TV on DVD: Pie in the Sky -- Series 1 (1994)

Available on DVD
From Acorn Media

Read Our Review of Series 2

Bookmark this on Delicious

Print Page





Although I'm the first to admit to a definite addiction to the Acorn Media sets and BBC/HBO/Warner Brothers releases that have turned me into a budding Anglophile-- honestly the idea of British cuisine or fine English dining has never sounded like an appetizing venture.

Yet move over Chef Gordon Ramsay! Long before Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares and F-Word experiences began another UK culinary wizard was ruling the kitchens of the airwaves. He arrived in the form of Harry Potter and Tony award-winning History Boys star Richard Griffiths as the copper turned restaurateur Henry Crabbe on BBC1's delightful series Pie in the Sky.

Although it's pretty safe to say the title of his famously addictive steak and kidney pie isn't something that instantly causes American mouths to water, his homey and intimate restaurant Pie in the Sky and the eponymous series kept fans delighted for forty successful episodes running five seasons or “series” as they say in the UK from 1994-1997.

Now luckily for us Yanks, it's releasing stateside with the attractively packaged space saving slim design of the first series as a compact three disc set complete with all ten episodes. Preserved in the original 4:3 (or square television shaped) aspect ratio, thankfully those of us who are sometimes accent-challenged will be delighted to learn that Acorn has provided us once again with the added bonus of both Dolby Digital Surround and English subtitles for the deaf and or hard of hearing.

And, sure enough-- just like a delectable treat-- it only takes a few minutes once the first episode “The Best of Both Worlds” begins to realize just how different Pie in the Sky is from traditional UK police dramas. Quirky, offbeat, and character driven-- the show is sure to appeal to the same audience who had an appetite for fellow, recent Acorn TV on DVD releases such as the complete collection of The Last Detective and The Beiderbecke Affair.

Striking a nice balance-- it's funnier and less complicated than the beloved Midsomer Murders and one wherein we get an instant sense of the main character's personality more than we did throughout an entire season of Taggart. Yet, all the while the writers ensure we're drawn in by the pleasant charm of all of the characters involved rather than analyzing any gruesome psyches in the otherwise brilliant but dark Cracker and Ruth Rendell Mysteries.

In its premiere episode, Pie in the Sky utilizes a classic cop show cliché set-up to surprising effect. And in going with one of the oldest police cliches in the book, it makes a bold statement that the series isn't going where we think it's going when it takes the premise of a near-retirement copper and moves it into an entirely different direction as we meet our hero, Chief Inspector Detective Henry Crabbe only a little more than a month away from retirement.

Eager to put the twenty-five hard years of life on the police force behind him and move onto his second act as a restaurateur and chef-- much to the chagrin of his accountant and all-things-culinary-related disinterested wife Margaret (Maggie Steed)--he's shot in the line-of-duty by a fellow foodie and upper-class treasury bonds smuggler named Hooperman and played by Foyle's War star Michael Kitchen after he refuses to take a bribe.

While to Henry-- who's wounded in the leg-- this is exactly the right impetus to get out of the hospital and go to work on his dream career. But quickly we learn that the force has other plans for the affable food snob. This occurs after he's unexpectedly duped into innocently accepting an envelope from Hooperman and his manipulative and politically game-playing boss ACC Freddy Fisher (Casino Royale's Malcolm Sinclair) decides to blackmail the innocent Henry with the possibility of losing his pension during an image-ruining inquiry unless he willingly decides to stay on as a detective at Fisher's beck-and-call.

Still able to run the restaurant he then places in his wife's name-- while Fisher assumes that now Crabbe has "The Best of Both Worlds," as the episodes continue-- we watch him strive to solve cases and clean up bureaucratic messes all the while going about the business of starting Pie in the Sky. Thus, he continually juggles crime scenes with wine-lists as Henry wears two hats throughout-- hiring a new staff including some old ex-cons he'd locked up and adding on a hen house and naming the most troublesome chicken after Fisher.

Similar to The Last Detective and indeed Cracker-- as an outsider, Crabbe is often professionally paired with a female partner. This time it's in the form of the brainy, loyal, and supportive Cambridge (Bella Enahoro) and just like the aforementioned shows, the character of the wife takes awhile to develop into one with whom we can empathize and identify. Yet, eventually they make this up to the wonderful actress Maggie Steed as she does more than the wives of the other series to brilliant effect in one of season one's standout episodes "A Matter of Taste."

Changing roles at least temporarily as Margaret fills in for a friend victimized during a wine merchant warehouse robbery, she and her old school chum use their wits and the ridiculous value placed on the vintage wines to out-maneuver the villains with deliciously comedic results. And finally Steed is able to drop the frown that perpetually was written in as the disapproving accountant to become instead a fun-loving, risk-taking wife that only gets stronger as the season draws to a close.

Series creator Andrew Payne and his writing team deftly blend the gentle humor and eccentric characters that populate the restaurant with clever mysteries loaded with red herrings including one that does a complete 360 as Fisher and Crabbe are forced to partner together just as close as they'd been on the force in the old days to investigate a decades old crime.

Also containing bonus notes, a biography of Richard Griffiths, interview with Steed, that famous recipe and more-- it's a spirited and fun set from Acorn that is sure to gain in popularity a la Last Detective as more installments are released in the future. However, while I'm not one for betting-- I'm going to just go ahead and predict that it will Crabbe himself and not the kidney pie that keeps us enchanted on our side of the pond.

Blu-ray Review: Bedtime Stories (2008) -- 3-Disc Set

Keeping You Laughing
Way Past Your Bedtime
On Blu-ray and DVD

Or Click Below to Download It On iTunes

View Clips from the Film in
Our Video Screening Room

There is something irresistibly magical about watching movies with children-- almost like reading them a great bedtime story as they chime in with their own questions and comments in a way that actress Keri Russell noted that makes it "a clever way of finding out what is on their mind or what they might be afraid of or excited about.”

Recently, yours truly--or as I'm known to my beloved niece and nephew: Aunt Jenny-- had the opportunity of seeing the world and especially Walt Disney entertainment through the eyes of young children when they came to visit. Overjoyed that their arrival coincided with the receipt of numerous Disney titles for review-- it was wonderful to step outside the single-minded critical bubble of film reviewing in what is essentially solitary work—aside from some priceless chats with colleagues-- and find what moved them, scared them, or made them laugh both on-screen and off.

Although my toddler aged niece was too young for the Adam Sandler release of director Adam Shankman’s Bedtime Stories-- instead preferring Beverly Hills Chihuahua and Lilo & Stitch (once I fast-forwarded through the scary beginning) -- her slightly older brother vividly recalled going to the theater to watch a movie wherein as he thrillingly explained, eyes-widened, “it rained gumballs from the sky.”

And indeed it is precisely the magical special effects and emphasis on visually creative digital CGI that essentially helps save this unfortunately watered down Happy Madison production from complete oblivion. In a Disney released interview with director Adam Shankman (Hairspray, The Pacifier, Bringing Down the House, The Wedding Planner), he even acknowledges just how important shooting digitally was by arguing that, “now it seems like two-thirds of any film's audience is on DVD." Furthermore, he explained that although in the past he’s realized that his works “look so much more beautiful [on DVD] then they did on the movie screen. I know that this one is absolutely going to look better on DVD.”

And he's definitely right as the three disc Blu-ray edition of Bedtime Stories (which in the high quality/budget friendly package includes a Blu-ray, DVD, and Digital copy compatible with Windows Media and/or Apple’s iTunes thereby giving families the film in three different formats no matter what kind of technology you currently own) is stunning in its clarity, sound, impressive depth perception of the imaginative scenes, and seamless insertion of CGI into the live action scenes that are predominantly filled with actors.

Moreover, the Blu-ray is filled with some very cool behind-the-scenes extras that invite viewers to look at the special effects, one that focuses on the priceless guinea pig Bugsy (who I was amazed to discover wasn’t computer generated), another one involving the way that Sandler perpetually devoted himself to making the children laugh, along with outtakes that largely consist of Sandler cracking himself up in the company of Rob Schneider and forgetting his lines.

However, this being said-- for viewers such as myself who always looked forward to the latest Adam Sandler movie including my personal favorite The Wedding Singer as I grew up watching him on Saturday Night Live alongside Mike Myers, David Spade, Chris Farley, Dana Carvey, Rob Schneider and more -- there isn't a whole lot about Bedtime Stories for adults to enjoy in terms of its story-line. So instead, it's ideal for its target audience of pre-kindergarten through grade school, sadly managing to blend the two audiences together the way that Disney usually is able to do.

Essentially it finds him recycling his thinly disguised Adam Sandler character we've seen put to far greater comedic effect in Anger Management, Billy Madison, and others as the sweet, sensitive man-child that’s always on the verge of exploding while on the path to grow up and stick up for himself. Bedtime Stories, which is written by his frequent scripter Tim Herlihy along with Matt Lopez, once again allows Sandler to coast playing the appropriately childishly named Skeeter Bronson.

Although to his credit, every once in a while Sandler has gone for broke taking admirable risks not to play it safe with serious turns and the underrated Mike Binder film Reign Over Me (opposite Don Cheadle and Jada Pinkett Smith) and Paul Thomas Anderson’s odd, darkly tinged love-story Punch Drunk Love (with Emily Watson and Philip Seymour Hoffman) as well as taking on entirely new characters such as in 2008’s surprisingly hilarious and top Mossad agent turned hairstylist in You Don’t Mess With the Zohan. But ultimately with Bedtime Stories, we have Happy Madison’s first PG rated film that allows the star to join the family friendly Walt Disney Studios.

Obviously, a personally enticing project for the devoted father who contacted devoted mothers Keri Russell and Courtney Cox to all take part in something their children would enjoy and while on principle you want to love an Adam Sandler family film since it shows off his natural, charismatic, easygoing sweetness (that’s even evident in Happy Gilmore and Big Daddy), unfortunately, the plot and humor are incredibly thin and it feels like an airplane friendly recycled hodgepodge of his character from other films cleaned up for the kiddies.

However, it’s a character that works well, raking in the millions repeatedly although the humble Sandler comments in the press notes that, “I make my movies and then I walk away…. I don’t want to know if they did good or bad, I just want to make movies. So there is no pressure. I have always been that guy and I always will be that guy.”

Sandler’s British comedic sidekick in the film, the hilarious scene-stealer Russell Brand (playing every moment fast and loose with a certain freedom that’s oddly missing in this restrained version of Sandler), has his own take on why his A-list comedic actor returns again and again to this type of material, joking that, “I think that Adam Sandler is how America likes to see itself. It is a powerful country, charismatic, attractive, occasionally makes mistakes but eventually puts them right.” And honestly, it’s with this articulate though admittedly “risky” (as he notes) response that essentially sums up the plot of every one of the Happy Madison productions about the outsiders who make mistakes and has to rectify them in less than two hours.

In Bedtime Stories, Sandler stars as the hotel handyman at a swanky Hilton like estate (complete with a Paris Hilton-like character) who stubbornly refuses to move on and find better work elsewhere. Stifled by anger at the broken promise made by the new owner (Richard Griffiths) who swore to Sandler’s father (Jonathan Pryce) upon buying the nearly bankrupt business that one day Skeeter would be put in charge, he still remains the hotel’s most dedicated employee, much to the chagrin of the smarmy yuppies played by Guy Pearce and Lucy Lawless who intend on taking over the business.

When Skeeter’s recently divorced sister Wendy (Courtney Cox) contacts him-- after four years of not inviting him to her home (following Skeeter’s decision to punch out the husband he knew she’d dump eventually)-- he shows up and is surprised to discover a niece and nephew with whom he’s barely familiar. Hired as a last resort to babysit the children—consisting of the adorable Jonathan Morgan Heit and Laura Ann Kesling portray Patrick and Bobbi respectively—as job-seeking, soon-to-be-laid-off school principal Wendy travels to Arizona for job interviews, Skeeter is amazed to learn that they live in a home without television.

Unwilling and uninterested in reading what he jokingly refers to as “communist”stories with titles such as “The Organic Squirrel Gets a Bike Helmet,” or child friendly tips on how to save the wetlands, instead over the course of the week Skeeter spin five structurally similar, mostly autobiographical yarns encompassing a wide array of genres from medieval knights, the old west, and outer space.

Dubbing himself “Mr. Underappreciated,” until he realizes that for the sake of the tots he should stick with Sir-Fix-A-Lot, Skeeter relays his job woes and ongoing war with Sir Butkiss (Guy Pearce) who morph into various characters each night as the children interject their own morals and endings, following their distaste for their uncle’s belief that there are “no happy endings.”

Amazed the next day when some of the events from the story appeared to be coming true including the rain of gumballs, soon the self-obsessed Skeeter can’t wait to tell the kids another new story, hoping to further his career and get the respect he always wanted.

Serving up Keri Russell as a pretty-as-pie teacher (reportedly, Sandler wanted to hire Russell after seeing her in Waitress) who begins what is initially an antagonistic relationship with Skeeter until predictably romantic sparks fly—the plot bounces along with its series of misunderstandings and coincidences but never fails to come alive save for in the wild CGI sequences that move the humdrum daily existence into a new carnival of colors, sights, and sounds. Although unfortunately, even the “bedtime stories” themselves don’t have much of a plot and are simply self-serving for Sandler’s character. Still, the visuals are sure to hold the fascination of young viewers, even when those over the age of twelve have tuned out.

With a career-making role for Russell Brand—if, that is, enough studio heads will watch it—giving him the sort of comedic push that puts him smack dab in the same British funnyman company of Steve Coogan, Simon Pegg, and Ricky Gervais, the film isn’t a complete nap, but like the story-centric family friendly Inkheart, it’s one that should’ve been a whole lot better. However, despite this and in honor of my nephew, I must admit that it’s still truly cool to see gumballs rain from the sky.