Review of Complete Chorlton And The Wheelies, The: Series Two

Introduction

"Jump in, we`ll take you for a spin and show you round the wheelie world...."

And so begins the theme tune for the second series of Chorlton released on DVD. Made in 1977, the second series just carries on in the same vein as the first, as you would expect. The series was made by Brian Cosgrove and Mark Hall for ITV.

And just to re-enforce that fact you even get the old Thames TV ident as the main menu loads up. Instant nostalgia.

So what`s it all about? Well basically a dragon hatches from an egg in Wheelie World, and befriends the Wheelies, helping them in their fight against Fenella the evil witch (who`s supposed to be Welsh, but the accent moves around a lot). Sounds mad but then again most television from this era was...

Video

As you would expect the picture is not reference quality, but it`s still reasonably good for its age, and seems to have aged better than some of the other TV shows we`ve had on DVD. There are some bad moments, with dirt and scratches on the print, colour palettes changing, and even a few coffee cup rings that appear, but on the whole it is perfectly watchable.

Audio

The original mono soundtrack, replayed over the left and right channels. Nothing to write home about, but still good for its age. Again the soundtrack seems to have aged better than some of the other shows recently released on DVD, but there are some moments when it sounds distinctly muddy.

Features

Nothing here, apart from the nostalgia trip of the Thames TV logo as the disc loads...

Conclusion

Another classic slice of television for the younger generation, from an age when they knew how to make it. The second disc of this amusing Cosgrove/Hall series to make its way on to DVD (the next Chorlton series is due out later on in the year, with more Cosgrove/Hall classics to follow).

As with the first series, if you remember it, you`ll probably want to buy it, and it`s a snip at £9.99 or less.