|
|
 |
Your Cheatin' Heart (TV)
R2 - United Kingdom - Second Sight Review written by and copyright: James-Masaki Ryan (22nd May 2015). |
|
The Show
 The official synopsis: In this classic six part BBC series, John Byrne, creator of Tutti Frutti, explores the Scottish country music scene in an unsentimental portrait of Glaswegian life and culture. Local food and wine correspondent Frank McClusky falls in love with waitress Cissie Crouch. Unfortunately for him, she’s the wife of a convict, who is serving time for a crime he didn’t commit. As Frank’s life becomes more embroiled with Cissie’s he goes on a mission to track down the guilty men. Scottish playwright John Byrne’s follow-up to the 6-part BBC Scotland TV series “Tutti Frutti” in 1987 with another music-themed series. “Tutti Frutti” was based around rock-n-roll, while 1990’s “Your Cheatin’ Heart” was based around country music. Named after the Hank Williams song from 1952, the series takes place in at-the-time modern day Glasgow, although the setting could have easily been in the American West in the late 1800s. The story has the basic ingredients of a stereotypical Western film: a husband in jail, a woman on her own, barfighting, a man from out of town coming to help, murder, and even characters named “Tonto” and “Cherokee George”. The series had very notable talent involved on screen. John Byrne’s then 30-year old wife Tilda Swinton plays Cissie, the wife of the jailed husband, in one of her earlier television roles years before she became one of the most respected character actors working in film, and her performance as Cissie shines. Although 2 years younger than Swinton, John Gordon Sinclair was already quite established in the acting world playing the title character in the film “Gregory’s Girl” in 1981, and starring in numerous TV series and TV movies. His character Frank, the wine reporter from out of town who develops a love-hate relationship with Cissie is both the comic relief and the straight man, as he is the outsider wearing the “wrong clothes” and “wrong shoes” in the country music infused setting. Actress Katy Murphy who previously played in “Tutti Frutti”, plays the musician Billie who performs country music together with actress and musician Eddi Reader who plays Jolene in her acting debut. Reader was the vocalist of Fairground Attraction which just broke up earlier in the year, and was very familiar with country music as the band had a style which melded country, folk, jazz, Cajun, and rock music, and being a native of Glasgow, she fit right in. The cast also features Ken Stott (Shallow Grave and The Hobbit series) and Peter Mullen (Tyrannosaur and War Horse). The dark nature of the show also mixes dark comedy. There are some genuinely funny moments in the series, but at the same time there are brutal moments like a barbershop murder and also a scene with scorching hot coffee being splashed on a man’s southern region (both done offscreen though). The show is at times entertaining but at other times boring. Granted it didn’t have a large budget to experiment with camera moves, editing techniques, or other technical tricks. Another problem was the relationship between some of the characters didn’t seem strong enough. Cissie and Frank worked well together, but Cissie’s relationship with Billie and Jolene could have had a little more connection. Throughout the series, frequent references are made to past country music stars. Glen Campbell, Patsy Cline, Chet Atkins, Gene Autry, Willie Nelson, Tammy Wynette and more are name checked in dialogue, which may have flown over many people’s heads while the show was on the air, as country music does not have a very wide audience outside of America. This was also one year before Tammy Wynette made a slight comeback with her collaboration with The KLF on the album “The White Room”, introducing her to a new younger audience. Country songs are performed by the characters frequently through the show, and the opening theme is a cover of the title song. So setting a country-music infused TV series in Scotland seems like an odd choice and an alienating one. But consider that there is a Grand Ole Opry in Glasgow, and also consider that American country music was originally inspired by Celtic music and Folk music from the British Isles. First broadcast in 1990 on BBC, the show was largely forgotten about since it was not rerun over the years. The series was screened at the 2013 Dunoon Film Festival, and finally released on DVD for the first time by Second Sight, a full 25 years after it first aired.
Video
The video is in 1.33:1 non-anamorphic PAL. When I first started watching the opening credits, I was horrified at the video quality of the 1990 PAL video with the cheesy processing and effects. I assumed the whole series would look like watching an old VHS source, but gladly I was wrong. The show was shot on 16mm film and transferred to PAL video for broadcast. The DVD actually looks pretty good with film grain being visible and with no signs of dirt or scratches in the picture. But colors look pretty washed out. Whether this is how Glasgow looked back in 1990 or the fault of the video master, the only way it could have been made better was to go back to the original 16mm negatives and remaster it from there, but financially that just wasn’t feasible, and whether the negatives still survive is another question. Black levels are quite good, and Eddi Reader’s red hair looks bright so there are some positives to be said here. As I mentioned the opening and ending credits were processed through PAL videotape, and it looks like watching old high school video productions class tapes from the 1990s. But that’s how it was originally broadcast and gladly it was kept as is.
Audio
The English Dolby Digital 2.0 dual mono track sounds very good. Dialogue is clear and the music is as well. Second Sight have decided not to bump up the track to 5.1 which was a good choice. Although the music might have benefited from a surround track, the original mono track suits just fine. For people that think the Scottish accent is a wee bit hard to understand, thankfully Second Sight have provided English HoH subtitles.
Extras
The 6 episodes are divided into 3 episodes per disc: DISC ONE Episodes (with Play All function) (142:18) - Throwing Up in the Gorbals (46:57) - The Eagle of the Apocalypse and the Sidewinders of Satan (46:43) - This Could Turn Septic on Us, Ya Big Ungrateful Midden (48:38) DISC TWO Episodes (with Play All function) (142:32) - Happy Trails (47:22) - Lay That Pistol Down, Babe (48:46) - The Last Round Up (46:23) There are no other extras on the discs. No interviews, no commentaries, nothing. Even a little info on the music? Nope.
Packaging
The DVD release features newly created original artwork by John Byrne.
Overall
Fans have waited 25 years for an official video release and it is finally here. Byrne fans, Swinton fans can finally see what it was all about. Even if you are not familiar with country music, it can still be enjoyed for the most part. Having no extras is disappointing though.
|
|||||
|