The Onedin Line

This series was immensely popular in Britain during the 1970's. Its combination of boardroom antics and exciting seafaring action had Sunday evening audiences hooked. Containing some excellent location work and a memorable musical score, this was costume drama at its best.

I have finally been able (thanks to a generous poster on YouTube) to watch all 91 episodes of this series, having given up waiting for them all to be released on DVD in Region1. I know that a company called BFS Video released the first 8 episodes on DVD, but that was it. I emailed them to ask why they didn't release the rest, but did not get a reply.

I vaguely recall seeing a few episodes of this series on TV in the 1970's as a kid. I don't know if it was on PBS at the time, because I think there were commercials cut into the programs.

But at long last to be able to see every episode has been a treat. I found the earlier seasons the best and more interesting, but as it wore on to the later seasons, the flaws began to appear. Certain characters (who either got tired of their roles) were written out (or killed off) from the series too hastily and never appeared again. That is the writers fault and leaves unfortunate gap explanations.

But the attention to detail in terms of production design, costumes, and the ship scenes are standard quality for BBC programs during this period. As usual with these British productions during the 70's, they interweave (through editing) studio set videotaped scenes with outdoor filmed sequences, which is a bit annoying at times. Some gaffes here and there with continuity in terms of the characters clothing not matching in some of these spliced-together scenes.

Kudos go to Peter Gilmore who appears in all 91 programs and has to carry the whole series. He did an excellent job. Also to Anne Stallybrass, Howard Lang, Jessica Benton and Mary Webster. The Onedin offspring were not great actors, and I don't recognize them having appeared in subsequent BBC productions.

91 episodes is quite long and probably would never happen today. I used to think the original Upstairs,Downstairs was quite long at 63 parts or Poldark, until this one.

I recommend this series highly especially as I said, the earlier seasons.

A BBC serie. And the another definition becomes bizarre. Because it is the serie of many youths. Defined by costumes, atmosphere, the feeling of salted air, more than reasonable performances. And by a sort of flavour. Enigmatic, powerful, seductive, delicate, bitter. A serie about a man, his love and his ambition. And, sure, about the sea and the spirit of a period. All - impecable. And preserving, after decades, the fresh air of pure adventure.

I've always been of the opinion that the 1960s and 70s was the golden era of English cinema and television.

"The Onedin Line" was an all class act. There was nothing slip-shod about this fine production. Being a keen history buff, it was always high on my list of viewing options. Indeed, the show enjoyed considerable popularity here in Australia because it regularly featured Australian references in its story lines.

The choice of Peter Gilmore in the title role of James Onedin could only be described as ínspired.

Some aspects of this series are probably a bit dated now but I recently watched a few episodes for the first time in many years and got a lot of pleasure out of seeing it again.

A must see for lovers of history.

I just discovered The Onedin Line,I ordered both DVD sets.I was totally hooked through each episode.The casting was perfect,and the acting was great.When I got to last episode I wanted to see more.I was delighted to see it ran for eight season.I was then very let down to find out the rest of the show is not available in the United States.I can only hope the rest of the series will be available in the future.I would definitely purchase the complete series if it were released.I would have rated this series a 10 if the picture quality was improved.The picture quality isn't too bad considering it was made in the early 70's.Anyone who loves British TV,history,and sea/ship dramas will not want to miss this.