Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)The only thing missing from the information provided with the set is an description of the preferred viewing order from the standpoint of character and story continuity. As with any television show, production order, first air-date order, and actual narrative order of the story are most often three different things. It gets more complicated when the air-date order is different in different markets, and different home video releases use differing episode order, which is the case with this show. An authoritative final word on this issue would have been a welcome addition to the otherwise very interesting and informative booklet which accompanies this set. As it is, I am left to presume that the order of episodes as laid out on discs of this set is an expression of a preferred viewing order. Many of the stories are fairly stand-alone in this show, so viewing order is not absolutely critical, other than watching the pilot first.
That quibble aside, this set is complete and of much better technical quality than that released in the United States by A&E. Most software players on computers can handle the PAL format and Region 2 issues just fine, but if, like me, you really want to watch this on your TV in your living room, things get a little difficult for those of us in the United States. There are various strategies, some of which are of questionable legality, so I will not elaborate on those here. Thus far, I have been stuck with watching these on my computer, and this is likely to be the case for most United States purchasers of this edition.
As for the show itself. I loved this as a child when it aired in the States as "My Partner The Ghost" and it has been great fun refreshing my admittedly vague memories of the show. As an adult, I can recognize the variable quality of the writing more than I did as a child. Some of the scripts are real clunkers, but the cast are all troopers who clearly have a commitment to the integrity of their characters, which helps hold things together even in the worst of lines.
It is I suppose ironic that Mike Pratt's life and career was cut tragically short, while his co-star Kenneth Cope, who played the ghost half of the partnership, lives on and has had a rich career as a comic actor.
By the way, don't bother with the BBC remake of 2000. I couldn't even get through the first episode. The casting and characterizations were painfully wrong, and it is no surprise that Kenneth Cope, after reading the script, refused an opportunity to take a recurring role in that incarnation of the show.
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