Butterflies-Series 2 (1979)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	Menu Animation Interviews-Crew-Carla Lane (Writer) Filmographies-Cast Production Notes
Rating
Year Of Production	1979
Running Time	236:25 (Case: 268)
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (9:29) Dual Disc Set	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	John B. Hobbs Sydney Lotterby
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	Wendy Craig Geoffrey Palmer Andrew Hall Nicholas Lyndhurst Bruce Montague Michael Ripper Joyce Windsor Cindy Oswin
Case	Amaray-Transparent-S/C-Dual
RPI	$29.95	Music	Dolly Parton

    This set brings together the second season of Butterflies along with the show's 1979 Christmas special (which is really nothing more than another episode of the show, only set during Christmas).

    Butterflies is more or less a BBC sitcom about a family consisting of a dentist, his wife and their two grown up, layabout sons. The twist on the formula being that it primarily focuses on the mother of the family and her contemplating an affair with a very interested male friend. Our review of the first season set, found here, gives a more thorough run down of the plot.

    In its day, Butterflies was a groundbreaking series in a number of ways. It tackled the taboo concept of housewives and affairs. It was also the first BBC comedy to really incorporate a dramatic aspect, namely a housewife thinking of a picture beyond marriage, and caused some controversy within the BBC around this blend (along the lines of "comedy is comedy, drama is drama, and never the two shall meet" lines). Alas, age has not been kind to Butterflies. The comedic side, particularly the family side of things, holds up reasonably well for a formulaic BBC comedy, but the dramatic side seems incredibly dated to the point that it is almost silly (and not the kind of silly you want in a comedy). Simply put, society has moved beyond the black and white dilemmas that Butterflies presents. This series is probably best left in the vaults for those that remember it.

Video

    The video quality is very good for a series of this age. I have seen many more recent classic series with poorer transfers.

    The image is reasonably sharp and clear, though certainly not as sharp as you would expect from a recent series. Much the same goes for the colour, it looks dated but accurate for the era.

    There are no noticeable MPEG compression artefacts. A handful of minor video artefacts are visible, most notably the odd comet trail, but none particularly detract from the show. Occasional film artefacts are visible, particularly during the opening credits, but none are distracting.

    The series is split over two RSDL discs. The layer change appears between chapters during an episode on each disc, but does not interrupt the program.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    One English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224 Kb/s) audio track is present for each episode. There is no discernable pro logic component to this track, in fact it generally sounds mono (which would be standard for the era).

    The dialogue is quite clear and well synchronised throughout.

    There is little to no music used throughout the show save for the very folky opening theme.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

    The range of extras will be disappointing to fans. The extras are identical to those found on the first season set. The same extras repeated on each disc.

Menu

    The menu included motion but was silent. It did the job but you certainly would not get excited.

Interview with Carla Lane - Writer (11:17)

    An interview with the writer recorded in 2002. Presented with 16x9 enhancement. Despite being a fairly pretentious interview subject she does discuss some interesting stuff about the significance of the title, the casting, how much of the story was autobiographical and her life now. Interesting for fans of the series.

Cast Filmographies

    Text filmographies for the main four cast members and Carla Lane.

Production Notes

    A short section of text notes about the making of Butterflies.

    Region 1 misses out on the Carla Lane Interview.

    A set identical to the Region 4 is available in Region 2.

    A disappointing, dated BBC sitcom from 1979.

    The video quality is very good for the age of the material.

    The audio quality is fine.

    The small selection of extras are identical to those on the series one DVD set.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall