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 :)