Completing My RArchive

/ August 28, 2019

First up before I go in medias res, Richard yesterday tweeted his thanks for all the birthday donations.

And now something entirely different.

 

While you guys were bidding last week on the various auction items, I was biting my knuckles. The auctions are always a great opportunity to complete one’s personal archive of RAvotionalia. Except, of course, for the person who is auctioning them off. *haha* I can’t very well bid on my own auctions – eBay wouldn’t let me, anyway. But the frenzy kind of gripped me, too, and during a discussion BTS with Kate about pirating and legal copies, I spontaneously ordered a load of DVDs with some of Richard’s work on them.

Yep, a bit of a shopping spree, I admit. And it’s not as if I haven’t seen these shows before… You see, when I started in the fandom seven years ago, a lot of the stuff was still viewable on Youtube. I remember watching whole seasons of Spooks online, as well as the episodes of Moving On and George Gently that Richard is in. I admit there may have been a few dark channels involved for Strike Back (kind of fits the show, though, don’t you think?). Ocean’s 8 was my summer movie 2018; I saw that together with my RL RA friend and my daughter in Berlin last year. And yes, I have seen excerpts and compilations of all those shows over the years, too, with much gratitude to those who provide them. I think it is wonderful that people are making the shows accessible to all.

However, this is the stickler for copyright here… Strictly speaking, I don’t *need* to have a hard copy of all these shows. I’m happy with excerpts and screen caps at this point. For the most part, I can basically paraphrase the plot and the dialogue of most of these shows, anyway. Um. Not sure whether that is a good sign, actually… But it kind of felt right to splash a few pennies and buy some legal copies, just to assuage the Guylty conscience. See what I did there?

So I clicked buy – buy – buy on eBay and Amazon. The whole lot above there cost me a total of 25 Euro. They are mostly second-hand DVDs (except SB) and therefore only cost 3 Euro each. Even SB, new and unused, set me back only 6 Euro. In most cases, the postage costs added another Euro to the bill. Affordable.

Do you want to hear the ridiculous bit, though? I only remembered *after* clicking “buy” on the first couple of DVDs, that I actually neither have a DVD drive on my MacBook, nor do we have a DVD player attached to our TV. *doh* So I had to invest in a little external DVD player, too. An affordable pleasure at about 18 Euro a pop.

So, has Guylty been watching Richard in his various guises on a loop since arrival of the DVDs? Well, I *wish*. The trouble is that my fancy-schmancy Apple laptop currently refuses to recognise my brandnew and supposedly Mac-compatible DVD drive. *hmph*

But well, at least I now *have* those DVDs on hand.

What about you? Do you have an analogue archive of Richard’s work? 

 

 

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36 thoughts on “Completing My RArchive”

  1. I do, I do, I do…
    …own a lot of the oeuvRA on physical DVDs. For one, I like a cover (even though he is not always on it for the minor roles) and also because where I live there is an absolute zero percent chance of just catching any of his work on TV undubbed and who wants to lose 50 % of the enjoyment by enduring RA‘s face with someone else’s voice? Not me!!

    Were I at home, I would show my slightly larger stash of dRAmatic roles enshrined in little silver discs. Maybe I’ll do that later. Now I’m keeping my fingers crossed that your hardware resolve their differences and play ball, erm Armitage movies!

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    • Good on ya! My video library is really relatively small. But well, at least that leaves room for improvement. There is a certain satisfaction in completing a collection step by step.

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  2. I assume that as a Guy lover you already had the three series of Robin Hood! 😉
    As far as DVDs go, I have all of the above, plus Spooks, Inspector Lynley, Robin Hood 1-3, The Impressionists, Captain America, Berlin Station 1, The Hobbit Trilogy, Into the Storm, North and South, Sparkhouse, Pilgrimage and Between the Sheets. They are all loaded onto an external hard drive so that I can screencap them and video clip for gifs. Some get way more air play than others. Strike Back is a favourite that gets played every so often, but N&S is on Netflix, and Berlin Station 1-3 is still on a free-to-air, on-demand channel here, so those DVDs don’t get used at the moment. Some of the others such as The Hobbit appear on TV so regularly that I don’t need to use my “analogue archive.” 😊

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    • I had to check my DVD collection to see whether it is still there, and it is – I have 1 DVD of Robin Hood, season 1, episodes 1-5. ooops 🙂
      That’s a great collection you have there, Mezz. And having it transferred to an ext HD is very handy. I think I will have to do something like that, too.

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  3. Well, since I missed out on the Francis auction item I went out last night and splurged on a copy of S03. I am a very bad girl and make use too often of my VPN, but usually I get around to buying hardcopies.

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  4. I think I have everything what is possible to have. From Boon and Staged to Ocean’s 8 and Castlevania. I have many things in my computer, but I prefer to have the physical copy

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  5. I have everything except Boon,casualty and doctors. Bought DVD player region free so I can view all his works. Not forgetting all the audiobooks. I guess I’m a fan !!!!

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  6. Typically, I eventually buy legit hard copies…

    But I’m also rather happy with my NOT so legit copies that I’ve burned and now have hard copies of and they even have their own shelf on the DVD shelves…

    I know. bad bad bad Zee.

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    • Well, if I am honest, I should admit that I have seen a few things through dark channels, only. But well, if the opportunity arises, I will try and get the hard copies from now on. Kind of like paying my dues.

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  7. Malice Aforethought is missing from my collection, I saw it when it was shown on television but I don’t think a region 2 DVD was ever produced. I have never seen Berlin Station 3 but from the stuff I have read it I have probably saved myself some pain lol
    And of course Urban and the shed crew, that ship has probably sailed.

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  8. I do, I still have to buy a few of the older works, but I love having a collection of dvds and blu-rays. I also have both dvd and blu-ray boxsets of Robin Hood, and the CDs of the RH audiobooks too 🙂

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  9. I don’t own them all yet, and some are hard to come by. I have a bunch on DVD, both region 1 and region 2. Some of them, like Strike Back, I only have digitally, but purchased on iTunes. And then I have access to Berlin Station, should I ever want to punish myself and watch it again, on a TV subscription that I can access. (Well, it might be worth it to go back for some of the eye candy!)

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  10. I was trying to answer this yesterday but something came up and I forgot.

    I have most of his works on dvd (just like I have almost all of Jason and Karl too). Some I own together with my fellow-RA friend (like Guy and Spooks) and some I’ve streamed so I can see them. Berlin Station is still missing because I have only seen the S1, the streaming of the 2nd season didn’t work.. So I’ll buy it when it comes available.

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