MovieChat Forums > Callan (1967) Discussion > Callan DVDs as of: December 2009

Callan DVDs as of: December 2009


*** Please use this post as a pseudo 'sticky' and post updates if you have helpful and verifiable information. For the trolls out there, don't flame me or others, just post useful information for the benefit of our fellow 'Callan' fans. End of rant - normal transmission resumes" :)

Unfortunately, not all episodes of "Callan" have survived. Many of the original episodes for both Series 1 & 2 (recorded in black & white) were lost due to the common practice at the time of "scrubbing" video tape for re-use by Thames et al. The practice of archiving was not what it is today either, and for that matter, the careful management & clear transfer of original copyright. The original TV networks that produced these programmes went through a succession of corporate ownership & transfer far too complex to bog down this post.

More information about the Callan series, may be sourced from the British Film Institute's National Archive.
http://www.bfi.org.uk/nationalarchive/access/
or
http://www.screenonline.org.uk/tv/id/550887/

Anyway, here goes:

REGION 2:
U.K.
Network DVD in the UK (www.networkdvd.co.uk) will be releasing a box set on the 22nd February, 2010 (EAN 5027626323141) appropriately named "Callan: The Monochrome Years" being both black & white and an incomplete selection of episodes from both Series 1 & 2. From my sources the following episodes are to be released:
Episode List:
Pilot: 'A Magnum for Schneider' (Originally televised on 4th Feb 1967 as as part of the "Armchair Theatre" series by ABC Weekend Television)

Series 1:
1. The Good Ones are All Dead (1)
2. You Should Have Got Here Sooner (6)

Series 2:
1. Red Knight, White Knight (1)
2. The Most Promising Girl of Her Year (2)
3. Little Bits and Pieces of Love (4)
4. Let's Kill Everybody (5)
5. Heir Apparent (6)
6. Death of a Friend (9)
7. Nice People Die at Home (14)
8. Death of a Hunter (15)
Episode listing to be confirmed. DVD extras unknown at this stage.

Beware of a DVD box set still floating around eBay and elsewhere erroneously titled "Callan: The Complete Series One". This box set was originally released by Clear Vision on 10th October 2001 (EAN 5021123106962) and is now out of production. This box set is actually Series Three (3) and is the first of the Callan series made in colour by Thames Television.

If making a purchase for Series 1, check against EANs quoted above. Plenty of people have been duped this.

For Series 3 & 4, See both Region 4 (Australia) & Region 1 (USA) following.

REGION 4:
Australia, New Zealand & Oceania
SERIES 3 & 4
A very good (& better quality than the Clear Vision DVDs) release of Series 3 & 4 was re-issued on the 8th December, 2008 by Umbrella Entertainment in Australia. http://www.umbrellaent.com.au

Given the age and quality of the original video & audio, they have done a pretty reasonable job with the DVD transfer & authoring process. Both box sets are in PAL format and are encoded Region 2 & 4 (box says Region 4) and therefore suitable for the Australian, New Zealand and the U.K. & European market. The UPC/EAN barcode for these series are:

Series 3 (1970) UPC/EAN 3000000071632(3 discs plus Edward Woodward interview in 2000)
Series 4 (1972) UPC/EAN 3000000071748(4 discs including audio commentaries
and separately:

"Callan (The Movie)" (1973) UPC/EAN 9322225015470 (1 Disc, DVD Extras * Edward Woodward interview in 2000)PAL Format, Region 0 (All Regions). This was included in an earlier Series 4 box set edition, but dropped from the current Series 4 box set above. May be out of production now, but still available on eBat etc.
Made in 1973, this feature film is an expanded rewrite of the first TV episode in which the disgraced former secret service agent David Callan is given an opportunity to redeem himself with one more liquidation. His assignment is to kill a businessman responsible for a number of bombings and gun running, but not everything goes according to plan.

REGION 1
USA & Canada
Series 3 % 4
Acorn Media in the USA http://www.acornmedia.com/
will be issuing both these Series (3 & 4) as:-

"Callan: Set 1" UPC 054961828098 on 7th July, 2009
DVD Extras •Callan trivia •Biography of Edward Woodward

"Callan: Set 2" UPC 054961834099 on 26th January, 2010
DVD Extras •Audio commentaries with star Edward Woodward for episodes 5 and 11 •Biography of Edward Woodward.

Both of these sets are Region 1 encoded & NTSC format.

At this point, it would appear that none of the current and upcoming releases have been given any digital re-mastering treatment. This is a very expensive and time-consuming process and to achieve the economies of scale to recover the costs would require substantial volumes of sales. Please consider, the age of the originals, the production quality of the video and audio (mono) at the time they were recorded, plus the ravages of time for the episodes that have survived
will make us very fortuinate for what we will receive. Nobody circa 1967-73 when these programmes were made considered the virtues of achiving TV programmes, let alone imagined that 40 years later there would be technolgy to record them on little shiny DVD discs to sell to consumers for them to play back at will. Everything is always perfect in hindsight.

Hope this helps as there has been a lot of confusion with the titling & availablity of the "Callan" series.

+++ Please feel free to correct errors & also help keep this thread alive and up-to-date. Thank you :)

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I wonder why they haven't included the episode 'The Worst Soldier I Ever Saw'. This black and white episode was discovered in the 90s on a rare rough cut, pre-final edit tape (not the final broadcast edit which was wiped in the 70s), complete with outakes and studio transitions between scenes. The episode therefore exists in a complete form, albeit in need of editing down to its original broadcast form.

I've had the episode on tape in its rough cut form for years, so why haven't Network restored it and listed it amongst the existing episodes?

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Very strange indeed, but perhaps:
1) Too much cost involved in re-editing to a finished product.
2) Copyright issues. Lost, untransferable etc. Network can only produce those that they received rights too. Don't forget the original broadcaster ANC, went through a massive reformation/transformation/merger to eventually become Thames Television. "The Avengers" series also went through the same difficulties with the early episodes for the first couple of series.
3) Network may have only purchased rights to the available & usable finished (televised) product, not the original source materials. Some of my other Network DVDs old older TV series appear to be a straight transfer from VHS tapes and not original master tapes to keep costs down.

You're very fortunate to have that episode. Must have been lucky enough to have avoided the then ubiqitous scrubbing of tapes that was going on at the time. I doubt that it even made it to the BFI's film & television archives, because if it had, then Network should have been able to negotiate the rights with the copyright owner.

I must say that I am currently viewing Series 3 for the nth time and keep wondering how much I miss the early black & white episodes. It feels somewhat strange picking-up from Series 3 and trying to remember Callan's past from Series 1 & 2 which I last saw about 25-30 years ago now.

I will have to make do with Network's "The Monochrome Years" when they are released, and live with the fact that missing episodes may never ever come to light. I'd give my right arm to see the episode you have, warts and all.

Keep up the posts.. :)

et tu Brute!

Locked my wire coat-hanger in the car - good thing that I always carry spare keys in my pocket :)

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I'll re edit it for them for free. I'm studying film and moving image production and am specialising in editing.

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That's a good area to be involved in. Are you going to learn how to bring back to life films and tv through digital re-mastering?

Good luck with your studies

et tu Brute!

Locked my wire coat-hanger in the car - good thing that I always carry spare keys in my pocket :)

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I guess that could be something I could look into. I would preferably just edit new films and TV programmes.

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Good news. The magazine DVD & Blu-Ray Monthly discusses Network's forthcoming Callan Monochrome episodes release in their March issue. They say that alongside the main existing episodes is a newly re-edited version of an unedited episode.

They don't name the episode or go into specifics, but this is surely the episode 'The Worst Soldier I Ever Saw' which I discussed in my earlier post. I've had it for years in its existing rough cut (pre-broadcast) state. Hopefully this news means that it's now been edited down into something approaching its broadcast form for everybody to enjoy.

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deleted to place it properly in reply to the first post.

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Great first post in this thread, et_tu_Brute. I was wondering if you know which episodes had an Edward Woodward commentary on the Australian release for S3 and S4 and if so, will you please specify them? I'm curious if we (North America) got the same commentaries or if there are more on the Australian releases.

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Hi MickeyKost,

Series/Season 3 Had no commentaries for any of the episodes, only an interview from 2000 with Edward Woodward about the making of the series, which was very good.

Series/Season 4 had commentaries on 2 of the 4 discs, and for the life of me I can't remember which particular episodes. A friend has borrowed my set and when I have them back in the next week or so, I'll post an update about which episodes.

I would hazard to guess that the US Sets are taken from the same masters issued by Talkback Thames/FremantleMedia as the Australian releases. The US distributor Acorn don't do anything fancy with their releases so I would imagine that they are identical other than Region 1 encoded and NTSC format.

Cheers & beers

et tu, Bruté


Locked my wire coat-hanger in the car - good thing that I always carry spare keys in my pocket :)

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Series/Season 3 Had no commentaries for any of the episodes, only an interview from 2000 with Edward Woodward about the making of the series, which was very good.


Thanks. :) I saw that interview in 3 parts on youtube and yes, it was very good. It's very disappointing that it's not included on either North American set.

Series/Season 4 had commentaries on 2 of the 4 discs, and for the life of me I can't remember which particular episodes. A friend has borrowed my set and when I have them back in the next week or so, I'll post an update about which episodes.


In that case, probably episodes 5 and 11 have the commentaries, since those are the ones on my set.

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My Region 2 Callan: The Monochrome Years has been shipped to me, got the notification today (unfortunately, the estimated arrival is March 3rd). Does anyone know if there are any extras, and if so, what?

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No extras per-se, 'just' the re-edited to transmission format "Worst Soldier..." (which incidentally can be put into the list at Series 2 Episode 13) and The pilot "A Magnum for Schneider" as already posted...

Still to have this set after so many years in rights limbo is amazing... and at a reasonable price to be honest, considering the difficulties overcome. The back of the case for copyright mentions Fremantle, Talkback Thames, Thames TV, ABC TV, Optimum, Studio Canal and the BFI!

Also, info to add for those who don't know, Network are also releasing Callan: The Colour Years on 10th May which will include Series 3 and 4 (so this will be the first Series 4 UK/R2 release).
Extras, if any, are unknown at this time, but hopefully there will be some to tempt those who already have imported the R4 sets... and at RRP of about £80 there may well need to be!

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No extras per-se, 'just' the re-edited to transmission format "Worst Soldier..." (which incidentally can be put into the list at Series 2 Episode 13) and The pilot "A Magnum for Schneider" as already posted...


Okay, thanks.

Still to have this set after so many years in rights limbo is amazing... and at a reasonable price to be honest, considering the difficulties overcome. The back of the case for copyright mentions Fremantle, Talkback Thames, Thames TV, ABC TV, Optimum, Studio Canal and the BFI!


Totally agreed and very much looking forward to my set arriving. :) I have the North American releases for the colour sets, so unless they have really, really, really amazing extras, I won't be getting the British boxsets.

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Keep us posted once you've viewed the Monochrome Years.

Should be a bit of a challenge to watch with some of the episodes missing :)

Cheers & beers,

et tu, Bruté


Locked my wire coat-hanger in the car - good thing that I always carry spare keys in my pocket :)

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Keep us posted once you've viewed the Monochrome Years.

Should be a bit of a challenge to watch with some of the episodes missing :)


Know of any good episode guides that gives a description in detail of the missing episodes?

I'm glad I'll be able to show my sister the S2 finale, the introduction of James Cross (and how disappointing is that, that Anthony Valentine left the show and we didn't get to see an immediate confrontation after Meres shot Callan? I would have loved to have seen Meres claim he was Callan's brother, in order to get in and see him) and then the return of Meres and rest of S4.

Hurry up and arrive, (supposedly) next Wednesday! Although I'd be happy for it to arrive on Friday, Monday or Tuesday.

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Hi mickykost,

"Know of any good episode guides that gives a description in detail of the missing episodes?"

You might try the British Film Institute Archives.

http://www.bfi.org.uk/nationalarchive/access/
http://www.screenonline.org.uk/tv/id/550887/


I't appears to be the best resource, however, access to much of the material is not available to non-residents of the UK. Access is generally given via public libaries and UK educational institutions.

I'm in Australia and our "National Archives" is the equivalent. They are amazing places to visit and it's a shame that they were not in existance 40-50 years ago. If they had, many of the lost treasures of film and television such as "Callan" may have avoided the then prevalent video scrubbing process and would have been preserved for archiving instead.

Forsight is a wonderful thing in hindsight :)

What's your latest take on the "Colour Years" box set? Any extras? - Is it the same as the Region 4 Series 3 & 4 box sets?

Cheers and beers,

et tu, Bruté?



Locked my wire coat-hanger in the car - good thing that I always carry spare keys in my pocket :)

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