The Owl Service (1969)

[Vlad The Impala]

https://networkonair.com/coming-soon...eries-blu-ray-

ITV's first ever colour drama production. Based on the book by Alan Garner, inspired by the ancient Welsh story of the Mabinogion, (The inspiration for Stevie Nicks song, 'Rhiannon.')

[RossyG]

Brilliant show. The type of children’s drama that would never made made now, despite there being no reason why not.

[BiggusDickus]

I bought the DVD on a whim during a Network sale, always like the Welsh tales related stuff, enjoyed it more than I thought, so pre-ordered the blu-ray. Thought the girl (Gillian Hills) was quite fanciable, lolled when I checked her out on wikipedia to discover she was one of the two girls in the record store in A Clockwork Orange whom Alex takes back to his place for a sex romp! Only a year after The Owl Service too ...

[Vlad The Impala]

Originally Posted by BiggusDickus

Thought the girl (Gillian Hills) was quite fanciable, lolled when I checked her out on wikipedia to discover she was one of the two girls in the record store in A Clockwork Orange whom Alex takes back to his place for a sex romp! Only a year after The Owl Service too ...

She is also the other girl in the scene in "Blow-Up" with Jane Birkin that is officially the first full-frontal passed by the BBFC censor.

[Toscaclarinet]

Not something I ever expected to be able to upgrade from my DVD, awesome!

[Katatonia]

I received it today from Network. The Slipcover looks really nice, being a purple mirrored-foil type. The booklet is 24-pages.

The encode is 1080i/50 (25p), so no trouble playing it on my multi-region Sony player.

I have actually never seen the show before now, so this was a complete blind buy. I debated ordering the old DVD set from Network many times before, but just never bit on it... glad I didn't now.

[ricki450]

Originally Posted by Vlad The Impala

She is also the other girl in the scene in "Blow-Up" with Jane Birkin that is officially the first full-frontal passed by the BBFC censor.

And she was in Beat Girl which was made in 1961.

[Eusthenopteron]

Never knew this had been dramatised. Interesting.

[314carpenter]

My own documentary on the research done on a particular Owl Service Plate.

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.p...&postcount=540

[DrEricVornoff]

I just ordered a copy from DiabolikDVD myself. This looks like a wonderful folk horror-esque offering from the late 60s UK.

Seems like it would fit well with the Ghost Stories For Christmas VOL 1 release I just recently grabbed...



Slow burn 60s/70s UK folk/supernatural/horror stuff is my jam!

[ikms]

I guess rarewaves shipped these early (The Owl Service and The Intruder) because I got my copy last week. I saw the 2008 DVD release of The Owl Service right about the time the Severin Folk Horror set dropped and found the transfer the worst possible for an entirely shot-on-film TV drama of its era. If I were to guess, a contemporary early 70s tape transfer was the DVD master. I thought much would be rectified with a simple modern telecine of film elements (present were combing artifacts and that "half resolution" out of sequence PAL field playback, film splices causing a jump at every shot cut, fuzziness, gate weave, color timing all over the place, ect), so you can imagine my interest with the BD's announcement. The good news is that any limits imposed by PAL video standard have been eliminated - we have honest to goodness 25p playback - but the sleeve mentions that no restoration work has been undertaken with the 16mm combined prints (the only surviving film elements). Compression-wise, fortunately we are not treated to the i-frame pulse dominated blocky nightmare of Network's 2020 release of The Woman in Black. High frequency detail has been smeared away and I consider the compression result here average. Sadly shot splices (leading to frame jumps), gate weave, color, contrast, ect, all appear as they were on the DVD. Restoration was just not in the budget it seems. I grade this a 3/5 for image quality. Supplements have been updated somewhat: an additional (1968) Alan Garner interview and new audio commentary which is quite good. My copy at least came with a reflective foil laminate looking slipcover while the contents of the ("limited edition") booklet are identical to the writing accompanying the 2008 era DVD.

Since even a lavish US release would either slow this 4% or interlace the result, we will have to wait until AI is willing to do the restoration work for us. Otherwise this is probably as good as we are bound to get.

[Martyghost]

I only have the original DVD release, which as you say is variable. Surely the BD has improved colour if it's a new transfer?

[DrEricVornoff]

Mail day!



Thank you DiabolikDVD! Exceptional shipping, packaging, and service as always!

The Owl Service slip is beautiful!

[314carpenter]

Just received my copy sent from Network On Air via Technicolor UK.
I am in the United States, and I still got it early while ordering overseas!

20230317_152712-2154x3830.jpg

[BarnDoor]

Originally Posted by 314carpenter

Just received my copy sent from Network On Air via Technicolor UK.
I am in the United States, and I still got it early while ordering overseas!

Attachment 288079

Network have been selling it directly since last October. The late March release is a wider one, without the slipcover (presumably).

[ikms]

Originally Posted by Martyghost

I only have the original DVD release, which as you say is variable. Surely the BD has improved colour if it's a new transfer?

This made me curious. I went and A-B'ed the two discs and counterintuitively, colorwise, the DVD has stronger hues. Alison's shirt in the first episode is bright red on the DVD while a more "burnt orange" on the BD, but thanks to the new scan you can easily spot the difference in color between the curtains (actual red) and her dress. The DVD exhibits extremely harsh contrast while the BD (along with fixing the frame/field issue, this is probably the biggest visual improvement in the new release) has a gradual range of brightness within a frame revealing a lot of heretofore hidden detail... at least what the encode / DNR didn't sweep up.

Back-to-back there is no doubt the BD is the (only) way to go. The master used for the DVD was a disaster at the time, the BD we have now is probably a modest step above a hypothetical DVD mastered from the same recent scan - but compared to the original it is a big step up.

Originally Posted by BarnDoor

Network have been selling it directly since last October. The late March release is a wider one, without the slipcover (presumably).

I got slipcovers on both this and The Intruder as sent by Rarewaves... so seems there is "limited edition" stock getting out at the lower price.

[ikms]

I watched the Network release of the sister series The Intruder today and found it had some issues.

Overall preferred The Owl Service release, a better show, and a more convincing A/V presentation.

[Steedeel]

Only just got around to watching this and Owls, both very good but I enjoyed The Intruder more. Agree about the audio, very hissy and muffled in places but still glad I own this fantastic series.

[ViscountCarnacki]

Originally Posted by Steedeel

Only just got around to watching this and Owls, both very good but I enjoyed The Intruder more. Agree about the audio, very hissy and muffled in places but still glad I own this fantastic series.

Interesting you mention the audio - I've been going through a few Network Blu-ray releases recently (The Prisoner, Randall & Hopkirk, Owl Service), and I've actually been pretty shocked at the audio quality. We got just two episodes into R&H before my wife bailed, she couldn't stand the terrible audio. We're in The Prisoner now, which is better, but that's not saying much. Owl Service, being a more recent series perhaps, is better.

The picture quality is great on all of them, but I wondering if they really skimped out on the audio restoration.

I'm curious as to whether Imprint in Australia, which seems to have picked up lots of former Network releases, are using the same masters, or whether they've done their own remasters/restorations with better audio? Something like The Prisoner really deserves to have a prestige Blu-ray release (if not 4K!).

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by ViscountCarnacki

Interesting you mention the audio - I've been going through a few Network Blu-ray releases recently (The Prisoner, Randall & Hopkirk, Owl Service), and I've actually been pretty shocked at the audio quality. We got just two episodes into R&H before my wife bailed, she couldn't stand the terrible audio. We're in The Prisoner now, which is better, but that's not saying much. Owl Service, being a more recent series perhaps, is better.

The picture quality is great on all of them, but I wondering if they really skimped out on the audio restoration.

I'm curious as to whether Imprint in Australia, which seems to have picked up lots of former Network releases, are using the same masters, or whether they've done their own remasters/restorations with better audio? Something like The Prisoner really deserves to have a prestige Blu-ray release (if not 4K!).

Can only comment on The Intruder and Owls, but that is a little odd. I can understand it with the mentioned two, as it may well be source issues, but the Prisoner? Very odd.