Titanic is a four-part serial created by BAFTA-winning producer
Nigel Stafford-Clark (Warriors; The Way We Live Now; Bleak House)
and written by O and Emmy winner Julian Fellowes (Gosford
Park; Downton Abbey) to mark the hundredth anniversary of the
world's most famous maritime disaster in April 1912. It sets out
to tell the story not just of a single ship, but of an entire
society--one that was heading towards its own nemesis in the
shape of the First World War as carelessly as Titanic towards the
iceberg.
This world, soon to vanish forever, is brought alive by a cast of
over 80, featuring the cream of acting talent from Britain and
beyond, including Linus Roache (Law & Order; Batman Begins),
Geraldine Somerville (Harry Potter; Cracker), Celia Imrie
(Bridget Jones's Diary; Kingdom), Toby Jones (My Week with
Marilyn; Tinker Tailor Soldier ; Captain America), Maria Doyle
Kennedy (The Tudors; The Commitments), Perdita Weeks (The
Promise; The Tudors; Lost in Austen), Jenna-Louise Coleman
(Waterloo Road; Emmerdale), Steven Waddington (y Hollow;
Last of the Mohicans), Lyndsey Marshal (Hereafter; Being Human;
Rome), Ruth Bradley (Primeval), Peter McDonald (The Damned
United; City of Vice) and Timothy West (Bleak House; Ever After;
The Day of the Jackal) amongst many others.
All human life is on Titanic as she sets out on her maiden
voyage. The upper-class family with their suffragette daughter
and their warring servants; the wealthy elite of American
society; the Irish lawyer in Second Class with his embittered
wife; the young cabin steward and the impetuous Italian waiter
who falls for her; the Catholic engineer fleeing Belfast with his
wife and family to escape the sectarian conflict; the mysterious
stranger in Steerage fleeing who knows what. And then there are
the officers and crew. As their stories interweave and we find
our first impressions are often undermined by what we learn,
there is one thing that we know for certain and they do not--that
not all of them will survive.
Extra Content
- 4 x 60 eps with Audio commentary episode 1: Nigel
Stafford-Clark, Julian Fellowes, Jon Jones
- Titanic - The Making of (35 mins approx)
- The Curse of the Titanic Sisters ( 60 mins approx)
- Photo gallery
- Character and crew profiles
- Time lapse set build
- Words of the Titanic (60 mins approx)
The Curse of the Titanic Sisters
They were conceived and created to become the world's biggest,
grandest and safest ocean liners: three super liners--The
Olympic, Titanic and Britannic--launched and sold as the ships
that would never sink. But despite this boast all three were
involved in maritime disasters soon after launching. And two of
the three--Titanic and Britannic--were lost forever in the most
dramatic of circumstances.
This one hour film investigates the doomed history and flawed
design of the three White Star Liners, from inception to
disaster. And it launches a new forensic examination of the wreck
of the Britannic, designed to be both bigger and grander than the
Titanic. Britannic was the last of the three sisters to launch
and extensively modified in the aftermath of the Titanic loss, in
order to make sure, unlike her sister, she would prove truly
"unsinkable".
Yet Britannic was lost in 1916 following a mysterious explosion.
On a calm sea and under a clear blue sky, she sunk three times
faster than her infamous sister Titanic, despite all her extra
defences.
By exploring areas deep inside the massive interior of the
Britannic, compartments unseen and undisturbed since the day of
her sinking, incredible new evidence is revealed to prove what
caused the initial explosion and why the doomed ship disappeared
beneath the waves so fast. And in doing so new light is thrown on
exactly why the three ships created to rule the waves--Titanic,
Olympic and Britannic--were actually doomed to fail from the
moment their plans were first drawn up.
This one hour film investigates the doomed history and flawed
design of the three White Star Liners, from inception to
disaster. And it launches a new forensic examination of the wreck
of the Britannic, designed to be both bigger and grander than the
Titanic. Britannic was the last of the three sisters to launch
and extensively modified in the aftermath of the Titanic loss, in
order to make sure, unlike her sister, she would prove truly
"unsinkable". Yet Britannic was lost in 1916 following a
mysterious explosion. On a calm sea and under a clear blue sky,
she sunk three times faster than her infamous sister Titanic,
despite all her extra defences--so what went wrong?
From .co.uk
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Comfortably one of ITV’s most ambitious drama productions of all
time, Titanic is a four part miniseries, from the pen of Downton
Abbey scribe Julian Fellowes. Its is certainly dramatic,
too. As well as focusing on the well-known disaster of the
sinking of the famous liner itself, Titanic boasts a massive
cast, who tell a series of interweaving stories. There’s plenty
of human drama on board the boat, and there’s a dissection of the
attitudes and segregation of society that’s firmly in the
production’s crosshairs.
Fortunately, the production values match the scale of what’s
being attempted here, and the exquisite Blu-ray presentation
offers a showcase for the hard work that’s been done on bringing
the drama to the screen. The picture transfer in particular is
strong, and the detail shines through.
Given the scale of the production, it’s also refreshing that the
disc has no shortage of material that looks at how it was all
done. There’s a meaty making of piece, for instance, that runs to
over half an hour, and accompanying that is an even longer piece,
examining the stories of the sister boats to the Titanic. There’s
a lot more than those, too, and the extras alone offer terrific
value.
But it’s the main drama that’s the key interest. It’s a little
tricky to follow the multitude of characters at times, and an
active brain is helpful while watching it. But if you’re willing
to invest the time and thought, then Titanic is a classy piece of
drama. --Jon Foster