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DVDs in the Works

Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

March 16th, 2012

The Killer Apps that made the West

Civilization

After exploring the financial history of the world in his 2009 PBS series The Ascent of Money, Niall Ferguson turns his sites on Civilization: The West and the Rest. The Harvard history professor spins his economic history with a focus on six “killer apps” that propelled the western countries toward world success: competition, science, property, medicine, consumerism, and work. The result is quite provocative, amid the less savory trade-offs for such success and questions as whether the west is finally losing the edge.

Looking for Easter basket stuffers? Speaking of consumerism, there are only 22 shopping days until Easter. In addition to the traditional standby of The Beatrix Potter Collection, we have brought in a gorgeous set of enamel Peter Rabbit Dishes and Flatware and for the ballet fans on your list, an enchanting new DVD of The Royal Ballet: Tales of Beatrix Potter.

Tune-in Alert: The much anticipated Frozen Planet series premieres this Sunday, March 18th, on the Discovery Channel at 8-10 pm ET/PT.

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March 9th, 2012

Celebrating the Diamond Jubilee

Queen Elizabeth II

Sally Norris © BBC 2012

As Queen Elizabeth II began her Diamond Jubilee tour of the UK today in Leicester, it’s perfect time to introduce two special DVDs in the works. The Diamond Queen is a 3-hour television profile that aired last month. Our British colleagues, who have witnessed a number of jubilees and television retrospectives over the years, were impressed by this series’ unprecedented access to the Queen, and to members of the Royal family, who speak quite candidly in interviews. The Diamond Queen premieres in Canada on CBC News this Saturday, March 10th, at 7pm ET/PT. Broadcast information for the US has not been announced.

The Queen’s Palaces is currently making the rounds of PBS stations, and an episode aired on British Columbia’s Knowledge last night. The series devotes episodes to Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle, and The Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh, and relates their fascinating history in relation to the various monarchs who hand a hand in their development. Both DVDs should be available shortly before the Jubilee celebrations, which begin Saturday, June 2nd.

If you’re already thinking of stocking provisions, Darvilles of Windsor has a special Diamond Jubilee tea blend in the works, which we will list soon. In addition to the regal Diamond Jubilee mug we brought in earlier this year, we’ve brought in a more playful mug in the inimitable Dunoon style. Also newly added to the mix is a commemorative tea towel from Ulster Weavers, a holder of the Royal Warrant.

Contest Alert: If series like Planet Earth and the upcoming Frozen Planet have instilled a desire to meet a polar bear up close and personal, The Ultimate Polar Bear Adventure contest is open to citizens of the US and Canada.

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Posted in British Royal Family, Documentary, History, Lifestyle, Natural History, Personalities, Uncategorized | 1 Comment
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March 1st, 2012

Great Expectations

Great Expectations Photo Todd Antony © BBC

Coming to Masterpiece Theatre on April 1st is an emotionally powerful re-examination of Great Expectations. Screenwriter Sarah Phelps (Oliver Twist-2007) has focused on the danger and cruelty in the story, and the cast rises to the challenge, especially Gillian Anderson (Bleak House) in a haunting portrayal of Miss Havisham. Douglas Booth (Christopher and his Kind, The Pillars of the Earth) became an overnight star as Pip when the miniseries aired in Great Britain. The unforgettable cast also includes: Ray Winstone as Magwitch; Shaun Dooley (South Riding) as Joe; Vanessa Kirby (The Hour) as Estella; David Suchet (Poirot) as Jaggers; and Tom Burke (State of Play, Poirot: “The Clocks”) as Bentley Drummle. The DVD has not yet been announced, but we expect it to follow soon after the broadcast.

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February 24th, 2012

A new approach to The Story of Ireland

The Story of Ireland Photo credit: Seamus McCracken © BBC

The last time the BBC made a television series on Irish history was in 1980, fifteen years before the book How Ireland Saved Civilization was published. This time around, Fergal Keane, who hails from Cork, presents Ireland as a world player in an outward-looking (and forward-looking) history, and challenges a number of myths along the way. The image here is the earliest known map of Ireland (c. 150 AD) preserved via a medieval copy of Ptolemy’s Geographia. Contributing to the unique look of the series is Irish artist David Rooney, whose stark woodcuts illustrate 92 events in The Story of Ireland.

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February 17th, 2012

Deep down with Ocean Giants

Ocean GiantsPhoto © Luis Quintas/Naturepl

Next Wednesday (February 22nd), Nature on PBS will depart from its customary one-hour format to air all three parts of Ocean Giants in one night. The series offers an extraordinarily intimate look at whales and dolphins with cinematography by two top underwater cameramen, Doug Allen (Planet Earth, The Blue Planet) and Jacques Cousteau’s cameraman Didier Noirot. They’ve been following these animals for decades, and still find themselves witnessing behaviour for the first time. 

The Ocean Giants DVD, which comes with a bonus Blu-ray disc of the series, will be released in the US on March 6th. The Canadian broadcaster is not yet announced, but Ocean Giants will be available in Canada following the series run.

Fan alert: Those who saw Jonny Lee Miller and Benedict Cumberbatch trading off the roles of Doctor Frankenstein and his Monster in last year’s live feed from the National Theatre may have the opportunity to see how Miller fares in a modern version of Sherlock Holmes for CBS. We must concede that our loyalty to Sherlock made us not entirely receptive to CBS’s proposal to make a Sherlock-Holmes-in-contemporary-New-York series, but we’d certainly give Jonny Lee Miller a look-in. By the way, Frankenstein will be back by popular demand in encore feeds from the National Theatre beginning in June.

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Posted in Drama, Natural History, Personalities, Uncategorized | 1 Comment
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February 10th, 2012

New blood in Being Human Season 4

Being Human

The new eight-part season of Being Human just premiered in the UK, and we North Americans don’t have very long to wait. Both BBC America and Space in Canada have set the night of Feb 25 for the Season 4 premiere. The DVD and Blu-ray will follow sometime this spring.

Sadly, Mitchell (Aidan Turner) was shot with a wolf-shaped bullet in last season’s finale, but Annie (Leonora Crichlow) and George (Russell Tovey) are back. Michael Socha also returns as the werewolf Tom, and there’s a new vampire in town, Hal (Damien Molony). Those who follow the live feeds from the National Theatre may have recently seen Molony in Travelling Light. Look for Aidan Turner this December as Kili in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.

To get in the mood for a season of scary roommates, BBC America is running the Roommate from Hell contest (open to US residents only).

BAFTA / AbFab alert: This Sunday night at 8pm ET BBC America is airing the fabulous film awards ceremony of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. We look forward to it every year, but especially this year because Stephen Fry is returning to host the show

after several years’ absence. To top off the night, BBC America will air the second 20th Anniversary Absolutely Fabulous special at 11pm ET. It features a hilarious turn by Lindsay Duncan (The Rise and Fall of Margaret Thatcher) as the sort of legendary French film star who has grown accustomed to universal worship. Canadian broadcast information is not yet announced.

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Posted in Fantasy, Personalities, Sci-fi, Uncategorized | 3 Comments
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February 2nd, 2012

Last of the Summer Wine – early exclusive!

Last of the Summer Wine

On April 17th, customers of BBC America and BBC Canada Shops will be the first to enjoy Last of the Summer Wine Vintage 1992, the next installment in the world’s longest running sitcom. Pre-order now to get the DVD as soon as it’s ready, if only to learn how Foggy, Clegg and Compo came by these extraordinary costumes.

This fifteenth season is almost halfway through the series that ran for 31 seasons between 1973 and 2010. Thanks to our quarterly release plan, we’re due to catch up to our original Vintage 1995 release before the year is through.

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Posted in Comedy, Uncategorized | 8 Comments
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January 27th, 2012

Sneak peak at Frozen Planet

Frozen Planet DVD

Last fall British audiences thrilled to the revelations of Frozen Planet. The seven-part series became such an instant classic that the BBC commissioned a special program of highlights, The Epic Journey, which was broadcast during the holidays. Frozen Planet is very much the heir to Planet Earth. Producer Alastair Fothergill decided to make the series as a direct result of the conditions he observed when the polar episode of Planet Earth was being filmed. Having produced Life in the Freezer a decade earlier, he was uniquely placed to see how much Antarctica had changed between the two series shoots.

Much of the wonder of Frozen Planet lies in the sheer scale of its icy, alien landscapes, as seen in the photo above of Mt. Erebus, the southernmost active volcano on Earth. It summons up visions not imagined since reading H.P. Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness in our youth. Still, the heart of a BBC nature series is in the intimacies of animal behavior, such as this glimpse into the morality of penguins shown below.

Frozen Planet will premiere on March 18th on Discovery in the US, and on Discovery World HD in Canada. The DVD and Blu-ray will follow the series finale in April. Extras include video diaries, behind the scenes, isolated music score option, a science featurette and the highlight program, Frozen: Planet: The Epic Journey.

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January 20th, 2012

Congratulations to Idris Elba…

Luther

…for his well deserved Best Actor win at the Golden Globes for his performance in Luther 2. If you haven’t experienced the edgy thrills of Luther yet, BBC America is running an encore of the second miniseries this Sunday, January 22nd, at 11am ET.

BAFTA film awards were announced earlier this week, and we were gratified to see that Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy garnered eleven nominations, second only to twelve for The Artist. While a feature film cannot hope to match the 1979 BBC version for narrative detail, the BAFTA-nominated screenplay managed to keep the essentials, and the nifty addition of party scenes helped to reveal the habitually hidden emotions of characters who are taciturn by nature or vocation. There were no party scenes in the novel, but author John le Carré sanctioned the device and gave the screenwriters suggestions.

My Week with Marilyn, which received six nominations, is also chock-a-block with British talent — Zoe Wanamaker (Poirot), Emma Watson (Harry Potter), Derek Jacobi (I, Claudius), Michael Kitchen (Foyle’s War), Philip Jackson (Poirot), Jim Carter (Downton Abbey), Toby Jones (The Old Curiosity Shop, Christopher and his Kind), Dominic Cooper (Sense & Sensibility) and Dougray Scott (Desperate Housewives) — in small supporting roles, and in nominated supporting roles, Judi Dench as Dame Sybil Thorndike and Kenneth Branagh as Sir Laurence Olivier. The male lead is Eddie Redmayne, who will be seen in Birdsong later this season on Masterpiece.

This has also been quite a year for screenwriter Abi Morgan (The Hour), who wrote the screenplays for two current films, The Iron Lady and Shame.

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January 13th, 2012

Who are the Fades?

The Fades

One of the most talked about BBC series this fall was The Fades, which premieres on BBC America this Saturday, January 14, at 9pm ET. Created by Jack Thorne (Skins), The Fades is firmly in the horror genre, but with a strong thread of mystery surrounding who the Fades are and why they are appearing now. Within the mundane world of suburbia and school, the story unfolds with the heightened imagery of graphic novels. Iain De Caestecker stars as Paul– bewildered seventeen-year-old, reluctant hero and social pariah. Daniel Kaluuya (Skins S1 and S2) plays Paul’s best and only friend Mac, who applies everything he’s learned from the movies to the crisis at hand (with mixed results). The Fades producer Caroline Skinner is also one to watch. She’s the new executive producer for this year’s series of Doctor Who, replacing Piers Wenger and Beth Willis.

A brand new Nerdist special follows Episode One on BBC America at 10:15 pm ET. Devoted to the horror genre, the special features Lily Lovelace (Skins S3 and S4) talking about her role as Paul’s mortified sister, Anna. The cast of The Fades also includes Natalie Dormer (The Tudors, Captain America), Johnny Harris (Whitechapel) and Daniela Nardini (This Life, Reckless). In Canada The Fades premiered January 3rd on BBC Canada, which will air it through Feb 7th on Tuesdays at 8pm ET. The DVD and Blu-ray will be available on February 21st, the Tuesday after the series finale airs on BBC America.

Dramaville Fan Alert: Remember that The Hour and Luther Season Two are in the running for Golden Globe Awards. The ceremony, hosted once more by the irrepressible Ricky Gervais (The Office, An Idiot Abroad) airs this Sunday, January 15th, at 8pm ET on NBC. As we mentioned before, The Hour is up against Downton Abbey, which made its much anticipated return to Masterpiece last Sunday. Series Two is already available for pre-order, delivering February 7th.

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Posted in Doctor Who, Drama, Fantasy, Mystery & Suspense, Personalities, Sci-fi, Uncategorized | No Comments
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