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Camberwick Green, Trumpton and Chigley
The Oldest DVD releases
Note ....
All these following dvds suffered from really poor quality footage. And are here just for historical completeness.
Pictured is the 1st full 39 episode boxset. Released in April 2003,and deleted in June 2005.
Yes it's the 1st boxset. But the quality is poor.
Some episodes emerge worse than others.
But there's .... juddering .... a general lack of sharpness .... very variable exposure levels ....
.... and quite a lot of extraneous marks on the film.
So if you're tempted by a cheap survivor on ebay then please do bear all that in mind.
Because you're unlikely to see any of that mentioned in the seller's item description !
Historical footnote ....
You could pick it up for as little as £9.99 from an online retailer when it was still on general release.
But,with incredibly poor timing,it was deleted just prior to the launch of the Quaker Oats tv ads.
And the upsurge in interest pushed eBay prices up to £50+.
With the highest that I'm aware of being a staggering £87 ( yes, eighty seven pounds )
Hard to believe now of course.And it was pretty hard to believe at the time too,come to think of it ! But here's the proof
And finally .... the first 3 dvds to be released.
As with the boxset immediately above,these are all pretty irrelevant now. But .... just for the record ....
Several anomalies here.
With the main one being that the Camberwick example doesn't appear to have been released until after the first boxset and over 2 years after its Trumpton and Chigley counterparts.Very bizarre (if indeed true)
Camberwick Released June 2004 : Deleted August 2004.
Only 12 of the 13 episodes are featured.
With the "Mr.Dagenham" one absent for some reason.
Trumpton Released March 2002 : Deleted June 2005.
There's a major error on the sleeve notes for this one.
It actually contains all 13 episodes NOT the "8" quoted !
Chigley Released March 2002 : Deleted June 2005.
Unlike Trumpton,the sleeve is correct ie.there are just 8 episodes.
And that ends the full list of all the DVD releases
The Extras - for the 3 DVDs above
Trumpton dvd - "Creating Trumptonshire"
A brief interview with Gordon Murray and some shots of the original animation process.
But it only lasts just under 3 minutes ( not mentioned on the sleeve )
And it isn't even new material.As all 3 minutes come from the 2005 BBC3 series "Animation Nation".
And as it's simply a chunk lifted out un-edited,there's one particular guy happily chatting away whose identity is a complete mystery !
Camberwick dvd - "Trumptonshire Art Gallery"
Simply a paltry collection of 8 random photos lifted from the series.Nothing more.
In their defence,the original pre-release blurb had mentioned a feature on the Quaker Oats ads,which was clearly pulled quite late-on for some unknown reason.But Windy's well has never been so dry !
Chigley dvd - "Restoring Trumptonshire"
Takes a look at the digital restoration process that supposedly sets these releases apart from the previous offerings.
And whilst it'll detain you twice as long as the Trumpton extra,that's still only about 6 minutes in total.
But ... brace youselves .... it is actually quite interesting ! And it also leads nicely into the last part of the review ....
Picture Quality.
The sleeves are emblazoned with "digitally restored".
But the first reality check can be found in tiny lettering on the back ....
" Please note that whilst every care has been taken to ensure the quality of this programme,due to the age of the original materials the technical quality of the programme may be slightly impaired in places."
And the 2nd reality check is when you take a look for yourself and realise there are still big variations in exposure levels,and some picture wobble and general dirt to contend with.
An improvement over the earlier releases,below ?
Yes. But that wasn't difficult.
And it's not until the rediscovery of the original master tapes and subsequent Blu-Ray releases that you can dispense with the rose-tinted specs.
3 DVD Releases
NOTE - As stated,directly above,these 3 dvds came out individually in 2006 and were simply plonked in the cardboard box to turn them into the boxset.
Based on the best available retail prices at the time of release,you'd have paid around £36 for all 3 seperately as opposed to just £16 pounds for the boxset.
And when they were released there was no indication there'd be a boxset just a few months later of course.
Doubtless leaving early bird purchasers feeling they'd had their pockets picked in a rather tacky way.
The 2nd ever box set
It was released on September 25th, 2006. But ....
The 3 dvds it contains had all been released seperately earlier in the year. ( pictured further down )
Trumpton - on March 27th .... Camberwick - on May 8th .... and Chigley - on June 9th.
And the only things you gained by buying the boxset were different menu designs,
anda nicely printed cardboard box,as the sleeves and extras were all completely unchanged.
Admittedly,HMV did at least sell a version,exclusive to them,that included 4 fridge magnets (right)
A nice bit of thinking outside the box ( literally ).But still just a small dollop of ketchup on re-heated leftovers.
Directly Below is a larger pic of the front of the boxset,together with a trailer that appears on the dvds.
The sleeve pic is a take-off of the "Trainspotting" film poster. Although "The Usual Suspects" might be more appropriate.
And .... oops .... that's actually Sergeant Major Grout pictured and not Captain Snort.
Which is an easy mistake to make .... unless you're being paid to get it right of course.
On this page - details of all the dvd releases,in chronological order starting with the most recent.
Trumpton clickable
The latest in a series of "digital restorations".
But this was the 1st time on Blu-ray as opposed to Dvd.
And made possible by the re-discovery of the original master tapes. Which,obviously,took the quality of the footage to a whole new level.
And it was a "triple play" release.
As it also included a new dvd version and a digital download version.
And was sold exclusively by Amazon,with an initial price of £9.99.
The following pic gives an idea of the improvements to the colours and contrast.Superceding all the previous releases,listed below Pic
I've included an article that gives you some background information. Here
And a youtube clip where it was discussed on BBC breakfast tv is Here
The most recent releases ..... A complete Blu Ray box set ..... Release date 18 September 2023
As well as the box set,each series has been also been released seperately. All shown below.
And .... for those without blu ray hardware .... they're also available as new dvd releases too.
Full review here soon. But a few intial dips into the blu-rays here at trumpton3 left us somewhat underwhelmed tbh.
More on these in due course
The 1st Blu Ray release.
It came out in December 2011. It was for Camberwick only. And the other 2 series only appeared 12 years later ! (above)
