Bring The Magic Home!: The Story Of ITC's Carlton Video Home Entertainment

4 - Cool spies and private eyes

Finally, Carlton Video began to release many of the classic spy thriller ITC series on video and DVD. It was announced shortly after the release of the Fiction Makers that Carlton would be releasing ITC series on video and DVD. On the 7th and 10th July 2000, Carlton released the first volumes of The Saint, Return Of The Saint, The Persuaders, Danger Man, Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), Department S, Jason King, The Champions and Man In A Suitcase. For the videos, the series that had fifty-minute episodes featured two episodes per tape, whereas those that had twenty-five-minute stories featured four episodes per tape. The DVDs would usually feature more episodes, but the first volume of each series would only contain 2 episodes (if fifty-minute episodes) or 4 episodes (if twenty-minute episodes). Return Of The Saint would only remain available on VHS at the time. The covers usually had quite basic backgrounds (especially the back but this would begin to improve). The following individual VHS and DVD tapes were further released on the following days (each one tape/disc per series); 9th March 2001, 14th May 2001, 16th July 2001, 18th February 2002, 8th July 2002, and 9th September 2002. The videos would feature the promo below, and the DVDs, which would sometimes include the trailer, would feature the usual interactive menus, scene selections, still galleries, trailers, text information, original artwork, character biographies, memorabilia, and original titles. 

The discs featured leaflets inside - the front was the cover of the DVD, inside would be production details, and at the back chapter details, and was priced £9.99 each. Some would feature promos inside of the other various ITC series. It would only be a short time before Carlton would be releasing the first full ITC series on video and DVD. That series really is truly insoluble, for man or machine...