PR: Out of the Unknown [bfi]

[Mark]

It's perhaps not surprising, about the restoration, the project budget, was probably blown on clearance, but it will be great just to have them out on a box set, to be fair.

I don't suppose they will use the soundtracks, which would be a shame for me, as "Beach head" is my personal favourite episode.!

BFI, if you are listening, how about a crime season next?......just as an excuse to get "Target" out on DVD, and further damage to the dreaded 'limbo list'...!

[The Black Nun]

This kind of news makes irregular posters like me come out of the woodwork :-)
Colin

Hey Colin was it you i sent a cd of The Univited to many years ago? I know I sent it to someone here. I no longer have access to my copy.

[Lee Rose]

The Uninvited is out there among collectors, I've got a CD copy. I can't recall who sent it to me though.

Has anyone actually heard copies of The Naked Sun and Beach Head, or is it just rumour?

[JWG]

It's perhaps not surprising, about the restoration, the project budget, was probably blown on clearance, but it will be great just to have them out on a box set, to be fair.

I don't suppose they will use the soundtracks, which would be a shame for me, as "Beach head" is my personal favourite episode.!

BFI, if you are listening, how about a crime season next?......just as an excuse to get "Target" out on DVD, and further damage to the dreaded 'limbo list'...!

Moviemail says the package will include "existing fragments and sound clips" of missing episodes,which doesn't sound like full episodes on audio.Presumably they got this from the BFI. http://www.moviemail.com/film/dvd/Out-o ... h%3DSearch

[Kieran Seymour]

Has anyone actually heard copies of The Naked Sun and Beach Head, or is it just rumour?

It's not so much a rumour as info Christopher Perry got direct from the BBC. He posted the details at the Missing Episodes forum last year.

http://missingepisodes.proboards.com/th ... ery?page=2

[Juswuh]

I can't imagine an official DVD not being a vast improvement on most of the copies I've seen over the years.

[The Black Nun]

Good news is that they've delayed the release till October to work with everybody to get the best materials possible!

Huzzah!

[SteveBoyce]

I don't suppose they will use the soundtracks, which would be a shame for me, as "Beach head" is my personal favourite episode.!

They've confirmed they WILL issue the soundtracks!!!!!

[MDK]

Was Series 4 made in colour and are its surviving episodes in that format?

[Juswuh]

Was Series 4 made in colour and are its surviving episodes in that format?

Yes to both.

[Mark]

I don't suppose they will use the soundtracks, which would be a shame for me, as "Beach head" is my personal favourite episode.!

They've confirmed they WILL issue the soundtracks!!!!!

Then, that is indeed, fantastic news!

What a box set, this is going to be.!

[lovecraft]

This and The Changes up for pre-order on amazon now.

[Richard A]

Support tax paying* British companies and pre-order at Moviemail, where it's 4 quid cheaper anyway + you get points to redeem later + a magazine on a regular basis.

EDIT: Oh and Moviemail have The Changes for £17.99 vs. Amazon's £23.75 (at the time of writing anyway).

(* = http://www.moviemail.com/blog/news/1103 ... -retailer/ )

[videoking]

Yikes! 54 Pounds and change on Amazon.

[Stephen James Walker]

Ordered! Can't wait to see this in October. The price seems very reasonable to me - less than I'd expected, to be honest.

[Simon36]

Absolutely. If this goes well, I guess the obvious one to appear next would be Playhouse: The Mind Beyond.

[The Black Nun]

Absolutely. If this goes well, I guess the obvious one to appear next would be Playhouse: The Mind Beyond.

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

Sorry, but I thought that was the biggest load of drivel ever.

[longtimelurker]

Absolutely. If this goes well, I guess the obvious one to appear next would be Playhouse: The Mind Beyond.

I'd be up for that too. One or two weaker ones but on the whole very atmospheric. Certainly better than Supernatural, which has already come out.

[Simon36]

I think I come down somwwhere between the two of you. It's certainly a bizarre series. The final episode (SPOILER) contains a scene of an interracial gay kiss between Satan and a man. Bizarrely it seems to have passed without comment at the time.

I know it's been discussed before, bu I do really like the episode Double Echo, even if it doesn't exactly try very hard to keep the viewer in the picture. Meriel the Ghost Girl starts and finishes wonderfully but the rest of it... yes well.

[videoking]

It looks like a rip of the episode "Some Lapse of Time" from the upcoming dvd set has somehow leaked out. It's turned up on one of the torrents sites we can't mention.

[Stephen James Walker]

It looks like a rip of the episode "Some Lapse of Time" from the upcoming dvd set has somehow leaked out. It's turned up on one of the torrents sites we can't mention.

Aren't pretty well all the surviving episodes on YouTube anyway? They've been there for years - unless they've been recently taken down (which I doubt, as I checked something on that copy of "The Machine Stops" only the other day, to see if it differed from my DVD-R copy). I can't see that detracting from the appeal of the official BFI release in the slightest.

[The Black Nun]

The final episode (SPOILER) contains a scene of an interracial gay kiss between Satan and a man. Bizarrely it seems to have passed without comment at the time.

That's becuase the entire audience was asleep by then. :)

[Private Frazer]

I enjoyed 'The Fox and The Forest' on Radio 4 Extra yesterday, got an idea of the OOTU episode.

[Simon36]

The final episode (SPOILER) contains a scene of an interracial gay kiss between Satan and a man. Bizarrely it seems to have passed without comment at the time.

That's becuase the entire audience was asleep by then. :)

To be fair, I don't think scares were high on the series agenda, it wasn't meant to be the BBC's version of Journey to the Unknown, but plays exploring paranormal concepts rather than plays using the paranormal for thrills. Much as I think it's largely a failure, it is a series I find myself returning to again and again.

[John Williams]

Worth a bump now that the full details of this box set are available:

Product Description
OUT OF THE UNKNOWN (7 DVD SET)

This classic anthology science fiction series, created by Irene Shubik (The Wednesday Play, Rumpole of the Bailey, was one of the most daring, ambitious and inventive series ever created. Intended to display the genre at its best, as parable or metaphor, whether seriously or satirically, the series drew from writers of the calibre of Frederick Pohl, E.M. Forster, Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury and John Wyndham.

The cream of British television talent was applied to bring these tales to the small screen. Dramatists such as J.B. Priestly, Leon Griffiths and Jeremy Paul, directors such as Philip Saville and Rudolph Cartier, visionary designers including Ridley Scott, and powerful actors of the calibre of Yvonne Mitchell, George Cole, Rachel Roberts, David Hemmings and Warren Mitchell. The results were spectacular sometimes disturbing, sometimes funny, yet always of the highest intelligence an extraordinary, consistently demanding exploration of the genre with some of the most memorable television productions ever staged.

This extensive seven-disc DVD box set collects all 20 surviving episodes from the four original series, along with an extensive and comprehensive collection of extra features including one incomplete episode, four episode reconstructions, 11 audio commentaries, extensive stills galleries, an archival interview with director James Cellan Jones, and a newly-created 42-minute documentary with original cast and crew members and rarely seen fragments from lost episodes

Special features
All 20 surviving episodes from series one to four
Return of the Unknown (2014, 42 mins): all-new documentary with cast and crew interviews, and clips from lost episodes
11 audio commentaries with cast and crew, and experts, moderated by actor-comedian Toby Hadoke
Archival interview with director James Cellan Jones
Episode reconstructions for Beach Head, The Naked Sun, The Yellow Pill, and The Uninvited
Film insert from Deathday episode
Seven extensive stills galleries
Fully illustrated booklet with essays by Out of the Unknown expert Mark Ward
Starring Terence Morgan, Milo O'Shea, Yvonne Mitchell, George Cole, Wendy Craig, Graham Stark, Rachel Roberts, David Hemmings, Warren Mitchell, Hannah Gordon, Burt Kwouk and other British notable actors

Directed by Philip Saville, Rudolph Cartier, Peter Sasdy and others

UK | 1965 - 1971 | black & white, and colour | English language, optional hard-of-hearing subtitles | 1323 minutes | Original aspect ratio 1.33:1 | 7 x DVD9 | PAL | Dolby Digital audio (192kbps)

Toby Hadoke has also announced (on Roobarb's) the details of the commentaries:

All commentaries moderated by Toby and produced by John Kelly

No Place Like Earth
With Mark Ward (Out Of The Unknown expert) and Dan Rebellato (playwright, lecturer and John Wyndham expert).

The Dead Past
With John Gorrie (director) and Brian Hodgson (Special Sounds).

Time In Advance
With Peter Sasdy (director), Wendy Gifford (Polly), Philip Voss (Police Officer) and Danvers Walker (Dan).

Sucker Bait
With Clive Endersby (Mark), Roger Croucher (Fawkes).

Some Lapse Of Time
With Roger Jenkins (director), John Glenister (PA), Jane Downs (Diana Harrow) and Delena Kidd (Dr Laura Denville).

The Midas Plague
With Peter Sasdy.

The Machine Stops
With Philip Saville (director), Kenneth Cavander (adaptor), Michael Imison (story editor).

Level 7
With Mordecai Roshwald (author), Michael Imison (story editor).

This Body Is Mine
With John Carson (Allen).

Welcome Home
With Moris Fahri (writer), Bernard Brown (Bowers Two).

The Man In My Head
With Peter Cregeen (director), Tom Chadbon (Brinson), Jeremy Davies (designer).

In other words, it sounds like a *brilliant* release, and it's great that Toby and John Kelly have pulled together the commentaries so quickly, and that the Restoration Team have been involved in ensuring that material (drawn from lots of different formats) will look as good as it could given the time and budget constraints which apparently (I'm getting this in early) didn't allow for the use of VidFire.

Can't wait for this to be released.

[lovecraft]

Yep, mouth watering!

[Simon36]

Incredible! Up to now commentaries havent really figured in BFI releases. I just looked at Welcome Home: commentary by the writer and member of the cast and thought "heaven!" Big cup of tea when I settle down for that.

[bent_halo]

Indeedy. Commentaries I will actually listen to (especially as I've seen the plays many times over)

[Tim D]

Just a quick cross-post here for those who might have missed it and to highlight the premiere of colour restored footage and other excerpts from this release that can be seen exclusively in advance on Saturday 6th at the Kaleidoscope BBC 2 event. viewtopic.php?f=5&t=1678&sid=2d56cece38 ... 993#p18670

[doubleM]

Do we know if the Australian censor footage of "The Last Witness" (all half a minute of it!) made it back to the BBC for inclusion in the set?