Would you hap­pen to have any inside infor­ma­tion on when, if ever, the BBC will release “The Valiant Years” doc­u­men­tary in DVD for­mat? Var­i­ous rumors con­tinue to cir­cu­late on the Inter­net but there doesn’t appear to be any source with defin­i­tive infor­ma­tion. —H.A.

It has been in the thoughts of many to repro­duce Jack Le Vien’s famous doc­u­men­tary. Although a shorter pro­duc­tion, “The Finest Hours,” nar­rated by Orson Welles, has been repro­duced on a com­mer­cial CD (left), the multiple-part “Valiant Years” has not.

I have “The Valiant Years” on a set of VCRs which a friend recorded from a 90s re-run on the A&E Net­work. I guess I should con­vert them to CDs. Of course they are dated. My impres­sion is that they shade heav­ily into the hagio­graphic. But the film footage is fan­tas­tic. Richard Bur­ton hated Churchill, but this is not appar­ent in his nar­ra­tive, or in his later role as WSC in the orig­i­nal “Gath­er­ing Storm” production.

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