We have ceased distribution through BEBC at the end of May 2017.
If schools or book stores would like bulk orders of books for class sets, or DVDs for Private Study facilities, please contact us directly to enquire about bulk discounts.
efl@viney.uk.com
If you are seeking single copies, then Cambridge International Book Centre have stock:
These two video series are now available again, re-published by Three Vee Limited under licence from Oxford University Press.
The Two-on-one DVD is (£16.50; plus VAT for the UK) as is the A Weekend Away Study Guide (£8.00) and A Week By The Sea Study Guide (£8.00).
In Japan, they are available from eltbooks.com
Cover for Two-On-One version.
Both series were originally published on two VHS cassettes per series, totalling four video cassettes. At the time, they were rightly viewed as “educational software” and priced accordingly, so that each series cost around £130. All four cassettes are now published as one DVD at £16.50 a small fraction of the original price.
Here is more information on the videos. For exploitation techniques, see Teaching with video: techniques
They were filmed in 1986 and 1987, and were the best-selling of all our thirteen ELT video series. They were hugely popular and many schools still have group sets of Activity Books. Unfortunately, we cannot re-publish the Activity Books, but we have produced new books of exercises for the material.
The series were put of print in 2009 and we received many requests via our website for copies. We watched through extracts with selected target groups in 2010, who all loved the videos, and while ten years ago they looked slightly dated because of clothes and cars, they now have the aura of classic sitcoms. They are sitcom based, with a loose continuing story, though each episode can be viewed separately.
They were filmed with small film crews, and were the first full-scale Oxford English Video productions. Fortunately, the director, Robert Reed, advised that the most important thing was the actors, and he chose an excellent cast. We’ve linked their names to their Internet Movie Database profiles below. People remember “Kevin and Sharon” most vividly (David Janson and Debbie Arnold). This is why when we moved from A Weekend Away to A Week By The Sea, we decided to base the second series around their characters.
Note: Each video episode can be sub-divided into shorter sections: See A Weekend Away / A Week By The Sea: Sections pages.
We have prepared completely new Study Guides for the series. These are black & white, and contain the basic exploitation for students, the transcripts, and summaries of grammar, fixed expressions and vocabulary. This is the 2011 Study Guide for A Weekend Away, which costs £8.00 from BEBC.
A Weekend Away (Beginner)
Characters
Top row, left to right: Sharon, Margaret, Kevin
Bottom row, left to right: Nicholas, Gary, Mrs Wilson
Sharon Smith (Debbie Arnold) is a hairdresser from Braintree, Essex.
Kevin Smith (David Janson) is a painter and decorator.
Gary Blake (Matt Zimmerman) is an American engineer, working in Britain. He’s single.
Margaret Barton (Sandra Payne) is a teacher. She’s a widow.
Nicholas Barton (Christian Salari) is her son, and is still at school.
Florence Wilson (Avril Angers)is retired.
Pictures: T0 to bottom
Gary and Margaret, Episode 6 , Oxford
Mrs Wilson in a toy shop, Episode 3, Shopping
Kevin & Sharon, Episode 3, Shopping
Gary, Mrs Wilson, Nicholas, Episode 5, The Drive in The Country
A Weekend Away: the cast, L to R: Debbie Arnold, Sandra Payne, Christian Salari, David Jansen (kneeling), Matt Zimmerman, Avril Angers. In the story, David had dropped the crisps on the floor, to Debbie’s fury.
Stories:
1 | The Notice | Gary is an American living in England. He plans a weekend trip to Oxford by minibus and invites people from the same block of flats to join him. We meet the other five characters. The next Friday they load up the bus and set off for Oxford. |
2 | The First Stop | Friday afternoon. They stop at the motorway services, and eat in the restaurant. |
3 | At The Hotel | Friday evening. They arrive at the hotel. Kevin & Sharon look at their room. They all meet in the evening and discuss plans for the weekend. |
4 | Shopping | Saturday morning. Everyone goes shopping in Oxford. Kevin and Sharon shop for clothes, Mrs Wilson looks for toys, Margaret and Nicholas go to a computer store. |
5 | The Drive In The Country | Saturday afternoon. They go for a drive out in the countryside, but the minibus runs out of petrol. Kevin goes off to get some. Then it begins snowing. |
6 | Oxford | Sunday morning. Dary, Margaret and Nicholas go sightseeing in Oxford. They visit St. John’s College, and Margaret loses her umbrella. |
7 | The Game of Football | Sunday afternoon. They’re on their way home. They stop in the park and have a game of football. Kevin has an accident, and they take him to hospital. |
8 | The Photographs | Two weeks later. Gary invites everyone to his flat, and shows them his photos from the trip to Oxford. |
A Week By The Sea (Pre-intermediate)
Original cover
New Study Guide
Characters
Rear: Sharon, Kevin, Alison. Front: Clive
from Episode 3: Good Sports
A Week By The Sea has a basic cast of four:
Sharon Smith (Debbie Arnold) is a hairdresser.
Kevin Smith (David Janson) is a painter and decorator.
Clive Potter (Andrew Bicknell) and Alison Potter (Marguerite Hardiman) are the couple they meet. They’re a few years older than Kevin and Sharon. Clive is the Sales Manager of a company, and Alison is the Personnel Manager in a department store.
Each episode introduces other characters, including Kevin’s foreman (Norman Mitchell), the lady in the hairdresser’s (Lesley Nunnerly), the Hotel Manager (Richard Kay), Sally (Nancy Crane), the tennis coach (Nicholas Colicos), the old man at Corfe Castle (Maurice Blake), the Estate Agent (Philip Trewinnard) and Madame Rose (Anna Tzelnicker).
Left to right: Alison, Sharon, Clive, Kevin in Weymouth
1 | Summer Holiday | It’s Friday. Kevin & Sharon are at work. It’s the last day before their summer holiday. Saturday morning. They’re packing. They arrive in Dorset and Kevin sets up a tent. But Sharon has other ideas. |
2 | Beside the Seaside | Saturday afternoon. Kevin and Sharon arrive in Weymouth and check into a hotel, where they meet Clive and Alison. They all go to the beach. |
3 | Good Sports | Sunday morning. Clive and Alison have breakfast. Clive and Kevin play golf, while Sharon and Alison play tennis. They all meet later, and Kevin gets his revenge. |
4 | A Ghost in The Castle | Monday. Kevin and Sharon go to Corfe Castle where an old man tells them a story. There are strange happenings at the castle. |
5 | Trouble in Store | Tuesday. Kevin and Sharon are sightseeing in Poole. They meet Sally who works at the hotel. She tells them Clive and Alison have hired a boat in Poole. They meet and make plans for the next day. Kevin and Sharon go to a supermarket to get food for a picnic. |
6 | The Last Boat Leaves At Six | Wednesday. Kevin and Sharon meet Clive and Alison and take a boat trip to Brownsea Island for the day. But the last boat leaves the island at six o’clock. |
7 | House for Sale | Thursday. It’s raining, so Kevin and Sharon visit Wimborne Minster. They decide to go and look at a new house they passed earlier in the day. Later they tell Clive and Alison what happened. |
8 | A Look Into The Future | Friday. Kevin and Sharon visit a fortune teller and hear some alarming news. They meet Clive and Alison at the beach and tell them about it. |
Syllabus:
1 | The Notice | to be + questionsdemonstratives: this, that, these, those meetings, greetings |
2 | The First Stop | requests, offers: I’d like … Would you like?imperatives; has, have got; can; mass & unit; food, drink |
3 | At The Hotel | there is / there are; present continuous; going to future;describing places, making plans |
4 | Shopping | like, want, need; present simple for habits; frequency adverbs; shopping;likes and dislikes; times; prices |
5 | The Drive In The Country | past simple; was, were; irregular verbs, regular verbs narrative; time words |
6 | Oxford | past simple; past continuous; when, while;must, mustn’t, needn’t; looks like …Past; obligation, lack of obligation |
7 | The Game of Football | present perfect; already, just, often, yetcomparative and superlative past obligation had to |
8 | The Photographs | ’ll, will, shall, let’s offers, requests, suggestions; present perfect for, since |
A Week By The Sea (Pre-intermediate)
1 | Summer Holiday | multi-tense review; present, past, present perfect, going to future want, want to do, want someone to do hotel reservations |
2 | Beside the Seaside | look, taste, smell etc; too, enough; couldn’t, had to, able to how far / long / heavy etc |
3 | Good Sports | question tags; reflexives / each other comparison, as…as; present perfect; May we … |
4 | A Ghost in The Castle | used to do; should, shouldn’t indirect commands tell her to … relatives: She’s the one (that) did it. |
5 | Trouble in Store | present perfect continuous; relative clauses; -ing forms; may / might |
6 | The Last Boat Leaves At Six | indirect questions;future with when, if, as soon as, until conditionals (type 1) |
7 | House for Sale | past perfectconditionals (type 2); would, wouldn’t passives |
8 | A Look Into The Future | reported speech; statements, questions conditionals type 2; if I were you have something done |
This page has the following sub pages.
I’m really looking forward to being able to purchase these DVDs. I used to use the video cassettes years ago and the children really enjoyed them. Please could you email me when they become available and how I can obtain them in Greece.
Thankyou
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We’re about three to four weeks away from publication. It’ll be up here as soon as we know more. They look better than the original VHS tapes!
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Living in Reunion Island could you let me know when and how I can buy these DVDs?
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It’s being replicated as I write, which takes about ten days. As soon as we have them, they will be available worldwide from BEBC mail order at http://www.bebc.co.uk. BEBC are specialists at ELT mail order and their service is excellent.
The Study Guide for A Weekend Away should be available before the end of March too. It’s new, shorter than the old Activity Books and black and white. We’re trying to keep the price as low as possible, so it doesn’t go “away from the video” in the way the old Activity Books did. It gives what students need to exploit the video, plus Transcripts and grammar and vocabulary summaries.
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Good morning
C’est dommage here isn’t dialogue write in the DVD, for to undertsand en même times le DVD
Cordially
Luc
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Hello, Luc. The text of the dialogue is in the Study Guide. Many teachers think it is good to read the text, then watch, then read, but NOT to watch and read the text at the same time.
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Test
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Hello Peter
At month September, I didn’t to speak English, I go the evening school twice part week. It is difficult for me. That is why I bought the course. Now, I also look for days of dumping in English in England, are it you it possible?
Cordially
Luc
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I started by looking up the Band’s “Bessie Smith”. Was impressed by the treatment Peter Viney gave it. (Thanks!!) I wanted to know more about him. (All kinds of bells were ringing in my un/subconscious, Peter Viney, yea, surely rang SOME bell. I got to his website and saw … “A week by the sea”. Almost as important a part of my life (once) as “Bessie Smith”. Would never have thought to run into “Week ..” again. I still know most of it by heart. Used it a lot when I was a teacher in South Am.
Anyway: congratulations on great work in pretty different fields 🙂
josabudhabi@gmail.com
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Wow!!! i learned english with theese videos a looong time ago. The best part of the classes were the videos and the teacher’s jokes!!!
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Dear Peter,
I bought the two cassettes “A weekend away” and “A week by the sea” in nineteen ninety. I played them hundreds of times in my teaching.
I was very happy to see that a DVD could be bought. I have just bought it with the two guides.
This year, with the help of my students (year 9, 10), we are going to imagine new materials for each episode.
We would be extremely delighted to have your impressions about our coming work. This would encourage the students who would work their English … for real !
We would be much more delighted if at the end of the next school-year, you could come to visit us in our secondary school (France) so that we give you the result of a whole school-year.
As far as I am concerned, I must confess that it would be a great honour to meet you. Why not come with Mrs Arnold and Mr Janson?
What is more, I am giving you the link of an educational project called “D.O.D.I. PROJECT”. It means “Discovering Our District Intelligently”. Every year, its aim is to introduce one commune of our district to the British Community living in our district (700 British out of 16, 000 inhabitants). This project started in 2000 so we are preparing D.O.D.I. PROJECT 15. It will come to an end with D.O D.I. PROJECT 19 (nineteen communes) in 2019.
http://dodiproject10.over-blog.com/
Look forward to reading you.
Best regards
Vincent Malais
vincent.malais@wanadoo.fr
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[…] Sadly, we will be ceasing distribution through BEBC at the end of May 2017 – there is still stock of DVDs and books at BEBC, but we will not be reprinting. So ORDER NOW if you want this video. […]
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[…] Sadly, we will be ceasing distribution through BEBC at the end of May 2017 – there is still stock of DVDs and books at BEBC, but we will not be reprinting. So ORDER NOW if you want this video. […]
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Dear Peter, y wife and I have lived with your two marvellous teaching videos for nearly thirty years and they have inspired us to investigate parts of England which were previously not well known to us. My mainhobby is finding exact filming locations for both TV and commercial cinema releases, a,d my interests have taken me to many parts of the world. BUT try as i might – and I have now tried on three occasions, I have not been able to find Jubilee Court!!! My wife is convinced it is on Banbury Road, possibly in park Town or Summertown; however, I have walked the length of Banbury Road from St John’s College to Cutteslow roundabout and have not seen any trace of it. Can you put me out of my misery?
Thanks a million in advance, and one again your films are a gem in the crown of English Teaching – even the continuity faults are a treasure!
DAVID HUNT
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Jubilee Court was a fictional name. It’s 30 years ago, but I know the block of flats was within a reasonable walk from OUP in Great Clarendon Street. I’m looking at a map of Oxford, and I think it’s in Woodstock Road. I’m pretty sure it’s either Woodstock Road or Banbury Road. I’d bet I have the original call sheets for filming somewhere, but I don’t know where. I do remember standing outside washing the dirt off the minibus on a freezing cold morning … the boarding the bus sequence was filmed after the “snow sequence” and the minibus was filthy. The interior was filmed elsewhere in an OUP-owned house, but the notice board and exterior were the same block of flats. When it gets to A Week By The sea, I chose most of the locations so could be more helpful.
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