Flickers
July 2006 Reviewed by: Josh Barber Format: DVD	(all ratings out of 5): Overall Enjoyment Picture Quality Packaged Extras Sound Quality

Acorn Media has rescued another nearly forgotten show from fading forever from memory, this time the 1980s miniseries, Flickers. A BBC production that aired in the US on Masterpiece Theatre, Flickers is either a romantic comedy that's light on jokes or a romantic drama that has a lot of laughs. The show is funny, to be sure, but it doesn't treat its subject or its characters as broad slapstick.

The setting is turn-of-the-century Britain, where Arnie Cole (Bob Hoskins) is trying to make a living as a film exhibitor. He spends most of his time trying to scheme ways to squeeze a few more pennies out of a crowd; the living isn't a good one.

Those were the days before dedicated cinema houses, so Arnie sets up anywhere he can find a dark room and a piano and shows the newest silent films. His big idea, however, is to break into the other side of the business: he wants to make the films, not show them. He needs financial backing, which leads him to Maud (Francis de la Tour), an upper-middle-class woman who is more self-reliant than her contemporaries, though she is swiftly approaching the age when she'll be regarded as a spinster -- you know, her late 20s!

Arnie and Maud take an almost immediate dislike to one another, but since that wouldn't make for much of a plot, circumstances soon conspire to force them to work together. Under these conditions, a real romance begins to grow, but one less flashy than we normally see on TV.

The video quality is probably as good as it will ever be, but it definitely shows its age. Like almost all shows of that time, Flickers was shot on 16mm for indoor scenes and on video outdoors, and there's been no effort to even them out in order to impose a consistent look. There were a few spots with a slight flicker to them (no pun intended), but Flickers remains entirely watchable, if a little quaint.

The series comprises only six episodes, split among three discs. You'd think this would leave plenty of room for extra features, but Acorn gives us almost nothing. We get a text-based biography of the composer and that ultimate of filler material, cast filmographies. It is quite disappointing. If nothing else, Flickers would have been a great excuse to include a documentary on the British silent cinema industry, so we could compare it to the show. At least the menus get a bit of animation this time, but there's no "play all" option on the discs -- you will be kicked out to the main menu between episodes.

Acorn's strength lies not in its ability to craft impressive discs with nice bonus features, but in the choices they make of random old gems to introduce to new audiences. Flickers definitely follows that trend: there's not much here beyond the show, but the program is worth watching.

• Go Back