Acorn DVD | |
Company type | Subsidiary |
Industry | Entertainment retail |
Founded | 1997London, England | , in
Founder | Peter Edwards |
Headquarters | 8515 Georgia Avenue, Suite 650, Silver Spring, MD , US |
Number of locations | 55 Drury Lane, Covent Garden, London, WC2B 5SQ |
Area served | UK, US, Australia |
Key people |
|
Products | |
Parent | RLJ Entertainment |
Website | acornonline |
RLJE International Ltd, d/b/a Acorn Media, a British company that publishes and distributes DVDs, as well as selling home-video products and streaming videos with a particular focus on British television. [1] [2] [3] [4]
Launched in 1997, Acorn Media U.K. Limited distributes collectible home video products in the U.K. market. By design, Acorn U.K.'s product line often overlaps with the Acorn Media U.S. line. This division of the company also serves as a permanent presence in the U.K. television programming community, a primary source of both Acorn Media U.S. and Acorn U.K. acquisitions.
Important programming franchises for this Acorn division include New Tricks , Criminal Justice , Midsomer Murders , Foyle's War , Trial & Retribution , Wild at Heart , Wainwright Walks, and Inspector George Gently .
In April 2007, Acorn Media U.K. launched Acacia U.K., a healthy joyful living brand encompassing licensed and original programming on DVD. [5]
In 2012, RLJ Companies bought Acorn Media, including a majority share in Agatha Christie Ltd, and Image to form RLJ Entertainment. [6]
In 2021 it began distributing new AMC Networks programming.
The company publishes television titles (in either individual or box-set formats) including: [7]
Agatha Christie's Poirot, or simply Poirot, is a British mystery drama television programme that aired on ITV from 8 January 1989 to 13 November 2013. The ITV show is based on many of Agatha Christie's famous crime fiction series, which revolves around the fictional private investigator, Hercule Poirot. David Suchet starred as the fictional detective. Initially produced by LWT, the series was later produced by ITV Studios. The series also aired on VisionTV in Canada and on PBS and A&E in the US.
Mystery! is a television anthology series produced by WGBH Boston for PBS in the United States.
Midsomer Murders is a British crime drama mystery television series, adapted by Anthony Horowitz and Douglas Watkinson from the novels in the Chief Inspector Barnaby book series created by Caroline Graham, and broadcasts on the ITV Network since its premiere on 23 March 1997. The series focuses on various murder cases that take place within small country villages across the fictional English county of Midsomer, and the efforts of the senior police detective and his partner within the fictional Midsomer Constabulary to solve the crime by determining who the culprit is and the motive for their actions. It differs from other detective dramas in featuring a mixture of lighthearted whimsy and dark humour, as well as a notable soundtrack with a title theme that includes a theremin.
Foyle's War is a British detective drama television series set during and shortly after the Second World War, created by Midsomer Murders screenwriter and author Anthony Horowitz and commissioned by ITV after the long-running series Inspector Morse ended in 2000. It began broadcasting on ITV in October 2002. ITV director of programmes Simon Shaps cancelled Foyle's War in 2007, but Peter Fincham revived the programme after good ratings for 2008's fifth series. The final episode was broadcast on 18 January 2015, after eight series.
Yle TV1 is a Finnish television channel owned and operated by Finnish public broadcaster Yle. It is the second oldest and the oldest existing television channel in Finland. More than 70% of the channel's programs are documentaries, news, or educational programmes. Its name is commonly referred to as Ykkönen; it derives from Yle's ownership of channels Spots 1 and 2 by default in Finland; the other, spot 2 channel, is Yle TV2.
Tom Georgeson is an English actor, known for his television and film work. His most notable credits have been supporting parts in Between the Lines (1992–94) and in three dramas by Alan Bleasdale: Boys from the Blackstuff (1982), Scully (1984), and G.B.H. (1991). He appeared as the lawyer's clerk Clamb in the BBC One serial Bleak House (2005).
Anthony Calf is an English actor. He studied acting at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA). He had recurring roles in the television medical drama Holby City, as Michael Beauchamp, and New Tricks as DAC Robert Strickland. He has also worked in theatre, where his credits include productions of The Madness of George III with the National Theatre and A Midsummer Night's Dream, The false servant at the National Theatre and Rock'n Roll at the Duke of York's Theatre. He was nominated as best actor in the Irish Times Theatre Awards 2008 for his work in Uncle Vanya at the Gate Theatre. He was featured in King Charles III on Broadway in 2015.
Nicholas C. Frost, known professionally as Nicholas Farrell, is an English stage, film and television actor.
Julia Michele Bradbury is an English television presenter, employed by the BBC and ITV, specialising in documentaries and consumer affairs. Her passion is the outdoors. More recently, following her cancer diagnosis and surgery, Bradbury is dedicating her time to healthy living and nature therapy.
Agatha Christie's Marple is a British ITV television programme loosely based on the books and short stories by British crime novelist Agatha Christie. The title character was played by Geraldine McEwan from the first to the third series, until her retirement from the role, and by Julia McKenzie from the fourth series onwards. Unlike the counterpart TV series Agatha Christie's Poirot, the show took many liberties with Christie’s works, most notably adding Miss Marple’s character to the adaptations of novels in which she never appeared. Following the conclusion of the sixth series, the BBC acquired the rights for the production of Agatha Christie adaptations, suggesting that ITV would be unable to make a seventh series of Marple.
Inspector George Gently is a British crime drama television series produced by Company Pictures for BBC One, set in the 1960s and loosely based on some of the Inspector Gently novels written by Alan Hunter. The series stars Martin Shaw as the eponymous inspector and Lee Ingleby as Detective Sergeant John Bacchus, with Simon Hubbard and Lisa McGrillis in supporting roles as police constables in the fictitious North East Constabulary.
Murdoch Mysteries is a Canadian television drama series that premiered on Citytv on January 20, 2008, and currently airs on CBC. The series is based on characters from the Detective Murdoch novels by Maureen Jennings and stars Yannick Bisson as William Murdoch, a police detective working in Toronto, Ontario in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The series was titled The Artful Detective on the Ovation cable TV network in the United States, until season twelve.
Cribb is a television police drama, which debuted in 1979 as a 90-minute TV film from Granada Television in the United Kingdom. Later, thirteen 50-minute episodes were produced, which ran from 1980 to 1981.
The Inspector Alleyn Mysteries is a British detective television series, broadcast on BBC1, which was adapted from nine of the novels by Dame Ngaio Marsh, featuring the character Chief Inspector Roderick Alleyn. The pilot episode was shown in 1990, with Simon Williams playing the part of Alleyn. Two series followed in 1993 and 1994, with Patrick Malahide replacing Williams in the title role.
Selina Jane Cadell is an English actress. She is the younger sister of actor Simon Cadell and granddaughter of actress Jean Cadell. She is the great niece of the Scottish artist Francis Cadell.
Acorn TV is a British-American subscription video streaming service offering television programming from Australia, Canada, other Commonwealth countries, Spain, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. In other countries, it is available on a variety of devices including Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, Android TV, Chromecast, and Roku.
RLJ Entertainment is an American film production company and home video distributor, distributing film and television productions in North America, with approximately 3,200 exclusive DVD titles and approximately 340 exclusive CD titles in domestic release, and approximately 450 programs internationally via sublicense agreements. For many of its titles, Image has exclusive audio and broadcast rights as well as digital download rights to approximately 2,100 video programs and over 400 audio programs containing more than 6,000 tracks. The company is headquartered in Chatsworth, California.
Andrew White is a writer, filmmaker and broadcaster.