Extras: Audio commentary, Production Notes, Biographies
Directors:
Julian Farino and Joe Wright
Producer:
Ann Harrison-Baxter
Screenplay:
Russell T. Davies
Cast:
Bob Gossage: Alan Davies
Rose Cooper: Lesley Sharp
Holly Vance: Jessica Stevenson
Andy Lewis: Daniel Ryan
Carol Cooper: Barbara Marten
Trevor Gadds: Dave Hill
Carl Smith: Michael Begley
Anita Kendrick: Katy Cavanagh
Monica Gossage: Penelope Wilton
William Gossage: John Woodvine
When I watched Bob & Rose on TV in the
autumn of last year, I didn't have particularly high expectations and as it
clashed with a few things also on at the same time I wasn't too fussed if it
turned out to be rubbish as it would be one more thing to skip in the schedules.
However, to my surprise, it turned out to be a funny, engaging and insightful
series about the unlikely burgeoning relationship between Bob Gossage (Alan
Davies), a gay teacher and Rose Cooper (Lesley Sharp), a down-to-earth
straight woman, both in their late 30s.
Throw into the mix the typical stereotypes of Bob's dowdy best friend who is
female - Spaced's
and The Royle Family's
Jessica Stevenson as teacher colleague Holly, Rose's disapproving
mum - Casualty's Barbara Marten as Carol, her dodgy live-in lover
Trevor (City Central's Dave Hill), Rose's other (straight)
boyfriend, Andy (Daniel Ryan), Bob's ex-lover Carl (Michael Begley)
plus Bob's even more-disapproving parents when they find out he's come out
of the closet (Penelope Wilton and John Woodvine), add to the
fact that it's on ITV and you really should have a complete recipe for
disaster...
But, thankfully, it was far from that. Couple an experienced cast that work
well together to create a realistic scenario out of what could be seen to be
unrealistic, as well as the writing talent of
Queer as Folk's
Russell T. Davies - who I understand based elements of the script on
two people he knew in real life who had gone through the same thing - and
I know it's an extraordinary cliche to use a phrase like "funny and touching"
but it does exactly that.
Then, as soon as I heard the entire series was being released on DVD so quickly,
I was very impressed. We'd been treated to a great 16:9 anamorphic widescreen
picture on ITV showing off the club atmosphere of Manchester, for both gay and
straight, with music galore pumping out and there was nothing to suspect that
anything else would be put on disc...
Carlton cut off Bob's face to spite the picture...
Well, sadly, someone got to this and completely cocked up the picture by
using, what I imagine might be the same reason as Granada for their first and
second series DVDs for
Cold Feet,
a centre-cropped 4:3 image. The programme was shot in anamorphic 16:9 and
18 months ago Granada stated they used the "international masters" and clearly
couldn't find their own. Is this what has happened to Carlton? We demand to be
told and for a proper version to be reissued quick-smart.
The image itself is quite blocky at times too and... well, Carlton, this isn't
what DVD is all about. It's all about top-quality and widescreen, not... whatever
you've given us here. Poor showing indeed.
No problems with the sound quality, but standard surround sound for a TV show
won't set your speakers alight. The box does mention that the music soundtrack
differs from that heard on TV. It doesn't state if this is for the whole
series or selected songs. I'd imagine the latter, due to rights issues.
The extras are brief and nothing to get worked up about: A feature-length
Audio commentary from Russell T. Davies and Alan Davies (no relation,
I presume), plus short bog-standard Production Notes and Biographies.
There are 10 chapters per episode, subtley-animated menus with music from the
series and English subtitles, but does any of that matter if you won't be
watching it because it's not in widescreen (did I mention that already?)
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
