Poirot: The Complete CasesCollection is easilythe most ultimate set for fans of the long-running mystery seriesPoirot. Thecollection features 70 episodes (which represents all of thematerial thatwas written by Christie featuring the character) and everything is inthe originalbroadcastorder. The series began airing as a British ITV series and it wasproducedbetween 1989 and June 2013. In total, the series comprised 36 one hourepisodesand 34 feature length episodes which in effect covered both the fullspan ofshort stories and the major mystery novels Christie was most famous forwriting. It starred David Suchet in the title role as the famous (andquirky)Belgium detective. David Suchet de...Read the entire review

The Show:

Fans of British humour (note the second "u") are probably already well-aware of Jeeves and Wooster, the comic duo created nearly a century ago by P.G. Wodehouse (the literary series continued for nearly sixty years, until 1974). Even if one hasn't managed to crack open any of the eleven novels and thirty-five short stories devoted to these characters, surely a familiarity with the early '90s TV series which starred Hugh Laurie as idle aristocrat Bertie Wooster and Stephen Fry as his brilliant, tight-lipped valet Jeeves is inevitable. However, if one is a fan of British wit and has not been exposed to Jeeves and Wooster, then Acorn's new reissue of all four series and twenty-three episodes of the Fry and Laurie program provides the perfect o...Read the entire review

Content:
Produced by FremantleMedia Australia, the company behind numerous insanely popular programs, including The X-Factor, Australia's got Talent, and Project Runway, comes Mr. & Mrs. Murder is an Australian crime comedy television series about a married couple whom run ancleaning business that specializes in crime scenes. Using their experience, the couple become amateur detectives that help solve cases.

The plot of the show is pretty simple, the series centers around the day to day life in the career of the Nicola and Charlie Buchanan (the oddly mismatched but perfect together, Kat Stewart and Shaun Micallef, respectively.) The couple run an industrial cleaning service called ToxiClean, that despite being a cleaning service company for any and all businesses, typically end up working crime scenes for the police.

Each of the series' thirteen episodes follows the e...Read the entire review

Reviewer's Note: Way back in 2007, I began reviewing the BBC's boxed sets of Lovejoy for DVDTalk. Those sets subsequently went out of print, and are now being re-released by Acorn. As far as I can tell, these are the same fullscreen transfers used for the previous releases (Acorn's now-standard disclaimer about audio/visual imperfections for these older U.K. TV shows is present). So, I'll port over my older review (with a few minor tweaks)...because my opinion of these delightful mysteries hasn't changed a bit, I found, after watching these charmers all over again this past weekend.

Acorn has released another winner in Lovejoy: Series 2, a three-disc, 12-episode continuation of the popular British mystery series starring Ian McShane. Lovejoy, the randy, slightly dodgy antiques "divvy" who can't seem to stay out of trouble, is back from a five-year hiatus with an...Read the entire review

Based upon the popular novels written by authorAnn Cleeves,Vera is an equally successful television series (which often brings inover 6million viewers) and that has garnered a lot of attention for the leadperformance from the great Brenda Blethyn(Joe Wright's Pride and Prejudice). Theseries is an episodic mystery of the week program at its coreand each new installment unfolds a new mystery for the characters tosolve.Though based on a book series, many episodes of the show are not basedupon publishedbooks and divert into their own new storylines that involve thesebelovedliterary characters from the pages of Cleeves.

Vera Stanhope (Brenda Blethyn) is ato...Read the entire review

Accused (2010-?) is a unique anthology series, essentially a courtroom drama without the courtroom, one that's extremely ambitious and impressive as drama, but awfully depressing as entertainment. The show's format is at fault: episodes begin with the accused, a different character in each show, awaiting their verdict. Almost the entire rest of each episode is presented in flashbacks, devoted to the events leading up to each character's arrest, followed by a very brief scene where the verdict is finally read. The trials aren't shown, and the accused's solicitors and barristers don't interact with them, appearing only as extras when seen at all. It's less like Law & Order UK than Robert Bresson's Pickpocket (1959) in both the good and bad sense.

The program was conceived and primarily written by Jimmy McGovern, best known for Cracker, the superlative crime series, one...Read the entire review

Reviewer's Note: Way back in 2007, I began reviewing the BBC's boxed sets of Lovejoy for DVDTalk. Those sets subsequently went out of print, and are now being re-released by Acorn. As far as I can tell, these are the same fullscreen transfers used for the previous releases (Acorn's now-standard disclaimer about audio/visual imperfections for these older U.K. TV shows is present), but again: no extras from the previous BBC release. So, I'll port over my older review (with a few minor tweaks)...because my opinion of these delightful mysteries hasn't changed a bit, I found, after watching these charmers all over again this past weekend.

Acorn has released Lovejoy: Series 3, a four-disc, 13-episode continuation of one of my favorite light British comedy/mysteries. Starring the irrepressible Ian McShane as Lovejoy ("Not 'Mr.' Just 'Lovejoy.'"), these lighthearted r...Read the entire review

THE PROGRAM

At his core, the character of Simon Templar best fits the classic Robin Hood mold. Originally appearing on the printed pages towards the end the 1920s, the Leslie Charteris character has seen multiple adaptations both big screen and small, not to mention radio dramas. For most Simon Templar, or The Saint as he's known, is most familiar in the form of either Roger Moore's 1960's television run or the rather disastrous big screen adaptation of the mid 1990's featuring Val Kilmer attached to a woefully crafted screenplay. In the years between those two varying adaptations, a series of television films were produced featuring Simon Dutton in the shoes of the titular character. In "The Saint: Set One," three of those films are spread across three DVDs, offering a glimpse at one of the many different takes on the iconic character.

While no one would argue the overall qualit...Read the entire review

Martin Clues offers audiences a exciting and welldocumentedexploration of animals through an interesting nature-based programfilled withvariety and splendor.  Released byeducational label Athena on DVD in a full set, the program entitled MartinClunes's Wild Life is one that seeks to both entertain andenlighten audiencewith good, solid research on the animal kingdom. It also is designed asaseries to showcase beautiful camerawork of these wondrous animals.

The program is both hosted and narrated by MartinClunes(TV's Doc Martin). This set seeks to expand the mind on topicssuch asthe relationship between man and dogs, the role of horses within theworkforceof humans, the li...Read the entire review

Agatha Christie's Marple has now arrived atits sixthseries of production. Originally aired on the British ITV network, theseriesbegan in 2004 and is fast approaching its tenth anniversary since itscreation.Series 1-3 featured Geraldine McEwan in the title role but areplacement wasfound in series 4 with Julia McKenzie as Miss Marple. McKenzie thencontinued performingthe part until the 6th and final series finished in December 2013. AgathaChristie's Marple was a great success on the PBS Mystery!program.However,  production rights to the worksof Agatha Christie were purchased in 2014 by BBC to produceadaptations; finalizingthe run of this beloved adaptation. Therefore, Series 6 m...Read the entire review

The Series:

Written and directed by David Kane, The Field Of Blood, based on the novels The Field Of Blood and The Dead Hour by Denise Mina, debuted on BBC One in May of 2011. It arrives on DVD domestically through distributors Acorn Video, their two disc set containing the two episodes of series one on the first disc and the two episodes of series two on the second disc.

Series One:

The first story takes place in 1982 and introduces us to Paddy Meehan (Jayd Johnson), a young woman who works at the local Glaswegian newspaper as a ‘copy boy.' She's made fun of for her weight frequently but has aspirations of making it as a legitimate journalist even if the newsroom is still very much a boys club. The paper is lorded over by news editor Murray Devlin (David Morrissey of The Walking Dead) and initially Paddy bonds a little bit with the only oth...Read the entire review

On the heels of The Broker's Man, Series 1, released this past February, comes the British show's second and final series. The policier-type investigation/mystery program stars Kevin Whately, the actor best known as Robbie Lewis, first as the junior Detective Sergeant on (Chief) Inspector Morse (1987-2000) and more recently as the senior Detective Inspector on Lewis (2006-present). The Broker's Man, produced near the end of Morse, when that program had forsaken its multi-episode seasons format for annual television movies during 1995-2000, remains largely unknown in America. As I noted in my review of Series 1, The Broker's Man doesn't even merit its own Wikipedia entry, and seems mostly forgotten even in Britain. But it provides Whately the chance to play a very different character from Robbie Lewis, even though the plots definitely fall within the same, gener...Read the entire review

Goodbye Barnaby Jones, apparently...and what a non-event that is with these three less-than-impressive outings. Acorn has released Midsomer Murders: Set 24, a three-disc, three-episode collection of the last half of the U.K. murder mystery's 15 "series" (season), which originally aired in England from September, 2012 to January, 2013. Episodes included here are Written in the Stars, The Sicilian Defense, and Schooled in Murder. It's not news anymore that Neil Dudgeon now comfortably helms the series, but one would think it was a big deal that Jason Hughes was leaving the show after almost nine years of solid, fun work as Sergeant Benjamin Jones. Well...apparently not to the producers, who refuse to give his character a proper send-off (looks like Hughes' complaints about the production had merit...). Viewers can complain about the slipshod quality of...Read the entire review

The Show:
Jason Isaacs returns as brooding, country music loving, Scottish private detective Jackson Brodie, in Series 2 of Case Histories. Brodie is still as charming and loveable, and self-destructive, as ever, and Isaacs' presence is a big reason why the show continues to work so well.

Series 2 picks up some time after Series 1 left off. Brodie's ex-wife and daughter Marlee (Millie Innes) have moved to New Zealand, and he's broken off his relationship with DC Louise Munroe (Amanda Abbington) to spend a couple of months with his daughter, and to do a very sketchy job in Germany. That job affects him deeply, and when he returns to Edinburgh he's something of a broken man. Zawe Ashton returns as his long suffering secretary Deborah, and a few other characters from Series 1 are back as well.

The format is somewhat different this time around. Before, three of ...Read the entire review

Vera is a mystery crime series based upon aseries ofbestselling books written by author Ann Cleeves, who continued her workwritingthese novels after the creation of the TV adaptation, reportedlyinfluenced bythe performance from lead Brenda Blethyn (Joe Wright's Pride andPrejudice),whose mannerisms and charm in the role is a large part of its success.Thisquiet mystery drama unfolds in each episode with a episodic approachwhere eachpart plays like individual books in an ongoing series of stories setwith thesame primary characters in the investigative roles.

The main character is Vera Stanhope (BrendaBlethyn), atough and determined Detective Chief Inspector (DCI) working for the(fictional) population of Northumberlan...Read the entire review

Delicious. Acorn and ITV Studios have released Mapp & Lucia: The Complete Collection, a 4-disc, 10-episode collection of the 1985-1986 U.K. comedy based on the beloved novels of E.F. Benson. Starring Geraldine McEwan, Prunella Scales, Nigel Hawthorne, Denis Lill, Mary MacLeod, James Greene, Cecily Hobbs, Geoffrey Chater, Marion Mathie, Geraldine Newman, Ken Kitson, and Lucinda Gane, the snotty, arch, and frequently hilarious Mapp & Lucia: The Complete Collection is perfect light summer viewing for those who prefer their British humor served up with a condescending smile (and fear not if you've haven't read the celebrated novels--I hadn't). It looks like the same minor text extras from the 2002 DVD release are included here, so there's no need to double-dip--nor for the same acceptable fullscreen transfers again utilized in this release.

Wealthy, imperious, de...Read the entire review

Longer and more complete, yes...but better? Acorn has released Anna Karenina, a 3-disc, 10-episode collection of the 1977 BBC television serial adaptation of the Leo Tolstoy novel (it appeared here in the States on PBS' Masterpiece Theater in early 1978). Starring Nicola Pagett, Eric Porter, Stuart Wilson, Robert Swann, Davyd Harries, Caroline Langrishe, Carole Nimmons, Marilyn Le Conte, Paul Spurrier, and a host of familiar U.K. performers, this long, long version of Tolstoy's novel is the most faithful--at the very least in terms of representing Tolstoy's many plotlines--of the various cinematic adaptations I've seen over the years. But does that greater surface fidelity to the material make it an aesthetically more worthwhile movie/miniseries? No extras for these as-expected less-than-sterling fullscreen transfers.

It's impossible to encapsulate Tolstoy's 900+ page...Read the entire review