A Taste Of Honey

Although the print is riddled with scratches from start to finish, these are never distracting. The overall quality of the picture is quite high, with clearly defined greys and no artifacting, or bleeding. Without undertaking a full remastering, the BFI couldn't have presented the film much better. Also, the sound is as good as can be expected, given the age and nature of the film - it never has reason to stand out, but its quality never gets in the way.

Subtitling is only available in English, but is clear and free from errors. The inclusion of subtitles on the audio commentary is a nice touch.

The audio commentary is far and away the best extra. Rita Tushingham, Dora Bryan and Murray Melvin chat comfortably about the film and any surrounding stories. It skirts a little close to people having a bit of a natter on a couple of occasions, but is enjoyable and interesting.

Walter Lassally's video essay is essentially a trimmed down audio commentary, focussing on cinematography. He is a wise and informative man, but the average viewer will have no interest in which kind of film was used, or how scenes were lighted. Thankfully, no-one saw fit to pad his video essay out to a full commentary.

The biography of Tony Richardson is more detailed than what you might expect to find on the average DVD, although the text is a little small to be comfortably read from afar. Why Desmond Davis's essay is only available to those with DVD-ROMs is beyond me. It wouldn't have taken much to make it available on standard DVD players and would have reached a far wider audience.

The weblink isn't worth clicking onto as the site contains the same information as the DVD box. The stills gallery and brief history of free cinema are just what they say they are. The scene selection only includes text links, which is but a minor problem.

Ultimately, this is a sufficiently high quality DVD package that will be enjoyed by fans of the film and students of cinema alike.