Ronnie Barker-Seven of One (1973)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	Main Menu Audio
Rating
Year Of Production	1973
Running Time	206:03 (Case: 210)
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (115:56)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Sydney Lotterby Harold Snoad
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	Ronnie Barker
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$29.95	Music	None Given

    In 1973, having established himself as one of Britain's leading comics, Ronnie Barker was in need of a television vehicle. Rather than film a pilot or two that would only be seen by a handful of TV execs, Barker chose to film seven and screen them as a series in their own right. Thus, Seven of One was born.

    Of the seven shows, three would go on to become series in their own right. Two of those, Porridge and Open All Hours, are still regarded among the greatest British comedies of all time, according to the 2004 Britain's Best Sitcom poll at any rate.

    The shows themselves are a bit of a mixed bag. Some are absolute gems, others are merely good, and there is only one real dud. The episodes are:

Open All Hours

    A day in the life of Arkwright (Ronnie Barker), a miserly corner shopkeeper and his reluctantly subservient nephew Granville (David Jason). This very amusing pilot was picked up for the successful series of the same name.

Prisoner and Escort

    Norman Stanley Fletcher (Ronnie Barker), a career criminal, has been sentenced to prison. Prisoner and Escort tells the tale of Fletcher's journey to the pen, escorted by the soft-hearted Mr Barraclough (Brian Wilde) and the authoritarian Mr Mackay (Fulton Mackay). This episode is a cracker and a great start to the story that would go on to become the series Porridge.

My Old Man

    An embittered former train driver (Ronnie Barker) is forced to leave his condemned home, and goes to live with his daughter and her 'posh' husband in a new up-town flat. Pretty formulaic stuff, but well executed. This pilot was picked up by rival network ITV, featuring Dad's Army star Clive Dunn in the role played by Barker in this pilot.

Spanner's Eleven

    The tale of ailing local football team Ashfield Athletic and its trainer, local cabbie/hot dog salesman/chauffeur Norman Spanner (Ronnie Barker). Spanner has been given an ultimatum; if his team doesn't win their next game, Spanner is out and the slimy, backstabbing club physician will be promoted to trainer. Alas, despite a promising setup, this is the only real dud on the series.

Another Fine Mess

    Ronnie Barker and Roy Castle are Laurel and Hardy impersonators who want to attend a local talent show. The trouble is that Barker's domineering wife has him trapped in the house. This show features a very different formula to those in the rest of the series. It starts out incredibly straight, so much so that I was wondering when the jokes were going to come, and launches into some hilarious slapstick as soon as you have let your guard down.

One Man's Meat

    A portly house-husband is forced to go on a starvation diet by his wife. He is trapped in their posh flat with nothing but the bedclothes he is wearing and goes to great lengths to fill his appetite, much to the peril of his house-keeper. This is the most outrageous of the shows and consequently one of the funniest. This episode was written by Ronnie Barker under the pseudonym Jack Goetz.

I'll Fly You For A Quid

    A Welsh family who are obsessed with gambling and will bet on everything and anything discover that their grandfather backed a winner on the day he died. Unfortunately, they make this discovery shortly after he is sealed in his coffin and don't know where they can find the betting slip... Despite never being picked up for a series in its own right, this black affair is probably the pick of the bunch. It features Ronnie Barker in a couple of roles - even playing off himself at one point!

Video

    The video quality varies a little between episodes, but they generally suffer similar minor flaws in the transfer. Each episode is certainly watchable, but appears dated - consequently they don't look too bad on a smaller display, but don't look great on larger high resolution displays.

    Most Ronnie Barker fans will appreciate that the source material is not what you would expect of a modern show and really want to know where this one stands in relation to their own videos and the answer here is probably not going to shock them. The video quality is certainly an improvement on the old VHS tape you may have lying around at home, but it's far from perfect. These episodes have not been restored to the same high standard that, for example, many of the Doctor Who episodes have, but their presentation could have have been much worse.

    Like many shows of the day, it is obvious that some scenes were shot on 16mm (generally outdoors shots) and some on video (on-set shots). For the 16mm scenes, the image is generally not very sharp and film artefacts are quite evident from time to time, particularly during the introduction and title sequences to episodes (though the episodes themselves have been reasonably well cleaned up). Scenes shot on video tend to be sharper than those shot on 16mm (the difference is quite apparent) and obviously don't have the associated film artefacts, but they do display some cross-colouration and colour bleeding (both these artefacts are quite noticeable at 5:42 of My Old Man). Comet trails are occasionally visible in the video-shot scenes (such as at 24:21 of I'll Fly You For a Quid).

    Each episode suffers from chroma noise and an associated increase in MPEG macro blocking artefacts and a frequently grainy look. Darker scenes and areas are certainly more prone to macro blocking.

    The colour of the episodes appears a little faded by modern standards, but is quite true to the general look of material of that era.

    This is an RSDL disc. The layer break occurs between the fourth and fifth episodes, Spanner's Eleven and Another Fine Mess, at 115:56.

    White English subtitles are available and are quite accurate and appropriately timed.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    Each episode features one English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192 Kbps) audio track.

    Dialogue is fairly clear, though none too crisp, and quite discernable, but is occasionally a little drowned out by a painful laughter track.

    The audio is very true to the original source. There is no discernable surround use or subwoofer use. The audio generally sounds very mono, as is accurate for the time, and hovers about the centre speaker.

    There is not much going in the way of music throughout the episodes. Most feature nothing save the opening and closing jingle.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

    There are no extras save for a static menu with a short clip of background music (if indeed you consider that an extra).

    This series is currently unavailable in Region 1. An identical version is available in Region 2.

    This is not Ronnie Barker's best work, but it is a good collection for casual fans or anyone after a casual introduction to the style of Ronnie Barker. This is quite an eclectic series, but many viewers will appreciate the variety. There are no extras.

    The video quality is quite variable. Though not too bad on a small screen, many video artefacts will be noticeable on larger displays. At no point is it terrible, but it does look quite dated.

    The audio is very basic, but no less than you'd reasonably expect from a sitcom of this era.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall