The Owl Service (1969)

I'll start this review of Network's new Blu-ray release of THE OWL SERVICE by admitting that, before I read Alan Garner's source novel or finally caught up with this TV version on DVD, I assumed it was about a WICKER MAN-style pagan religion that worshipped owls and had its own church where it conducted its services. Maybe I was alone in this but if not, and if you've never heard of this, the service in question is actually a set of dinner plates with intricate owl patterns on them that are discovered in an attic. 

The plates are discovered by teenagers Alison (Gillian Hills), and Gwyn (Michael Holden), and soon Alison's new stepbrother Roger (Francis Wallis) is involved as well as the reconstruction of the owl pattern as a paper model sets in motion the resurrection of an ancient love triangle with the three seemingly condemned to repeat it.

The original legend can be found in The Mabinogion, a collection of Welsh myths first put together around the 12th century. You might want to read that and / or Alan Garner's source novel first, because the TV adaptation of THE OWL SERVICE, even though it's eight episodes long and was broadcast on a Sunday teatime, doesn't exactly spoon feed its audience. Hints are dropped here are there and some of the clues flash so briefly on screen its hard to believe this was shown in an era when you couldn't rewind to check things. 

That said, THE OWL SERVICE (book and TV show) is a mature, considered and extremely intelligent piece of work that has rightly acquired the status of a classic. If you've never watched it then Network's new Blu-ray looks better than their previous DVD release, plus you get commentary tracks from Tim Worthington on four of the episodes, and two interviews with Alan Garner (conducted in1968 and 1980) as extra.

And now to my minor quibble, which also extends to Network's Blu-ray of THE INTRUDER, both of which have some real issues with bad subtitling. At times it's non-existent, claiming dialogue is unintelligible when it actually isn't, and at other times getting the transcription completely wrong. I was happy to ignore this until episode eight of THE OWL SERVICE where, at a crucial point during the climax a character says "By Damn!" and the subtitles render it as "Boy dumb," which changes the meaning of the scene. This just after a sequence where. the subtitles trail off into "...(speaks Welsh)..." when a character is very definitely speaking English but just has a slightly stronger Welsh accent. Mild swearing in THE INTRUDER, eg "Damn" gets transcribed as 'unintelligible' and there are other mistakes in there too. I guess the take home message unfortunately is that if you're hard of hearing you may want to watch these with someone who can tell you when the subtitles are wrong. Otherwise these releases are excellent. Here's a trailer. Without subtitles:

Alan Garner's THE OWL SERVICE is getting a Blu-ray release from Network (networkonair.com) on Monday 17th October 2022