Visions of England
A visual feast for Anglophiles,Visions of Englandis the third installment of the popular PBS-airedVisionsseries, which applies theOver Washington(or whatever state) formula to European countries. It begins with the welcoming white cliffs of Dover, moves north to York, Hadrian’s Wall, and Liverpool, over to Shakespeare’s Stratford-upon-Avon, down to Cambridge and Oxford, then back to the sights of London. The journey naturally includes plenty of castles and other ruins, cathedrals, manor houses, countrysides, and cities. Even if you’re a frequent visitor to England or a postcard collector, you’ll be seeing things from an entirely new angle in this spectacular aerial footage (shot from a helicopter; you can catch the occasional shadow). The music is pleasant and appropriate, and the narration is informative but thankfully minimal (sometimes lapsing into cuteness along the lines of "You know, 1066 and all that."). Added to the DVD are 19 minutes of narrator-less bonus footage. Perhaps a future installment or two will cover Wales, Scotland, and Ireland.--David Horiuchi