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DVDs in the Works

DVDs in the Works is a sneak peek at highlights in BBC Video's future schedule. 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 November 21, 2008

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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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