An occasional editorial by Alan Ayckbourn's Archivist Simon Murgatroyd about all things Ayckbourn...
Come the winter months and one of the most frequently asked questions is: where can I get a DVD of Season's Greetings?
During the rest of the year, it's: where can I get a DVD of [insert Ayckbourn play title of choice]?
It's a question dealt with on the website in the Films, TV & Radio section, but worth revisiting here.
The simple answer to the question is: unfortunately, you can't get Season's Greetings on DVD nor has it previously been released commercially. The same answer applies to practically any of the other many filmed adaptations of Alan Ayckbourn's plays.
Frustrating as it may be for fans of Alan’s plays or the TV productions themselves, very few of the films have ever been released commercially nor do there appear to be any plans to release them in the foreseeable future.
The reasons for this are not obvious, but are presumably commercial in nature. It may appear to you or I to be an obvious decision to release archive television material onto DVD, but there are always costs - be they restoration of prints, licensing costs or just the standard compensation to the creative talent involved.
And all that before any consideration of whether the product will sell enough to be commercially viable!
What is worth emphasising is that Alan Ayckbourn himself is not one of the reasons why the likes of the BBC’s Season’s Greetings, Absent Friends and Absurd Person Singular are not available. In principal, he has no objection to the release of the plays on DVD, but that counts for little given the initial decision as to whether to release the films has to be taken by the BBC (or the relevant rights holder).
So, sadly, for those of you who hoping to see the BBC’s Season’s Greetings this Christmas - or any of the other BBC adaptations (Absent Friends, Absurd Person Singular, Relatively Speaking and Way Upstream) or the ITV adaptations (Bedroom Farce, Just Between Ourselves, The Norman Conquests and Time And Time Again) - it’s going to be another frustrating year.
But if the situation should ever change and the BBC does decide to release the Ayckbourn DVDs or even just repeat them on television, we’ll be the first to let you know at www.alanayckbourn.net.
