14 Episodes?! But It Aired in 5 Parts!

I saw the original airing on PBS TV back in April-May 2009 and have five versions of the program on DVD and Blu-ray. I have the DVDs for the original PBS airing (Emmy award copy), the USA Region 1 program, the UK Region 2 program, and the Dutch subtitled Region 2 program. I also have the UK Region 2 Blu-ray program.

The 14 (originally it was 15, but episode 15 was merged with episode 14 because the series was preempted for one week due to a murder case TV special) UK original airing was roughly broken down as follows:

Episode 1 - 60 minutes
Episodes 2 through 13 - under 30 minutes each
Episode 14 - 60 minutes

It was to be shown on BBC TV as a 1 hour opening program with 1/2 hour installments for the remaining episodes. Due to the preemption during the week of the 14th episode, that one was merged with episode 15 and shown as a combined episode. The DVD sets have the program as it was shown on UK TV with it broken down to 14 episodes (except for the PBS Emmy award version which is in the 5 part format).

When it was shown on PBS TV, due to air time constraints, the 14 episode format had to be condensed down to 5. Each of the USA 5 episodes were a merged result of three UK TV episodes. So USA Episode 1 is UK Episodes 1 through 3, etc. and so forth. The fifth USA Episode is UK Episodes 13 and 14 (merged with 15). Also by doing that, the PBS editor had to cut out some scenes and that was replaced by the Laura Linney introductions and PBS TV Masterpiece Classics promo ads (such as the Coldplay music video).

The total run time of the UK TV program (and all of the DVD program sets, except for the PBS version) is 452 minutes. When it aired on USA TV, the run time was reduced to 436 minutes. I have a copy of the PBS TV version that has the shortened version (this was an Emmy award promo copy). There are some missing scenes in the PBS version (one rather large one is when Amy leaves Pet Gowan in the lodging room in the Alps and is confronted by Rigaud as she says goodnight to Pet). Her dog growls at the doorway, but you never see the reason why on the PBS version. On the UK version, you see the reason.

All DVD and Blu-ray sets have the English subtitles option (except for the Dutch one and the PBS Emmy award versions). The UK Region 2 DVD and Blu-ray sets also have a voice over option not available on the USA region 1 DVD program. The UK box sets also included a booklet summary of the episodes also not in the USA box set. The USA box set has poor DVD holders, in my opinion. The USA region 1, UK region 2, UK Blu-ray versions have a "making of the series" with interviews with Andrew Davies, the producers, and cast members.

So you lose about 15 minutes of air time with the PBS TV version. Were they important? Maybe not, but it did leave some plot holes by their omission.

I have a region free DVD and Blu-ray player so I am not constrained by the region coding issue. The Blu-ray version is the best (both in total air time content and image resolution quality), but since only Region 1 is available solely on the DVD format, most US customers buy that version.

The PBS airing did NOT show anything that is not on the DVD/Blu-ray sets. I just viewed "A Little Princess" (1986 version) for both the USA and UK airings and they both contained scenes not shown on the other version. It was as if two film editors took a master version and selected certain scenes to their own preference based on the air time restrictions for TV.

As for where the cuts were made for the PBS airing, I think most were applied towards the middle and ending episodes. For the most part, USA Episodes 1 and 2 were similar to the corresponding UK TV episodes. The differences were posted on a discussion forum back in 2009 (I think on Barnes and Noble).