[Spencer]

One programme I'd really like to see remastered in HD is Victoria Wood's Screen One "Pat and Margaret". It was one of Victoria's best works that's had surprisingly few repeats.

Good call. I’ve got the DVD but, yes an HD remaster on Blu-ray (or TV) would be very welcome.

‘Not on the eiderdown?!’

[James2001]

On the iPlayer, for some reason the 1990 Christmas special is listed at the end of series 1 rather than series 2 as it should be.

[James2001]

Really do love the show anyway, just for how cleverly it's written, there's literally no such thing as a throwaway line, even what feels at first like a very minor irrelevent comment ends up coming back later in the episode often in a big way.

[IndigoTucker]

Good call. I’ve got the DVD but, yes an HD remaster on Blu-ray (or TV) would be very welcome.

‘Not on the eiderdown?!’

It is! The current iPlayer version is in HD and widescreen, and has been on BBC 4.

[Spencer]

It is! The current iPlayer version is in HD and widescreen, and has been on BBC 4.

Thank you - I’d no idea. You’ve made my Christmas!

[Nobby]

It is! The current iPlayer version is in HD and widescreen, and has been on BBC 4.

And is only available for 18 days...
www.bbc.co.uk 

BBC iPlayer - Screen One - Series 6: Pat and Margaret
A Lancashire-born American soap star is reunited on live television with her sis…
  Source: www.bbc.co.uk

or...

www.bbc.co.uk 

BBC One - Screen One, Series 6, Pat and Margaret
A Lancashire-born American soap star is reunited on live television with her sis…
  Source: www.bbc.co.uk

[James2001]

Pretty sure it's still an old SD transfer, even though it is 16:9. It's soft, the picture quality's not great and there's a half line of video at the top of the screen.

Is that the infamous Bolton West services at the beginning? Made famous by Peter Kay a few years earlier (but also a stopover when Brian Tisley kidnapped Nick on Corrie in the late 80s).

[VMPhil]

Yeah I stumbled across that when it was on BBC Four and it is only SD. I compared it with a YouTube upload which is 14:9 letterbox - I assume this is how it was originally shown. This transfer does have more on the left and right of the picture so it doesn’t lose any picture. But it’s not a great transfer.

[James2001]

Quite possibly a transfer made back in 1994... which would make it a quite early 16:9 one if it is. Probably made not long afterwards if it wasn't.

Quite a lot of filmed shows in the 90s went out in 14:9, though in many cases that's actually how they are on the master tape- 14:9 in a 4:3 frame, rather than 16:9. That's how the 90s Pride and Prejudice was, then in the mid-00s they started using versions that just cropped the 4:3/14:9 master to 16:9 for repeats and DVDs until they finally did a proper remaster.

Super 16, which I presume most of said filmed programmes were shot on, has a 15:9 aspect ratio, and I guess creating 14:9 masters was a bit of a compromise before 16:9 became widespread to make use of some of the extra picture.

The other Screen One currently up on the iPlayer, She's Been Away from 1989, does look like a proper HD transfer, and also is 15:9, which means we get to see all of the picture on the original film, which is a rarity. These things are usually cropped to either 4:3 or 16:9. On YouTube there's a recording from an earlier BBC4 repeat that's 14:9, so possibly that's how it went out originally.

[James2001]

Though the Screen One I'd most like to see repeated... or at least put on the iPlayer, is definitely not going to be remastered to 16:9 or HD (or at least I'd hope not... you have to look at the recent GOLD repeats of The Thin Blue Line to see someone's marketed 16:9 HD versions of videotaped 4:3 programmes...), and that is Ghostwatch