Extras: Behind-the-scenes, Photo Gallery, Deleted Scenes, Cast and Crew
Notes
Director:
Diarmud Lawrence
Producer:
Louise Berridge
Screenplay:
Boris Starling
Music:
Michel Colombier
Cast:
Red Metcalfe: Ken Stott
Eric Metcalfe: Kieran O'Brien
Kate Beauchamp: Frances Grey
Duncan Warren: Neil Dudgeon
Jez Clifton: Jamie Draven
Alison Reeves: Serena Gordon
Susan Metcalfe: Michelle Forbes
Rev. Stephen Hedges: Edward Woodward
DCS Emerson: Art Malik
Helen Warren: Gillian Taylforth
Bart Miller: Boris Starling
Messiah
is the recent BBC drama that's made a very swift transition to video and
DVD and all credit to Mosaic Movies for it.
This two-part story stars Ken Stott as Chief Inspector Red Metcalfe,
a determined cop presented with a serial killer with no suspect and no motive.
Bodies are turning up either hung, sawn in half or stripped of their skin
and the only thing linking each case is that every corpse has its tongue
removed and replaced by a silver spoon. The problems are increased when
someone on the case is letting slip the details to a journalist.
Those surrounding Red include his deaf wife Susan (Michelle Forbes,
who I didn't recognise at first), Detective Inspector Duncan Warren (Neil
Dudgeon), a family man without a family since his wife Helen (Gillian
Taylforth) divorced him, lives with another man and has custody of their
child. Other work colleagues include the reliable Jez Clifton (Jamie Draven)
and newcomer Kate Beauchamp (Frances Grey).
Also here is Red's deranged brother Eric (Kieran O'Brien, Robbie Coltrane's
son in Cracker) who has recently been released from prison and is
staying at the church under the guidance of Rev. Stephen Hedges (Edward Woodward,
doing his very best 'Harold Bishop'). There are also roles for Art Malik
as DCS Emerson and scriptwriter Boris Starling took great delight on
telling the BBC's Breakfast how he played the skin-stripped Bart Miller.
This is, essentially, the BBC's version of
Se7en,
which starred Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman, but it's far too
derivative and doesn't include the same kind of spectacular pay-off ending.
The two hours or so that preceeds it does provide interesting, if occasionally
gory, viewing.
Ken Stott's going slightly mad.
Shot in 16:9 for TV, it is presented in the same ratio and is anamorphic.
Given that it was only shown in early June, you'd expect a perfect print and
that's what you get. No damage, no artifacts (unlike the BBC's dumbing down
of the bitrate of their output via digital TV!) and no complaints.
The average bitrate is 5.59Mb/s.
Given the religious title the soundtrack contains some choral music and the
Dolby Surround soundtrack plunders along as you'd expect with few surprises.
A Dolby Digital 5.1 remix would've been nice, but given that this is the first
title I have seen from Mosaic that's actually in widescreen then we must be
thankful for that.
The extras begin with a 29-minute Behind-the-scenes piece containing
interviews with the cast and crew, but it must only be seen after you've
watched the main programme. A 12-picture Photo Gallery is here,
as are two Deleted Scenes, the details of which I won't give out as it
will spoil part of the plot, but the Cast and Crew Notes are disappointing
as it only saw a few words about each member in turn.
Only a measly 13 chapters break up the show, with two reserved for the closing
credits, the main menu contains music and, sadly, there are no subtitles
which is a shame given Stott's strong Scottish accent and that they will have
been prepared for the broadcast.
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
