Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #23420 in DVD
• Released on: 2004-02-09
• Rating: Parental Guidance
• Number of discs: 6
• Formats: Box set, PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 6
• Running time: 655 minutes

Synopsis
Dapper, debonair and suave Raffles is a gentleman of leisure. To spice up his life he takes to stealing jewels and cracking safes, and as such a pillar of high society he's the last person the police would suspect. Played with dashing Edwardian elan by Anthony Valentine (COLDITZ) and aided by Christopher Strauli, this is a lavish TV drama. The complete suave safe-cracking series.

Customer Reviews

For lovers of english nostalgia and costume drama
First shown in 1977 Raffles was a 13 part TV series on ITV about a gentleman England amateur cricketer A.J. Raffles, turned jewel thief, aided by his side kick and bumbling junior partner-in-crime Bunny Manders. Living in gentlemens rooms in the heart of London and a taste for the high life, Raffles augments his money by helping himself to the jewellery of people in the high society circles which he frequents. Hot on his tail is the dour speaking Scotsman of Scotland Yard Inspector Mackenzie who strongly suspects Raffles is the mystery hand behind some of the most audacious jewellery thefts in London - and he is right to think so too! Raffles enjoys taunting the Inspector by the sheer daring acts of defiance with a "catch me if you can attitude". Magnificently played by Anthony Valentine who really does capture the essence of what it must have been like to be an English gentleman living in those times.

A great pity that more episodes were'nt made before they called time on the series, however it is worth remembering that fewer episodes, better made stand longer in the memory than a TV series which has been flogged to death.

Only one complaint! A lack of special features which was a golden opportunity missed. I would have loved to have seen interviews with the cast and more about the making of the series! But still well worth watching so buy and enjoy!

Raffles boxset starring Anthony Valentine
Its great to have finaly been able to see this series again I was sixteen or seventeen when it was first shown on tv, and seeing it now I have to say it is a much better dramatisation of E W Hornungs wonderful stories than I had remembered..

The picture quality is pretty good for televideo of the time which the series seems to have been filmed on in 1976...As an amateur videographer myself I do wonder if Acorn couldnt have enhanced the colourisation and sharpened the picture digitaly.Televideo of the time could be a bit on the pale and washy side,but to have the series on dvd is manor from heaven for me so I'm just delighted its been released.

Typical of Acorn media they have taken little trouble in providing extra features...just a brief textual biography of Hornung and some stills and notes about the series. It would have been nice to have seen Anthony Valentine and Christopher Strauli discussing the series.So only one star to Acorn for features for lack of imagination regards extra features which is surely one of the great advances of dvd over vhs if it is exploited to its full potential...

Regards.

Jim Clark aka Poetrylad at Dailymotion..London.England..
Video archivist of acoustic musicians and poets aka poetryanimations at youtube
Visit my MSN group Sherlock holmes etc

Wonderful series - but what happened to the pilot episode
This was a brilliant TV Series back in 1977 and the interplay between the suave and sophisticated Raffles, his bungling simpleton partner-in-crime Bunny and the ever-stalking fire breathing Inspector Mackenzie was entertaining in itself, even before the stories themselves unfolded. This series had, to use a well-worn cliche, BBC production values (well done Yorkshire Television) and my only criticism is that they should have made more (I don't know how many stories E. W. Hornung originally wrote but the producers could easily have used some artistic licence in further episodes). Another point I'd like to make - why didn't they include the pilot episode that was transmitted in September 1975 entitled "The Amateur Cracksman"? This would have been a great addition to what is already a brilliant DVD set and even after all these years, watching it all over again just leaves me wanting more. I honestly can't say that about ANY programme on TV now. How times have changed!