Callan

[Jonathan Tennet]

Does anyone know what still exists of the B&W episodes, and whether there are any plans to release them on DVD? Also, was "Wet Job" ever made available on sell-thru?

I've only ever seen "Magnum For Schneider" and would love to see the other B&W episodes.

Cheers!

[ethantyler]

I don't know what survives but I do know that, in addition to the feature film, you can already buy Series 1 on DVD either in a box set or across three volumes.

Edit:

Here's a link to the DVDs:
www.sendit.com/circle/search?words=Callan&f=dvd&x=0&y=0

They were released in early September 2001.

[ethantyler]

Actually, thinking about it, I do know where there is a list of the missing episodes! Here: www.xmission.com/~spectral/pythl/plpmis/mfta1/callan.html

I don't know if it's up-to-date though.

[Andy Hurwitz]

But despite the title, those are actually season 3 aren't they?

[Stephen Doran]

you can get series 1 diect from clearvision for only 15.99.

ethantyler said:

I don't know what survives but I do know that, in addition to the feature film, you can already buy Series 1 on DVD either in a box set or across three volumes.

Edit:

Here's a link to the DVDs:
www.sendit.com/circle/search?words=Callan&f=dvd&x=0&y=0

They're were released in early September 2001.

[williamM]

it says series 1 was in 1970 as well

[Ian T]

The Callan release is the first colour series and does not feature any if the remaining black and white episodes. The quality of the episodes is also extremely poor unfortunately.

[Laurence Piper]

Yes, despite what it says on the cover, the Callan DVD release is series 3 (the first colour series, 1970). There are 12 b/w eps surviving in total (2 from series 1 and the pilot plus 9 from series 2). There are 10 missing in all.

[john g]

I dont know if you still can? but at one time you could watch a surviving season 2 episode "promising girl of her year" (I believe) at the National film and TV archive

www.nmsi.ac.uk/nmpft/

They have a booth system there,which you can book, other delights on offer include a colour B&W minstrel show from 1967.

incidentally does anyone know if the two different versions of death of a hunter season 2 final episode survive?
according to Dave Rogers one had Callan surviving and one Callan dying .

[Nosmo King]

john said:

I dont know if you still can? but at one time you could watch a surviving season 2 episode "promising girl of her year" (I believe) at the National film and TV archive
www.nmsi.ac.uk/nmpft/

Actually that's the National Museum of Photography, Film and TV - part of the Science Museum group - and based in Bradford

The National Film and TV archive is a division on the BFI (who also run the National Film Theatre) and is a completely different entity ...although you can arrange viewings of VHS material through them as well

www.bfi.org.uk

[WilliamM]

I recently saw "All the good ones are dead" (series 1 ep 1 I think) and it is similar to "A magnum.. " makes me want to see more of the early ones.

[ethantyler]

Ian said:

The Callan release is the first colour series and does not feature any if the remaining black and white episodes. The quality of the episodes is also extremely poor unfortunately.

Concerning the picture quality, does the DVD release represent the best existing quality episodes or does the DVD, as I suspect, use inferior quality copies? The discussion of Callan in this thread has finally peaked my interest enough for me to want to buy the series (I'll probably start with the feature-film since it only costs £4.99), but I don't want to waste any money on another DVD release as poor as Doomwatch: The Plastic Eaters/Tomorrow, The Rat (my pet hate/pet subject).

[john g]

The feature film is actually a remake of ' a magnum' its good as a stand alone feature but is not really representative of the mood of the serial IMHO.

The colour Callans were shown on CH4 sometime ago , even then the pictures were very noisy.

[Laurence Piper]

ethantyler said:

Ian said:

Concerning the picture quality, does the DVD release represent the best existing quality episodes or does the DVD, as I suspect, use inferior quality copies?

I don't know if the best copies were sourced for the Callan DVDs (I imagine not) but the real problem is that no restoration work was done on them - they were just bunged out as they were. With a company like Network releasing the series, a LOT of restoration on the masters would obviously be the policy (as with Public Eye) and the results would be much better than the shoddy release we have just now. I noticed myself that the episodes were very noisy even when Channel 4 screened them in 1984 (the first colour ep also had a slight defect on vision) and so all these problems would have to be addressed if a "proper" release were on the cards. It can be done though.

[ethantyler]

Thanks Laurence. I read last night that Network have acquired the rights to release classic ITV series to coincide with the fiftieth anniversary. I don't know whether this is true, but complete season box sets of The Bill are at last being released by Network, so it could be true.