A VOYAGE ROUND MY FATHER With Olivier and Bates Available On DVD 4/27

Adapted from the hit play by award-winning novelist, playwright and screenwriter John Mortimer (Rumpole of Bailey), A Voyage Round My Father, debuts on DVD from Acorn Media on April 27, 2010. Also adapted for screen by Mortimer himself, this touching story of father and son stars stage and screen legends Laurence Olivier and Alan Bates (Gosford Park), and garnered multiple awards, including an International Emmy® for best drama (1982). By turns hilarious and heartbreaking, A Voyage Round My Father captures the special bond between father and son, which at times seems unbearable-but ultimately proves unbreakable (80 min., $29.99, www.AcornOnline.com).

Before creating the beloved courtroom drama Rumpole of the Bailey, writer John Mortimer found inspiration in his own life for this portrait of a difficult but enduring love between father and son in mid-20th-century Britain. Olivier stars as the eccentric patriarch-a blind barrister so stubborn and cantankerous that he refuses to acknowledge his sightlessness. Bates portrays his devoted son, who follows his father's footsteps in the law while longing to become a writer, with Jane Asher (Brideshead Revisited, Wish Me Luck) as his wife.

Filmed largely on location at Mortimer's family estate in bucolic Oxfordshire, A Voyage Round My Father was broadcast nationally on the syndicated Mobile Showcase Network in the mid-1980s. Besides winning an International Emmy® for best drama, it also received seven BAFTA Award nominations, among other accolades.

Street Date: April 27, 2010 SRP: $29.99
DVD Single - Approx. 80 minutes - SDH Subtitles
DVD FEATURES: Biographies of John Mortimer, Alan Bates, and Laurence Olivier.

Acorn Media/Athena's upcoming releases:
Next week (March 30) - Hailed by critics as one of the finest mystery series ever filmed, The Lord Peter Wimsey Mysteries, Set 1 stars the late Ian Carmichael in the original BBC adaptations. Voted the best documentary of 2009, BBC's The Story of Math makes math accessible, engaging, relevant, and fun in this landmark documentary available to U.S. audiences for the first time. Coinciding with the DVD release of the recent blockbuster, The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes, Set 2 provides classic mysteries featuring the other detectives of Victorian England. Legacy: The Origins of Civilization connects ancient history to today's world in the PBS series.

April 27: Besides Six Centuries of Verse and A Voyage Round My Father, Acorn Media is releasing BBC undercover cop drama Murphy's Law Series 2 starring James Nesbitt

May 4: On the Road with Charles Kuralt, Set 2 (86 classic segments) and Murdoch Mysteries, Season Two, CSI meets Sherlock Holmes in the critically-acclaimed Canadian series

About Acorn Media: The Acorn Media Group, a leading independent global media company, provides distinctive home video products and other merchandise to consumers in North America, the U.K., Australia, and New Zealand. With a special focus on the best of British television programming, Acorn Media has exclusive distribution rights to hundreds of collectible titles on DVD. Its U.S. division will release 100 DVDs in North America in 2010, including Foyle's War Set 6, On the Road Set 2, Poldark Series 1, The Queen, The Evelyn Waugh Collection, Hitler's Bodyguard, Midsomer Murders, Agatha Christie's Poirot and Marple, and The Story of Math.

Athena is Acorn Media Group's new home video brand for consumers interested in lifelong learning through documentary programming. Special web content and clips are available at www.athenalearning.com. Athena's DVD sets are available from select retailers, catalog companies, and direct from Acorn at (888) 870-8047 or www.acornonline.com.