Network DVD

[Rayon Vert]

So I put in the Criterion DVD - and, yup, I prefer the DVD. Gary talks about black levels being improved on the blu-ray, but overall it still actually feels like a downgrade.

If I try to see the positive in this, it's that Network DVDs end means this blu-ray will be OOP.

(And, based on this one review, I'm inclined to trust Gary's screencaps more than his eyes.)

[JSC]

I watched this projected and it really isn't worse than the Criterion dvd. It's not stellar, but
the original dvd wasn't exactly pristine either.

[PillowRock]

I just saw this and I'm bummed for the already mentioned thing about nobody else covering their niche. Also glad that I somewhat inexplicably made two orders from them a couple months apart earlier this year.

Any particular volumes of the Ealing Rarities or 1930s collections that are recommended?

A couple years or so ago (before things were really re-open) I blind bought one of their old TV series that I (like a lot of Americans, I suspect) had never heard of - and ended up finding it pretty fun: Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased). It's a late '60s partner PIs series where one one partner is killed halfway through the first episode and spends the whole series as a ghost that only the other partner can see.

[colinr0380]

The latest Issue of Sight & Sound (September 2023; Volume 33, Issue 7, Page 92) notes the end of Network in its Archive TV column and mentions something that may have contributed to the end of Network which only Calvin had noted at the time, which is that:

And in November of last year Tim Beddows, who had founded the company and run it for 25 years, died unexpectedly.

[jlnight]

When they went into voluntary liquidation they apparently owed £3.1m to various creditors, the largest of which was HMRC. That's what sank them.

[colinr0380]

Yeah, that would probably do it too.

[Stefan Andersson]

Neil Sinyard has published five booklet texts for unreleased Network titles, among them Man Friday, Bloody Kids and The Phantom Light:
http://neilsinyard.britishtelevisiondrama.org.uk/

[DeprongMori]

The Phantom Light has been released by Network. At least in DVD. Not sure whether it includes the essay.

[TechnicolorAcid]

The Phantom Light has been released by Network. At least in DVD. Not sure whether it includes the essay.

1. It’s possible it was referring to a possible Blu-Ray release that got scrapped.
2. The DVD according to Amazon UK only carries an image gallery.