DVD reviews: PBS 'Presidents' & BBC 'History'

I hate history. As in, TV history -- that endless parade of Hitler's "secrets," UFO breakthroughs, fighter jets that changed the world and musty apocalyptics.

Even some straight-up historical docus come accompanied by the world's worst re-enactments. Need there be one more uncredited fat guy done up as Henry VIII? The History Channel and its offshoots are prime offenders, but PBS and the BBC have their indictable moments as well.

Watching that crap makes you marvel at the quality of "The Presidents Collection," a brick-like DVD set saluting the commanders-in-chief of the past 100 years. The PBS box set contains a whopping 35 hours of documentary footage, without a single hack actor in sight.

Sound like a grad-school cram session? Nah. These history lessons are first-rate entertainments, in the spirit of Ken Burns' works, but more businesslike. They're all from the "American Experience" series, created by PBS programming powerhouse WGBH.

When the time comes to profile the administration of Barak Obama or John McCain -- or, um, Sarah Palin -- let's hope the folks at "American Masters" will be standing by. The weird events of summer of '08 will require some pretty good explaining.

Release of the PBS/Paramount DVD box set of "The Presidents Collection" was timed to the political conventions, of course. Individual titles have been available for some time.

U.S. leaders covered in the PBS set are Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, FDR, Harry Truman, "The Kennedys," Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush. The glaring omission is Dwight Eisnhower, whose "American Masters" profile came out in 1993.

The "American Masters" presidents series started in 1990 with "Nixon," and more or less presented a profile a year leading up to the senior George Bush's docu of this year.

I'd seen most of them over the years, but not the Jimmy Carter piece. On the eve of Obama's convention, it proved a perfect time to revisit the outsider from Georgia's four years in the White House.

We all know the ending: A presidency that began with soaring hopes, the best of intentions and too few policy specifics ended in shame and misery. As the final seconds ticked away on the Carter administration, the docu shows us the president's pain as he waits all night in vain, praying for Iran to release the American hostages.

Like many of these docus, "Jimmy Carter" runs in two parts, across three hours. Linda Hunt voiced the narration, as she did for "Woodrow Wilson" (Jason Robards did several other profiles).

Watching Carter's populist ascent and nasty decline brought reminders of just how much drama that one one presidential term contained: The Middle East peace accord, the Bert Lance scandal, the energy crisis, runaway inflation with its 19% interest rates, Carter's bone-headed "malaise" speech -- and, of course, the embassy hostage crisis.

While these docus are of necessity event-driven, "Jimmy Carter" is fairly successful at examining the man as well as the presidency. Equal servings of sugar and vinegar. This docu would make a terrific double feature with Jonathan Demme's profile "Jimmy Carter Man From Plains."

At a time when some of our highest-profile documentaries come with agendas ("An Inconvenient Truth," "The Man From Plains"), it's good to be reminded how dramatic and hard-hitting objective content can be.

The 162 minutes of "Carter" flew by. I was immediately looking for extra features, which didn't exist, aside from a PDF teachers guide. (In the box set, only "Woodrow Wilson" comes with bonus features.)

My high-schooler, who knew little of Carter, came away with a small book's worth of knowledge. He loves history.

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Those tiring of politics in the new world should check out Simon Schama's "A History of Britain," recently repackaged by A&E Home Entertainment. This is the best historical video series I've seen since Ken Burns' glory days, perhaps since "The Civil War."

Writer and "presenter" Schama is a real-deal professor of history at Columbia University. His books include "Rembrandt's Eyes" and "Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution." If he'd been your history teacher, you'd probably be a historian.

Schama's relentless subjectivity, and his way of dwelling on certain events and people -- at the expense of others that are arguably more important -- have a way of hacking off more formal academics. He makes unlikely connections and plays with time frames as he sees fit. These are the qualities that help make "A History of Britain: The Complete Collection" such a treat.

The 15-part documentary series, made for the BBC as part of its millennium celebrations, made him a celebrity and a CBE. In the U.S., the series ran on the History Channel.

Like the previous A&E DVD box set of 2002, the new release has 15 hours of material spread over five discs. This time, the old clamshell DVD cases are discarded, making the box about a third of the depth of the old case. No reason to upgrade, of course, but it's a great excuse the write about the set.

Schama's journey takes us from the Stone Age through WWII, although the latter more familiar years are wisely shuffled through.

His history of the British Isles is the history of its great and infamous leaders. He spends quality time with Richard the Lionheart, Longshanks, Queen Elizabeth I, Mary Queen of Scots, Oliver Cromwell and Winston Churchill, while barely mentioning some other major figures.

Schama's talks and lectures often are delivered from the locations where the events occurred. It helps to remember that the professor was primarily working for a British audience, which knows a great deal more about these people and events than the U.S. viewers. That elevates the level of conversation, a good thing.

Those needing remedial work could turn to the three companion books from the series.