A tragic day has passed for fans of classic British TV. It started when the website went down with a mysterious message.
As one can see, rather than the informative articles about retro TV or even current sales, one is met with a simple cryptic message – “This Account has been suspended”. There are three reasons why this message may show up – either Network had an issue with security or illegal materials that violated acceptable use, there was an overload of data to the servers, or, and this was the most worrying, Network is no longer capable of paying for their own website. Fans of the company had hoped that it was simply some issue with the servers, perhaps initiated by one of their many sales, but the news eventually broke that it was the worst possible reason.
It is currently unclear why it was liquidated. Some say that it was because the previous owner had died, and the new owner either didn’t care for it or screwed things up that badly. Others would say that in a world where physical releases were being deprecated in favor of streaming services and with a niche audience of retro enthusiasts, it was likely that Network was not breaking even. Regardless of the actual reason, it has to be said that DVD releases will never be the same again.
My history with Network DVD started around the time I got into old British comedies. It was at HMV in Belfast, around Christmas 2020, that I saw it. It was a DVD of Is It Legal?, the 1995 Simon Nye comedy which was set in a solicitor’s office. I bought it out of curiosity and ended up having a soft spot for the sitcom. What makes it relevant to this post however was that it was distributed by Network between 2010 and 2011, with the complete box set released in 2018.
Over time, I have managed to gather a couple more of these British gems – in my collection include the 1987 ITV sitcom The New Statesman starring Rik Mayall (released by Network in 2006), the also 1987 sitcom Watching (released in 2009), 1992’s Men Behaving Badly (which saw a wide release by Network in 2017) and even the 1989 sitcom Birds of a Feather, which in spite of being a hit for the BBC in the 1980s and 1990s, took a very long time to receive a proper release until Network swooped in.
What needs to be appreciated by Network is the amount of obscure stuff they released. Without it, we might never have seen such fairly obscure sitcoms such as Not On Your Nellie, Odd Man Out, The Worker, and Oh No It’s Selwyn Froggitt.
They even did big-name releases, making an attempt at getting the entirety of both Spitting Image and The Goodies out there and being responsible for big releases such as On The Buses, and French Fields.
It should be also noted that they didn’t just do old sitcoms, they actually released some sitcoms which have aired in the last few years. For instance, they distributed Chewing Gum, which aired from 2015 to 2017, and Trollied, which ran from 2011 to 2018.
The most notable thing that they have to be commended for though is their release of Monty Python’s Flying Circus. For the release, it required nearly a decade-long attempt of research and planning, involving working from a variety of materials from first-generation 2-inch videotape masters to surviving negative and print film material which is scanned in 2K. There were some very nice extras such as previously unseen outtakes, rare promo films, and extended scenes and sketches. It even came in a pretty-looking box (which allegedly explodes).
Also to be commended was their release of Eurotrash, an interesting little show which aimed to highlight the shenanigans of our European neighbors. There are a lot of rights issues behind it thanks to the variety of music performances done in the show, so you do have to appreciate Network for getting it all out for DVD, even if they had to cut a little bit of it for contractual reasons.
This isn’t even going into what they did for non-comedy series, which includes complete releases for Thunderbirds and the other Gerry Anderson releases, the complete release of Crossroads, and even finally giving The Animals of Farthing Wood a DVD release.
They were not perfect of course. Many of their DVDs didn’t bother to include subtitles, which would be a pain in the ass to those TV enthusiasts who were deaf or had hearing issues, and there was a lack of extras in some releases where there could theoretically be some (looking at you, Birds of a Feather). However, these negatives are for the most part obscured by the positives, and it is difficult to see who could fill Network’s mighty boots in the next few years to come. Britbox could work, but they’re largely focused on streaming where the charm of Network was the fact that you had all these obscure stuff on physical media. Maybe Acorn DVD? Who knows?
With this in mind, I have decided to honor their memory – recently, I bought one of their physical releases at HMV. The release in question is the 1976 sketch show Pauline’s Quirkes, which as the name would suggest, was an early work for the actress Pauline Quirke before she became big through Birds of a Feather. I hope to enjoy it and lament the loss of a major contributor to the world of classic DVDs.
