Helen Mirren at the BBC (DVD 5 disc) NEW

Long before The Queen, long before Prime Suspect's DCI Tennyson, Helen Mirren was honing her craft with a cast of literary characters on par with the great actresses of all time--all in teleplays for the British Broadcasting System. This boxed set is both a treasure trove of English language classics, well known and obscure, and a brilliant window into the building of the talent and career of Mirren, starting as a young, Gwyneth Paltrowesque ingénue. The five discs feature costume dramas from just about any period of English history imaginable. Teleplays include versions of The Changeling, The Apple Cart, Caesar and Claretta , The Philanthropist, The Little Minister, Miss Rhinehart, Soft Targets, and other, shorter presentations.

Among the gems are The Changeling, shot with lush production values and a leisurely, very British pace. Mirren is Joanna, a young lass already torn by love and commitment, and Mirren is riveting even as a cherubic youngster. ("I adore Jacobean tragedy," Mirren says of this play in the commentary--and who doesn't?) In Bernard Shaw's The Apple Cart Mirren doesn't appear until nearly an hour into the play, but is compelling as a wily mistress type: "You are as slippery as an eel," she tells her ne'er-do-well companion, "but you shall not slip through my fingers."

The set is as compelling for the appearances of other actors who costar with Mirren, including a young, tormented Ian Holm in Stephen Poliakoff's Soft Targets. Not to be missed are the interviews with Mirren, including Helen Mirren Remembers, which gives a great overview of the set, and how she grew into the splendid actress she later became. "You're going to be very exposed" in front of a camera, she says--and that's the true delight here for all Mirren fans.

Includes: The Changeling (1974), The Apple Cart (1975), Caesar and Claretta (1975), The Philanthropist (1975), The Little Minister (1975), The Country Wife (1977), Blue Remembered Hills (1979), Mrs. Reinhardt (1981), Soft Targets (1982)
Helen Mirren Remembers: exclusive newly recorded interview
BBC talk-show host Michael Parkinson interviews Helen Mirren in 1975