Product Description Going for Gold - The '48 Games (DVD+UltraViolet) Amazon.com This BBC docudrama takes place in a postwar London where money was so tight that the 1948 Olympics came to be known as the Austerity Games. The narrative concentrates on Richard "Dickie" Burnell (Captain America's Sam Hoare), an upper-crust council worker, and Bert Bushnell (Dr. Who's Matt Smith), a working-class office clerk, two oarsmen who join together to compete for the gold in double sculls. Arranged by their trainer, Olympic champion Jack Beresford (24's James Frain), their first meeting goes poorly, but they'll need to cooperate if they hope to make their mark--and they have six weeks in which to accomplish that goal. Warns Jack, "You don't win if you don't pull together!" (Unpredictability is not this production's strong suit.) Bert is particularly hostile towards Dickie about his Eton-and-Oxford education, and both men have meddling fathers, John Bushnell (Douglas Hodge) and Charles Burnell (As Time Goes By's Geoffrey Palmer). John, a boat builder who missed his shot at Olympic glory, even pressures his son's girlfriend to leave town, so that Bert can concentrate on the competition. Once the rowers put their differences aside, they come up with a game plan, but injuries and other obstructions block their path until they find a way to get around them. The program contrasts their experience with the backroom meetings of the Olympics planners who pulled off a world-class event with a minimum of capital. If surprises are in short supply, the period details look right and the central cast is consistently strong. --Kathleen C. Fennessy