Post by Dirty Epic on Jan 12, 2021 10:59:40 GMT
Sadly I think there are too many issues which prevent Spender getting a proper 'legal' DVD release which it really should have and as Del says it's probably one of the biggest TV hits to never get a DVD release. The only similar ones I can think of are Target and The Paradise Club and as far as I know they weren't as well received or liked as Spender was.
Apart from the obvious issues with say actors of directors objecting to it's release or repeat there's another problem with Spender that it's first series was produced directly by the BBC then Series 2-3 etc. were produced by Jimmy Nail's own company 'Big Boy Productions' which maybe complicates matters for licensing the material for DVD as much as say overcoming an objection to it would... maybe more.
A similar comparison is Auf Pet with the ITV and BBC series having separate DVD releases and no real unified approach to a complete DVD/Blu Ray set for that. That might happen but with streaming becoming more popular why waste time and money bunging on extras, complete sets, remastering/restoring etc. when that stream can be milked again from the casual viewer who may want to watch it now and then conveniently on demand.
Generally Spender's disappearance from screen and no DVD release is a mystery and if will was there it could easily be overcome. I do know UK Gold/UK Drama showed it in the late '90's early '00's and by then you didn't bother recording it thinking it would get a DVD release which didn't happen. Also didn't ITV3 show a episode in 2008-09 once possibly with the idea of repeating it, then nothing after that which is a mystery as Spender would be ideal for both it and the Drama channel but both channels seem hell bent on showing the same old 10-15 shows on a loop for the last 5 or more years and 90% of which I can't stand let alone abide... you know the type!
Spender would be a ratings winner for a channel like Talking Pictures but I feel there's way too many issues and obstacles for that to ever happen shame really as TPTV have brought us some fairly good stuff that has been buried over the years that in a ideal world ITV's channels and Drama etc. should give some kind of outlet too.
Streaming and BritBox could be a solution here and that arrangement could get around the objections/other issues which may be preventing Spender from being repeated on conventional channels and/or getting a DVD release. However BritBox doesn't allow you to leaggly own (download) the content as far as I know and Spender doesn't really fit in with what it has been offering there so again can't see that being a solution either.
Still it doesn't take anything away from Spender's 30th this year and I'll have certainly given it a watch this week if I hadn't watched it fairly recently myself.