British TV Mini Reviews Update 1 - A - J

[olivia_sutton]

I recently cross-posted my British TV Mini-Review posts from Live Journal (now hosted on Dreamwidth) to my WordPress blog. But going through those posts I decided I really should include an updated version of this project. So here is volume one of those updates. This list includes Australian and British series.

 

Title: ANZAC Girls

Featured Actors: Georgia Flood, Antonia Prebble, Laura Brent, Anna McGahan, Caroline Craig, Honey Debelle

Episode Length: 1 Hour

Episodes: 6

Discs: 2

Total Seasons (Series): 1 (Mini-Series)

Format: Color, Widescreen, NTSC

Region: 1

Production Source: ABC (Australia Broadcasting Corp.)

General Information: This series is based on a historical book about Australian and New Zealand nurses in World War I.

 

Title: Call the Midwife
Featured Actors: Vanessa Redgrave (voice only), Jessica Raine, Helen George, Miranda Hart, Jenny Agutter, Judy Parfitt, Pam Ferris, Ben Caplan (Series 1)
Episode Length: 1 Hour
Episodes: 6
Discs: 2
Total Seasons (Series): 9 (scheduled)
Format: Color, Widescreen, NTSC
Region: 1
Production Source: BBC
General Information: A long-running series that follows the adventures of a group of Midwives in the UK in the 1950s. I only have the first season.

Title: Danger Mouse – Mission Improbable
Featured Actors: Alexander Armstrong, Kevin Eldon, Dave Lamb, Stephen Fry, Shauna MacDonald
Episode Length: 11 minutes (usually, except the occasional 22-minute special)
Episodes: 7
Discs: 1
Total Seasons (Series): 3 (so far)
Total Number of Episodes: 89 (so far)
Format: Color, Animation, Widescreen, PAL
Region: 2
Production Source: CBBC
General Information: An updating of the original Danger Mouse, with a new cast and CGI animation, but still the same plot. Danger Mouse is the world’s smallest secret agent, who along with his assistant, Penfold, keeps the world safe from notorious plots. His boss is Colonel K and he still lives in a red Royal Mail pillar box.

Title: Doomwatch: Winter Angel
Featured Actors: Trevor Eve, Dallas Campbell
Episode Length: 100 Minutes
Episodes: 1 (Pilot)
Discs: 1
Total Seasons (Series): Pilot made, never went to series
Format: PAL
Region: 2
Production Source: Channel 5 (UK) (Working Title Television)
General Information: An updated continuation of the classic series, Doomwatch created by Gerry Davis and Kit Pedler (who created the Cybermen for Doctor Who in the 1960s), this is a pilot for a series that was never picked up. In the original series, the “Doomwatch” team served as a watchdog group that kept an eye out for environmental and humanist consequences of the actions of business, scientific, or government excesses. This series has university lecturer Neil Tannahill receive a message that something has gone horribly wrong at a nuclear waste disposal site. It is worth noting that the British series, Eleventh Hour starring Patrick Stewart, though not officially connected to the original or the attempted updated version of Doomwatch was very much a spiritual successor and explored similar themes and concepts.

Title: Dorothy L. Sayers Mysteries
Featured Actors: Edward Petherbridge, Harriet Walter, Richard Morant
Episode Length: 1 Hour (Multiple-part stories)
Episodes: 21 (Three Stories)
Discs: 10
Total Seasons (Series): 1
Format: Color, Standard, NTSC
Region: 1
Production Source: BBC / WGBH
General Information: A lavish adaptation of Dorothy L. Sayers later Lord Peter mysteries featuring her aristocratic sleuth meeting, falling in love with, and eventually marrying his wife, Harriet Vane – a mystery writer.

Title: Framed
Featured Actors: Trevor Eve, Eve Myles
Episode Length: 90-Minute TV Movie
Episodes: 1
Discs: 1
Format: Color, Widescreen, NTSC
Region: 1
Production Source: BBC
General Information: A wonderful story filmed in Wales. When there is a disaster at an art museum in London, the curator proposes moving the art to a small village in Wales for safe-keeping and protection, just like during World War II. This decision and the people of a small Welsh village permanently change the curator.

Title: Grantchester
Featured Actors: Robson Green, James Norton, Morven Christie, Tessa Peake-Jones
Episode Length: 1 Hour
Episodes: 6
Discs: 2
Total Seasons (Series): 3
Format: Color, Widescreen, NTSC
Region: R1
Production Source: ITV
General Information: An Anglican priest, Canon Sidney Chambers, and a cop, Inspector Geordie Keating make for unlikely partners and friends, solving crimes in the small community of Grantchester, near Cambridge. This series is set in the 1950s and based on the short stories of James Runcie.

Title: Jewel in the Crown
Featured Actors: Art Malik, Susan Wooldridge, Tim Pigott-Smith, Geraldine James, Charles Dance
Episode Length: 1 Hour
Episodes: 14
Discs: 5
Total Seasons (Series): 1 (Extended Mini-Series)
Format: Color, Standard, NTSC
Region: 1
Production Source: ITV/Granada
General Information: Set in India from 1942 to 1947, this series covers the country’s twilight as part of the British Empire and it’s independence. Much of the focus of the series is the racism of the colonials in India, and the struggles of various people in the country, both the British people who settled there and the Indians who lived there.