Horizon: Life Story

[ffutures]

For years my school has been using the 1987 BBC Horizon drama-documentary Life Story (Jeff Goldblum and Tim Piggott-Smith as Watson and Crick) for A-level biology lessons. The problem is that whoever originally recorded it onto tape (possibly me) had a really crap mono VCR, and by the time I transferred it to DVD the sound, already poor, was really dire, muffled and not very clear.

There's never been a British release on tape or DVD so far as I know - there was an American tape but it was apparently cut badly and gets a bit incoherent occasionally.

So... do any of my more scientifically-minded readers still have a recording of this that has decent sound? Alternatively, is there some simple way of taking the DVD copy and improving the sound? I don't think we have the tape any more and if we do it's locked away until September.

Comments

[gonzo21.livejournal.com]

Could you call the BBC and see if they still have a copy? Do they not make things available for schools and such?

I don't think its possible to improve the sound quality on a DVD.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

The story, as I understand it, was that they only had permission to show it a couple of times, and didn't think to sign a contract with the stars that would have allowed them to sell tapes or DVDs - the American broadcaster was a little wilier.

But the upshot is that they broadcast it as many times as they could, but now can't do anything with it at all, and I assume that includes giving away recordings.

I was hoping that it might be possible to play it and copy it to another DVD, filtering the sound and improving it en route, but I have no idea how to do that sort of thing.

[gonzo21.livejournal.com]

I assume you've checked to see if there is a torrent for it?

[keswindhover.livejournal.com]

I have access to a torrent version if you can't find it elsewhere.

(No telling re quality unless I download it.)

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Really? UK or the edited US version?

[keswindhover.livejournal.com]

Said the Horizon version, which I take to be British.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Couldn't find one, but it looks like there is one...

[gonzo21.livejournal.com]

Fingers crossed the quality of it is half way decent.

[keswindhover.livejournal.com]

I'm downloading it overnight - I'll see what the quality is tomorrow.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Many thanks!

[keswindhover.livejournal.com]

I've looked and it seems okay. Let me have an address and I'll post it over.

[beamjockey.livejournal.com]

Here's a look at copies in libraries. The film also seems to be known as Double Helix in some places.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

That's interesting - looks like there was a British VHS release. Interesting...

Life Story

[grangecomputing.livejournal.com]

Hi

I have a VHS copy of "Life Story" (UK Version) (somewhere - pretty sure I can find it) and should be able to make a DVD of it for you. Please contact me at kball@grangecomputing.f9.co.uk

Keith

Re: Life Story

[grangecomputing.livejournal.com]

Hi
Hoorah! I now have a good copy of it with a good soundtrack on DVD if you want it. (I say good, but of course it was copied from the VHS tape I made of it on 27 April 1987). It is certainly quite watchable though, even if it is not 1080p High Definition!

E=mail me - (see my previous communication) - and I will post it to you.

Keith