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| When The Boat Comes In : Complete BBC Collection (24 Disc Box Set) [2007] | ![When The Boat Comes In : Complete BBC Collection (24 Disc Box Set) [2007]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51bAOniT%2BKL._SL160_.jpg)
 enlarge | Directors: David Reynolds (iii), Leonard Lewis, Ronald Wilson
Actor: Howard Da Silva
Studio: Acorn Media UK Ltd
Category: DVD
List Price: £120.99
Buy New: £56.98
You Save: £64.01 (53%)
New (12) from £56.98
Avg. Customer Rating:  5 reviews
Sales Rank: 1672
Format: Box Set, Pal
Languages: English (Unknown), English (Original Language)
Rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
Running Time: 2542 minutes
Number Of Items: 24
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.2
Dimensions (in): 7.3 x 5.6 x 3.3
EAN: 5036193090974
ASIN: B000OI1G24
Theatrical Release Date: January 8, 1976
Release Date: May 14, 2007
Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours
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| Customer Reviews:
 A Partly Missed Boat August 21, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
There is little need for me offer an extensive synopsis of this excellent North-East drama; the comments of other reviewers are sound enough. I remember watching it when it started on television - was it really 32 years ago? - In fact, as a youngish actor I appeared in the last five episodes. As regional drama, it is outstanding. The writers, the story-lines and the acting are first-class. The settings are excellent - I doubt that many of them remain - at least as they were when this programme was filmed. At approx. 2.50 per disc, it's not bad value.
BUT - whoever put this compilation together should be taken out and, after being given a good kicking, should be shot. There is no list of episodes printed anywhere. The disc are bizzarely numbered, each series being labelled Series # disc 1, & 2. This is repeated throughout so that Series 1 has three different discs called Series 1 Disc 1 And three discs labelled Series 1 Disc 2. This is extremely confusing. Furthermore, several of the discs contain the same episode title - thus, disc 1 & 2 both carry the same title 'A Land Fit For Heroes And Idiots'. This titling recurrs throughout all 24 discs. Unless you are meticulous about returning each disc to its allotted space each time you use it, you have absolutely no chance of keeping them in order - or of ever getting them back into order. I had to number each disc sequentially with a marker pen. This kind of nonsense should never happen. To some up, Top quality drama, utterly appalling organisation and pretty much nothing in the way of special features.
Canny July 21, 2008
3 out of 6 found this review helpful
I never saw this on TV so came to it fresh. I should say that the first three series out of the four are pretty depressing though at the same time quite entertaining (and probably true to the period shown, from 1919 through to 1929). The fourth series was less plausible though in some ways more entertaining. That series is set in the 1930's.
The worst aspect for me was that there is nothing shown of the period between the main character becoming a wealthy businessman and his return, broke, to the UK after the Great Crash. The fourth series starts with Jack Ford, ex-soldier, union leader and speculator, returning, an alcoholic bankrupt wreck, from New York City. There were a number of implausibilities: an alcoholic as bad as shaking Jack does not "cure" himself in a day and certainly not to the extent that, thereafter, he becomes a heavy but "social" drinker...Secondly, he is supposed to be fleeing from "The Mob", but by that time, the "Mob" was already somewhat damaged by Federal action and in any case (outside Italy and certain continental nightclubs etc) would have had little reach in the UK, in an era when it took nearly a week to reach England from New York.
Overall, When The Boat Comes In is pretty good. It even manages not to make the usual mistake, in the context of the Spanish Civil War, of "Republican Government/Communists/Socialists/Anarchists good, Franco etc bad", which is pervasive in the media today and even in 1979-81 when this was made. The bit about the Blackshirts is a bit predictable and one-sided, but after all, this WAS a BBC production...
The locations are all good or believable and this does have style and verve throughout, really. Had I been writing it, I would have forgotten about the American and other foreign irrelevancies and ended in 1939 rather than around (?) 1937 as this did. Still, a good watch which appears (24 DVD's) to go on forever but rarely bores.
One thing which is annoying, though: the discs are not well marked, so it would be very easy to get them mixed up and out of sequence.
 Best Ever BBC Drama! August 28, 2007
52 out of 52 found this review helpful
James Bolam is astounding in this excellent drama series which was shown in the 1970's. As Jack Ford he is a clever mix of Del Boy and Robert Maxwell - a helping hand who always has his eye on the main chance for himself.
He befriends the Seaton family - hard working Bill and his wife Bella, and their adult children Tom, Jessie and Billy. Bill is a miner but wants better for his family and thanks to his hard work there is money for his daughter to train as a school teacher and son Billy to attend University and become a Doctor. Tom is not academic and so he works in the mines with his father, but he would prefer to work outdoors.
Jack has plans to improve his life and as he climbs the ranks in the local Union, with Matt Hedley, his best mate from the trenches, he plans a future and family with Jessie. But the course of true love does not run smooth and Jack and Jessie find unexpected hurdles in the road of their romance.
Starting just after WW1 as the heroes came home to a world of poverty and unemployment, When The Boat has endearing characters whose lives quickly become gripping. Tom's wife is sickly and she is expecting their first child. Billy wants to use his medical degree to help people who cannot pay a doctor in these pre-NHS days - but his father Bill is determined that his youngest son will repay the family the cost of his education. This becomes all the more important when Bill is injured in a mining accident and wife Bella has to rethink their lives.
Two characters attempts to gain an amicable divorce will amaze viewers of today with the drawn out process required and the General Strike and Jarrow Marches come sweeping into the lives of the cast as Jack continues to better himself using every means possible.
Series 4 is more of an afterthought and although the episodes are enjoyable they do not have the on-going storylines of the earlier series. Nonetheless this box set is the best way to buy the series which can be enjoyed again and again.
The extras are a little disappointing. James Bolam and Susan Jameson (Jessie) met and married whilst making this series and as they still appear on our screens together (in New Tricks), it is a shame that no attempt was made to gain interviews with the couple.
But that it a minor quibble - sit back and enjoy the cream of BBC drama - a series that could easily be shown again for a new audience.
TV was made for this. June 4, 2007
51 out of 53 found this review helpful
I watched this series in the mid 1970's and never forgot it, an absolutely great series of life between the wars, down to earth, realistic and very well acted by all the cast, in particular, James Bolan as Jack Ford, superb. The box set is expensive but you get 25 DVD's and television history at it's best. In this world, where opening a box is classed as entertainment, or watching a bunch of nobody's locked up in a house, as riveting, I thank God that there are still top drawer classics like this to be had. If you want top drama at it's best, as it should be, then get this, pure magic television.
Brilliant and nostalgic tale from the North East May 30, 2007
43 out of 43 found this review helpful
This is a great program from start to finish, brilliantly showing life in the North East during the depression. Great characters, especially that of Jack (James Bolam), a rough diamond who gets by ducking and diving. It shows you how hard life was then, but how everyone pulled together to survive. The program illustrates very well the old class system, the difference between the have's and the have not's.
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