The UK branch of Universal Studios has officially announced that it will release on Blu-ray Mr. Selfridge - Series One, starring Jeremy Piven, Zoë Tapper, Amanda Abbington, Tom Goodman-Hill, Katherine Kelly, Frances O'Connor, and Samuel West. Street date is March 11th.
It's London, its 1909, and the most important address in fashion's little black book is but a dust-covered dream strewn on a construction site at "the dead end of Oxford street". The most decadent shopping emporium in the city's history exists only as a fanciful and implausible idea buried within the mind of an ambitious and erratic young man.
Jeremy Piven (Entourage, Serendipity, RocknRolla) stars as the showman behind the retail empire; Harry Gordon Selfridge. Mr Selfridge is supported by a host of top shelf acting talent including; Zoë Tapper (Cheerful Weather for the Wedding, Blood, Demons) as temptress and 'Spirit of Selfridges'; Ellen Love, Amanda Abbington (The Bill, Doc Martin, Being Human) as department head Miss Mardle; Tom Goodman-Hill (The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Spy) as Mr Grove; Katherine Kelly (Coronation Street, Life on Mars) as the incomparable Lady Mae; Frances O'Connor (A.I, The Hunter, Mansfield Park) as Harry's loving wife Rose; and Samuel West (Hyde Park on Hudson, Notting Hill, Any Human Heart) as reporter Frank Edwards.
Based upon the book Shopping, Seduction and Mr Selfridge by Lindy Woodhead, Mr. Selfridge was created by Emmy and BAFTA award-winning writer Andrew Davies (Bridget Jones, Pride and Prejudice) and written by Andrew Davies, Kate Brooke and Kate O'Riordan. Davies and his writing team have cherry-picked the most intriguing aspects of Harry's real, rags-to- riches life and used them as a spring-board to create all the razzmatazz of this glamorous big city story.
Mr Selfridge tells the story of 'Mile a Minute Harry'. Pioneering and reckless, with an almost maniacal energy, he created a theatre of retail where any topic or trend that was new, exciting, entertaining – or sometimes just eccentric – was showcased. Displaying only the finest merchandise London has to offer, Harry Selfridge wanted to indulge, empower and celebrate the modernised, free-spirited women of his time and so opened the doors of his lavish department store on London's famous Oxford Street in a mission to make the shopping experience as thrilling as sex.
Produced by Chrissy Skinns (Marchlands, Secret Diary of a Call Girl) and directed by Jon Jones (Titanic, Northanger Abbey), John Strickland (Whitechapel, Bodies), Anthony Byrne (Silent Witness, Upstairs Downstairs) and Michael Keillor (Shameless); only the finest production team would suffice for this grand endeavor.
I just hope the series get a decent Blu-Ray release, with progressive video and lossless sound.
Universal Studios UK's recent Blu-Ray releases of Downton Abbey Series 3 (and the Christmas 2012 special) only had interlaced video (1080i) and lossy sound (dolby digital 2.0). And one of the extras on Series 3 was missing, which looks it will never be fixed.
Can someone who has this confirm the audio spec?
The back of the box just says stereo.
The audio information on the back cover is an error in this case, the Blu-Ray is 1080p 23.976fps, with LPCM 2.0 48 kHz 24bit audio (2304kbps) according to BDInfo.
what about series two and three when's that out on blu ray ?
I assume S1 didn't sell well enough so they haven't bothered with S2... (and given S3 seems to be losing some audience even on the TV, I wouldn't hold out much hope); this seems to be all too common even with material shot in HD on UK TV... IIRC The Paradise (the BBC's rival to Mr Selfridge) didn't even get S1 released on Blu - also sadly far too common as BDs of TV just don't seem to sell very well in the UK; I think the UK has less 'collectors' and more people willing to stream if they want HD content than many other countries.
I don't like it but I suppose I can't expect a company to put out a product expecting to make a loss just to keep me happy
I assume S1 didn't sell well enough so they haven't bothered with S2... (and given S3 seems to be losing some audience even on the TV, I wouldn't hold out much hope); this seems to be all too common even with material shot in HD on UK TV... IIRC The Paradise (the BBC's rival to Mr Selfridge) didn't even get S1 released on Blu - also sadly far too common as BDs of TV just don't seem to sell very well in the UK; I think the UK has less 'collectors' and more people willing to stream if they want HD content than many other countries.
I don't like it but I suppose I can't expect a company to put out a product expecting to make a loss just to keep me happy
The same happened with Damages.
Just the first season released on Blu ray....
The same happened with Damages.
Just the first season released on Blu ray....
Particularly galling though when they release UK productions in the US on BD but not in the UK (like S1, S2 and S3 of Selfridge are)... like I said I suppose I can't expect them to lose money just for me but if they've made the decision not to release in the UK can't they at least make the US releases All region?
If they are trying to sell it to a new distributor and will have trouble making the deal due to all the fans who will have imported it already, I could understand, but that isn't the case here as obviously other distributors probably wouldn't be interested after bad S1 sales
All countries
Argentina
Austria
Belgium
Brazil
Bulgaria
Chile
China
Colombia
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Estonia
Denmark
Finland
Greece
Hong Kong
Hungary
Iceland
Indonesia
Ireland
Israel
India
Latvia
Lithuania
Malaysia
New Zealand
Norway
Philippines
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Russia
Singapore
South Africa
South Korea
Sweden
Switzerland
Taiwan
Thailand
Turkey
Ukraine
United Arab Emirates
Mr. Selfridge - Series One
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