Review of Ground Force: The Titchmarsh Years

Introduction

This is another title released with Christmas in mind. Can`t think what to get your favourite aunt or uncle? Do they like gardening? Or maybe you know that they lust after Alan Titchmarsh/Charlie Dimmock/Tommy Walsh? Ground Force: The Titchmarsh Years is here to help.

So why is it Ground Force: The Titchmarsh Years? Surely there haven`t been any other years? Well that`s true, but there soon will be as Alan has now left the show, as well as Gardener`s World, to move on to new projects (hopefully not more abysmal novels, but you never know). Ground Force has been a big hit with viewers in the UK and is also popular in the US, where it airs anything between 1 and 7 times a day on BBC America.

This is a documentary of sorts, covering the series from its inception (and original failed pilot episode) to Alan`s last episode. It takes in each series, plus the various specials such as the Nelson Mandela Garden, Jill Dando Memorial Garden and the New York Garden. There are behind the scenes clips, interviews, out-takes and clips from lots of the shows.

Video

It`s presented with a 1.78:1 anamorphic transfer, which is a good start. Nice to see that they haven`t gone down the cheap and lazy cropped route that many other widescreen TV show DVDs get sucked into.

It`s a very good TV transfer and I haven`t got anything negative to say about it. What do you get visually? Gardens - trees, flowers, lawns, paving slabs, blue fences, gazebos, pergolas etc. etc. And of course Charlie Dimmock`s legendarily unsupported mammae.

Audio

A DD2.0 stereo soundtrack which does exactly what it says on the tin. You can hear everything that`s said, and also the theme music by the Black Dyke Band (there`s a whole CD of that which you can buy separately).

Features

There are some extras here too. You get about 10 minutes of each of the following:-

Alan`s Favourites - Alan picks his favourite gardens.

Charlie`s Favourites - Charlie picks her favourite gardens.

Tommy`s Favourites - Tommy picks his favourite gardens.

Alan`s Designs - Alan talks about some of his designs.

Charlies Water Features - Charlie talks about some of her water features.

Tommy`s Constructions - Tommy talks about some of his building work.

The Music Of Ground Force - a short piece about the theme tune and some of the incidental music used.

Conclusion

This compilation of interviews, clips and out-takes is the sort of "special" that clogs up many a channel`s Xmas schedule. I`d be surprised if it wasn`t on TV very soon indeed. But in the meantime it makes a reasonably interesting DVD for fans of the show.

I do think that the market is very limited though - who would actually want to go and buy this DVD? It`s fine to watch it once, but I would say that the repeat value is very low indeed. It`s nice to look back through the programme`s history and see how things have changed. The out-takes section is hilarious too! But you won`t be coming back to this disc time and again, so I`d say that this is a title for rental only, unless you know a massive fan of the show (or the presenters).

An RRP of £19.99 is a little on the steep side though!