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DVDs in the Works

DVDs in the Works is a sneak peek at highlights in BBC Video's future schedule as well as relevant entertainment news. However, as the Scottish poet once said, "the best laid schemes o' mice an' men gang aft a-gley." That's our (and Robbie Burns') way of saying that the titles discussed here may or may not eventually see the light of day, due to circumstances beyond our control.

Last Updated: Friday June 26, 2009

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Nobody Does It Better—Another BritTV Thriller Comes to the Big Screen

First there was Traffic. Then State of Play. This January will see the film version of Edge of Darkness, this time directed by its original director Martin Campbell, who has helmed Bond blockbusters Goldeneye and Casino Royale. The film stars Mel Gibson and Ray Winstone in the roles originated by Bob Peck and Joe Don Baker. Even after 25 years, the original miniseries, which we’re releasing on DVD this fall, is a tough act to follow. It won 6 British Academy TV Awards, including Best Drama Series, Best Actor for Bob Peck and Best Original Music for Eric Clapton and Michael Kamen. There are sure to be lots of interesting changes in this latest journey from the small to the big screen, so watch out for the great original.

Posted: Friday June 26, 2009

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Who is Archer?

Robin Hood Season Three offers a number of changes. We'll see a new take on Friar Tuck (David Harewood) as a monk in shining armor, and Toby Stephens will bring a much-anticipated flair to the role of Prince John. But who is the mysterious man named Archer? Rumor has it that he deals in exotic weapons, is irresistible to women and can even turn base metal into gold (which could eliminate much of the heavy lifting from giving to the poor). Clive Standon (center) appears to be sharpening his swashbuckling skills for the long haul, and we hear that he's here to stay. Look for the Season Three DVD early in 2010.

Posted: Thursday June 18, 2009

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Dame Judi sets her cap for more Cranford

Cameras are rolling for three more hours from everyone's favorite outpost of genteel resistance to the Industrial Revolution. Last year's miniseries became an instant classic that left audiences wanting more, so the BBC has brought back Judi Dench as Miss Matty and Francesca Annis as Lady Ludlow. Of course, we'll see more of all those wonderful ladies - Imelda Staunton, Julia McKenzie, Deborah Findlay and Barbara Flynn, as well as Miss Matty's long-lost brother Peter (Nicholas Le Provost) and Lady Ludlow's long-absent son, Septimus (Rory Kinnear). Jonathan Pryce also joins the cast as Mr. Buxton, a wealthy widower. What the ladies will make of him? It's set to air on BBC One this holiday season. Expect the North American DVD in Spring 2010.

Posted: Friday June 12, 2009

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Catching a wave in high-def for Wild Pacific

Here’s a shot that will make you long to see Wild Pacific on Blu-ray. Bali Strickland is a cameraman who has specialized in waves and surfing footage for a number of years. So it was only natural that BBC Earth would seek out his expertise to attempt to capture a barrel wave with a $100,000 high-speed, high-def camera. Grappling with this larger, heavier camera in the “monster” waves of Pohnpei, Micronesia was stressful and dangerous work, but the result was not only ground-breaking but stunningly beautiful. The DVD and Blu-Ray are both, as they say, coming soon!

 

Posted: May 27, 2009

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The next host of Masterpiece Contemporary

We were pleased to hear that David Tennant has been selected to host Masterpiece Contemporary this season. Many of you already know him as the tenth actor to star in the long-running Doctor Who series, but before he assumed the role of Time Lord, he could be seen time-travelling on Masterpiece Theatre, zipping from 18th century Venice in Casanova to 19th century London in Trollope’s He Knew He Was Right. Thriller fans can catch his bone-chilling turn in Secret Smile. And naturally, all of these can be caught (and bought) at BBC America Shop.

Posted: Tuesday May 19, 2009

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Dramatic discoveries in the archive

Every once in a while we rummage through the BBC archives in search of hidden gems, and we’re excited to have found a 1967 production of Wuthering Heights starring Ian McShane as Heathcliff. It’s only fair in the face of this lovely color photo to break the news that this program was shot in black-and-white, but who can resist McShane at 25?
We’re also finally releasing the 1971 production of Sense & Sensibility with a classic comic performance from Patricia Routledge as Mrs. Jennings. The key roles were played by such rising young stars of the day as Joanna David as the sensible Elinor Dashwood, and Ciaran Madden as her passionate sister Marianne. You may remember Robin Ellis (Edward Ferrars) and Clive Francis (John Willoughby) from Poldark of the same era.

Posted: Thursday May 14, 2009

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Emma – first remake of the century

Costume drama fans must have noticed the oversight. There hasn’t been a new adaptation of Jane Austen’s Emma since the nineties! Actually, Emma hasn’t had the TV serial treatment since 1972, and the BBC knows that’s too long. So we’ve recently begun shooting a new four-part production that will air in the UK later this fall. Romola Garai (shown here in Daniel Deronda) stars as Emma opposite Jonny Lee Miller as Mr. Knightley. Michael Gambon is Mr. Woodhouse, her long-suffering father. Emma regards the marriage of her governess Miss Taylor (Jodhi May) to the widower Mr. Weston (Robert Bathurst) as proof of her own particular flair for matchmaking, and she is dangerously eager to repeat that success. Watch out for Emma on these shores in 2010.

Posted: Wednesday May 6, 2009

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Red Dwarf returns to TV. Can DVD be far behind?

The first new Red Dwarf episodes in ten years aired earlier this month in the UK to great acclaim and record viewership. And they were shot in HD! In the U.S. and Canada, we expect to see a pristine DVD with loads of extras before the year ends. In the meantime, check out this interview with Chris Barrie, Danny John-Jules and Robert Llewellyn...

Posted: Thursday April 23, 2009

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People Like Us – Fly-On-the-Wall Cult Series

Before The Office put the mockumentary on the TV map, People Like Us was sending up the inanities of reality TV at its very inception. The off-camera interviewer Roy Mallard (Chris Langham from The Thick of It) earnestly pursues people in palpably boring jobs, or in interesting jobs that they have managed to render boring. The guest cast was chosen for anonymity in 1999 and 2001, but some of them have done very well for themselves since then: Bill Nighy, David Tennant, Jessica Hynes-Stevenson, Sarah Alexander, Julia Davis, Tamsin Greig, Rebecca Front, Fenella Woolgar and Selina Cadell. The full and complete two-season series will be on DVD for the first time early this fall.

Posted: Thursday April 23, 2009

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Richard Wilson to make Royal Shakespeare Company debut

Wilson, best known as the grumpy Victor Meldrew in One Foot in the Grave, will take the role of sour steward Malvolio during a five week run of Twelfth Night this fall in Stratford-upon-Avon. Director Greg Doran said: "I am delighted to have finally persuaded Richard Wilson to play Malvolio, a part he was surely born to play." Also this fall brings the final DVD release on One Foot in the Grave plus a complete box set.

Posted: Monday April 6, 2009

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Lark Rise to Candleford in time for Christmas

We’ve been getting so many requests for Lark Rise to Candleford (which began running on some PBS stations this year) that we decided to bring it forward for release from 2010. It’s future shock, 19th-century style, when a young girl leaves her home in the sleepy hamlet of Lark Rise to take a job in the post office of the bustling market town of Candleford. Leading a fine ensemble cast are Julia Sawalha (Pride and Prejudice, Absolutely Fabulous), Dawn French (The Vicar of Dibley) and Ben Miles (The Forsyte Saga, Coupling). Co-starring are the beautiful costumes and serene scenes of bucolic Oxfordshire. The series is based on Flora Thompson’s trilogy of novels (previously unknown to us), but we’ll be stocking them in a handy omnibus edition soon.

Posted: Thursday April 2, 2009

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A couple of “tastes” from Nature’s Most Amazing Events

One of the great pleasures of working at the BBC is seeing what the Natural History Unit discovers during their shoots, such as this unscripted appearance of the very elusive narwhals, known as “arctic unicorns.”

Talk about unscripted. Watch what happens to these birds’ dinner.

As producer Joe Stevens said: "It was like the whales had noticed what the birds were doing, and let the birds do all the hard work of creating the balls of fish so they could then come in to scoop them up." He added: "You have to take your hat off to them - it is when you see them doing things like that, you realize that they are really very, very clever and that they are aware of their environment and what is going on."

Posted: April 1, 2009

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Primeval Volume 2 - “We got another one. Meet me in the British Museum.”

Primeval is back this summer, and it launches with its own rip-roaring take on a “night at the museum.” For the first time in its history, the British Museum has allowed an action series to film in its hallowed Egyptian galleries. You may wonder what the Egyptian galleries have to do with prehistoric monsters, but we won’t spoil it for you. Suffice it to say that an Egyptologist on the team comes in handy. She’s played by Laila Rouass, who may be familiar to Footballers’ Wive$ fans for her turn as Amber. Expect to see the new ten-part season of Primeval Volume 2 on DVD this fall.

Posted: Thursday March 26, 2009

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Stephen Fry nominated for two BAFTAs

This week the British Academy of Film and Television Arts announced this year’s television award nominees, and Stephen Fry is up for Best Entertainment Performance for his work as the host of the comedy panel quiz QI and for the documentary Stephen Fry & the Gutenberg Press: The Machine That Made Us. This excellent news provides us with an opportunity to break the news that the premiere season of Kingdom is coming to DVD this spring. Kingdom is one of those cozy Sunday night dramas with a comfort-food mix of beautiful countryside (in this case, Norfolk), quirky characters and fun guest stars, but the dialogue delivers the wit we’ve all come to expect from Fry. Later in the year watch for Stephen Fry in America, a unique jaunt via Fry’s own London taxi.

Posted: Thursday March 26, 2009

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New to DVD – New Tricks

Requests for this disarming dramedy about grumpy old detectives have building since PBS stations began to take it up, and we’re expecting to release the first season before the summer is through. This DVD will also include the 90-minute pilot that shows how the motley crew we’ve come to know and love as UCOS came together.

Posted: Wednesday March 25, 2009

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Natasha Richardson Remembered.

The late, great Natasha Richardson rarely worked in television. Therefore, we’re proud that we have two of her very finest TV performances on DVD. In Ghosts, available on the Judi Dench Collection, she plays Regina, the overproud maid servant of a wealthy Norwegian couple. In this all star cast, she plays opposite Judi Dench and Kenneth Branagh. On learning of her death, Dame Judi spoke of her erstwhile co-star, saying “she had an incredibly luminous quality that you seldom see, and a great sense of humor.” Ms. Richardson can also be seen in the Maggie Smith Collection where she takes on the role of Catherine Holly in Tennessee William’s Suddenly Last Summer, with Dame Maggie Smith, Rob Lowe, and Richard E. Grant.

Read more about the late, great Natasha Richardson at BBC.com.

Posted: Thursday March 19, 2009

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We are FINALLY about to enter the world of The Mighty Boosh!

No, we haven’t forgotten about The Mighty Boosh, and we are happy to announce that Season One will be released this summer just in time for San Diego’s mega Comic-Com convention.

Posted: Friday March 13, 2009

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Earth’s most breathtaking events in spectacular HD

Can’t wait until 2011, when Alastair Fothergill, the mastermind behind Planet Earth delivers his next masterpiece Frozen Planet? Then we’ve got the program for you. We’ve been watching the first episodes of Nature's Most Amazing Events and can report that it’s the BBC’s most jaw-droppingly spectacular natural history series since Planet Earth itself. Nature's Most Amazing Events puts you at the epicenter of six massive wildlife events -- from the great flood of the Okavango delta to the Arctic’s great summertime melt, from the great springtime feast along the Alaskan coast to British Columbia’s annual salmon run, from the greening of the Serengeti Plain to the sardine run up South Africa’s east coast. The camera follows the action on land and sea, through the air and beneath the water surfaces, to allow a deeper understanding of how each animal fits into the whole, and how the balance of the seasons is crucial to its survival.

Posted: Thursday February 5, 2009

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My name is Edward II and I’m here to recruit you!

Thirty-year-old Ian McKellen drew his first rave notices at the 1969 Edinburgh Festival for this stellar performance as England’s famously gay king in Christopher Marlowe’s Edward II. The production was taped for the BBC (and posterity) a year later, and it made television history with the first kiss between two men, and the second, and the third…. We’ve paired this with a little-seen, experimental BBC teleplay called The Marlowe Inquest, an imagined inquiry into the mysterious death of the playwright. This is a great release for lovers of classic theatre!

Posted: Thursday January 22, 2009

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Gavin & Stacey – By Popular Demand

In this hit comedy seen on BBC America, Gavin and Stacey meet after months of long-distance flirting and "click" almost instantly. Unfortunately, their respective best friends, played by rising stars James Corden (The History Boys) and Ruth Jones, do not..."click", not even after sleeping together. Under the strain of hasty wedding preparations, Gavin and Stacey's families, led by the incomparable Alison Steadman, reach a previously inconceivable level of lunacy. Cross-generational appeal and sharp writing on the part of Corden and Jones (see best friends, above) have made Gavin & Stacey one of the best-selling BritComs of the present century.

Posted: Friday January 9, 2009

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Gemma Arterton, Bond Babe in Bonnet

You can always count on the BBC to find the superstars of tomorrow. Think Daniel Radcliffe in David Copperfield or Sean Connery’s first big break in Requiem for a Heavyweight. The BBC’s latest find is twenty-two-year-old Gemma Arterton, who can be seen these days as Strawberry Fields in Quantum of Solace. She is unforgettably fresh, honest and poignant in her first major starring role (for the BBC, natch) as Tess of the D’Urbervilles, a girl whose disappointment at a country dance sets off a tragic chain of events. Her co-star? The lush locations that turn a never-was Wessex into a character in its own right.

Posted: Friday November 21, 2008

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Sean Connery Classics

We’ve delved deep in the BBC archive and found two classic performances by Sean Connery in his pre-Bond days. In 1961’s Anna Karenina he stars as the dashing Colonel Vronsky opposite Claire Bloom (The Haunting, Brideshead Revisited-1981) in the tragic title role. Connery also takes one of the most coveted roles in Shakespeare as Hotspur in An Age of Kings. This prestigious fifteen-part 1960 miniseries was ambitiously based on Shakespeare’s histories Richard II, Henry IV, Henry V, Henry VI and Richard III. Its cast of young hopefuls also includes Judi Dench, Robert Hardy, Eileen Atkins and Julian Glover.

Posted: Thursday October 23, 2008

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At long last – Top Gear!

For all of you who can’t get enough of Top Gear (even though it airs on BBC America every Monday night), BBC Video is planning not one but two DVDs next year! Races, chases and things on fire – they’re all part of the rich fabric of Top Gear. You’ll want to replay these treasuries of the “top” Top Gear challenges again and again, if only to savor Jezzer, Hamster and Captain Slow’s most memorable attempts to get melted, hurt or drowned. Just remember: these are the feats of seasoned experts. Don’t try them at home. Above all, don’t try to beat Simon Cowell’s track record as the star in a reasonably priced car.

Posted: Thursday September 25, 2008

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From roadie to rodents

Steve Coogan’s star is rising once again, with back-to-back standout roles in Hamlet 2 and as the film director in Tropic Thunder. So it’s a good time to let you know that Coogan’s most recent BBC series Saxondale is coming to DVD early next year. Tommy Saxondale is a roadie from the golden years of rock whose career has drifted into the pest control trade. Bur rats are just another kind of rock star to him! The character and his milieu is every bit as deftly drawn as Alan Partridge, one of the inspirations for David Brent’s character in The Office. Catch Alan in already released DVDs of Knowing Me, Knowing You and I’m Alan Partridge: Series 1.

Posted: Friday September 5, 2008

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A new golden age for Dickens

If you liked the BBC’s brilliant 2005 production of Bleak House starring Gillian Anderson, there’s more on the way. With the same promise as Bleak House to “knock the dust off Dickens,” we’ll be releasing new films of Oliver Twist, The Old Curiosity Shop, and Little Dorrit in 2009. Oliver Twist offers the surprising casting of Timothy Spall as Fagin (pictured above). Also, keep an eye on rising star Tom Hardy as Bill Sykes, Hardy will also be seen as Heathcliff in a new Wuthering Heights. Derek Jacobi leads the cast of The Old Curiosity Shop, which also stars Toby Jones as the dastardly Daniel Quip. And last but not least, master screenwriter Andrew Davies, who wrote the screen adaptation of Bleak House, adapts Little Dorrit with the same edge-of-your-seat, serial energy. The series stars Matthew Macfadyen (Pride and Prejudice, MI-5), Tom Courtenay (The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner), Emma Pierson, Robert Hardy and Freema Agyeman (Doctor Who). 

Posted: Thursday August 7, 2008

 

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Skins: Volume 1

Skins is not a series for those of you who like to imagine your teenagers spending all of their time studying! In BBC America’s edgy comedy-drama Skins (premiering in August), a circle of engagingly mixed up teens are desperately trying to push their limits in Bristol, while studying for their A levels. There will be sex, drugs, and rock ’n’ roll. Nicholas Hoult, last seen as young Marcus from About a Boy, makes his grown-up debut as Tony, the group’s alpha-male, whose profoundly misplaced self-confidence leads to weekly disasters. His best friend Sid usually gets the worst of it. The DVD, which will be out later this year, features the first nine episodes plus video diaries, gossip video and both broadcast and director’s cuts of a trailer that managed to shock even the Brits! PS – “Skins” is British slang for rolling papers and they’re not smoking tobacco!

Posted: Thursday July 24, 2008

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Primeval: Volume 1

If you agree that dinosaurs are severely underrepresented in TV drama, then Primeval is for you. And not just dinosaurs—goofy flocks of Dodo birds, centipedes the size of a bus, and a flying Coelurosaurus named Rex. All these creatures and more emerge from the “anomalies,” the random gateways between the modern world and prehistoric eras that a rag tag band of adventurers and scientists stumble onto. Grappling with the creature crises and leading the team is Professor Cutter (played by Scottish heart throb Douglas Henshall), who could write the book on how to tranquilize a pteradon from the top of a building, or how to track a family of raptors in a deserted shopping mall.

Did I mention that the anomalies work both ways, allowing Carter and co. to re-enter wondrous worlds from the dawn of time? The DVD includes the thirteen thrilling episodes that BBC America will begin running this August plus commentaries and featurettes on how the series was made.

Posted: Thursday July 10, 2008

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Peter Cook and Dudley Moore: The Best of… What’s Left of… Not Only… But Also…

We’re huge fans of the comedy scene in the Swinging Sixties. And no one exemplifies the genius of that scene better than Peter Cook and Dudley Moore. In 1965 Cook and Moore – both alumni from the iconoclastic comedy revue Beyond the Fringe – were let loose to create a show unique to their talents. Their BBC shows broke the mold (and presumably, the budget) with spectacular title sequences – one shot on a naval carrier, another with Cook and Moore clinging to the rising platforms of Tower Bridge to unfurl a banner of the show title. With openings like that, anything could happen – from an unforgettable visit to the Leaping Order of the Nuns of St. Beryl to a nifty send-up of Thunderbirds’ supermarionation called Superthunderstingcar. Beatles fans will love a short film with John Lennon of his poem “Deaf Ted, Danuta and Me.” But for us, the best bits are the ramblings of Pete and Dud, working class thinkers who tackled unexpected facets of the arts and sciences, or just commiserated over which movie stars had been pestering them all night. Semi-improvised (which meant that Dud memorized the lines but Pete never did), we eagerly wait for the promised moment when Pete would throw in an unscripted zinger, and inevitably Dud would crack up.

Posted: Thursday June 26, 2008

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The Mighty Boosh

What or who is the Mighty Boosh? Who can say? Even creators Julian Barratt and Noel Fielding can’t agree. But I like to think of the Mighty Boosh as another dimension, one that can be found on the ragged edges on a coffee break. For Howard (Julian Barratt) and Vince (Noel Fielding), these mental coffee breaks take place in the zoo where they work. In their Mighty Boosh, they find themselves pitted against ragdoll monsters with mirror balls, mod wolves, and Black Frost, who can freeze your dying words. Those of you who have already downloaded these strange and funny shows know what I mean, but the DVD has even more, perhaps the key, to the Mighty Boosh. Expect the first season…at an unexpected time.

Posted: Thursday May 29, 2008

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