Open All Hours-Series 1 (1976)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	Featurette-Open All Hours Pilot Biographies-Crew
Rating
Year Of Production	1976
Running Time	201:23 (Case: 200)
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Roy Clarke
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	Ronnie Barker David Jason Lynda Baron
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$34.95	Music	None Given

   Open All Hours is a gentle comedy made at the height of Ronnie Barker's popularity. It is the day-to-day story of money-grubbing shopkeeper Arkwright, played with gleeful wickedness by comic genius Barker. The episodes revolve around Arkwright and his quest for the affections of Nurse Gladys Emmanuel and the almighty pound. He is ably assisted by his constantly love-sick Nephew Granville, played by the very talented David Jason.

    As with Ronnie Barker's Porridge, Open All Hours relies on well-written, likeable characters and believable situations. The scripts are delightful and have survived the test of time. The real delight as always is Ronnie Barker. His characterisation of the Scrooge-like Arkwright is brilliant, stutter and all. Barker is a chameleon, simply becoming the characters he portrays. Arkwright, like Fletcher from Porridge is never short of believable. The rest of the cast provide added excellence, with both David Jason and Lynda Baron delivering great performances.

    Open All Hours is a must-see for all fans of Ronnie Barker and British humour.

Video

    Open All Hours is presented in an aspect ratio of 1:33:1 as it was originally broadcast. It is not 16x9 enhanced.

    This is a decent transfer with acceptable sharpness levels and shadow detail. There were no low level noise problems and grain was kept to a minimum

    Colours are adequate, if somewhat muted, as is to be expected for a 30 year old TV show.

    There are frequent artefacts throughout the episodes, but they are dark flecks and are thus not distracting.

   Considering the age of the show, I was surprised at how good it looks - definitely a solid transfer.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    Open All Hours has been given an English Dolby Digital 2.0 audio track.

    Dialogue is always clear, and as this show was 90% studio bound there are no audio sync problems.

    The music for the series is adequate and not distracting.

    I could not detect any surround effects, nor should there be for this quiet little comedy. The sound is more than acceptable as it is.

   The subwoofer barely makes a flutter.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Featurette - The Original Pilot Episode

    A nice addition, with a different actress playing Nurse Emmanuel. All the elements were in place from the beginning and it is easy to see why the show was a success.

Biographies-Crew

    The Region 4 and Region 2 versions of this DVD are identical. There is no Region 1 version as yet.

   Open All Hours is a terrific British comedy that showcases the incomparable talents of Ronnie Barker. This DVD offers Series 1 with a solid transfer and has a nice array of extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall