Ken Russell: The Great Composers (region B/2 blu-ray/DVD)

A Dual Format Edition collection bringing together the career-defining work of Ken Russell at the BBC. Russell’s work during the sixties for award-winning arts documentary series’ Monitor and Omnibus was critically-acclaimed and often seen as a high point in his filmmaking. The first of the three films, Elgar (1962), portrays in vigorous style the life of the English composer Sir Edward Elgar, with Huw Wheldon narrating his life story over beautiful mountain scenery. The Debussy Film (1965), Russell’s penultimate film for Monitor, was an ambitious work about the composer’s life, written by Melvyn Bragg and starring Oliver Reed as Claude Debussy. Delius: Song of Summer (1968) is generally regarded (not least by its director) as Russell’s best television film – with many critics citing it as his finest work in any medium. The story traces the life of Eric Fenby and is based on his memoirs of being amanuensis to the blind and paralysed composer Frederick Delius. The films in this collection have been remastered to High Definition, and are presented on Blu-ray for the very first time.