If Channel Four UK were to do a restoration/remaster of this in multi-region HD (hopefully with many extras) and they went back to the original two-part presentation (rather than the chopped-up mess done by US' A&E) I would happily pay a bundle for it.
Anyone listening at the RSC or Channel Four?
The version out on DVD is not a "chopped-up mess". It's a beautiful production that holds up very well. Of course, the original is fuller and, well, original, but that doesn't mean the one we have on DVD is not worth viewing. Your judgmentalism could turn someone off from the play, so how about canning the snide attitude?
shareSorry, no. My opinion is very clear. The original production was a masterpiece, this A&E mess is a sloppy piece of crap. Even the sound is sub-par.
shareSparrowhawk,
please say if you are talking of the A&E version or the British Version DvD
Someone who purchased a UK three DVD version of Nicholas Nickleby indicated that it appeared to have been broken up in the same manner as the USA A&E four DVD version. He did indicate that the video and audio quality of the UK DVD version appears better (perhaps due to the PAL format?). So there might be little to no difference between the USA and UK DVD versions. I recently purchased the four DVD A&E set for just over $1 (yes, $1.10 plus shipping for the entire set). I guess for that price I can bear with the edits made to the program. I do have a region free DVD player, so I could try to get a copy of the UK version (Metrodome release) which also is listed at 540 minutes like the A&E version. I could not find the CBS VHS tape release version for sale.
I just started viewing the first disk from the set and having viewed four movie versions (1947, 1977, 2001, and 2002) of this novel previously, watching this type of presentation is quite a contrast to the movie versions. I also was interested in seeing the 1968 TV version of this novel, but cannot find it being offered anywhere. I can understand the complaints about the editing done to a program presentation. A&E did the same thing to the Charles II program which edited out several scenes and even renamed the title of the program. The issue with merging or breaking up episodes from the original format into different parts can be annoying. I have a DVD and three different studio released VHS tape versions of a TV program that appears to have been edited by four film editors. Each of the four versions is slightly different from each other and some viewers posted comments about why some scenes were edited out and some scenes ran longer. Each film editor apparently made selections from a longer length video to fit the TV program into the alloted run time with the DVD broken to six episodes (less than 1/2 hour each) and the VHS to three parts (under 1 hour each). The DVD version actually has the logical breaks in the presentation matching to the plot flow, but also included shorter scenes which made some scenes appear disjointed. So the blame has to be directed to the film editor.