PBS Distribution Announces Release of “MASTERPIECE: INDIAN SUMMERS” on DVD & Blu-ray October 13

In 1932 the height of privilege was to be British in India, and the high point was the summer season at the hard-partying colonial retreat of Simla in the Himalayan foothills.   Rude reality intrudes on this spectacular paradise in “INDIAN SUMMERS”, starring Julie Walters (Oscar nominee for Billy Elliot and Educating Rita) as the wily hostess of Simla society.

“INDIAN SUMMERS” releases on DVD and Blu-ray October 13, 2015. The run time of this program is approximately 600 minutes on 4 discs for the DVD and 3 discs for the Blu-ray. The DVD SRP is $49.99 and the Blu-ray SRP is $59.99. Special features include a 65-minute behind-the-scenes featurette.

Joining the cast are a galaxy of British, Indian, and Pakistani stars, including Henry Lloyd-Hughes (Madame Bovary), Nikesh Patel (Bedlam), Jemima West (The Borgias), Roshan Seth (Gandhi), Patrick Malahide (The Paradise), and Bollywood legends Lillete Dubey (The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel) and Alyy Khan (Sharpe's Challenge).  Also appearing are Alexander Cobb (Mr. Selfridge), Aysha Kala (Shameless), Olivia Grant (Endeavour), Edward Hogg (The Borgias), Fiona Glascott (Anton Chekhov's The Duel), Craig Parkinson (Line of Duty), and Richard McCabe (Wallander).



Framed by the beginning and end of the summer season, when India’s British rulers left the hot plains for the cool slopes of Simla, “INDIAN SUMMERS” centers on three brother-sister pairs. Ralph Whelan (Lloyd-Hughes) is the private secretary to the British Viceroy of India (Malahide). Ralph is an upwardly mobile, politically ambitious bachelor, hiding a checkered past. He is joined by Alice (West), his beautiful younger sister who appears suddenly from England with her little boy—and conspicuously without her husband.

Next there is Aafrin Dalal (Patel), an idealistic clerk in the elite Indian Civil Service, who wins Ralph’s trust by saving his life. Aafrin seems marked for rapid advancement in the British bureaucracy, except his sister Sooni (Kala) threatens his career by agitating tirelessly for national independence. Then there are two adrift Americans: Eugene Mathers (Hogg), an expatriate architect from a wealthy Chicago family, who has been taken in by Ralph after being stricken with malaria; and Eugene’s seductive sister, Madeline (Grant), who comes to care for him—and ends up caring for Ralph. 

Pulling the strings that animate much of the action is Cynthia Coffin (Walters), a manipulative military widow who presides like an empress over the Royal Simla Club, where the ruling class lounges in subtropical splendor, sipping gin and tonics, running the country, and dancing the night away.

Apart from this in-group are two other contingents representing British imperialism: tea plantation owner Stafford Armitage (McCabe), recently joined by his eager and inexperienced nephew Ian McLeod (Cobb); and missionary Dougie Raworth (Parkinson), whose rescue of a nameless mixed-race boy launches a major storyline in the series. Meanwhile, Dougie’s desperately homesick wife, Sarah (Glascott), is slowly losing her mind in this strange land.  Needless to say, illicit encounters, assignations, and forbidden affairs abound. And there are also complications offstage, where pressure is building for an end to British rule. Gandhi has recently been arrested on the Viceroy’s orders, and he is staging a hunger strike from his cell, exerting pressure that renders the world’s greatest empire helpless.

INDIAN SUMMERS

Street Date: October 13, 2015

Genre: Drama

Run Time: DVD Approx. 600 minutes on 4 Discs and Blu-ray Approx. 600 minutes on 3 Discs

SRP: DVD $49.99 and Blu-ray $59.99

Format: DVD and Blu-ray

Special Features: 65-minute behind-the-scenes featurette