• Title: Ultraviolet – The Complete Series: Collector’s Edition
• Format: DVD
• Release: 2013
• Country: UK / Region 2
• Certificate: 15
• Aspect ratio: 14:9 Letterbox
• Contents: Complete six-episode series
• Feature running time: 300mins (approx) + additional content

In 1998, British television network, Channel 4, aired the six-episode horror drama, Ultraviolet. Created by Joe Ahearne and produced by World Productions, the series starred Jack Davenport, Idris Elba, Stephen Moyer, Susannah Harker, and Philip Quast, and followed the story of a government agency tasked with hunting down vampires.

Ultraviolet focused on London Metropolitan Police Detective Sergeant, Michael ‘Mike’ Colefield (Davenport). When Mike’s best friend, Jack (Moyer) goes missing, Mike is pulled into a shadowy world which revolves around a secret co-existence between humans and vampires.

Now, it’s worth mentioning at this point that Ultraviolet is not a widely known series in the UK. The show aired for six weeks, late at night in 1998, and although it was met with a strong critical response at the time of broadcast, it has since fallen into obscurity.

Those who remember Ultraviolet, remember how great it was (and still is), but it has been decades since the show’s debut, and Channel 4 have pretty much ignored or forgotten its existence. This isn’t one of those oft-repeated shows you always see on Channel 4; Ultraviolet has mostly fallen off the radar.

In fact, at the time of writing this post, Ultraviolet has not been on television for years. It’s also not currently available on the Channel 4 catch-up service, and cannot be bought on video-on-demand platforms.

The only way to watch the show legally is through a DVD release like the one in this post. In short: If you want to watch Ultraviolet, then physical media is your friend.

However, be warned, the DVD set highlighted in this post has been deleted. Ultraviolet has had a couple of physical media releases in the UK since 1998, but all have come and gone and this one from 2013 is sadly the most recent.

I say ‘sadly’ because 2013 was a long-time ago. There’s nothing sad about the show – it simply deserves more love and Ultraviolet really should have been upgraded to Blu-ray by now.

But alas, it has not. So, what do you get with this DVD release?

Well, if you can track down a copy of the series on DVD, this is what the Ultraviolet – Complete Series Collector’s Edition DVD offers:

• All six episodes of Ultraviolet
• Creating Ultraviolet
• Casting Ultraviolet
• Directing Ultraviolet
• Storyboarding Ultraviolet
• 3 x audio commentaries
• Promos
• TV spots
• Deleted scenes
• Stills gallery

All of the above comes housed in a dual case, with character images on the front cover, and a synopsis on the back. The synopsis reads as follows:

‘They look like us. They act like us. For centuries vampires have co-existed in harmony with humans. Until now. Now mankind has the ability to destroy itself and the vampires need to take control of their threatened food source.

‘CIB, an elite government force has been formed to combat the threat. But when eternal life is offered, no-one is beyond temptation…’

As noted above, Ultraviolet has been released on DVD a couple of times. The original release came in a spiffy cardboard outer case, while this one is in a standard plastic case.

Other than the cases, there’s nothing particularly different about the releases. I had the original set, but unfortunately it got damaged, so I purchased the 2013 release as a replacement and it’s just as good.

I wanted a copy of the show because I am a fan, but also because of how difficult it is to watch the show without physical media. I don’t want to turn this post into a rant about physical media vs. streaming, but Ultraviolet is a clear example of why it can be important to pick up hard copies if and when they become available.

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