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'The House on Greenapple Road' was the original pilot for this series, and in fact starred Christopher George as Dan August, not Burt Reynolds. The was never an episode called 'Once is Not Enough', let alone it being the pilot episode 'introducing us to the character of Dan August'. For goodness sake, there is an episode list alongside the subject! It's so easy to verify your facts. People use the IMDb as a source of reliable information, so unreliable information such as that previously posted on this subject, and many others I might add, should not be allowed to find its way here. I thought the IMDb personnel vetted these postings?

This 1965 series has an excellent theme by Laurie Johnson. Laurie was no newcomer to writing for the screen. In 1959 he had written the theme for the successful British police TV series 'No Hiding Place' and scored 'Tiger Bay', a thriller starring John Mills, his then young daughter Hayley and Horst Buchholz (later to find fleeting fame in 'The Magnificent Seven'). Aside from writing for TV in the sixties he would score 'The First Men in the Moon', Ray Harryhausen and Charles H. Schneer's cinematic working of the H.G. Wells novel, Michael Winner's comedy 'You Must Be Joking', Stanley Kubrick's 'Dr. Strangelove (or – How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb)' and 'Hot Millions' featuring a bizarre cast which included Peter Ustinov, Bob Newhart, Dame Maggie Smith, Caesar Romero and Karl Malden. He also composed the themes for the British TV series 'Animal Magic', 'Echo Four-Two', 'Freewheelers', 'Whicker's World' and 'This is Your Life' and most predominantly 'The Avengers', 'Jason King' and 'The Professionals'. The original title of the tune was Latin Quarter, and the original recording can be found on numerous, cheap CD compilations under either of the titles, usually Latin Quarter. They don't write 'em like this anymore!

If you've never seen or heard of The Wicker Man you're obviously an inhabitant of some remote island not dissimilar to that featured in the film, a Scottish isle upon which lands our hapless hero, Sergeant Howie (Edward Woodward), a mainland copper in search of a reported missing child. "Have you lost your bearings?" ask the islanders on his arrival, and, considering the mess he gets into during the course of the story, he obviously had. Howie, you see, is a devout and still virginal god-fearing Presbyterian. He practises his religion as he does his job – strictly by the book (or The Book) and is appalled to discover that the island's community is still practising pagan rituals, and even worse, still teaching these rituals in the local school. So now, as well as conducting his investigation, he also feels duty bound to lead these heathens on to the path of righteousness. Thus begins a cat and mouse game as Howie pointlessly tries to pit his wits, and his religion, against the passive yet manipulative islanders, led by the charismatic Lord Summerisle (Christopher Lee), who are completely in control of their environment, whereas he is a man alone, a fish completely out of water, in a place where mainland laws, and his own Christian beliefs, no longer apply, his only companions being his Bible and his God.

Sounds heavy doesn't it? And so it is eventually, but in the meantime we are treated to a nice travelogue of a fictitious Scottish island community, accompanied by a Celtic folk music soundtrack (no other score is involved), that yet has a simmering threat forever in the background. Howie is witness to several blasphemous goings on that you certainly wouldn't organise as part of a church fete, he is given the runaround by the villagers in his search for the child, and even his own chastity is put to the test by the pub-cum-guesthouse landlord's daughter (a dubbed Britt Ekland).

Arguably a problem with the film is that Howie is not a bloke you'd get along with. He's not likable. In fact he's a pain in the arse. He is as much a zealot in his own beliefs as the islanders are believers in theirs. Also they enjoy their religion, barbaric as it sometimes transpires to be, whilst he is almost puritanically strapped into a straightjacket and almost flagellates himself with his in such a blinkered, intransigent and intolerant way that you can't help feeling that in the end he gets everything that's coming to him. But of course this is the ambiguity of the film – Who's side, in the end, do you find yourself on? But of course, that's for you to decide. Or not.

The UK DVD release features two versions of the film: the theatrical version of the movie running at 84 mins, and also the extended "Director's Cut" running at 99 mins. The extra footage (easily spotted by the change in picture quality as it has been sourced from an original 1" analogue telecine master 'the best element known to exist') includes scenes on the mainland before Howie leaves for the island (and consequently different opening titles) and which establish early on his anally retentive character; more footage of Lord Summerisle which develops his character and influence on the islanders a little more, and footage which establishes more clearly that Howie actually spends two nights on the island, not one, which is a little vague in the original theatrical release (or one of them – let the purists rant!).

The special features include a theatrical trailer; TV and radio spots, a 25 minute American TV interview with Christopher Lee and director Robin Hardy and a 35 minute documentary 'The Wicker Man Enigma'. The animated menus are also beautifully presented with each scene selection panel featuring footage from that scene. There are also talent biographies and a special CD Rom feature providing you with the original Theatrical Press Brochure for the film. Also, exclusive to the UK release, there is a full-length commentary (on the Director's Cut version) by Edward Woodward, Christopher Lee and Robin Hardy, and moderated by British film broadcaster Mark Kermode. Mostly it's very informative, but Christopher Lee comes across as such a bolshie individual, perhaps it's his age. He keeps trying to dominate the conversation with poor director Robin Hardy eventually managing to cut in with 'Would you like me to tell you what really happened?' with Lee indignantly responding with 'Well I don't remember it being like that at all...' and also deliberately cutting the others off in mid-flow with lines like 'Can I just point out that that chap on the left worked in the Glasgow Hippodrome...' and then going off on another tangent. Then he keeps harping on about how disgraceful it was that the 'greatest British movie of all time' was deliberately hacked to pieces by the distributors, something he goes back to again and again in his best, brooding, ominous curse-ridden tones straight out of Lord of the Rings. He may well be right but hey, Chris, we got the point the first time you ranted about it. Add to that some of Robin Hardy's comments, which are often vague, confused and contradictory, and which set the ball rolling back into Lee's court again. Edward Woodward meanwhile tries uneasily to keep the mood a little lighter, change the subject and not lose his cool. Mark Kermode does well to keep it moving and in check. If you listen between the lines it's actually very entertaining. It's an atmospheric, unique and memorable film with an equally haunting soundtrack and is available on this UK release from StudioCanal in what is probably it's definitive version (but I'll let others continue to argue over that. Cue Christopher Lee…).