Dick Francis - The Racing Game

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An unusual yet unexpectedly entertaining television mystery series, The Racing Game DVD collection includes all six episodes from a 1980 British production inspired by Dick Francis's novel Odds Against. Francis himself wrote an adapted scenario based on the story of Sid Halley (Mike Gwilym), a champion jockey whose hand--and career--are destroyed during a racing accident. Lost in a deep funk, Halley is eventually drawn out by a string of suspicious accidents at the track. Soon he's investigating criminal connections to a sadistic, wealthy couple and inventing himself anew as a private gumshoe.

The remaining five episodes are original tales, sketched out by Francis and set in the surprisingly cutthroat world of racing. "Trackdown" finds Sid and his comic-relief sidekick, Chico Barnes (Mick Ford), looking into evidence of race fixing, blackmail, and murder. In "Gambling Lady," the crime-fighting partners seek a link between a champion horse's road accident and a beautiful woman's sizable bets on a mediocre mare.

The Racing Game has a slippery, hurried look and feel, and its nominal star (Gwilym) is rather lifeless on screen. Yet these shows quickly develop an unmistakable, infectious swagger and humor. Certain motifs, such as Halley's wrecked hand and vise-like prosthetic, have a slightly surreal touch. Supporting actor Ford adds crucial energy, and the many exterior shots of the racing milieu can be fun to watch. This series may not be an unqualified winner, but it certainly does place in the mystery stakes. --Tom Keogh

Customer Reviews:

Just go for it! Stories are a lot of fun.......2007-05-30

I have the VHS versions; The Racing Game is one of my favorite series. Despite the technical imperfections, the story lines are excellent. Odds Against describes how Sid Halley lost his hand while going up against the villains. My favorites are Trackdown and Gambling Lady (stories 2 and 3 on tape 1). You really get a feel for the horsey set -- from breeder and owners to gamblers and even the stable lads. The accents are right (from posh to Cockney), clothing immediately lets you know who the characters are and their social standing (well cut for Halley while Chico doesn't quite get it, the vet wears tattersall shirts and corderoy jackets; the gamblers have their field glasses and tags, the toughs are shaggy maned and wear pinstriped shirts and big ties!) And you learn a bit about equine medicine. It's well worth hunting out the VHS tapes! (And read the books!)

Worth seeing but poor video and sound.......2005-04-14

I had vague memories of enjoying this series on TV when it was originally released on TV. Having ordered this item from another supplier (only to be told it was unavailable) I ordered from Amazon. I waited for nearly two months it to arrive in the UK - why can't we buy UK produced drama on region 2 DVDs in the UK ??? I will never understand why most British stuff is released in the US and not in the UK. (End of whinge)

The story lines are quite good - but a little too short to have the complexity of Dick Francis's books.

Sid Halley seems to be a dominant figure in Francis's writing but in fact there were only a couple of books based on the character and his side kick Chico. The rest of the series is based on story ideas from Dick Francis and he acted as consultant to the series.

Halley is quite understated in the books and this is, if anything, over done in the series where he seems so detached from the world around him that he can be difficult to engage with as a character.

Chico is quite well portrayed but don't expect any stunning judo based fight scenes as the limited violence in the series is pretty poorly done (it reminded me slightly of fight scenes in school plays where teachers are very keen not to get prosecuted for injuries caused).

All that said the stories are still worth watching.

The big problem with the series however is the picture and sound quality. The picture is generally below par - grainy, washed out in places and showing its age. Imagine a worn out VHS tape and you won't be too far off.

The picture, however, is superb compared to the sound quality. One of the episodes is completely unwatchable unless you can lip read! The sound quality really is that bad on that one episode - sounding like the whole thing is tranmitted through a bucket of muddy water. The other episodes are merely poor (but at least you can hear what the characters are saying).

I can understand that the studio wanted to release this series but they could have done something about the sound (there must be a better quality copy somewhere in the world to transfer from) or at acknowledge the problem and provide subtitles on the really bad episode.

It deserves more than 2 stars but the sound alone couldn't warrant any more.

Completely true to the feel of Dick Francis........2003-03-14

This series is, like a lot of '70s British television, short on technical glamor, and long on getting an adaptation absolutely true in spirit to the original, with an added fillip of its own. In this case, the performance of Mike Gwilym, who did such a good job that Francis was inspired to write a second Halley novel [Whip Hand] and dedicated it to Gwilym and the producer of this series. His tough-but-brilliant Sid is the best you'll ever see. If you're a Francis fan, you need this DVD.

The DVDs do the best they can with unrestored source material. You will see film grain, scratches, hairs, etc. But the digital translation has remained as faithful as possible, with the datarate peaking into the 9s frequently (there are three episodes per disc). The colors are bright, and artifacts are not present. The extras aren't. But each episode has 10 chapter stops in all the logical places, and, glory allelu, each episode intelligently inhabits a title (i.e., episode 1 is Title 1, episode 2 is Title 2, etc.) No frills, but no compromises, either.

Lacks a lot, technically.......2003-03-09

The quality of the sound is so bad that it often is difficult to follow the dialogue. Color often is quite faded in parts. The six mysteries are not bad. Of interest to Dick Francis fans, but still a disappointment.

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