[Afamilyatwar-list] Episode 10: Missing Content

Sun Apr 8 12:59:13 CDT 2018

I knew I was inviting trouble! My dates are arbitrary and capricious. All of the 60s and 70s had wonderful things from Granada and the BBC (and into the 80s and 90s). The frame of reference I’ve been using for my posts pretty much limits to The Forsyte Saga to, say, Alec Guinness’ Tinker, Tailor, but indeed there were significant programs long before and after my makeshift campsite.

On Sunday, April 8, 2018, 10:42 AM, Hellman, Arthur <hellman at pitt.edu> wrote:

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Scott,

You have raised (whether you meant to or not) an interesting question: what are the beginning and end years of the Golden Age of British television? We could probably all agree on the beginning year, give or take a year or two. I don’t remember when the Forsyte Saga was first shown on UK TV, but I’d take that as the beginning.

The end is tougher. It would be interesting to compile a year-by-year list (there’s a book that does that – British TV or something like that – but it’s idiosyncratic and does not include some series that I would rate very highly, while it does include others that no one ever talks about). I think you’d still see quite a few great series in the early 1980s.

Arthur

From: Scott Filderman [mailto:scottfilderman at yahoo.com]
Sent: Sunday, April 8, 2018 7:19 AM
To: Thomas Lowery <tommary1962 at comcast.net>; afamilyatwar-list at baylor.edu; Hellman, Arthur <hellman at pitt.edu>; 'Brian Renforth' <renforthb at live.co.uk>
Subject: Re: [Afamilyatwar-list] Episode 10: Missing Content

Generally, you are correct. The occasional missing scene or scene extension does not alter the story or character, only deepens it. Even 5 minutes per episode is over-generous from what I have seen so far—more like a half-minute or so, and by no means per episode! Most are complete.

By the way, as wonderful as this series is, I can also recommend Colditz, the 1972 series with David McCallum. Not having watched it for 20 years, I’m coming to it fresh (by way of the BBC DVD set) and find it remarkable, produced during that Golden Age of British television (1968–1978). I’m reading John Finch’s compendium of essays about Granada’s early years.

Ah, Creativity! Ah, Humanity! (paraphrase that!!)

Scott Filderman 

On Sunday, April 8, 2018, 7:38 AM, Thomas Lowery <tommary1962 at comcast.net> wrote:

I don’t normally reply to these, but considering that 297 minutes means an average of over 5 minutes per episode, it strikes me that there is a good reason to seek out the full versions. As it happens I DO have both, and while the viewer CAN survive without the missing bits, why do so?

Tom Lowery

From:afamilyatwar-list-bounces at baylor.edu [mailto:afamilyatwar-list-bounces at baylor.edu]On Behalf Of Scott Filderman via Afamilyatwar-list
Sent: Friday, April 06, 2018 2:31 PM
To: Hellman, Arthur; afamilyatwar-list at baylor.edu; Brian Renforth
Subject: Re: [Afamilyatwar-list] Episode 10: Missing Content

Our story thus far:

I am almost finished Series One (down to the last two episodes). So far, there have been only three extremely brief scenes deleted from the Acorn set. As Brian and Richard have commented, no one knows why the brief edits were made but guess it might have been due to DVD timing restrictions or maybe picking up episodes from pre-edited sources, but these are guesses and not good ones. 

Total time for these three deleted scenes: maybe 2 entire minutes! Why bother???

Never trust DVD timings down to the split second. The sets ARE roughly different in how they treat closing credits (freeze-framing, including closing cards, Granada logos) and the intrusion of “bumpers” (End of Part I, Beginning of Part II, theme music): the Acorn set edited out all that visual and sound data, so I had no idea that was part of the original TV presentation until  Brian (I believe) pointed it out. Snatched of theme music are occasionally heard on the Netherlands set, and now I understand why they occur: sloppy editing, but that would account for a second or two more in part of an episode.

I am going (quite happily) through each episode twice, making notes on each scene: video or film, who appears. It will take me another few weeks to get through the remainder. Ah, the benefits of retirement. My wife and I are re-watching the Seventies serial Colditz and are onto Series Three of The Onedin Line AND we have The Spoils of War to watch. 

The casting, acting, and writing of AFAW are SO superior that they become master classes in “how to do it”! Besides, it’s fun seeing Patrick Troughton in and around his famous Doctor Who years (just watched The Enemy of the World—look, there’s Colin Douglas!!!) 

God bless my All-Region DVD player; it has opened up, literally, a world of great drama from Great Britain and the Netherlands! You can’t go back to the past, but parts of it sure is worth a visit!

On Friday, April 6, 2018, 1:51 PM, Hellman, Arthur <hellman at pitt.edu> wrote:

I have not been reading the detailed posts about missing material (I want to avoid “spoilers,” even though I have watched the entire series), but it is surprising and disturbing to learn that the Acorn sets – which are the ones I have – are missing material that is in the Netherlands set. You would think it would be the other way around.

On Amazon, the Netherlands set says it runs for 2860 minutes, compared with the Acorn’s 2563 minutes. If those figures are accurate, that is a very substantial difference.

The Netherlands set compresses the episodes into 16 disks rather than 22. Have you found that to create any problems?

Thanks for your careful review of the two sets.

Arthur        

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