The Vise, Mark Saber and Saber of London (from the Danziger Archives)

[OceanBlue]

Had a think yesterday about whether to start a separate thread for the TV series The Vise, Mark Saber and Saber of London, in the end I thought it's worth it as you need a degree to wrap your head about which episodes will be shown by Talking Pictures that were not included in Network's DVD and Blu-ray release.

The Vise starts on the channel a week on Sunday (20th July) at 4.30 pm - 5 pm. So far I've been checking the EpGuides page for the series (it covers all eras - The Vise, Mark Saber then Saber of London) as well as the Wikipedia section.

The Wikipedia section shows which episodes are lost and which have portions missing. Going by EpGuides, what Talking Pictures has scheduled to premiere (see the TV Schedule section):

[Show spoiler]Sunday 20th July: "One Just Man" (Series 1, Episode 1)
Sunday 27th July: "Set a Murderer" (Series 1, Episode 2)
Sunday 3rd August:"Dr. Damon's Experiment" (Series 1, Episode 4)
Sunday 10th August: "Death Pays No Dividends" (Series 1, Episode 5)
Sunday 17th August: "Gabriel's Choice" (Series 1, Episode 6)
Sunday 24th August: "The Diamond Expert" (Series 1, Episode 7)
Sunday 31st August: "The Fair and the Fallen" (Series 1, Episode 9)
Sunday 7th September: "The Eavesdropper" (Series 1, Episode 10)
Sunday 14th September: "The Very Silent Traveler" (Series 1, Episode 11)
Sunday 21st September: "Yellow Robe" (Series 1, Episode 12).

As Talking Pictures are showing The Vise (hopefully the subsequent two eras will be shown afterwards), if anyone can contribute by saying which episodes are in Network's DVD and Blu-ray release of The Vise: Volume 1, that would be very helpful. I looked on Amazon UK's listing pages for The Vise: Volume 1 and The Vise: Mark Saber: Volume 1 and it looked like the same list of episodes were stated.

[OceanBlue]

In this past Sunday's weekly TPTV email newsletter, the part about The Vise caught my eye. Did Noel BEM help Network out with their Volume 1 DVD and Blu-ray sets of Volume 1 of The Vise, The Vise: Mark Saber and Saber of London? It says in the newsletter the following (putting it in quotation marks):

"Bringing The Vise back to television has been a true labour of love for Noel, who has tracked down, researched, and restored the original reels. In the process, he has uncovered lots of rare episodes that haven't aired for many, many years on British television nor have they EVER been released on DVD".

Why no mention of Blu-ray? If the Network releases were being thought of and the channel will be showing episodes not previously released on physical media, surely it should have said "nor have they EVER been released on DVD and Blu-ray"?

The big question for me is: will we see Renown release episodes on at least DVD that Network didn't release?

[cutback73]

Originally Posted by OceanBlue

Had a think yesterday about whether to start a separate thread for the TV series The Vise, Mark Saber and Saber of London, in the end I thought it's worth it as you need a degree to wrap your head about which episodes will be shown by Talking Pictures that were not included in Network's DVD and Blu-ray release.

The Vise starts on the channel a week on Sunday (20th July) at 4.30 pm - 5 pm. So far I've been checking the EpGuides page for the series (it covers all eras - The Vise, Mark Saber then Saber of London) as well as the Wikipedia section.

The Wikipedia section shows which episodes are lost and which have portions missing. Going by EpGuides, what Talking Pictures has scheduled to premiere (see the TV Schedule section):

Sunday 20th July: "One Just Man" (Series 1, Episode 1)
Sunday 27th July: "Set a Murderer" (Series 1, Episode 2)
Sunday 3rd August:"Dr. Damon's Experiment" (Series 1, Episode 4)
Sunday 10th August: "Death Pays No Dividends" (Series 1, Episode 5)
Sunday 17th August: "Gabriel's Choice" (Series 1, Episode 6).

As Talking Pictures are showing The Vise (hopefully the subsequent two eras will be shown afterwards), if anyone can contribute by saying which episodes are in Network's DVD and Blu-ray release of The Vise: Volume 1, that would be very helpful. I looked on Amazon UK's listing pages for The Vise: Volume 1 and The Vise: Mark Saber: Volume 1 and it looked like the same list of episodes were stated.

Dr Damon's Experiment and Death Pays No Dividends are the first 2 episodes on the Blu Ray set - this is based on a listing of the 21 episodes which is included on the Renownfilms.co.uk page for the blu ray. The listing also shows the main actors in that episode (Laurence Naismith is in "Dr...".). Judging by the number of familiar names listed, I suspect Network picked episodes with familiar faces for this first set.

There were 65 episodes in total, so presumably the hope of Network was to release 3 sets.

So far, I have only bought the 4 blu ray set of Mark Saber (as all the DVDs and blu rays are £30, I went for the biggest set first). I may get the 2 blu ray set of The Vise next if the first episodes are good enough).

[OceanBlue]

Originally Posted by cutback73

Dr Damon's Experiment and Death Pays No Dividends are the first 2 episodes on the Blu Ray set - this is based on a listing of the 21 episodes which is included on the Renownfilms.co.uk page for the blu ray. The listing also shows the main actors in that episode (Laurence Naismith is in "Dr...".). Judging by the number of familiar names listed, I suspect Network picked episodes with familiar faces for this first set.

There were 65 episodes in total, so presumably the hope of Network was to release 3 sets.

So far, I have only bought the 4 blu ray set of Mark Saber (as all the DVDs and blu rays are £30, I went for the biggest set first). I may get the 2 blu ray set of The Vise next if the first episodes are good enough).

Regularly check/visit Talking Pictures' website but haven't been on Renown's website much of late. The last time I visited I discovered they no longer had copies of their DVD boxset release of western series Stagecoach West.

Thanks for the helpful information about those episodes of The Vise, what is in the Volume 1 set and what Talking Pictures are showing to begin with.

There must be some logical reason why they're charging the same price for the DVD sets.

[OceanBlue]

A couple of plot holes aside, I very much enjoyed the first episode (from the mid-fifties) of anthology series The Vise, "One Just Man". Alexander Knox I recognised from Bond film You Only Live Twice and the surviving episodes of a series Talking Pictures have shown, The Hidden Truth.

The first episode reminded me of Alfred Hitchcock Presents with the developments and twists in the plot.

When the channel went to the ad break, it seemed to abruptly cut to it.

Ron Randell was a very suitable host (bookending the episode).

[OceanBlue]

Hadn't checked the full cast list before watching the Vise episode "Set a Murderer" last night, but expecting to see Ron Randall bookend it again, was surprised to see actor John Bentley bookending it instead. Transfer/picture quality wasn't as good compared to last week's episode. The story in the episode got better as it went on.

[OceanBlue]

Originally Posted by cutback73

Dr Damon's Experiment and Death Pays No Dividends are the first 2 episodes on the Blu Ray set - this is based on a listing of the 21 episodes which is included on the Renownfilms.co.uk page for the blu ray. The listing also shows the main actors in that episode (Laurence Naismith is in "Dr...".). Judging by the number of familiar names listed, I suspect Network picked episodes with familiar faces for this first set.

There were 65 episodes in total, so presumably the hope of Network was to release 3 sets.

So far, I have only bought the 4 blu ray set of Mark Saber (as all the DVDs and blu rays are £30, I went for the biggest set first). I may get the 2 blu ray set of The Vise next if the first episodes are good enough).

I thought something wasn't right when I saw TPTV's Facebook post earlier for tomorrow afternoon's episode "Dr. Damon's Experiment". And having looked at your post above again, they shouldn't have included the paragraph in the Facebook post about episodes that have never been released on DVD. In general that paragraph could be seen as correct. But as tomorrow's episode has been released on DVD (and Blu-ray) by Network, that paragraph could also have been left out.