Ivor The Engine

Not only was this a favourite of my own childhood in the 60s and 70s, but the video edition has been a favourite for both of my own children.
Oliver Postgate's ear for dialogue and his off-beat, self-deprecating humour make this a wonderfully engaging portrait of the "top left-hand corner of Wales".
This is a very gentle, reassuring world, ideal for very small children (from the age of about two upwards) but with enough in it to endear it to adults even after they know it off by heart. AND it runs for three whole hours -- not just great value for money, but suitable for plonking a wakeful toddler in front of it while you go back to sleep on the sofa!

The 1 star is only for the ( defective - as I will explain ) blue cover DVD -
It is 5 stars for the yellow cover DVD
& for Ivor in general! :

If anyone's thinking of buying this blue cover edition of the 'complete' Ivor The Engine DVD-
( its release date was in early-ish 2005) Its probably best NOT to!

This is because it was a faulty release -
& is actually incomplete - with about 8 missing episodes
(of the 24 episodes which should be on it).
The running time is only 2 hours 6 minutes but should be 3 hours 6 minutes (approx).
( On the DVD box is says it is 3 hours 6 minutes but this is NOT the case )

Accordingly, in 2005 Univeral studios who released this DVD withdrew it & re-issued it later in 2005
( with the missing episodes properly re-instated ) & then again [ it would appear] in early 2006:

These later correct & actually complete DVDs of the colour Ivor The Engine films have a yellow cover - so that's the one to get.

The yellow one is quite cheap & this deleted/withdrawn blue one is expensive -
but if you are a collector who wants a different sleeve or whatever;
be aware of the nature of the ( about one third incomplete ) blue cover one as mentioned!

To complicate things a bit - here at Amazon it says that the yellow cover DVD is 140 minutes long - this is wrong; it is the correct & complete 186 minutes ( 3 hours 6 minutes ) as mentioned

Incidentally the earlier vhs tape of the Complete Ivor the Engine, like the later yellow cover DVD, contains all the episodes - ie it is also approximately 3 hours 6 minutes long

( It also might be worth saying the following information -

Of the 24 episodes mentioned above; some of these are longer episodes than the rest:

This is because in the original 1970's colour broadcasts there were 40 [ or maybe 39 - its hard to get the exact info even with the internet ] 5-minute episodes [ possibly more like 4 & a half minutes long ].

Later on Oliver Postgate with some of these original 5-minute episodes edited two or more of them [ up to 4 or 5 at most probably ] into single episodes -

He did this because due to a direct continuation of a storyline in those instances it made good aesthetic sense.

As far as I am aware nothing absolutely essential was left out in this editing process
[ only opening & closing credits - & any repeated scenes - were omitted;
& any repeated scenes would almost certainly have been identical in content to those in the preceding episode; due to the low-budget time-intensive nature of the work ].

Of course ideally it would be nice to see them all additionally as 5-minuters with those missing title sequences etc - but the editing works well I think. )