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The Trumptonshire Trilogy Camberwick Green, Trumpton and Chigley
Older DVD releases
Note. Purely in terms of the quality of the footage these older dvds have all been
rendered obsolete by the later releases detailed above.
The 1st full 39 episode boxset,released in April 2003,and deleted in June 2005.
The footage on this was cleaned up a bit but it falls way short of the digital makeover
the ones above received.
Some episodes emerge worse than others.
But there's judder,a general lack of sharpness,quite a lot of extraneous marks on the film
and very variable exposure levels.
Which sounds awful [and it certainly isn't great !]
But if you can live with all that and the total absence of any extras and pick one up for a fiver
then why not.
Historical footnote - You could pick it up for as little as £9.99 from an online retailer when it was still on general release. But,with incredibly poor timing,it was deleted just prior to the launch of the Quaker Oats tv ads,and the upsurge in interest pushed eBay prices up to £50+.With the highest that I'm aware of being a staggering £87 (yes, eighty seven pounds)
Hard to believe now of course.And it was pretty hard to believe at the time too,come to think of it ! Proof here .
Picture Quality
The problem with emblazoning the sleeves with "digitally restored" is that you kind of assume it'll look like the latest Hollywood blockbuster released in the last few months,rather than something 50 years ago.
And the reality check can be found in tiny lettering on the back ....
" Please note that whilst every care has been taken to ensure the quality of this programme,due to the age of the original materials the technical quality of the programme may be slightly impaired in places."
Which you won't be too surprised to learn is under-stating the problem somewhat.
Because whilst the footage is certainly an improvement over the earlier releases,below [admittedly not hard],there are still big variations in exposure levels,picture wobble and general dirt to contend with.
In short,rose-tinted specs still required !
These last 3 were the very first dvds to be released.
Several anomalies here.With the main one being that the Camberwick example doesn't appear to have been released until after the first boxset and over 2 years after its Trumpton and Chigley counterparts.Very bizarre (if indeed true)
Camberwick Released June 2004 : Deleted August 2004.
Only 12 of the 13 episodes are featured.
With the "Mr.Dagenham" one absent for some reason.
Trumpton Released March 2002 : Deleted June 2005.
There's a major error on the sleeve notes for this one.
It actually contains all 13 episodes NOT the "8" quoted !
Chigley Released March 2002 : Deleted June 2005.
Unlike Trumpton,the sleeve is correct ie.there are just 8 episodes.
In short,they're a bit of a mish mash.But it's all fairly irrelevant now in view of what's come out subsequently.
The Extras
Trumpton dvd - "Creating Trumptonshire"
There's a brief interview with Gordon Murray and some shots of the original animation process which is great.
But it only lasts just under 3 minutes (not mentioned on the sleeve) and isn't even new material,but simply some footage from the 2005 BBC3 series "Animation Nation".And as it's simply a chunk lifted out un-edited,there's one particular guy happily chatting away whose identity is a complete mystery !
Why they didn't just sit Mr.Murray down and get their own definitive,in-depth interview I've no idea.
It would've been the ideal opportunity to get a proper,full-length one-to-one with him on film .... before it was too late.
Cheap to do,and I'm sure he would've been only happy to oblige,which makes it all the more frustrating.
Camberwick dvd - "Trumptonshire Art Gallery"
If you thought the Trumpton extra was disappointing then this takes it to a whole new level.
As it's something called the "Trumptonshire Art gallery" - simply a paltry collection of 8 photos from the series.
And,yes,you did read that right.
In their defence,the original pre-release blurb had mentioned a feature on the Quaker Oats ads,which was clearly pulled quite late-on for some unknown reason.
But Windy's Well has never been this dry !
Chigley dvd - "Restoring Trumptonshire"
This takes a look at the digital restoration process that supposedly sets these releases apart from the previous offerings.
And whilst it'll detain you twice as long as the Trumpton extra,that's still only about 6 minutes in total.
But ... brace youselves .... it is actually quite interesting ! And it also leads nicely into the last part of the review ....
It pays to wait .... As stated above,these are the 3 dvds that came out individually earlier in 2006 and were simply plonked in the cardboard box to turn them into the boxset.
Based on the best available retail prices at the time of release,you'd have paid around £36 for all 3 seperately as opposed to just £16 pounds for the boxset.
And when they were released there was no indication there'd be a boxset just a few months later of course.
Doubtless leaving early bird purchasers feeling they'd had their pockets picked in a particularly calculated and tacky way.
The most recent complete dvd boxset was released on September 25th, 2006. But ....
The 3 dvds it contains had all been released seperately earlier in the year. (pictured further down)
Trumpton - on March 27th..........Camberwick - on May 8th..........and Chigley - on June 9th.
And the only things you gained by buying the boxset were different menu designs and
a nicely printed cardboard box,as the sleeves and extras were all completely unchanged.
Admittedly,HMV did at least sell a version,exclusive to them,that included 4 fridge magnets (right)
A nice bit of thinking outside the box [literally].But still just a small dollop of ketchup on re-heated leftovers.
Below is a larger version of the front of the boxset,together with a trailer that appears on the dvds.
The sleeve pic is a take-off of the "Trainspotting" film poster.Although "The Usual Suspects" might be more appropriate.
And .... oops .... that's actually Sergeant Major Grout pictured and not Captain Snort.
Which is an easy mistake to make .... unless you're being paid to get it right of course.
On this page - details of all the dvd releases,in chronological order starting with the most recent.
Trumpton clickable
The most recent release [as of 2022] - came out in December 2011
Yet another digital restoration. But this time with two "firsts" ....
#1 the first time the original master tapes have been used - [rediscovered just prior]
#2 the first time any of Trumptonshire has appeared on Blu Ray.
It's a "triple play" release,because it also includes a new dvd version and a digital download version.Sold exclusively through Amazon,with an initial price of £9.99
The following pic gives an idea of the improvements to the colours & contrast.
But the clean-up goes far beyond that,and this release is now the default copy for your collection. Pic Note - 2022 and still waiting for Trumpton & Chigley versions !
I've included an article that gives you some background information. Here
And a youtube clip where it was discussed on BBC breakfast tv is Here
