The Beiderbecke Affair - Series 1 (3 Volume Boxed Set)

Starring:James Bolam, Barbara Flynn, Terence Rigby, Danny Schiller, Dudley Sutton, Keith Smith, Dominic Jephcott, Stephen Tomlin, Sean Scanlan, Keith Marsh, Alison Skilbeck, Bernard Atha, Robert Longden, George Malpas, Jason Lumsden, James Grout, Martin Pitman, Sue Jenkins, Colin Blakely, Ian Bleasdale
Director: David Reynolds (III), Frank W. Smith
Studio: Goldhil Home Media
Product Type: DVD

Description

Alan Plater's comedy thriller series introduces the engaging amateur detective partnership of teacher Tervor Chaplin and his girlfriend Jill, beautifully played by James Bolam and Barbara Flynn. They are on the trail of the blonde saleslady who sold him an inferior set of records by Trevor's hero, Bix Beiderbecke, the legendary jazz musician. Alan Plater's hit comedy mystery series introduces the engaging amateur detective partnership of woodworking teacher Trevor Chaplin (James Bolam) who likes to listen to jazz and his girlfriend Jill (Barbara Flynn) who wants to save the planet and run for the local council. They are on the trail of the beautiful blonde saleslady who sold Trevor an inferior set of records by Trevor's hero, Bix Beiderbecke, the legendary jazz musician. As their adventure unfolds Trevor and Jill encounter strange going's on and even stranger people, including a suspicious detective sergeant and a strange pair of men running a junior football team. It doesn't take long before they uncover a web of corrupt government officials, crooked businessmen and death threats. This thrilling series weaves quirky characters, witty dialogue and a wonderful jazz soundtrack into a uniquely satisfying entertainment.

Customer Reviews:

Great show (5*); lousy manufacturing (0*).......2006-12-04

Be prepared to potentially recieve mis-packaged product as apparently Goldhil shipped more than a few units that had a copy of the 3rd disk mis-labelled as disk 1. Everthing looks normal but the content labeled Disk 1 is another copy of the Disk 3 contents. Thus can't recommend that you get this as a gift for someone -- won't really be "funny".

Content is great (as stated in other reviews), but it might not be worth the hassel of buying anywhere other then where you can immediately check the contents for this manufacturing flaw.

Content, A; Video quality, D.......2006-07-30

The content of the show is interesting, but the video quality is terrible, blurry, worse than VCR. The sound is muddy, and it's difficult to understand the dialog, especially for American ears. Another good Britcom destroyed by poor quality transfer.

The Beiderbecke Affair - Series 1 (3 Volume Boxed Set) .......2006-07-01

I first saw The Beiderbecke Affair and the other 2 in the series on PBS Mystery and loved it right away. The story and characters are wonderful. The Chemsity between Jill (Barbara Flynn) and Trevor (James Bolam) is very wity. Anyone who can spend a little time watching this series will be adding it to their collection. The Beidebecke Series is one of my top 10 films.

Off Beat North of England Humour........2006-05-04

Trevor is a woodwork teacher in a northern England state school. He has no ambition and is interested in only three things, football (soccer), his lover Jill, who teaches English at the same school as Trevor, and Jazz. One night he buys a set of Bix Beiderbeche records from a blond door to door salewomen who is raising money for the local boy scount group. When the records do not turn out to Bix Beiderbecke, Trevor and Jill who is also a Green candidate for the town council, get to meet the brothers Big Al and Little Norm. Big Al is an unemployed buiding worker who runs the black economy in the town from a garden shed and a local church. Big Al however calls it the White Economy in order to improve its image.

Believing that Trevor, Jill. Big Al and Little Norm are criminals all four are targeted by a local police officer.
This leads in the end to the true criminals being unmasked, but not before we have come across such people as Helen of Tadcaster (Trevor's Ex), the local Police Chief and a dog walking old age pensioner who would like to be a police informer, except he has nothing to inform.

If all this sounds a little daft, it is. It is also very funny, very gentle and very British or to more true, very north of England.

James Bolam (When the Boat Comes In and The Likely Lads) and Barbara Flynn (Family at War, Cracker and Maigret) are well know actors in British TV, both are great as Trevor and Jill as are Colin Blakney as the Police Chief and Terence Rigby as Big Al.

The Beiderbecke Affair was followed by the Beiderbecke Tapes and the Beiderbeche Connection all of which follow with the same off beat, laid back humour.

Jazz and Intrigue in Yorkshire.......2005-07-13

Alan Plater's stories are always just on the verge of being a little too cute. The dialogue is sometimes too clever by half, but more often than not, it actually works. So I can understand if the Beiderbecke series is not to everyone's liking. After happening on the series on tv, I had to find the books. I've read the trilogy at least five times since I found a paperback copy in London in 1994 (at Books, Etc., which was replaced by Borders and is still on Charing Cross Road near Tottenham Court Rd.).

The Beiderbecke Affair is my favorite of the three Beiderbecke stories (The Beiderbecke Tapes and The Beiderbecke Connection are the second and third of the series). We are introduced to Trevor and Jill, Big Al and Little Norm, the gang at school, and the mostly incompetent bunch at the police station. Why has a beautiful platinum blonde offered to sell jazz records to Trevor? What do Big Al and Little Norm have to hide? How are Jill's English students getting extra copies of Tess of the D'Urbervilles? And how does Bix Beiderbecke fit in?

As you may guess, the mystery is secondary in these stories. The appeal is the interplay among the characters and the running gags. The music is a big plus in the video versions, with an excellent band playing the songs of Leon "Bix" Beiderbecke, jazz musician of The Twenties, who died tragically young, and whose cornet playing inspires Trevor and occasionally other characters, but alas, never Jill.

Start with the The Beiderbecke Affair, not just because it is the first of the series, but because it is the best story.

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