other regular cast and the show was derived from a 1991 theatrical feature film with Madoc I would like to see and is sadly not part of this set.  Nevertheless, the mysteries are better than most form the period and it is a very entertaining show.  If you want to surprise yourself with some decent and more recent mystery TV, this is worth a good look.

 

The 1.33 X 1 image is not bad but not great, as even if the show is filmed, it is finished on analog PAL videotape and that affects the playback quality.  I like the look of the series and hope the show keeps this look throughout.  However, some softness and other slight flaws hold the picture back.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono shows how the materials are a generation or two down by being compressed, at a lower volume than expected (be careful of audio switching and playback levels) and have some background noise.  Extras include text Director’s Notes and Cast Filmographies.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo