Francis Durbridge Presents (Volume 2) - 5-DVD Box Set ( Bat Out of Hell / The Passenger / The Doll / Breakaway: The Family Affair / Breakaway: The Local Affair )

Second volume of great mid 20th century thrillers from the master! He has his failings and repeats tricks ("... are you sure. Are you really sure ..." and variations is a favorite. Characters switch from good-guy to bad-guy and vice versa every few minutes amd there are some plot holes that you could hide the body in ... but, suspend disbelief and enjoy!

This brought back a lot of memories a good old fashioned serials with cast of people I recognised

One black and white serial together with four in colour. Acceptable quality considering age of masters.

This five DVD boxed set offers five series, a thirteen hour feast for those nostalgic for 60s and 70s BBC drama.The usual mix of filmed exteriors and video interior sets typical of the period.BAT OUT OF HELLA complex web of murder and blackmail, with bodies that vanish and come back to life.John Thaw, with his bird of prey eyes makes a good villain, at odds with his mature persona as Morse. The lovely Sylvia Sims, with her gorgeous voice, provides the epitomie of mature 60s glamour. A word too for Reginald Marsh, a very good character actor, most memorable for me as a relaxed corporate gangster in Performance.The male characters drive an Aston Martin DB6 and an E type Jag, the ultimate objects of desire of the period. A pristine monochrome print.THE PASSENGERThis time the setting is a small market town, with a picture perfect cottage, and riding stables. This time the flash car on show is a Jensen. Not sure whether it’s an Interceptor or F.The much-loved Peter Barkworth is the detective, giving real humanity to the cypher character, solving the murders while suffering marital troubles. and Melissa Stribling and Joanna Dunham supply the requisite glamour.The usual mixture of blackmail, murders made to look like accidents or suicides. The detective with his estranged wife make a good crime-solving team, like Paul Temple and Stevie.One of the better stories, with an explosive, high budget (for the BBC of the period) ending.THE DOLLThis time we’re in the international jet set world of concert pianists, publishers and journalists. Anouchka Hempel supplies the glamour and the hero drives a top of the range Jaguar and has a boat moored in the Isle of Wright.Colour, with rather soft, 16mm film inserts.Wonderfully mysterious, twisting and gripping. Probably the best of the set, so far.The direction is pedestrian, with a fondness for quick zooms into significant props, like motoring gloves, handbags, gold cigarette cases and anonymous notes written in lipstick.The dialogue is completely unrealistic and lacking in character, like a witness reading a pre-prepared statement in court, full of exposition and recaps, for the slow witted. They are not at all cinematic but rather televised radio serials.They are full of unfaithful wives and smooth lotharios, solicitors and wills, and everyone is wonderfully polite and talk in well-rounded sentences.His characters are almost exclusively drawn from the affluent middle classes, and when not business men, they have glamourous careers as actors, musicians, artists, fashion designers, novelists, journalists and playwrights and antiques dealers.When not living in bijou London flats and mews, they reside in cottages, bedecked with roses, in picture-perfect market towns.Although the television series have all the trappings of sixties style, they are very much socially set in the 1930s with a highly structured class system and the only working class characters are professional petty criminals and domestic staff.The world of golf clubs and holidays in the South of France or the Italian riviera.Everyone drinks and smokes constantly, which is reassuring to the dieing breed of inveterate smokers, but probably off-putting to the new puritans. Wiskey and soda is usually the drink of choice.And yet, despite all this, it has a beguiling charm and keeps you hooked, to unravel the mistery and discover the solution. Durbridge is very much the Scheherazade of the home counties.The recent murder of a novelist by her husband shows that Durbridge's plots are far from inplausible and bourgeois murder it still very much alive and well.The box-set is quite an expensive initial outlay, but represents quite good value at about £3.50 an hour and must surely be required viewing for the die-hard Durbridge fan. Not really something to watch in one marathon viewing but rather something to dip into for an hour or two, like guilty comfort eating.

great companion to vol 1 great whodunit mysteries from the master. Essential viewing

What a superb dvd box set. Excellent stories and superbly directed and acted. Highly recommended.

Curioser and curiouserFrancis Durbridge became famous for his mystery writing. His most famous creation was Paul Temple and wife Steve, featured in a number of radio serials from the 30s to the 60s where episodes often had a "cliffhanger" ending. These serials became immensely popular and many are available (original or re-made) on BBC audio publications.In the 1960s and 70s he wrote a number of mystery serials for television and five of them are included here. It is an Australasian release though Amazon was selling it but it is also available on eBay and good value even with the postage from Oz. Sold separately these serials are around 15 to 20 pounds each but less than twice that for 5 serials. You may need a multi-region player as both this volume and volume 2 are normally region 4.None of the snippets below contain spoilers as they are all based on the early “teasers” that start the intrigue in each story.Bat out of Hell (1966)Mark Paxton (John Thaw) and lover Diana Stewart (Sylvia Syms) conspire to murder Diana’s wealthy husband (and Mark’s boss) Geoffrey Stewart. They lure him to a deserted house and Mark shoots him and hides the body in his car, in a locked garage, to be disposed of later. They report Geoffrey missing and Inspector Clay (Dudley Foster) investigates. In common with many other Durbridge policemen Clay is intelligent and shrewd.Mark goes to move the body to where he is sure it will never be found but it has disappeared and meanwhile Diana gets a phone call from “Geoffrey” telling her to identify a body she will be asked to identify, as being him. Accordingly, the next day she is asked to identify a body and says that it is her husband Geoffrey though the features have been battered and are unrecognisable; it is wearing Geoffrey’s clothes and his distinctive signet ring but he has not been shot ….. And all this early in the first episode.There are five episodes (in black and white) and many twists and turns along the way in typical Durbridge style.The Passenger (1971)David Walker and his partner have decided to sell their toy factory. David goes home and catches his wife with her driving instructor. Upset David decides to visit his uncle for a few days. As he is driving there he picks up Judy Clayton who is hitch hiking but they run out of petrol during their journey. David walks back to a garage to get some petrol but when he returns to his car Judy has gone and a note written in lipstick, thanking him for the lift, is on his windscreen.Shortly afterwards Judy is found strangled not far from where they ran out of petrol. Inspector Denson (Peter Barkworth) is investigating and also happens to be the husband (separated) of David’s secretary Sue. But why was the note written in a different lipstick colour from that in Judy’s bag? Why were her keys on a key ring promoting the toy factory? Why does her diary contain an appointment for the time and day that David picked her up?David’s brother in law Andy Mason had lost his camera in Turin on a holiday with David and his wife the year before. How come it is found in Judy’s lodgings? And why does her landlady identify photos of David on holiday as Judy’s boyfriend who she had been introduced to as Andy Mason ……So the mystery begins and lasts three episodes…..The Doll (1975)Publisher Peter Matty (John Fraser) meets Phyllis Du Salle (Anouska Hemple) on a trip to Switzerland. Back in London he meets her again and his friend Max (A very young looking Derek Fowlds – Basil Brush, Yes Minister, Heartbeat) tells him that Phyllis’s husband Norman died falling overboard from a ferry in a storm, his body being washed ashore some time later and identified by Phyllis. It seems that earlier in the voyage that Norman and Phyllis had a row about a doll …..The doll turned up at a later time in mysterious circumstances …..Peter is besotted but Phyllis disappears …..So, in typical Durbridge style, a mystery starts that is centred on an everyday object or situation and spreads over three episodes ….. The third episode where everything is revealed is a bit disjointed and tends to jump from place to place and one group of people to another but is still comprehensible.Breakaway: The Family Affair (1979)Detective Superintendent Sam Harvey (Martin Jarvis) is about to quit the force to concentrate on a career as an author. He is due to see his parents off on a trip to Australia to see their daughter (his sister) but as he is told the plane is delayed for a couple of hours he leaves them at the airport.His parents are shot soon afterwards while travelling away from the airport in a van marked “Marius of Rye”. They are shot from a helicopter and the van crashes; they are both killed. His sister tells police her father had rung to delay the visit by a week and nobody has heard of Marius of Rye.Why had his parents misled him, who are Marius of Rye and who is Hogarth…….? There are 6 episodes for the mystery to deepen and then be finally resolved. Also features Glyn Houston and Angela Browne.Breakaway: The Local Affair (1979)Detective Superintendent Harvey (Martin Jarvis) has been persuaded to take on one more case even though he had resigned to concentrate on being an author.He is sent to help investigate the murder of Rita Black who has been discovered strangled. She had recently moved to London but was visiting for her birthday. So the questions start to materialize – she was strangled by someone wearing gloves and there was also a thank you telegram for some gloves in her bag from “Mitch”. She was seen earlier talking to Scott Douglas an American businessman (Ed Bishop – UFO) who was identified from a photo by Becky Royce (Judy Geeson), who runs a local employment agency. In the photo he was seen holding some gloves but his gloves were in the pocket of an overcoat which has been stolen along with his briefcase…..Rita’s sister Isobel is confined to a wheelchair but she casually gets up and walks to the window to watch the departure of a police officer who has questioned her…..And so it goes on. In my opinion this is the weakest of the serials (in 6 episodes here) on this collection but enough mystery to entertain along with some continuity quirks to watch out for.Altogether this is a great collection of Durbridge mystery serials.

It was really good to watch The Passenger again after forty nine years. It hadn’t dated that much ok the scenery may be a bit acrchaic but the plot and acting were faultless.