Open All Hours-Series 2 (1976)

This review is sponsored by

BUY IT

General		Extras
Category	Comedy	None
Rating
Year Of Production	1976
Running Time	208:56 (Case: 207)
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (104:13)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Ads Then Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Sydney Lotterby
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	Ronnie Barker David Jason Lynda Baron
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$29.95	Music	Max Harris Alistair McKay Tim Gleeson

    Classic British sitcom Open All Hours will need no introduction to most readers. Arkwright (Ronnie Barker), the stammering, tight-fisted corner shopkeeper, spends his days terrorizing customers, his overworked nephew/shop boy G-G-G-Granville (David Jason), and his would-be sweetheart nurse Gladys Emmanuel (Lynda Baron).

    The episodes in this series are:

Laundry Blues

    Gladys gives Arkwright an ultimatum - buy a new washer and dryer or she won't marry him. Needless to say, Arkwright goes to great lengths to pass off the second-cheapest second hand model he can find as brand new...

The Reluctant Traveller

    While trying to get the shop to himself for the evening, to impress the recently single milk lady, Granville convinces Gladys to demand Arkwright take her on holiday. Alas, Arkwright is reluctant to holiday anywhere out of sight of his shop!

Fig Biscuits and Inspirational Toilet Rolls

    Arkright goes to great lengths to shift some fig biscuits he is overstocked on and 'inspirational' toilet rolls that he is forced to purchase after leading their sales rep into an accident.

The New Suit

    Arkwright is forced into buying a new suit for the opportunity to take Gladys Emmanuel out.

Arkwright's Mobile Store

    Arkwright invests in a decrepit old ice cream truck, which he attempts to turn into a mobile store, after being harassed by Gladys for having never expanded his shop.

Shedding at the Wedding

    Gladys and Arkwright's trip to a wedding goes awry when they try to air our the moth ball smell from Arkwright's new suit en-route.

St. Albert's Day

    Arkwright invents a dubious holiday as an excuse to have Granville search the pockets of a foreign customer whom he suspects of shoplifting. Following the encounter he attempts to dissuade Granville from the thought that his father may be a foreigner.

Video

    The video is presented its original full frame 1.29:1 aspect ratio.

    These episodes look very dated and are likely to make videophiles cringe at "The Bad Old Days" of video. The video quality on display is not much better than that of a new VHS tape. This appears to be largely the fault of the source material, as there are no significant issues with MPEG compression artefacts.

    The video is a touch soft in many scenes and is marred by noticeable grain and low level noise. There are plenty of film artefacts visible, particularly in the opening credits to each episode. The shadow detail in darker scenes is good, and visibility in the shadows is not noticeably worse than any other scene.

    The image appears to have undergone a fair degree of edge enhancement, particularly the indoor scenes. Edge enhancement halos can be seen in almost every indoor scene and are occasionally distracting.

    A number of common analogue video artefacts are noticeable throughout the episodes. Comet trails are reasonably frequently visible in the brightly-lit indoor scenes. Cross colouration is also quite commonly noticeable in such places as Granville's tweed jacket. Mild colour bleeding can occasionally be seen from dark to light colours (such as the red stripes of Granville's scarf bleeding onto his shirt at 125:37). Background aliasing is noticeable from time to time, but is never a real hindrance.

    Colours vary considerably between scenes. Indoor scenes tend to be very bright and bold. Outdoor scenes tend to be a little washed out and dull.

    This is an RSDL disc. The layer break occurs mid-way through the fourth episode, at 104:13 (when all episodes are played together), but was not particularly distracting on my player.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    There is one English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192 Kbps) audio track available.

    The dialogue is fairly clear and well synchronised throughout.

    There is no noticeable usage of the surrounds or subwoofer at any stage. The mix generally sounds mono, hovering about the centre speaker. There is not much dynamic range in the audio, but it doesn't sound particularly bad - just dated.

    Beyond the opening and closing credits themes there is virtually no music... just a painful canned laughter track!

Audio Ratings Summary

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

    The disc opens with a brief trailer for a variety of BBC series that are available on DVD, but has nothing else in the way of extras.

    This title is not currently available in Region 1. An identical edition is available in Region 2 (UK).

    A classic British comedy that has been given a very basic DVD presentation. Open All Hours does seem a little dated, but is still hilarious and bears repeat viewing.

    The video presentation is a little disappointing. It is watchable, but not really enough of an improvement over VHS to justify upgrading your old videos.

    The audio is faithful to the original source and quite clear.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall