Different editions of the videos of the 1978 series

[madhulika]

Hi!!!!!!!!!!i have the videos of almost all the famous five tv series...

[nlgbbbblth]

did anybody get the official region 4 DVD set of the 1978 series that was erroneously released in 2005?

I missed out but have seen it for sale on ebay.

from wikipedia

"The 1978 series was released on video with reasonable regularity between 1983 and 1999, many of which are still easy to find second-hand, although the sound and picture quality is not always what it could be.

A four-disc DVD collection, containing 23 of the 26 episodes produced for the 1978 series (and two episodes from the 1996 series) was released in region 4 (Australia and New Zealand) in 2005. The box and disc art identify it as a release of 1996 series. (The distributor had licenced the 1996 series but due to an administrative glitch, it was supplied with master tapes and artwork for the 1978 series.) The error was corrected in a later release."

[Lucky Star]

Does that mean that the tapes for the 1978 series were remastered for that DVD release? I imagine they must have been otherwise nobody would have wanted to buy them. I would love to see even a few clips from that erronous release just to see what could be done with an official release.

[Petermax]

The erronous Australian DVD release contained all episodes of the 70's series apart from the first episode which came from the 90's series. Someone, somewhere slipped up very badly indeed! As to whether any re-mastering of the broadcast tapes had taken place for the DVD release, somehow I doubt it. It was more likely that a basic video transfer was undertaken. Nevertheless, had I known that the fabled Region 4 release was on Ebay, then I would have been very interested. I suspect though, that the price would have gone through the roof.

I still dream of an official DVD release of the 70's series taken from the original 16mm films that surely lurk in a vault somewhere.

[nlgbbbblth]

hopefully the whole issue of who exactly owns the rights to the Southern Television archive will be sorted.

I am not holding my breath although some releases of other programmes are finally emerging - cf Noah's Castle.

[Petermax]

Don't hold your breath on a DVD release taking place in the near future, Chorion have already stated that they are not pursuing the issue of video rights ownership. Basically, the number of hours required to follow up the paper trail and subsequent re-mastering, packaging and promoting would probably not yield a great return on investment.

The forthcoming release of Noah's Castle on 21st September is great news. This series is as topical now as it was in 1980, being set in a recession hit, totalitarian Britain. Other gems such as Flockton Flyer are already available once again.

[nlgbbbblth]

if Network got involved then there's hope. A lot of their titles cannot have made very much - Indoor League for one - but yet they persist. Yus My Dear.

[Jeffery Greyling]

When I searched for the Famous Five on ebay.co.uk I found a link in the advertisments that said Famous Five 1978 Dvd £9.99 free shipping world wide. I'm sure that this is a bootleg one, but I thought somebody could be interested. I didn't try it, so I don't know if this site is safe.

[Tony Summerfield]

This is definitely a DVD for the black eyepatch and parrot on shoulder brigade, personally I wouldn't want to walk the plank on it!

Unfortunately it is being advertised on many pages on our website at the moment, but I will try to do something about this. They give no contact details yet expect you to send them your credit card details. At the bottom of the page they state, 'All the films/series sold on this website are now in the public domain.' This is absolute rubbish as far as this Famous Five series is concerned.

[Wayne Pyer]

This is definitely a DVD for the black eyepatch and parrot on shoulder brigade, personally I wouldn't want to walk the plank on it!

Unfortunately it is being advertised on many pages on our website at the moment, but I will try to do something about this. They give no contact details yet expect you to send them your credit card details. At the bottom of the page they state, 'All the films/series sold on this website are now in the public domain.' This is absolute rubbish as far as this Famous Five series is concerned.

They have also set up a paypal link for these. You would think it goes against all paypal rules.

[Moonraker]

Someone (a spammer?) sent me this link.

[Karli]

This is definitely a DVD for the black eyepatch and parrot on shoulder brigade, personally I wouldn't want to walk the plank on it!

Tony is totally right.
It seems that Captain Jack Sparrow and his fellow pirates have something to do
with that DVD…

[Jeffery Greyling]

CapoeiraGeorgie, Gary Russell's article originally published in one of the early editions of the E.B.S Journal may be of interest to you. It is a very hilarious account of his experiences during the filming of the Southern TV Famous Five series back in 1977/78.

Here is the Online version of the article, it is a great read, Gary certainly has a way with words!

I've got a question about this article - Anita mentioned in a post that it was written for journals 5-8 (1998-1999), and I read in the article that an actor called Willoughby Goddard had died in the past twenty years. I looked the actor up on wikipedia, and it says that he passed away last year (2008). How could this be when the article was written in the late '90s? Did the person who put it on the site edit it a little?

[Gary Russell]

Nah I probably just made a mistake and killed the poor soul off years ahead of his time.

[Wayne Pyer]

Nah I probably just made a mistake and killed the poor soul off years ahead of his time.