Tony Robinson

• Blackadder - Complete Blackadder | DVD | (03/10/2005) from £17.95  |  Saving you £42.04 (70.10%)  |  RRP £59.99

  Like a skidmark through history the Edmund Blackadders left an indelible dirty stain on every era they passed through. No one knows where the notorious Blackadder family originated from - some say the shallow end of the gene pool others just nod and point to the cess-pit behind the pig-sheds. Every new era produces a more contemptuous Edmund Blackadder each incarnation bearing a striking resemblance to the last carrying forward the family traditions of cowardice treachery and po

• Blackadder: Complete Series 4 (Blackadder Goes Forth) | DVD | (22/10/2001) from £4.99  |  Saving you £15.00 (75.00%)  |  RRP £19.99

  The final Blackadder series, which first appeared in 1990, was the most highly evolved of all of the Richard Curtis/Ben Elton-scripted excursions. Having contrived to attain the Crown at the end of the third series, Rowan Atkinson's Edmund Blackadder is now reduced to a mere Captaincy in the trenches during World War I, with these episodes finding him shooting messenger pigeons, grumbling about Charlie Chaplin and unscrupulously evading his patriotic duty to pile over the top and be slaughtered pointlessly. Hugh Laurie plays the upper class silly arse to the hilt while Baldrick, who has grown progressively more stupid throughout the four series, can barely muster the intelligence to move from the spot. Blackadder Goes Forth stoutly refused to the end to abandon its relish for broad, puerile scatological puns: "Captain Darling will pump you thoroughly in the debriefing room," growls Stephen Fry's General Melchett. However, Blackadder's cynicism is laced with genuine despair at the recent madness of World War I. The closing moments of the final episode, as Blackadder and co. finally receive their orders, are handled with sober poignancy and became a frequent fixture in Remembrance Day TV scheduling. --David Stubbs

• Tony Robinson's Crime And Punishment | DVD | (21/06/2010) from £9.99  |  Saving you £6.00 (37.50%)  |  RRP £15.99

  Tony Robinson goes on a fascinating and sometimes bizarre journey to discover the origins of our laws and what we do to people when they break them. From trials by boiling water through the decapitation of a king to the emergence of our modern democracy it is a journey that starts two thousand years ago and remains unfinished today. We find out how the Normans created the first surveillance society how today's compensation culture was started by the Anglo Saxons and how a man whose body was kept in a London cupboard inspired us to stop stringing up people and start locking them up instead.

• Blackadder: Complete Series 3 (Blackadder III) | DVD | (05/02/2001) from £4.49  |  Saving you £14.14 (70.70%)  |  RRP £19.99

  Rowan Atkinson's irredeemably wicked Edmund Blackadder has moved forward in time from the court of Queen Elizabeth but a little down the social ladder. He's now butler to Hugh Laurie's congenitally stupid Prince Regent on the cusp of the 18th and 19th centuries, and if that wasn't bad enough he's still accompanied by Tony Robinson's dim-witted Baldrick, whose cunning plans never fail to make an impossible situation worse. Blackadder's desperate scheming and utter contempt for all he surveys hasn't changed, nor have the baroque complexities of the situations in which he becomes embroiled: from an anachronistic war of words with Dr Johnson (Robbie Coltrane relishing every syllable) to taking on the Scarlet Pimpernel at his own game, to fighting a duel with a psychopathic Duke of Wellington, Edmund's luck never seems to change. Richard Curtis and Ben Elton's sharp scripts have more fun with the period setting than ever before, as contemporary literary archetypes from Samuel Johnson to Jane Austen are ripe for lampooning. Howard Goodall's theme tune is updated to a glorious classical pastiche, while the extravagant costumes of the times hardly need altering to achieve the desired effect. The comedy is so good it seemed this could never be bettered, until Blackadder Goes Forth that is. --Mark Walker

• Blackadder: Complete Series 2 (Blackadder II) | DVD | (06/11/2000) from £5.46  |  Saving you £14.14 (70.70%)  |  RRP £19.99

  Although now regarded as the opening salvo of a classic series, the original Blackadder series was not considered a great success, either among critics or many viewers, so a major rethink took place when it was recommissioned. On the writing front, future-Four Weddings And A Funeral scribe Richard Curtis was joined by Ben Elton, while the expensive War of the Roses-era sets were replaced by cosier Elizabethan ones. The most important change, however, was with Rowan Atkinson's eponymous character who, in the first series, had been a fairly weak-willed idiot but now emerged as the familiar Machiavellian fiend which would cement Atkinson's place in the pantheon of great British sitcom actors. Moreover, even if so many of the script's lines have been subsequently ripped off by lesser hands that it can't help but occasionally sound dated, the central performances of Atkinson, Tony Robinson (Baldrick), Tim McInnery (Lord Percy), Stephen Fry (Lord Melchett) and, of course, Miranda Richardson as the childishly psychotic Queen Elizabeth ("I love it when you get cross. Sometimes I think about having you executed just to see the expression on your face") remain note perfect. Yet the real pleasure for viewers may be in rediscovering the raft of excellent guest star performances--not least Tom "Doctor Who" Baker's berserk turn as a literally legless old sea dog given to guzzling his own urine long before the drinking water has run out. --Clark Collis

• Blackadder - The Ultimate Collection | DVD | (15/06/2009) from £26.23  |  Saving you £28.50 (47.50%)  |  RRP £59.99

  Like a skidmark through history the Edmund Blackadders left an indelible dirty stain on every era they passed through. No one knows where the notorious Blackadder family originated from - some say the shallow end of the gene pool others just nod and point to the cess-pit behind the pig-sheds. Every new era produces a more contemptuous Edmund Blackadder each incarnation bearing a striking resemblance to the last carrying forward the family traditions of cowardice treachery and political corruption. Accompanying each generation of Edmund Blackadders is the 'Baldrick' family a loyal breed of human pack-animal and the byword for all things stupid.

• Blackadder's Christmas Carol | DVD | (18/11/2002) from £3.59  |  Saving you £8.52 (65.60%)  |  RRP £12.99

  Among the many films and TV shows which add a new twist to Charles Dickens' classic tale, Blackadder's Christmas Carol is the most ingenious. Made between Blackadder the Third (1987) and Blackadder Goes Forth (1989), the inspired concept is to recast the self-serving Edmund Blackadder (Rowan Atkinson) in Dickens' Scrooge role, but rather than a misanthropic miser make him the most kind-hearted man in England. Tony Robinson's Baldrick is as moronic as ever, while Robbie Coltrane plays the Spirit of Christmas like a forerunner to his Hagrid in the Harry Potter movies, showing Edmund visions of past and future to not quite the desired effect. Hugh Laurie returns as the Prince Regent from Blackadder the Third and the entire court from Blackadder II (1986) is reassembled for japes involving a merry seasonal death warrant. Miranda Richardson is outrageously capricious as Elizabeth I, then takes the character a stage further in a decadent space opera future which also sees Patsy (Nursie) Byrne as an android. Though not quite as laugh-out-loud funny as the regular Blackadder series this is an excellent Yuletide special. On the DVD: Blackadder's Christmas Carol offers nothing extra on DVD other than the inclusion of optional subtitles. The sound is mono but crystal clear and the 4:3 image is good considering the source material is a TV studio production shot on video. --Gary S Dalkin

• Blitz Street | DVD | (31/05/2010) from £9.99  |  Saving you £6.00 (37.50%)  |  RRP £15.99

  In the 1940s Germany unleashed a ferocious bombing campaign on Britain designed to crush British morale. To mark the 70th anniversary of this key event in our island's history Tony Robinson presents a four-part science and history series which gives a flavour of what it must have been like to live under constant bombardment and examines why the Blitz failed. With the help of the Ministry of Defence a row of terraced houses Blitz Street has been built on a remote military base and subjected to a range of large-scale bombs and explosives similar to those used by the German air force the Luftwaffe. This series reveals the impact of real explosives on bricks and mortar and allows government scientists to study the power and mechanics of Second World War bombs for the first time with precise measurements of the blast waves and dangerous after-effects of flying shrapnel. High-speed cameras operating at 1 000 frames per second reveal the detail of each blast to explain how it could be that people had their clothes ripped from them or could end up lifted onto the roofs of their homes. Calling on eye-witness accounts from the Blitz the programme details the immense psychological damage caused to individuals caught up in the bombing raids and explores how in response to the Luftwaffe's assault Churchill rapidly reorganised and improved defences.

• Hogfather (2 Disc) | DVD | (23/04/2007) from £8.71  |  Saving you £8.08 (40.40%)  |  RRP £19.99

  Based on Terry Pratchett's worldwide best selling fantasy book Hogfather is set on the semi-medieval but strangely familiar Discworld. And the Hogfather (you know the jolly fat man) who delivers presents to the kiddies at Christmas at the midwinter festival of Hogswatch has gone missing. But its vital that all the presents are delivered otherwise the sun wont rise tomorrow. However there is another supernatural entity who can be everywhere at once and most importantly knows where everybody lives. He is Death but with a false beard and a few cushions that he reckons might just work.

• Blackadder: Back and Forth | DVD | (15/09/2003) from £3.27  |  Saving you £6.02 (60.30%)  |  RRP £9.99

  It seemed a good idea at the time: to celebrate the end of the millennium by resurrecting Edmund Blackadder for a one-off special Blackadder: Back and Fourth. Unfortunately, those responsible for Back and Forth got the cart before the horse. The Blackadder television series worked by recasting the same characters in different times, thereby reinforcing the dynamic between Blackadder and the buffoons who ran his life (World War One generals, various idiot royalty) and the troglodytes whose lives he ran (Baldrick). Given that most of us feel most of the time like the people we work for are useless and the people that work for us are even more useless, Blackadder's concept had a huge appeal. A special feature looking at Blackadders through the ages might, therefore, have been a worthwhile enterprise. In Back and Forth, however, the character--a modern-day descendant of the Blackadder line--is merely briefly imposed on a variety of historical circumstances; he is no longer the victim of circumstances but the creator of them, and far less appealing for it. The script is lame and formulaic, and the conclusion unbelievably lazy. Okay, so it's a comedy, but if he really had returned to an England which had been conquered by France at the battle of Waterloo, shouldn't everyone there have been speaking French? On the DVD: There are three sound options Dolby 2.0 and 5.1, and DTS 5.1. The main feature has an easily negotiable scene selector, and there are two extra features; including a behind-the-scenes footage of the making of Back and Forth featuring interviews with co-writer Richard Curtis and the biggest gem on the whole DVD, a lost episode set in the time of Cromwell, far funnier than the dismal Back and Forth, especially for Stephen Fry's delightful blurring of the doomed Charles I and the future Charles III. --Andrew Mueller

• Blackadder: Complete Series 1 | DVD | (01/11/1999) from £4.99  |  Saving you £14.14 (70.70%)  |  RRP £19.99

  The classic first series of BlackAdder was slightly different to its successors--Ben Elton was not yet part of the writing team, and Shakespearean parody featured prominently. Rowan Atkinson was at his best as a would-be Machiavellian medieval intriguer while Brian Blessed plays his gloriously over the top blustering militarist father.The episodes collected here are: "The Foretelling", in which Richard III, played by Peter Cook in a brilliant parody of Olivier, wins Bosworth only to get in an unseemly argument about a horse; "Born to be King" in which Edmund, lumbered with providing bearded ladies, morris dancers and eunuchs for a festival, discovers some indiscreet love letters; "The Archbishop" in which after his father has the Archbishop of Canterbury killed, Edmund starts his intrigues again; "The Queen of Spain's Beard" in which Blackadder's father's international schemes call for Edmund to make a dynastic marriage to Miriam Margolyes as the Infanta of Spain, and Jim Broadbent plays a peculiarly irritating interpreter; "Witchsmeller Pursuivant" in which Edmund falls foul of the demonic witchsmeller, played with more gusto than is quite credible by Frank Finlay; and "The Black Seal", wherein Edmund assembles a group of villains as his personal retinue (Rik Mayall plays a mad prisoner).On the DVD: No extras here at all, aside from subtitles in English, SDH, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Italian, and chapter points within each episode. --Roz Kaveney

• Billy Wilder Collection - Vol. 1 - Avante!/Irma La Douce/Kiss Me, Stupid/One, Two, Three/Some Like It Hot | DVD | (22/01/2007) from £8.85  |  Saving you £26.14 (74.70%)  |  RRP £34.99

  Avanti: In this hilarious lighthearted comedy from acclaimed writer/director Billy Wilder and screenwriter I.A.L. Diamond (The Apartment) a wealthy American discovers romance and the meaning of avanit while in Italy. American businessman Wendell Armbruster (Lemmon) is summoned to Italy after a car accident claims the lives of his father and his father's secret mistress! And when the mistress' daughter (Juliet Mills) also arrives - and the bodies of both of their parents disappear - the two instant foes are brought together in a baffling mystery... and an affair of the heart! Irma La Douce: Meet Nestor (Jack Lemmon) a young man with a very complicated love life. Employed as business manager to Irma La Douce (Shirley MacLaine) - a proud and profitable lady of the streets - the poor guy had gone and fallen in love with her! So how do you keep a popular Parisiennne like Irma faithful? Simple. Disguise yourself as an elderly English Lord who immediately becomes Irma's sole client and means of support! But what's a jealous manager to do when the illustrious Irma claims that the man she's really in love with is not the smitten Nestor but the dotty old lord himself? Kiss Me Stupid: When the world-renowned singer ""Dino"" (Martin in a hilarious self-parody) passes through Climax Nevada he doesn't count on meeting two would-be songwriters with a plan to trap him there and serenade him with their songs. But then again they weren't counting on Dino's insatiable appetite... for wine and women! And when one of the men learns that his own wife was once president of Dino's fan club he hires a replacement wife (Kim Novak) to help lure the carousing star into a song-buying mood! One Two Three: C.R. MacNamara (Cagney) a top-ranking executive stationed in West Berlin is charged with the care of his boss' visiting daughter. But when he learns that she's gone and married a fierce young communist - and that his boss will be arriving in town in 24 hours - Mac must transform the unwilling beatnik into a suitable son-in-law or risk losing his chance for advancement! Before you can say ""one two three "" his plans have spun out of control and into an international incident that could infuriate the Russians the Germans and worst of all his own suspicious wife (Arlene Francis)! Some Like It Hot: Marilyn Monroe Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon star in Some Like It Hot hailed by the American Film Institute as the funniest American movie of all time. When two Chicago musicians accidentally witness the St. Valentine's Day Massacre they trade in their union suits for flapper frocks and hightail it down to Florida as the newest members of an all-girl jazz band.

• Maid Marian and Her Merry Men Complete Set | DVD | (22/09/2008) from £17.85  |  Saving you £32.14 (64.30%)  |  RRP £49.99

  Shun your Shakespeare chuck away your Chaucer destroy your DVDs of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle! You've got to make shelf space for the complete box set of Maid Marian and her Merry Men. Never has so much fun and lunacy been crammed into one small cardboard container. If you tried to squeeze in even one more tiny joke it would squash the others so badly they'd jump out and run home crying to their mummies. Marvel at the relatively young Tony Robinson's hilarious cavortings in the days before he got boring and started digging holes in the mud; watch the hysterically laid back Danny John Jules and realise there is life after Red Dwarf. Gasp at incredible six foot chickens listen rapt to tales of volcanoes that spew forth mauve custard and run away terrified from snailiens from outer space. You'll laugh you'll cry you'll be sick into a small paper bag and still come back for more...honest! The Complete Series One: It's a little known fact that Robin Hood was a complete wimp who took all the credit for the grit in Maid Marian's guts. It was in fact she who assembled and fought oppression with a bunch of prats known as the Merry Men-a dwarf called Little Ron a Rastafarian an ugly dolt by the name of Rabies and a yuppie called Robin of Kensington. Doing incredibly brave things like piercing their ears and rescuing tadpoles Marian and her men combat the cruelty of a mad bad king called John and his villainous Sheriff of Nottingham. The Complete Series Two: Prepare to be horrified by the beastly Beast of Bolsover and the foul things he does to our beloved Sheriff. Laugh your hands and feet off as the stupid villagers don brown noses in aid of charity. Learn to loathe Maid Marian's nemesis Rotten Rose she's scheming manipulative revengeful and a bit of a slapper. This is entertainment at its nauseating best! The Complete Series Three: Six spanking episodes in which our heroine struggles against aliens wrestles with giant jelly babies and gets really hacked off with very thick villagers. Also featuring an additional hour-long episode in which she falls in love with a complete plonker. Not so smart now are you Marian? The Complete Series Four: In this the final series of the muddy extravaganza that is Maid Marian and her Merry Men Rabies grows wings Robin turns nasty and the peasants celebrate High Forks night 'Remember! Remember! the 27th of April.' To quote Robin Hood himself this series is 'as funny as Russell the Abbot.

• Blackadder: Complete Series 1-4 | DVD | (12/11/2001) from £19.24  |  Saving you £0.00 (0.00%)  |  RRP £59.99

  Follow the progress of Rowan Atkinson's irredeemably wicked Edmund Blackadder throughout history in this complete box set of all four series--from the snivelling War of the Roses-era creep in the Shakespearean parody that was the first series, to his final and unexpectedly noble demise in the trenches of the First World War in Blackadder Goes Forth. In between, of course, we see Edmund at the court of giggly Queen Elizabeth I in Blackadder II, now transformed into the Machiavellian cad audiences came to love so well (thanks to a character overhaul from writing team Ben Elton and Richard Curtis and Rowan Atkinson’s note-perfect performance). Then in Blackadder III he's still scheming, but this time has moved a little down the social ladder as butler to the congenitally stupid Prince Regent on the cusp of the 18th and 19th centuries. In all four generations Blackadder is accompanied (or should that be hampered?) by his faithful yet terminally stupid servant Baldrick (Tony Robinson); and if that wasn't bad enough he also has to put up with the incompetence, pomposity and one-upmanship of a host of other contemporary hangers-on wonderfully played by regular costars Hugh Laurie, Tim McInnery, Stephen Fry, Miranda Richardson and Rik Mayall. Taken as a whole this sharp, cynical, occasionally satirical, toilet humour-obsessed and achingly funny saga deserves to stand alongside Fawlty Towers as one of the best ever British sitcoms. --Mark Walker

• Faeries - The Movie | DVD | (14/03/2005) from £2.99  |  Saving you £2.00 (33.40%)  |  RRP £5.99

  Faeries is a magical tale of shape-shifters fairies and hobgoblins. Two young siblings Nellie and George are sent to the country whilst their parents move house.When exploring the local forest George mysteriously disappears. With the help of a friendly hobgoblin Nellie is relieved to be reunited with her brother in Faery land; but having eaten some of the Faery's food George is bound by Faery law to remain there forever.Nellie agrees to complete three dangerous tasks for th

• Candyman - Day Of The Dead | DVD | (24/02/2003) from £12.99  |  Saving you £1.00 (7.10%)  |  RRP £13.99

  Remember Candyman, Bernard Rose's fine 1993 urban-legend horror movie based on Clive Barker's screenplay? How about Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh, the inevitable but actually halfway decent second bite at the cherry? Well, in the time-honoured tradition of sequels having less to do with the original with every step down the filmic food chain, the third instalment in the saga of the hook-handed bogeyman had no input from Barker, contains no creepy Phillip Glass score and has no real connection to either of its predecessors in terms of plot. That is unless you count the goon of the title (Tony Todd), returning from whatever ethereal plane he usually resides in to put the wind up his--wait for it--great, great grandaughter, slack-jawed LA art gallery owner Caroline McKeever (Donna D'Errico, hitherto best known for her work on Baywatch). Desperate to claim her soul so he can have a spot of companionship throughout the long days of eternity, Todd promptly sets about slicing and dicing various unfortunate Angelenos, making sure his last living relative gets the blame each and every time. Headed straight for the chair, can D'Errico save LA, and herself, from her heinous ancestor? And, more to the point, can she do so while walking and chewing gum at the same time? Dependent on huge amounts of viscera and its female lead's willingness to shed her clothes, this cheap knock-off still conjures the up the odd moment of unsettling gloom, while Todd is as reliably hammy as ever. All the same, you can't help hoping this is definitely, positively the last time round the block for the franchise: whatever you do, don't stand in front of any mirrors chanting "Candyman 4, Candyman 4, Candyman 4". The results will be horrific. --Danny Leigh

• Time Team - Vol. 3 | DVD | (21/08/2006) from £10.85  |  Saving you £14.14 (56.60%)  |  RRP £24.99

  Tony Robinson and the Time Team return to DVD!

• Maid Marian And Her Merry Men - Series 4 - Complete | DVD | (19/02/2007) from £4.50  |  Saving you £15.02 (75.10%)  |  RRP £19.99

  The True story of what happened in Sherwood Forest conceived and Starring Tony Robinson. Originally broadcast in 1994 this 2-disc set features all seven episodes plus another exclusively commissioned booklet written by Tony Robinson and illustrated by Paul Cemmick. Like bird flu Jade Goody and the M4/M25 interchange Maid Marian is a British icon. In this the final series of the muddy extravaganza that is Maid Marian and her Merry Men Rabies grows wings Robin turns nasty and the peasants celebrate High Forks night ""Remember! Remember! the 27th of April."" To quote Robin Hood himself this series is ""as funny as Russell the Abbot."" Maid Marian and her Merry Men was consistently number 1 in the children's TV ratings throughout its four series partly because it was popular with children of all ages but also because it became ""must see"" viewing for students and young adults. It was popular with the critics too winning a Bafta an RTS Award and the International Prix Jeunesse. This perfectly conceived historical farce is witty warm and stylish. An excellent cast and faultless writing has drawn comparisons to Blackadder Red Dwarf and The Young Ones. It is one of those rare programmes made for and enjoyed by both children and adults and has secured a huge fan-base in the seventeen years since the first series was first transmitted. Written by and starring Tony Robinson as the Sherriff of Nottingham Tony has been a regular on our TV screens since he got his big break playing Baldrick in Blackadder. He is the presenter of the successful series Time Team and has recently been seen on our screens on Channel 4 locked in the British Museum overnight attempting to crack the mysterious Codex. Episodes Comprise: 1. Tunnel Vision 2. Bouncy Sheriff 3. Raining Forks 4. The Wise Woman of Worksop 5. Robin the Bad 6. The Nice Sumatran 7. Voyage to the Bottom of the Forest

• Maid Marian And Her Merry Men - The Complete Series Three | DVD | (23/10/2006) from £3.97  |  Saving you £16.02 (80.10%)  |  RRP £19.99

  Who steals from the rich to give to the poor? Who is the last bastion of truth freedom and goodness for the peasants of Worksop? Who really gets up the Sheriff of Nottingham's big nose? Robin of Sherwood? No he'd rather hide under trees to avoid any bruising to his perfect face or creasing of his lovely non-catalogue green outfit. Contrary to popular belief it was Marian - strong brave blonde and bossy - who led the merry men. That would be the merry lethargic witless and everso slightly incompetent men! Episodes comprise: 1. The Big Baby 2. Driving Ambition 3. Keeping Mum 4. They Came From Outer Space 5. Robin And The Beansprout 6. The Great Mud Harvest Maid Marian And Her Merry Men was consistently number 1 in the children's TV ratings throughout its four series partly because it was popular with children of all ages but also because it became ""must see"" viewing for students and young adults. It was popular with the critics too winning a Bafta an RTS Award and the International Prix Jeunesse. This perfectly conceived historical farce is witty warm and stylish. An excellent cast and faultless writing has drawn comparisons to Blackadder Red Dwarf and The Young Ones. It is one of those rare programmes made for and enjoyed by both children and adults and has secured a huge fan-base since it was first transmitted.

• The Very Best Time Team Digs | DVD | (21/08/2006) from £13.66  |  Saving you £11.33 (45.30%)  |  RRP £24.99

  Channel 4's Time Team is the most popular and longest running history programme on television having completed over 150 digs at different locations both abroad and throughout the British Isles. This exclusive 3 disc box set features the very best of those digs as chosen by the team themselves. These include; the discovery of the huge Roman villa at Turkdean the Anglo-Saxon treasures uncovered at Braemore Time Team's adventures in the Caribbean an investigation into a crashed spitfire from World War 2 and the dig that no one will ever forget - the mysterious site at Llygadwy in Wales where the archaeology seemed just too good to be true. The Very Best Time Digs are introduced and reviewed by Tony and the Time Team.