Portraits - Lifestyle is probably the best of the mediocre series of Portraits DVDs which have been cobbled together from old Movietone newsreels. The others in this series includes Entertainment, Travel and Personalities.

In each the concept is the same. Bring together one-minute video grabs from newsreel footage shot over the past 90 or so years, to produce random grab-bags of instant nostalgia.

The major problem is that some dead-head decided to delete all the original audio from these vintage clips, and to substitute instead an appallingly bad muzak-style soundtrack suitable only for the very worst type of lifts or retirement homes. Sure, some people might prefer not to listen to the original soundtracks - so why not have two audio channels, to give people a choice?

Anyway, with the sound turned off (that's the only viable choice we're offered), the images are quite diverse. Here's footage of an Eton-Harrow cricket match of 1932, to compare with the working-class at play at the British seaside in the dame decade. V.E. day in London in 1932, and a view of the latest fashion - hot pants - in London and Paris, 1971.

Here are hop pickers in England in 1929 and the Burgundy wine harvest in France, 1937. Corsets on fashion display in Paris 1959 and a glimpse of a Miss World contest in 1963. Take a close look at this one - could that really be Peter Sellers as one of the judges? Sure is...

The images are diverse, but they cry out for audio as well. Sound is just as evocative, if not more so, than image. In this collection, we're being told just half the story.

The images, which cover almost the entire 20th century (the earliest footage, of North Sea fishing off the coast of England, comes from 1909) are presented in generally excellent quality. Most are black and white; the few colour sequences haven't fared so well, with some fading evident.

The sound, if you're not fast enough with the 'mute' button, is well recorded and clean. But this is one case where silence truly is golden.