Secret Diary of a Call Girl-Series 1 (2007)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy Drama	None
Rating
Year Of Production	2007
Running Time	173:36
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (67:06)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Yann Demange Susan Tully
Studio Distributor	Tiger Aspect Entertainment One	Starring	None Given
Case	?
RPI	?	Music	None Given

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.78:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	Yes
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Loosely based on a the blog of a high-class call girl, Secret Diary of a Call Girl is a half hour (well, 22-minute) dramedy that explores the ins and outs (no pun intended) of one such lass. Pop star come Doctor Who companion Billie Piper stars as Hannah, an attractive young Londoner who leads a secret double life as a high-class call girl under the pseudonym "Belle". Hannah, who confesses to being in the job primarily because she is lazy and likes the money, leads viewers through her experiences, explaining them directly to the camera, as she deals with all manner of clients and comes clean to her male best friend Ben (Iddo Goldberg) about her profession. There is little continuity between episodes, save for the status of a few basic character relationships.

    Secret Diary of a Call Girl sounds a lot better on paper than it plays on screen. The show is consistently amusing, but never particularly funny. Dramatically, the show is limp and shallow. Admittedly, the short timeframe of each episode makes it more difficult to really flesh out characters and plots than would be afforded with a longer running time, but the show squanders the limited time it has with endless montages and general filler rather than plot. Each episode relies heavily on the risqué nature of the concept to hold any interest, but never really explores the moral ambiguity of the situation or characters. Whilst show is is certainly watchable, it never enagages its audience as much as it should. In the end, Secret Diary of a Call Girl is only really memorable for its moderate T&A.

    This disc includes all 8 episodes of the show's first series.

Video

    The show is presented in a 1.78:1 aspect ratio and is 16x9 enhanced.

    The series looks to have been shot on video and generally looks good. The image is clear and generally sharp, save for most of the naughty scenes that appear to have been deliberately shot with a slightly soft focus. There is a reasonable level of shadow detail in the image. The colours are fairly natuural and look good, rather than great.

    A moderate level of grain is noticeable in darker scenes, though it is not particularly distracting. There are otherwise no noticeable video artefacts.

    This is a RSDL disc, with the layer change placed between episodes.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    The disc features a single English Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo (224Kbps) Audio track.

    The audio is fairly basic, but generally adequate for the show. The dialogue is clear and easy to understand. There are no issues with audio sync.

    The show is backed by a forgettable mix of pop/rock and a simple score that fits in with the rest of the soundtrack. Apparently a number of the songs used in the TV broadcast of the series were missing from the Region 2 DVD release. If that is the case with this release, the missing/changed tracks aren't noticeable if you aren't familiar with the broadcst version.

    A small degree of prologic surround use is noticeable in the track, though barely. A small amount of bottom end reaches subwoofer level.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

    None. This is as bare bones as a DVD can get.

    The Region 1 edition features an Interview with Billie Piper that is not found on the Region 4 edition, making it the version of choice by a hair (leaving aside the economics of it all).

    A forgettable dramedy that coasts on its risqué subject matter rather than constructing memorable characters or plots.

    The video and audio are of a good standard, but the bare-bones nature of this disc makes it only a worthwhile purchase for serious fans.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall