Chronicles of Narnia (bbc)

[Grazey1]

The Chronicles of Narnia Blu-ray


Originally aired between 1988 and 1990, the BBC’s beloved adaptations of C.S. Lewis’ classic tales return in this stunning complete edition. Digitally remastered and presented in their original episodic format, these timeless adventures invite you to step back into the magic and wonder of Narnia as never before.

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

When Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy discover a mysterious wardrobe, they’re swept into the enchanted world of Narnia — a land frozen in eternal winter and ruled by the wicked White Witch. Their journey leads them to a fateful encounter with the mighty lion Aslan, and a battle to free Narnia from darkness.

Prince Caspian & The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

Summoned once more to Narnia, the Pevensie siblings join Prince Caspian in a struggle to reclaim his throne from a tyrant king. Years later, Lucy, Edmund and their reluctant cousin Eustace set sail with Caspian aboard the Dawn Treader on a perilous voyage to the edge of the world.

The Silver Chair

With Narnia in peril, Aslan sends Eustace and his classmate Jill on a daring mission. Their task: to find and rescue the lost Prince Rilian, held captive under a dark enchantment in the mysterious depths beneath Narnia.

Includes extra features:

New Feature Length Documentary 'Return To Narnia'
THE ORIGINAL CAST REUNION INTERVIEW
BREAKFAST NEWS INTERVIEW
BLUE PETER INTERVIEWS
COSTUME DESIGN
SET DESIGN
SPECIAL EFFECTS
OUTTAKES

Released 24th November

Chris Chapman who produces some of the doctor who, Blake’s 7 documentaries is behind the return to Narnia feature. Considering how good his box of delights feature it should be a good one

[Ben_R]

Please don’t **** up this release

[MifuneFan]

Artwork:

[billlythekid]

Fantastic will be buying this to watch over the festive period, that opening title theme is wonderful.

[CouncilSpectre]

Originally Posted by billlythekid

Fantastic will be buying this to watch over the festive period, that opening title theme is wonderful.

Same.

We watched The Box of Delights to kickstart our festivities last year and it made for a lovely start to Christmas, took me right back to being 8 again!

[ASLAN]

I remember back in 1988, the week before the show aired there was a making of documentary. I have never been able to find this ever since. Someone in my household taped over my vhs of it at the time. If anyone has this let me know.

[Grazey1]

Originally Posted by ASLAN

I remember back in 1988, the week before the show aired there was a making of documentary. I have never been able to find this ever since. Someone in my household taped over my vhs of it at the time. If anyone has this let me know.

Was it called past watchful dragons?

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ihjVLv4gh4k

[Deadend45]

Let me guess, recorded on SD video.....

[RossyG]

Originally Posted by Deadend45

Let me guess, recorded on SD video.....

Yup. Crappy 1-inch VT to boot.

[Deadend45]

Pass.

[billlythekid]

Still be an upgrade to the DVD, and just nice to have the BBC Narnia stories in one complete collection with beautiful packaging. I'm in for nostalgia purposes alone.

[The Hornets]

It also includes the new long form documentary.
Sounds similar to the one they did for Box of Delights last year.

[Grazey1]

Originally Posted by The Hornets

It also includes the new long form documentary.
Sounds similar to the one they did for Box of Delights last year.

It is. Same producer/director too.

[NuXiaolin]

I seem to remember one of the serials beginning with Lucy shoving a random kid off a bench at the station. What a prima donna!

[ASLAN]

Originally Posted by Grazey1

Was it called past watchful dragons?

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ihjVLv4gh4k

Oh my! Thank you so much! This has made my day.

[Ivanhoe52]

Originally Posted by RossyG

Yup. Crappy 1-inch VT to boot.

Well you'd get an argument from people who actually worked with 2-inch and 1-inch videotape:

https://forums.digitalspy.com/discus...ok-about-it/p2

"From memory you got more visual artifacts from 2". Head-Banding, and edge of tracking problems for two. With 1" not much to wrong, tape tension problems could give "hooking" at top of frame if it was excessive.
Drop-out was more noticeable on 2"

If you were given a good 2" and a good 1" of the same content, I guess you would be hard pressed to tell the difference between the two.
Cant remember any technical problems with 1" as a format."

"Head banding, moiré on reds, noise were all 2" problems and as someone who worked on racks I can tell you there was an obvious generation loss due to editing which frustrated us as we spent hours trying to get the last drop of quality out of our cameras. 1" recordings were cleaner and the generation loss lower, this introduced an era of multiple dubs and compilations in the edit suites which accounts for some of the talk about 1" quality. 2" editing was often quite simple with the master often only second generation. By the time some of our programmes had been re-edited and dubbed for international sales, not to mention re-edited by the purchasers, we reckoned that the final TX tape in those countries could be anything up to 10th generation, unthinkable with 2". "

I've seen other comments like that over the years so in any practical working aspect 1-inch had it all over 2-inch so a definite improvement as you would expect since it's purpose was to replace and improve on 2-inch.

Basically you couldn't edit much with 2" but could do all kinds of editing with 1" so they did which as mentioned above lead to the talk about it being "lower". Well it was because it actually could be lower and still used for broadcast while that was impossible for 2".

[RossyG]

I just apply my very subjective Doctor Who test. The ones shot on 2-inch tape look noticeably better to me than the 1-inch ones.

As for the people who worked with it, I don’t doubt that it was easier to use. Just as I’d believe modern film makers if they said digital cameras were easier to use and far more versatile than 70mm or IMAX or even 35mm film. But I know what I think looks better.

I was in my late teens and too old to get into the Narnia TV series, but I loved the books so watched a few. I remember the picture quality being very poor. Around that time I’d wanted to get into TV production so paid particular attention to such things and bombarded my godfather who worked at Thames with questions. I remember thinking it looked worse than The Box of Delights despite being made on similar equipment. I think the difference was Box was made in the winter and Lion in the summer. The summer light just seem to make everything fuzzier and harsher. I thought the same about McCoy era Doctor Who, especially Survival which could’ve been great on 16mm film but looked like crap on tape (and not even as good as Tom Baker’s Robot with its OB cameras). One newspaper review at the time said it looked as though the team had bought a camcorder from Dixons and decamped to the nearest quarry.

My advice for buyers of this set is to keep expectations low. And beware of AI.

[drush9999]

2" tape recorded TV programmes looked way better than the later 1" tapes they switched too in the 80s. I remember the difference as a child as broadcast too.
Compare Monty Python from the 70s to Blackadder in the 80s, it's quite stark to me.

[Kieran Seymour]

Originally Posted by drush9999

2" tape recorded TV programmes looked way better than the later 1" tapes they switched too in the 80s. I remember the difference as a child as broadcast too.
Compare Monty Python from the 70s to Blackadder in the 80s, it's quite stark to me.

It wasn't helped by the fact that editing 1" was so much easier - they had the new capability and they used it extensively. Well, you would, wouldn't you?

It was good in that it made for more dynamic, faster-paced productions but, from a purely technical standpoint, 1" was a step down - particularly when the final broadcast edits could be two, three or sometimes even more generations down from the source.

Still, it is what it is, and at least on BD we theoretically get the productions in as good a quality as the source will allow. And there is the fact that a lot of these shows came out on DVD a good twenty years ago, so they're due a brush up and some more advanced encoding.

[Grazey1]

Looks like they went back to Llanvihangel Court for the making of. Got all 4 siblings together as well

https://x.com/chrischapman81/status/...403269306?s=46