John Mortimer's 'A VOYAGE ROUND MY FATHER' Relased 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.

Coming up from Acorn Media:

May 4: "Must-see viewing for two decades... endlessly watchable" (Los Angeles Times) On the Road with Charles Kuralt Set 2 and CSI meets Sherlock Holmes in Murdoch Mysteries Season Two

May 25: George Gently Series 2 (U.S. Debut), Martin Shaw stars in the popular BBC detective series set amid the upheavals and excesses of 1960s Britain; Testament (Athena, DVD Debut), a global search exploring the fascinating and often surprising history of the Bible; and A Cold War Spy Collection: The Glory Boys & The Contract with featured stars Rod Steiger, Anthony Perkins, and Joanna Lumley.

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, The Queen, The Evelyn Waugh Collection, Hitler's Bodyguard, The Lord Peter Wimsey Mysteries, Midsomer Murders, The Ruth Rendell Mysteries, Murdoch Mysteries, Visions of New York City, Doc Martin, Agatha Christie's Poirot and Marple, Six Centuries of Verse, and The Story of Math.

Acorn's and Athena's DVD sets are available from select retailers, catalog companies, and direct from Acorn Media at (888) 870-8047 or www.acornonline.com.