Customer Reviews

Dalziel & Pascoe: Season Five

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Dalziel and Pascoe is one of my favorite detective series. Dalziel is not your usual chief detective and his relationship with the very different Pascoe makes the shows much more interesting than your average mystery. The series ran from 1996 through 2007. A total of 47 episodes were made, some of which were shown in the U.S. many years ago.

I can't understand why neither the United States nor the UK is producing DVD's of all of these shows at this time. There have never been any U.S. releases to my knowledge. The UK released Series One and Two and then stopped. These DVD's are from The Netherlands which has released the first five series on DVD. The programs are in English with subtitles which can be turned off from the main menu. The disks are, however, REGION 2 PAL DISKS. You must have A REGION 2 OR REGION-FREE DVD PLAYER CAPABLE OF CONVERTING PAL SIGNAL TO NTSC. You can't play these on a standard U. S. DVD player.

The 4 episodes in this 4-Disk Boxed Set were originally shown in 2000 and are as follows:
A Sweeter Lazarus
Cunning Old Fox
Foreign Bodies
Above the Law

I can finally watch all the Dalziel & Pascoe I want! I bought a Phillips "region free" DVD player and these work perfectly in it. They are the regular English broadcasts with Dutch sub-titles, which are simple to turn off. I will be buying Series 6 through 11, since they are all available in this format.

REMEMBER, if you don't have a region free (or Region 2) DVD player these discs will not work. They will not work in a standard USA DVD player, since we are Region 1.

Dalziel & Pascoe is another great who done it British series. Two detectives that are opposite each other but solve cases together. It is unfortunate that they don't have a DVD Region I US version of this set, but there is a work around.

You can download VLC video player for free onto your computer. VLC can then be used to play these DVDs with no problem. I have a hook up for my computer to my TV through an HDMI cable, so I could watch all these shows on my TV without a Region 2 DVD player. So if you love this show as I do, there is a way to watch this series and enjoy the twist and turns.

This Series 5 is a Netherlands copy, but it is the full English version with Dutch subtitles that can be turned off. The video quality was a little grainy but does not detract from watching this set. So if you enjoy this series here is way you can and not have to wait to see if they come out with a US version.

I also received this set in a very timely fashion, so there was no long wait for delivery.

Love Dalziel & Pascoe and we would like to purchase the complete series. Will all the series beyond the 4th be made available in USA format region 1 at any point in time?

Episodes have slightly less "bite" than the early series
ones-possibly because they are not taken from R.Hill's
books.But still-they are quite good.The first ep is the
best,but the remaining 3 make for excellent viewing too.
I liked Foreign Bodies-here we have an ex-girl friend
of Dalziel's getting reacquainted with him,during which
4 of her 5 ex-husbands are killed.A real black widow-but
attractive -to Dalziel and others,I suspect. In Above
the Law,we have a conflict between justice and a rich
business man.While the latter "wins" Dalziel manages to
exact some good punishment. Here Pascoe becomes more in-
volved,saving Dalziel's life.He makes the choice to stay
with the police,at the cost of breaking up his marriage.
There is a new female boss for Dalziel who he initially
takes to be a stripper (upon meeting her in the hall).
Fortunately,she has a good sense of humor.The photography
is lighter here,making for easier viewing.There are now
7 series available.

The first time I viewed Dalziel & Pascoe was on TVO, years ago. Enjoyed it thoroughly but wasn't hooked until it was in re-runs on TV somewhat later. The first four series captured the spirit, wit and delicious Yorkshire sensibility extremely well from Reginald Hill's superb series. Starting with Series 5, the episodes are original teleplays "based on the characters" of Hill. Have to say, though, in contrast with another reviewer, while I enjoyed 'Foreign Bodies' for the droll take on the black widow theme, the outcome was preposterous, given five bodies to her credit.

The casting of the key characters is perfect: Colin Buchanan as Pascoe in the early series is indeed very dishy, and a charmingly wry counterpoint to Warren Clarke's acerbic, deliberately crude Dalziel. He's perfection. Suzanne Corbett, although not physically like her written character captures exactly the shoot-from-the-lip feisty, social activist cum writer wife of Pascoe and David Royle couldn't be better as Wieldy. Supporting cast is terrific and guest stars and other cast as precisely cast as the others.

I too discovered the The Best on DVD, the Netherlands distributor that did what BBC didn't do: make the whole series available, though only on Region 2 format. Like another reviewer's idea of hooking up and downloading via computer and/or then onto the TV screen, but need a more tech-savvy friend to help do that.

Learned from a friend who worked at TVO years ago who found out from the BBC marketing guy that U.S. interest in the series wasn't that high and without that huge market it wasn't worth their while to produce in Region 1 format. Then, what's the excuse for not having the series available in England, except for seasons 1 and 2? Wasn't available in London, when i was there in 2009.

Happy that Amazon now sells the whole series, albeit in Region 2 format!

Adrienne in Toronto