My LotSW complete box set write up.

RickAns

Dedicated Member
Hi all,

Wanted to post a little write up on the Last of the Summer Wine Complete DVD box set series 1-32. Yes, there are only 31 series total but for some reason starting around series 10 or 11 they get ahead of themselves and mislabel them and add an extra 1 to the count. You think with the BBC name on them they would have gotten the numbering right.

The set I got is PAL region 2 which is not a playback problem for me. It is produced by Universal Studios / Playback / BBC and contains all the episodes that aired which I think is 295 on about 50 something discs. I have it written down somewhere...

All the Christmas and New Years episodes including the pilot, as well as, Getting Sam Home are in the collection. Make sure you get the current box set release 2017-2018+ because the box set released a few years earlier did not contain the pilot - from what I have read.

The only things not in the box set are some documentaries and interviews. Such as:

- The 25th Year Anniversary special, this got updated with new content and replaced as the 30th Year Anniversary special. This can be found on the US Netflix DVD Vintage 1995 episodes of series 7. Also there is a Tribute to Thora Hird on this disc.

- An interview with Roy Clark - In Conversation. On US Netflix dvd Vintage 1977 episodes of 4th series.

-Interviews with Peter Sallis, Brian Wilde on the US Netflix dvd Vintage 1976 series 3.

-There is also a featurette series 6 December 1982 titled The Funny Side of Christmas from the US Vintage 1995 disc. Compo brings by 3 'orphans' to visit the lads on Christmas day.

The Pilot episode is on the final disc. Some of the Christmas / New Years specials may be at the end of the next years series. It seems that they did this due to lack of space on the previous series disc and just put them in where they had room. A bit awkward timeline-wise but I prefer that to over compressing the episodes to squeeze as many on a disc as possible. They do highlight and make note of the specials on the back of the dvd box cover.

There are no inserts of pictures or story notes inside the cases. The DVD’s have the series name on them and the dvd number for it’s box. The back cover of the box gives a brief bit of info for that series and a list of it’s dvd’s with the episodes. The dvds overlap and are held in place by push tabs that are common for plastic box cases. The dvd’s that I have played so far have a title menu with episode selection with a nice picture background of some of the characters.

One of my favorite things is that it seems all the episodes have subtitles! Which is great because sometimes when they say a street name or reference some person we never see or some product one may not be familiar with it can be hard to make out exactly what is said.

The image quality is very good for shows of that time period. It looks like to me how it may have been when they originally broadcast it over the air. Could have used a slight bit of noise clean up and maybe some slight white balance correction with some episodes. Still much, much better than watching from a well used VHS or poor quality youtube copy from over a decade ago.

The episode guide on this site is complete and I thank those who put it together. The list I had cobbled together from internet sources before I discovered this site had some errors. A few episodes were listed twice under different names. I’m really glad to have our list, here is a link, but is on the forum home page just scroll down.
https://www.summerwine.net/community/threads/episode-guide.9248/

Here is a pic of the box collection I got. Credit for the picture goes to the ebay person I bought it from.

LotSW.jpg



All in all I think this is an awesome set for any fan of the show. Well worth it. If you have any questions I'll try to answer as best I can. Thanks for reading through my ramble.

Cheers,
Rick
 
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Great write up Rick. I have the complete series as well but mine is Region 4 and I had to get mine a couple of series at a time. Well almost. I purchased the DVD's up to series 23 & 24 almost at once then added the rest as they were released. I would love to see the Documentaries and the interviews plus any other material released on DVD some time soon. There are two episodes that are on my disc's but not listed on the back. They are A Hitman for Primrose Dairies and the pilot episode.
 
Thanks, Adrain. I almost went the route you did with the individual purchases. I bought a dvd awhile ago with some of the Christmas episodes. Thankfully I found out about the complete coming out and waited. Found a great deal on ebay - a few of the box cases were slightly damaged.
 
The box set hasn't been released here yet as far as I know. I started getting the DVD's well before the box set came out in Britain. If the box set was released when I started getting the DVD's I would have waited for it.
 
-I have Bonus Interviews written down for Vintage 1979 eps of series 5 but have been unable to get a copy of it from US Netflix to verify.

That's a great write-up - very complete. I have the Vintage 1979 series 5 and there are no interviews or extras on the DVDs. Everything else you wrote matches up exactly with my USA Vintage DVDs.
 
Thanks, me2. I got that info from the Netflix site descriptions of the dvds, I think. They could be a little vague at times on exactly which dvd has what. I will change that on the write up. Won't need to keep trying to track down that dvd. :)
 
I think you have all the specials listed, but if I find one I missed, I'll let you know.
 
Hi Rick, Like Adrian I bought all the DVD sets as they came out. Being Region 4 they came out after the original British ones. Looking at the pic of your set Rick it looks like I have basically exactly the same thing...All episodes, with xmas specials grouped together at the end of each season's disk set.

They don't have the interviews or documentaries but I have downloaded them ages ago so I can watch them whenever!:cool:
 
Thanks all, I really appreciate it. I tried to be as complete as possible with the information available to me. With your help I think I have. It feels good to put something together for us and future fans that may stumble across this.
 
Yes, there are only 31 series total but for some reason starting around series 10 or 11 they get ahead of themselves and mislabel them and add an extra 1 to the count.

The numbering anomaly happened because Seymour's first series had 12 episodes rather than the usual 6 in order to give viewers a chance to become well-acquainted with the character, so for DVD set purposes it was divided. It would have made more sense to number the DVD sets with the series number and "Part 1" or "Part 2".
 
Thanks Marianna. That makes sense.

I also updated the post to include the featurette 'The Funny Side of Christmas' that I forgot to include. It is from series 6 December 1982 and one of my favorites. Compo brings 3 'orphans' over to visit the lads.
 
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