Review of Jack Holborn

Introduction

In Bristol, at the end of the 18th century, Jack Holborn (Patrick Bach), a 13 year old orphan, wants to be a cabin boy, but he is too short. Captain Sharingham (Matthias Habich), a privateer, offers to take the boy on, but his brother, the Chief Justice Lord Sharingham (also played by Matthias Habich) orders him to live with John and Elizabeth Arrows, who make ropes for the ships.

Mrs. Arrows makes no secret of her dislike for Jack, who runs away to sea as a stowaway. Haunted by an episode from his past about his parents on a rowboat in the ocean and with a leather wristband bearing his name, he believes that he belongs at sea and must get to know Captain Sharingham.

In six episodes on two discs, Jack learns the trade of a cabin boy and has adventures around the world, gradually learning the meaning of his dream.

`Jack Holborn`, based on the book by Leon Garfield, was a 1982 German production and, whilst relatively unknown here, is obviously popular in Germany, with a 3-disc Collector`s Box available there since 2005.

Each disc has three episodes which can be watched together using the `play all` function or individually with a plot synopsis which should be avoided unless you know the story as these contain spoilers.

Video

Time has not been kind and the visual quality is poor - grain, softness, dirt, compression artefacts, aliasing and moiré. The period costumes are quite good and the series makes fine use of the full-size replica of an 18th century ship. Rarotonga, one of the Cook Islands, makes the tropical locations look, well, tropical while Dubrovnik`s doubling for Bristol is less convincing, with the tarmac roads being an obvious mistake!

Audio

With the cast of actors, mostly from around central Europe, the dialogue has been dubbed, so is clear, but the synchronisation is extremely distracting. A surround soundtrack would have been ideal for the sailing sequences, especially when caught in a storm, but the only available soundtrack is a Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono mix.

Features

The `Extra Features` option on Disc 2 gives you a short picture gallery, that`s all.

Conclusion

Given my utter disdain for Gore Verbinski`s `Pirates of the Caribbean` films, when I saw that this was a pirate drama with a character called Jack, I can`t say that I relished the thought of watching this miniseries. However, when I learned that Jack was a young boy, not a pirate, and that this was a European project and not overblown camp nonsense based on a Disney fairground ride, I became slightly better disposed to the prospect.

Blame Peter Weir`s `Master and Commander` for setting the ships and swords drama bar so high, as I found most of this to be dull, with the lacklustre visuals not helping. Elements that were supposed to be full of dramatic tension became inadvertently funny because of the acting and dubbing, not to mention a character amusingly named `Trumpet`! I watched this in one evening and I`m not sure it was a good idea. The series may only be 290 minutes long, but when it had finished it felt like months had elapsed.

I don`t know who this is really aimed at. It was a children`s drama in the early 1980s but I doubt that children today would bother to watch such a slow and visually poor series but those who enjoyed `Jack Holborn when it was first broadcast may want to revisit their childhood and re-watch a series of which they have fond memories. As it was, as far as I can tell, only broadcast in West Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Czechoslovakia you might like the chance to watch it in English. Chances are, you`ll know if you want this DVD but if the title means nothing to you, there are better ways of spending both your money and your time.