[Trollheart]

Anyone want to get nostalgic about THE cult show of all time --- the superlative Onedin Line? Even if you didn't see it at the time or since, you have to know that music! : )
Comments welcome --- true British drama done the way only the BBC can (could) do it...
TH

[Jaycee Dove]

Yes, great show.

I started watching it being rerun on UK TV Drama two or three years ago. They showed the first couple of series, ended it on a cliff-hanger, then stopped. Then they started to show the first couple of series again...and again...and again. But never carried it past the same spot.

I totally gave up with UK TV Drama after this kind of pathetic service to viewers and will never bother watching it again given that they clearly buy a few episodes of something and never think about the viewers who watch them and wonder why they do not get to see the rest.

Pity there are no channels around that would screen such a great drama series as this (or Family at War for another example) and run ALL of the episodes, since it is merely a let down to persistent viewers and puts them off the channel.

More 4 did much the same last year - ending St Elsewhere half way through and telling all who had watched loyally that this was it, because they only bought a few episodes - so thanks for watching but goodbye.

If channels think this does them any favours I hope they find out their mistake.

[tigertimtim]

"I totally gave up with UK TV Drama after this kind of pathetic service"

exactly, i did the same thing ,got right back into watching onedin line ( which i had watched in my younger years) and secret army which they never finished either, cancelled sky shortly after in digust.

i did try looking online for all of the onedin lines series but unfortunatly had no luck tracking them down.

[Trollheart]

I agree, but in fairness to UKD they did ONC£ run the entire season --- must have been about 4 years ago, maybe more? I in fact thought that there were only two seasons, turns out there are five. I ended up hunting down the full thing on DVD (not so hard, if you check Ebay), as I had got most of it on VHS, but no longer use a VCR.
I guess if anyone wants the tapes, you can have them, but we'd need to arrange some way of getting them to you, or you collect them (I'm in Ireland). They're not great quality, but are from digital TV (the first two seasons are pre-recorded bought BBC tapes).
Other than that, keep hoping UKD see sense and rescreen the whole thing. I admit it's really annoying to see it on the EPG, check and see they're running "The wind blows free" for the umpteenth time. Then you faifhfully follow the programming all the way up to the end of season three (whcih is, I think, as far as they got since), only to find they then loop around to season one again.
What I really loved about this series was the sense of history you got from it: the writers were always throwing in famous figures and scenes from history (the French Revolution story is pretty harrowing, and the story set around the building of the Suez Canal quite breath-taking). It's great to watch history unfold, as sail ships give inevitable way to steam, and the world, once so large and daunting, begins to shrink.
Anyway, I could wax lyrical for hours about this show. All I can say is if you haven't seen it, do yourself a favour and check it out!
TH

[tigertimtim]

they were 8 series in all, 91 episodes , had another look around but to no avail lol

[skiller]

I'm not particularly interested in the show but certainly had no trouble tracking down the first 3 series as ed2k downloads with one search on Google. With a bit more effort, who says the rest can't be as easily available?

EDIT: Oops! ed2k - is that still going?

[chuffnobbler]

I just bought series one on video from my local charity shop, for two quid. I've never seen it, but I love "old" telly.

It's always a pain in the bum, trying to follow series on UK Drama. I found Howard's Way a bugger to track down when it was on its first run, and eventially had to give up on it.

In hindsight ... maybe UK Drama just doesn't like TV with boats in it?!

chuff.x.

[Jaycee Dove]

Interesting that they have only shown the series that are available to buy (1 - 3 and not 4 onwards) (did they really screen beyond series 3 that recently? - I know one of the older channels did so a decade or so back)

Possibly there are rights clearing issues with the actors, making them uneconomic to bring out on video/DVD. If so then they are probably uneconomic to purchase by TV channels as well.

But in that case they should not bother screening a series part way.

ITV did the even more infuriating trick with Providence of screening every episode back to back over a full year and ending on a terrible ciiffhanger but then not showing just the final dozen episodes. They told me they had not yet got clearance for these. Two years on it is pretty obvious theyu never had any intention of completing the run.

[Trollheart]

I can't say for sure when it was UKD screened the entire series, but I would say no more than seven years ago? I know I had no DVD recorder (like I do now), as the eps are all recorded on tape. I seem to remember it wasn't THAT much later that they started rescreening it, and I thought "here we go, I'll get it all on DVD now", recorded up to season three and then it stopped, and went back to season one.
To my knowledge, they haven't gone beyond that since.
Seems unlikely though that copyright/screening issues should be behind UK Drama's failure to broadcast from season 4 onward, after all, if it's out on DVD it should be available for telly transmission, and if they've shown it once then surely they should be entitled to do so again?
Also, the series is so old now (early 70s?) that any copyright issues should have really expired by now, I would have thought: they're hardly going to be concerned that a whole hard-core of Onedin Line fans are standing by to digitally record and distribute the series!
TH

[philiplh]

The first four series are available on dvd from 'Memphis Belle'; a Dutch retailer and also from Britvidz (see websites)who specialise in 70s and 80's programmes. Unfortunately none of the later series appear ever to have been released. I would like to get hold of any of the later programmes in whatever format. If Trollheart still has the tapes I'd be grateful if he could let me have them . PH

[Channel Hopper]

Originally Posted by chuffnobbler

In hindsight ... maybe UK Drama just doesn't like TV with boats in it?!

After The Triangle, can you blame them ?

[Jaycee Dove]

UK Drama ave not improved one jot. The schedules seem to be put together by someone with a memory deficiency problem.

Juliet Bravo jumps all over the place. They only ever seem to show the first three series, mix them up all over the shop, repeat episodes randomly sometimes only days after showing them, and lose any semblance ofd continuity.

I have no idea how anyone watches stuff on that channel.

[Trollheart]

philiplh, pm me and let's see if we can make some arragement.
TH

[lozza73]

I can remember this being on Sunday evenings in the 1970s. I was only a little tot and found the music really haunting.

[Trollheart]

Yes, the music is beautiful and one of the things I always associate with the show.
In case you don't know, it's by the composer Khacaturian (sp?) from the ballet "Spartacus", it's the adagio. The piece of music became so popular due to the show and so tied into it that in the same way as "Also sprecht zarathustra" by Richard Strauss became forever linked with 2001: a Space Odyssey, this music became unoffically known as "The Onedin Line Theme".

[epsom]

Season 6 of The Onedine Line has just been released in Holland. Full uncut episodes with English audio.

http://www.bol.com/nl/p/dvd/onedin-l...264/index.html

[tigertimtim]

wish someone would release the full collection