I spent nearly three hours of my weekend watching the first half of the 1986 BBC miniseries original Edge of Darkness starring Bob Peck. Peck is best-remembered as Muldoon from Jurassic Park ("Clever girl."), but this was his breakout role. I'll wait to rent the new Mel Gibson feature do-over, even though director Martin Campbell did both. There's a quiet, underplayed simmer to the original that I don't see the Age of Information improving by adding cell phones and the internet to the mix.

I mention that Peck is "remembered" because he died of cancer far before his time in 1999. The breed of English stage actors he shared marrow with are all but extinct. They moved from the theatre world to film, but not out of hubris. Peck was of the same style as Ian McKellen, Patrick Stewart, and Jeremy Irons, all board-treaders who went to TV who then went to film. They're past endangered and are all but extinct in terms of newcomers. Flanking Peck are very young, fresh-faced versions of the inimitable Joe Don Baker and Ian McNeice along with Joanne Whalley (as the slain daughter) and Zoe Wanamaker.

BBC/Warner Home Video released the original series on DVD late last year, and I'd rather pay the $23.99 Amazon is asking before I'd have spent roughly the same on tickets and dinner out last weekend. What makes this worth purchasing is that the extras are uncommonly good. Vintage interviews, featurettes, and TV chat show clips on Disc 1 manage to not spoil things that happen in the second half on Disc 2 because they actually aired during the night of the third episode or just after. I was also glad to see the return of the now rarely-found Isolated Score track across the whole series. The alternate ending to the final episode is interesting as well. When the Mel of Darkness remake hits video, I'll be interested to see how the two compare. For now, I'll hang with Bob Peck.