Cat.no: 37115 00053

Cert: 15

Running time: 105 minutes

Year: 1987

Pressing: 1998

Region(s): 2, PAL

Chapters: 10 plus extras

Sound: Dolby Digital 2.0 (Stereo)

Languages: English

Subtitles: None

Presented in Fullscreen

16:9-Enhanced: No

Macrovision: No

Price: £19.99

Extras : Scene index, Cast/Crew Biographies, Behind-the-scenes, Featurette: The Mystery Of Morse (50 mins) - includes cast interviews

Director:

Alastair Reed

Kenny McBain

Anthony Minghella (based on the novel by Colin Dexter)

Chief Inspector Morse: John Thaw (Chaplin, Cry Freedom, TV: "Goodnight Mr. Tom", "Home To Roost", "Into The Blue", "Kavanagh QC", "The Sweeney", "A Year In Provence")
Sgt. Lewis: Kevin Whatley (The English Patient, TV: "Auf Wiedersehen Pet", "The Broker's Man", "Peak Practice")
Anne Stavely: Gemma Jones (TV: "The Duchess Of Duke Street")
George Jackson: Patrick Troughton (The Box Of Delights, Sinbad And The Eye Of The Tiger, TV: "Doctor Who")

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Morse (John Thaw) who never quite find romance, thinks that at last things will turn out differently when he meets beautiful Anne Stavely (Gemma Jones), but it is a love destined not to be when Anne is found hanging from a beam in mysterious circumstances. Morse suspects murder and sets out to descover the truth.

Joining him is Sergeant Lewis (Kevin Whately) and their investigation into The Dead Of Jericho is the beginning of a lasting partnership.

The picture has a good average bitrate of 5.20Mb/s, never dropping below 4Mb/s - until scraping that border towards the end - and were the disc a dual-layer, this could provide a top-notch picture. However, some minor artifacts which are present throughout the film will only really strike out to those looking for them as closely as I did and it must be mentioned that the source material isn't 100% perfect, since it was shot on video nearly twelve years ago. It is presented in fullscreen and so is not enhanced for 16:9 televisions.

The sound is stereo (presented in Dolby Digital 2.0) and comes across clearly, but is not going to set your speakers on fire.

Extras :

Biographies :

Featurette: The Mystery Of Morse :

This segment was directed by Ted Clisby and produced by Jim Berrow.

Chapters :

Languages/Subtitles :

Menu :

On inserting the disc, a copyright logo is shown before the film begins. Then you can go back to the menu and select specific scenes or the biographies.

Now despite Carlton bringing a range of old films and TV drama to a new format, when will they include multiple language soundtracks and a decent number of chapters.

Overall, this is quite an entertaining disc, but how often do 'whodunnits' stand up to repeated viewing? Probably quite well if the video releases are anything to go by. I wouldn't say this disc is a reason to invest in a DVD player, but if you own the requisite hardware and want this title in your collection, the quality is worth the extra money over the VHS release, especially since the video does not contain the 50-minute featurette.

I'll be interested to see what comes next for Morse on DVD. Many episodes were put out 2-per-video as double-packs for £19.99. If Carlton can release DVDs that way, they're onto a winner with this series.

FILM                    : ***
PICTURE QUALITY         : ****
SOUND QUALITY           : ***
EXTRAS                  : **
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OVERALL                 : ***

Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 1998.