Boon - Series 1 [1986] [DVD]

Not as good as I remembered it.

It's great at last to have a DVD release of Boon. Series 1 is probably my least favourite series (though everything is relative!) because it was still finding its feet and the relationship between Ken and Harry hadn't quite gelled. The incongruous mix of film and video, and the bizarre "plinky-plonk" incidental music by Barrington Pheloung, were rather abrasive. But as an introductory scene-setter, it showed promise and was the basis for the refinements that led to the excellent Series 2 through to Series 7. Let's hope it won't be too long before Network release Series 4-7, the Nottingham episodes.My only criticism of the Series 1 DVDs (and it's not a problem with the Series 2 and Series 3 DVDs) is that the picture quality of the film segments is very poor. It looks as if Network averaged two consecutive frames of film to make each frame on the DVD (maybe to reduce the amount of film grain and other noise, prior to encoding the DVD), leading to very prominent ghosting whenever anyone moves or the camera pans - rather distracting! The fault isn't present on the studio segments shot on video.

I had to try out this series after admiring Michael Elphick in both "Private Schulz" and "Three Up, Two Down." This was a very fun series about a fireman who is forced out of work due to a work injury and must find new ways to support himself. The chemistry he has with his friends is fun to watch and the adventures he gets into are interesting and varied. I especially enjoyed his interaction with his friend Harry (David Daker). My only complaint would be that I wish there were subtitles because sometimes the regional accents were difficult to understand. (I'm from the USA and even though most UK accents are not a problem, something about the accents in this show proved to be troublesome at times.)I hope that they'll release more seasons of this show and while they're at it, how about the rest of "Three Up, Two Down" too?

Boon was and still is simply one of the very best TV dramas that ever hit our screens, especially as it was produced by Central Television, the regional ITV station I grew up with, back in the good old days when we all had regional television before ITV took it all away from us. The programme relied on well-written scripts and a fine cast of actors, including the late great Michael Elphick who played the title character. This is a must to buy if you're a fan of this sort of programme.

nothing wrong with the service, but as a series not to my liking

All of my purchased items I have been more than happy with

Happy with item

Nice to watch these again - well worth it