Good show, bad DVD

I got the DVD of Sharpe's Challenge a week or so ago. It's a good show, improved by not having to try to watch it through the interference on a rather poor video tape.

Sadly, though, the producers of the DVD did a really bad job, in a number of areas:

1) The sound is in stereo. Now, I know this is acceptable, but it's not very good. Should have made use of the features of DVD, and given us surround sound.

2) The extras are rather poor. Again, proper use of the DVD format, I think.

However, neither of these is a huge gripe. I watch DVDs for the main feature, and that was good, except...

Sharpe's Challenge was originally broadcast in two parts, across two nights. This was because it was too long for one night. Fair enough. So, on the DVD, they have, of course, editted the two parts together into a coherent whole, right?

Wrong.

The two parts are presented on the DVD exactly as they were broadcast (minus adverts), including the "Next on Sharpe..."/"Previously on Sharpe..." montages! So, having just watched the first episode, we have a recap of the events of that episode! Madness.

Of course, that does allow them to put the layer change (which is often annoying) in a good place. Of course, they would insert it in between the two episodes, so you don't really notice it. Right?

Wrong. The layer change appears in the middle of the second part.

Some advice for the people responsible: next time, put someone competent in charge of producing your DVDs. Especially since you can expect to make more money from DVD sales than from any other vector, including the advertising revenues from the broadcasts.