"The Onedin Line" (1971)TV series 1971-1980

Creator:

Cyril Abraham

Seasons:

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8

Release Date:

15 October 1971 (UK)

Genre:

Adventure | Drama | Romance

Plot:

James Onedin marries Anne Webster in order to get his hands on a ship. However the marriage turns out to be one of true love...

Awards:

4 nominations

Cast

Peter Gilmore	...	James Onedin (90 episodes, 1971-1980)
Jessica Benton	...	Elizabeth Frazer / ... (65 episodes, 1971-1980)
Howard Lang	...	Captain Baines / ... (62 episodes, 1971-1980)

Runtime:

50 min (91 episodes)

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Certification:

Finland:K-11 (DVD) (2007) | Australia:PG | Singapore:PG

Filming Locations:

Bayard's Cove, Dartmouth, Devon, England, UK

Company:

British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "The Cult of...: The Onedin Line (#2.5)" (2008)

Warning on the DVDs

Grand music, real drama, tall ships and Jessica Benton, how can you go wrong?

One way is to cram all the episodes together so that each DVD forms some kind of four hour movie version of 'The Onedin Line'. This means that the writing talent that went into giving us some dramatic flow in an hour show is completely crapped on. At odd points during your viewing, provided you've got four hours spare to do that, you'll suddenly get a bit of the Adagio from 'Spartacus' dropped on you like a piece of musical jetsam. And with only your memory to guide you as to where each episode ends, you end up with a very up and down experience and not what TV drama is all about.

I for one would've been keen to see the names of the actors in each episode, too, as I'm sure they would be keen for me to know who they were. Alas, even that is lost to us in some harebrained attempt to turn this magnificent production into something even David Lean could find a trifle lengthy and vicissitudes.

We can only hope the BBC doesn't try this again with the second series.