THE MOVIE

Edge of Darkness is a BAFTA award winning television drama series that screened on BBC back in the late 1980’s. This ‘gripping eco-thriller’ was written by Troy Kennedy-Martin and directed by Martin Campbell. This two-disc box set is part of the Masterpiece collection, a series of DVDs showcasing the best in classic BBC drama. Edge of Darkness is comprised of six hour long episodes spread across two DVDs. Here is a brief episode guide.

DISC 1
Episode 1 - Compassionate Leave
The first episode introduces us to Detective Inspector Ronald Craven (Bob Peck) and his young daughter Emma (Joanne Whalley), a physicist and political activist. She is soon gunned down and dies in her father’s arms, and thus begins the investigation of her murder. Craven goes through his daughter’s belongings and is perplexed when he finds a handgun and radioactivity badge. He takes leave, and goes to London to continue his investigation.

Episode 2 - Into the Shadows
Craven visits Terry Shields (Tim McInnerny), the assistant secretary of the Socialist Advance party, which Emma was a member of. She was also involved in Gaia, an organisation against nuclear power. Craven later learns that the group broke into the Northmoor nuclear waste plant six weeks ago. Is her death somehow related?

Episode 3 - Burden of Proof
The police find a key suspect, a man by the name of Lowe, but he throws himself out a window. While in hospital, he informs craven that the shooter was a man by the name of McCroon. Terry Shields is found dead from an apparent suicide. Meanwhile, an American Jerry Grogan (Kenneth Nelson) is seeking to acquire the company, International Irradiated Fuels Limited, that owns Northmoor. Craven needs to find out more about this facility.

DISC 2
Episode 4 - Breakthrough
McCroon (Sean Caffrey) comes looking for Craven, and he learns that McCroon was really after him, not his daughter. Question is, who told McCroon where to find him, who else is involved? Unfortunately he is shot dead before Craven can get any further information out of him. With some help Craven hacks into MI5 computers to get information on Northmoor.

Episode 5 - Northmoor
Craven teams up with Darius Jedburgh (Joe Don Baker), an American who works for the CIA and James Godbolt (Jack Watson), an employee of International Irradiated Fuels Limited, and the trio break into Northmoor. They learn what happened to the Gaia members and also find some plutonium, but can they escape with this vital evidence.

Episode 6 - Fusion
Craven manages to get out of Northmoor alive, but he’s not looking too crash hot as he is suffering from radiation sickness. Jedburgh also escapes with some plutonium, but what is he going to do with it. He travels to Scotland to attend a NATO conference, which is also being attended by Jerry Grogan.

THE TRANSFER

Video:

Edge of Darkness is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1 full frame. The visual transfer is rather ordinary, the level of detail is not all that great and shadow detail is not very good either, this is evident during the night time scenes and also those that take place in darkened interiors. The transfer is also awash with background noise and quite a bit of film grain is evident in many scenes. The colours in this series are rather muted, although flesh tones don’t look to bad. On the up side, I couldn’t find any MPEG artefacts and the layer change on both discs was not apparent.

Audio:

This DVD comes with two Dolby Digital 2.0 channel soundtracks, one featuring production audio, the other featuring an isolated musical score (see below for more details). The default soundtrack is satisfactory. Dialogue is clearly audible throughout all six episodes and additional narrative by Bob Peck is also clear and highly intelligible. There didn’t appear to be any audio synch problems either. Eric Clapton and Michael Kamen’s musical score is quite good and this DVD also features English subtitles.

THE EXTRAS

DISC 1
Did You See…?
This is an excerpt from the BBC arts programme ‘Did You See?’, which has a review of the drama series, Edge of Darkness. A panel of film critics discuss the drama series in depth. Footage is presented in 1.33:1 full frame with Dolby Digital 2.0 channel sound. Running time is approximately 8 minutes.

Breakfast Time
Actor Bob Peck is interviewed on the BBC Breakfast Time programme by two different hosts. Both interviews are presented in 1.33:1 full frame with Dolby Digital 2.0 channel sound. Total running time is approximately 7 minutes.

Pebble Mill
This is an excerpt from the Broadcasting Press Guild (BPG) Awards, as judged by television critics. Actor Joe Baker wins an award, as does the drama series Edge of Darkness. This extra feature also includes an interview with chairman of BPG Stewart Lane, who talks about the success of Edge of Darkness. There is also an interview with actor Bob Peck and producer Michael Wearing. Running time is around 6 minutes.

Bafta Awards
Here you will find actual vision from the BAFTAs in 1986 as well as excerpts from the film and interviews with actors Bob Peck and Joe Don Baker. Edge of Darkness won the BAFTA for best drama series and Bob Peck won the BAFTA for best actor. Running time is 7 minutes.

DISC 2
Episode 6 Alternative Ending
I think this should be called spot the difference, the ending is essentially the same as the final cut at the end of episode 6. This alternative ending is presented in 1.33:1 full frame with Dolby Digital 2.0 channel sound. Running time is 2.24 minutes.

Magnox - Secrets of the Edge of Darkness
This is quite an interesting 35 minute featurette which includes recent interviews with series writer Troy Kennedy-Martin, producer Michael Wearing, composer Michael Kaman, series technical adviser Walt Patterson and visual effects designer Mat Irvine as well as actors Charles Kay, John Woodvine and Ian McNeice. The featurette is cut together with numerous excerpts from the drama series and some behind the scenes photos. It is presented in 1.33:1 full frame with Dolby Digital 2.0 channel sound.

Photo Gallery
As the title suggests, this is simply a collection of colour stills, all of which look to be production shots from the drama series.

DISC 1 and 2
Isolated Musical Score
Selecting this option plays the drama series with an isolated musical score. The music was provided by Eric Clapton and Michael Kamen. This feature can also be enabled on the fly by selecting audio option number two with your remote control.

SUMMARY

Edge of Darkness is a BAFTA award winning television drama series that screened in the late 80’s. It stars Bob Peck as Detective Ronald Craven, who is investigating the death of his daughter Emma (Joanne Whalley). The drama series was written by Troy Kennedy-Martin and directed by Martin Campbell. The DVD has a satisfactory visual and audio transfer and there are also a number of interesting extra features.