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I saw this program many years ago on Public TV. It fascinated me because I'm a big James Bond fan and this is the story of the man where Ian Fleming got his ideas for his books. It's a true story and the acting is superb. I recommend it highly. The music is also wonderful.
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Based on the real-life experiences of Sidney Reilly, a spy who worked for the British Secret Service at the beginning of the 20th Century, this is a look at real espionage at its best. Reilly operated in Hamburg, Port Arthur, the Caucasus, St. Petersburg and Moscow and had many adventures in the service. Of course, his activities prior to 1918 pale when compared to his role in an attempt to overthrow the Bolshevik government. Had it been successful Reilly would have ended up as the ruler of Russia himself.
The acting is superb and the plot keeps drawing you in. A fascinating program, one I can't recommend highly enough. Just remember that while this is a great story, based on history, it is still a story and not necessarily history. It probably wouldn't be nearly as interesting had it been closer to the mark. Plus, some incidents are just speculative while others have been changed to make them more melodramatic (at one point a victim is shot by the CHEKA in some elaborate scenario, but in fact the secret police simply shot you in the head with a pistol, as is portrayed elsewhere in the series).
This is how you wish history was. For how it REALLY was, there is a short documentary on the last disc which shows that Reilly was not the dapper hero he is shown in the series.
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I agree with eveyone about this series. It is simply one of the greatest ever put on television. When it originally broadcast 25 years ago it was met with immense critical acclaim. It made Sam Neill an overnight star. I remember watching Vincent Price do a wonderful job as narrator between episodes each week setting the stage for each successive program.
To watch Reilly start his career as a down and out novice living in a cheap flop house, to being on first name basis with the most powerful men in the world and engaged in projects that changed the course of history, is a terrific piece of film making. Everything is done with period accuracy, right down to side conversations about the merits of one kind of Austrian pistol vs another. All spot on correct. The supporting cast is super with Leo McKern doing the performance of his career as the international arms tycoon Basil Zaharoff. He even looks like Zaharoff. David Burke as the ultra sinister Stalin and a murderous Tom Bell as Cheka spy chief Felix Djerzinski are both outstanding. THIS is what you watch television for!!
But the DVD should have been digitally remastered and the sound cleaned up. For a series this outstanding it's the least that can be done.
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Although this series in and of itself is absolutely wonderful, and fascinating, my mother and I have discovered a problem with the DVD set. This will not be an issue for many, but there are others (like my mother) that it will. Within the last 2 years my mother has lost most of her hearing. She has a VHS set of this program, and it is well worn, but it still would have been fine. There was, however, no Closed Captioning capability on the VHS tapes. Thus we ordered the relatively new DVD set. Unfortunately, without really looking for the subtitle issue. Most DVDs have them. And if they don't, they have added a Closed Captioning availability. But this DVD set has neither. For us this is a huge impediment.
I would like to make it clear that this issue is not an Amazon problem. And in all fairness, their information about the set never did say that there were subtitles or Closed Captioning. I was not looking for it, and I suspect that other people in our position would likely be in a similar situation, and just expect that A&E, who produced this set, would have taken care of this, as most DVDs have done.
On another issue, although the picture is clear, the color has not been "remastered". It has the same problems as the VHS tapes had. The packaging is lovely, and actually leads one to expect that more work was done on the transfer to DVD. Unfortunately it was not.
If you still have VHS tape playing capability, and the tapes, there is not much reason to get the DVD set. Especially if your picture is clear enough. Ours is well worn, so the DVD is better in that regard. But the disappointments with the DVD set are remarkable.
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Very good espionage spy thriller. I completely enjoyed series and would recommend this to anyone who likes spy and espionage movies.
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