"Actor: Alan Bates"

• Dennis Potter | DVD | (26/09/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £99.99

  This mammoth box set features eight works of Dennis Potter spread over eleven discs. The Singing Detective:Slowly recovering from a terrible skin disease in a busy National Health hospital cynical thriller writer Phillip Marlow continues to unravel the traumas of his wartime boyhood while working through the plot of his greatest detective story - with himself as a crooning '40s detective on the trail of murderous Nazi plotters. But what is real and what is imagined? As childh

• Butley | DVD | (05/07/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  His wife just left him for another man; and so did his boyfriend.... Ben (Bates) is a man full of energy that he doesn't know what to do with. He's lost a grip on what gives his life purpose he's not sure that teaching is of any use or that he's even meant to be a teacher and he's feasting off the dregs of his relationships. In this first American Film Theatre Collection release Harold Pinter makes a very impressive directorial debut creating intricate characterisations in a movi

• The Statement | DVD | (26/07/2004) from £7.12   |  Saving you £5.87 (82.44%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Michael Caine stars as a Frenchman who finds himself being pursued by hit men and the police when an investigation reveals his history as a war criminal.

• Laurence Olivier Presents | DVD | (21/05/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  The greatest actor of the 20th century presents five works by great 20th-century playwrights. Stars include Olivier Natalie Wood Robert Wagner Maureen Stapleton Alan Bates Malcolm McDowell Helen Mirren Joanne Woodward Carrie Fisher Greta Scacchi and Joan Plowright.. The Plays: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (by Tennessee Williams): A rich plantation owner and his family come to grips with their greed envy and self-delusion. The Collection (by Harold Pinter): What did or did not take place in a Leeds Hotel ruffles the lives of four habitus of fashionable London. Hindle Wakes (by Stanley Houghton): An independent young mill worker refuses to bow to convention after an indiscretion with the boss's son. Come Back Little Sheba (by William Inge): Loss and regret bubble to the surface of a troubled marriage after a young boarder moves in. Saturday Sunday Monday (by Eduardo de Filippo): A monumental argument erupts smolders and subsides over a weekend in the life of a boisterous Italian family. The Ebony Towers (by John Fowles): Laurence Olivier portrays an elderly painter who has locked himself away from the world in a crumbling French chateau. Olivier is not quite a hermit; he enjoys the attentions of two nubile admirers played by Greta Scacchi and Toyah Willcox. This situation is disturbed by the arrival of young transient Roger Rees.

• The Running Man | Blu Ray | (17/06/2019) from £9.35   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Over a decade after redefining the thriller with The Third Man, director Carol Reed returned to the genre with The Running Man. Reuniting with that film s cinematographer Robert Krasker (BAFTA-nominated for his work here), Reed goes in the opposite direction visually, framing the twisty plot in sun-kissed widescreen colour. Rex Black (Laurence Harvey, Walk On The Wild Side) has successfully faked his death in a plane crash and escaped to sunny Málaga under a new identity, waiting for his wife Stella (Lee Remick, Anatomy Of A Murder) to arrive with £50,000 of life insurance money. It s the start of a blissful, trouble-free new life for the couple until Stephen (Alan Bates, Gosford Park), the insurance agent in charge of investigating Rex s death, suddenly arrives in town. Is he just holidaying in Spain, as he claims, or is he on assignment to foil Rex s scheme? Adapted by John Mortimer (later the creator of Rumpole of the Bailey) from the novel The Ballad of the Running Man by Shelley Smith, this underappreciated entry in Reed s celebrated oeuvre makes its official worldwide home video premiere, complete with insightful new bonus features. Special Features: 2K restoration of the film by Sony Pictures High Definition (1080p) Blu-Ray presentation Original uncompressed mono audio Isolated music and effects track Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing Audio commentary by Peter William Evans, author of British Film-Makers: Carol Reed On The Trail Of The Running Man, all-new featurette with crew members such as script supervisor Angela Allen and assistant director Kits Browning Lee Remick at the National Film Theatre, an audio-only recording of the actor's appearance at the NFT in 1970 Image gallery Reversible sleeve featuring original artwork FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Illustrated collector s booklet featuring new writing on the film by Barry Forshaw

• Waking Ned / Evelyn / In America | DVD | (06/09/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Waking Ned When Ned Devine dies from shock after winning the lottery two longtime friends in his Irish village Michael (David Kelly) and Jackie (Ian Bannen) discover the body and agree Ned would want them to benefit from his good luck. They embark on an outrageous scheme to claim the ticket. But first they have to get all the village folk to go along with their plan! Evelyn Times are tough in Dublin Ireland. But no one has it tougher than Desmond Doyle when his wife runs off and his beloved daughter Evelyn and two young sons are sent to an orphanage by the government. Enlisting the help of loyal friends (Julianna Margulies Stephen Rea) and a feisty American lawyer (Aidan Quinn) he takes his case to Ireland's Supreme Court in a history-making quest to topple an ironclad law...and win back custody of his children. In America A coming of age story seen through the eyes of 11 year old Christy the daughter of a young Irish immigrant couple trying to find their way in America...

• Hamlet | DVD | (26/12/2005) from £15.99   |  Saving you £-3.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Treachery. Madness. Murder. Mel Gibson plays the leading role in Franco Zeffirelli's version of Shakespeare's Hamlet. Gibson plays the prince of medieval Denmark sensing a dark conspiracy behind his royal father's death. Ensnared in this unraveling treachery is one of the most powerful casts ever in a Bard-based film: Glenn Close as Hamlet's mother Gertrude Alan Bates as the usurper Claudius Paul Scofield as the ghost of Hamlet's father Ian Holm as meddling advisor Poloni

• Secret Friends (Limited Edition) | Blu Ray | (24/02/2020) from £17.98   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Unfairly neglected since its original low-key cinema run, Secret Friends is the only feature to be written and directed by Dennis Potter (Pennies from Heaven, The Singing Detective). Made shortly after his hugely controversial mini-series Blackeyes, the film centres on a writer, played by Alan Bates (A Day in the Death of Joe Egg), who descends into a kind of madness during a train journey as memories, fantasies and psychotic visions collide. Extras: High Definition remaster Original stereo audio New audio commentary with Graham Fuller, editor of Potter on Potter Bon Vivant (2020): actor Ian McNeice recalls working with Dennis Potter Theatrical trailer Image gallery: publicity and promotional material New and improved English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing Limited edition exclusive 36-page booklet with a new essay by Jeff Billington, Dennis Potter on the making of Secret Friends, an extract from Potter on Potter, an overview of critical responses, and film credits World premiere on Blu-ray Limited edition of 3,000 copies All extras subject to change

• Merchant-Ivory Connoisseur Collection | DVD | (25/10/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £49.99

  Maurice Maurice Hall and Clive Durham find themselves falling in love at Cambridge. In a time when homosexuality was punishable by imprisonment, the two must keep their feelings for one another a complete secret. After a friend is arrested and disgraced for 'the unspeakable vice of the Greeks', Clive abandons his forbidden love and marries a young woman. Maurice however, struggles with questions of his identity and self-confidence, seeking the help of a hypnotist to rid himself of his ...

• A Day in the Death of Joe Egg (Dual Format Limited Edition) | Blu Ray | (28/08/2017) from £19.98   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Playwright Peter Nichols adapted his own blackly comic 1967 Tony Award-winning play for this confrontational film version by director Peter Medak. Alan Bates and Janet Suzman play a married couple struggling to come to terms with their daughter's disability using comedy and cruelty to dispel the desperation of their situation. This uncomfortable, provocative film about marriage, children and life choices is startlingly funny as well as deeply moving. INDICATOR LIMITED EDITION SPECIAL FEATURES: High Definition remaster Original mono audio Audio commentary by director Peter Medak New interview with actor Janet Suzman (2017, tbc mins) New interview with playwright and author Peter Nichols (2017, tbc mins) Original theatrical trailer Image gallery: on-set and promotional photography New English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing Limited edition exclusive booklet with a new essay by Marcus Hearn, an overview of contemporary critical responses, and historic articles on the film World premiere on Blu-ray Limited Dual Format Edition of 3,000 copies

• In The Beginning | DVD | (22/09/2003) from £9.98   |  Saving you £-6.99 (-233.80%)   |  RRP £2.99

  The epic Old Testiment story of Hebrew patriarch Abraham and his descendants. A star-studded cast brings these compelling stories to life featuring: Abraham's call to find the promised land; the stories of Isaac Rebeccah Esau and Jacob; Joseph's remarkable rise to power despite being sold into slavery by his brothers; Moses receiving the ten commandments and the liberation of the jews from Egypt.

• Georgy Girl - Limited Edition | Blu Ray | (26/11/2018) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  One of the defining films of the 1960s, Silvio Narizzano's adaptation of Margaret Foster's 1965 novel stars Lynn Redgrave in an Oscar-nominated role as the put-upon teenager Georgy Parkin. Awkward and full of self-doubt, Georgy finds herself forever just outside of the ˜Swinging Sixties' London life she craves. Marked by a wonderfully warm and appealing central performance from Redgrave, and with its superb supporting cast including Charlotte Rampling (Death in Venice, The Night Porter), Alan Bates (A Kind of Loving, Women in Love) and the great James Mason (The Reckless Moment, Age of Consent, The Deadly Affair), Georgy Girl captures the spirit of the era and boasts one of the all-time great film theme tunes. INDICATOR LIMITED EDITION BLU-RAY SPECIAL FEATURES: High Definition remaster Original mono audio New and exclusive audio commentary with Diabolique magazine's editor-in-chief Kat Ellinger Interview with Charlotte Rampling One of the defining films of the 1960s, Silvio Narizzano's adaptation of Margaret Foster's 1965 novel stars Lynn Redgrave in an Oscar-nominated role as the put-upon teenager Georgy Parkin. Awkward and full of self-doubt, Georgy finds herself forever just outside of the ˜Swinging Sixties' London life she craves. Marked by a wonderfully warm and appealing central performance from Redgrave, and with its superb supporting cast including Charlotte Rampling (Death in Venice, The Night Porter), Alan Bates (A Kind of Loving, Women in Love) and the great James Mason (The Reckless Moment, Age of Consent, The Deadly Affair), Georgy Girl captures the spirit of the era and boasts one of the all-time great film theme tunes. INDICATOR LIMITED EDITION BLU-RAY SPECIAL FEATURES: High Definition remaster Original mono audio New and exclusive audio commentary with Diabolique magazine's editor-in-chief Kat Ellinger Interview with Charlotte Rampling (2018) Jim Dale on ˜Georgy Girl' (2018): a new audio interview with the beloved actor and award-winning songwriter Interview with Peter Nichols (2018): new and exclusive interview with the author, playwright and co-screenwriter of the film Interview with editor John Bloom (2018) Interview with art director Tony Woollard (2018) Original theatrical trailer Image gallery: promotional photography and publicity material New and improved English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing Limited edition exclusive booklet with a new essay by Leanne Weston, an overview of contemporary critical responses and historic articles on the film World premiere on Blu-ray Limited Edition of 3,000 copies (2018) Jim Dale on ˜Georgy Girl' (2018): a new audio interview with the beloved actor and award-winning songwriter Interview with Peter Nichols (2018): new and exclusive interview with the author, playwright and co-screenwriter of the film Interview with editor John Bloom (2018) Interview with art director Tony Woollard (2018) Original theatrical trailer Image gallery: promotional photography and publicity material New and improved English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing Limited edition exclusive booklet with a new essay by Leanne Weston, an overview of contemporary critical responses and historic articles on the film World premiere on Blu-ray Limited Edition of 3,000 copies

• The Collection | DVD | (20/04/2009) from £5.65   |  Saving you £4.34 (43.40%)   |  RRP £9.99

  The Collection takes as its departure point the moment when four elegant lives are suddenly shaken by the suggestion of infidelity. The sinister anonymous phone call that disturbs Harry Kane at four o''clock in the morning setting in motion the drama''s events also foreshadows the ominous deepening mystery in which the characters find themselves and in which 'the truth'' becomes increasingly hard to establish... Laurence Olivier stars in and co-produces The Collection a darkly comic play of suspense and sexual jealousy by Nobel Prize-winning playwright author and director Harold Pinter. Also featuring the talents of Helen Mirren Alan Bates and Malcolm McDowell with direction by the multi-award winning Michael Apted (7Up Enigma) this adaptation was originally screened in 1976 as part of the celebrated Granada series Laurence Olivier Presents and earned Apted a Director''s Guild of America nomination for Outstanding Directorial Achievement.

• Bertie And Elizabeth | DVD | (10/06/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  A portrayal of the life of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother focusing on her courtship with the future King George VI the birth of their daughters Elizabeth and Margaret and the war years finally leading to Bertie's early death in 1952.

• The Entertainer | DVD | (01/03/2004) from £20.97   |  Saving you £-4.99 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  The Entertainer of the title is Archie Rice, a mediocre music hall artist upholding a dying tradition in an English seaside against a background of the 1956 Suez Crisis. Laurence Olivier stars and is supported by a superb cast including a young Alan Bates as his son, Roger Livesey as his kindly, now retired, always more talented and popular father, and Joan Plowright as his daughter (who, ironically given the story, married Olivier the following year). Albert Finney makes his screen debut in a tiny role and the remarkable cast also features Daniel Massey, Shirley Anne Field, Thora Hird and Charles Gray. Archie himself is a hollow man who brings pain to all around him, and while Olivier's brilliant performance reveals the layers of cynicism which disguise the emptiness inside, the emotional resonance lies with those forced to endure Rice's manipulations, adulteries and deceits. On stage John Osborne's play proved to be a signature part for Olivier, and director Tony Richardson--who filmed Osborne's equally sour Look Back In Anger (1958)--handles the material with unvarnished realism. Unfolding like a dark variation on Chaplin's Limelight (1952), the film equally casts a shadow over the less stellar Tony Hancock vehicle The Punch and Judy Man (1963), ultimately working as both family tragedy and allegory for a declining post-war England. Surprisingly an American 1976 TV movie remake starring Jack Lemmon held its own against this minor British classic. On the DVD: The Entertainer is presented letterboxed at 1.66:1, and sourced from an excellent print preserves the look of the original black and white cinematography very well. Even so a little material is clipped from either side of the image, though this is most notable on the left of the picture. The mono sound is very good. There are no features other than optional subtitles, including English for those hard of hearing. --Gary S Dalkin

• A Kind Of Loving | DVD | (25/06/2001) from £20.00   |  Saving you £-10.01 (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Pity poor Vic (Alan Bates): when he begins a relationship with Ingrid (June Ritchie), a typist at the Lancashire factory where he works as a draughtsman; his life comes apart at the seams. Ingrid's gossiping, malicious friends are bad enough, but her mother Mrs Rothwell (the terrifying Thora Hird) is something else. Vic has to marry Ingrid-she's pregnant--and the only place for them to stay is chez Rothwell. There's a tenderness about A Kind of Loving which you don't find in the more abrasive "kitchen sink" films of the 60s. Vic is not a rebel like Arthur Seton in Saturday Night, Sunday Morning or a macho lunk like Richard Harris' rugby-league player in This Sporting Life. He's a likable, easygoing youngster who soon discovers that real-life love affairs are infinitely messier than he and his mates could ever have imagined. The acute, witty screenplay, adapted by Willis Hall and Keith Waterhouse from Stan Barstow's novel, shows how limited Vic and Ingrid's choices really are. They have no privacy or independence. Bounced into a marriage that neither necessarily wants, their romance quickly sours. Mrs Rothwell is truly the mother-in-law from Hell--a busybody and a tyrant. Look out for the Queen Victoria-like expression on her face when a drunken Vic throws up in her front room. Debut-feature director John Schlesinger captures the humour and the pathos in the young lovers' plight without ever making fun of them. --Geoffrey Macnab

• The Return of The Soldier | DVD | (10/08/2020) from £9.45   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  The returning soldier is amnesia victim Alan Bates, who remembers nothing of his life before suffering shell-shock, not even his long-term marriage to snooty Julie Christie. Spinsterish Ann-Margret, who has long harbored a fondness for Bates, hopes to take advantage of his memory loss.

• Manchurian Candidate, The / Rules Of Engagement / The Sum Of All Fears | DVD | (03/10/2005) from £5.99   |  Saving you £18.00 (300.50%)   |  RRP £23.99

  The Manchurian Candidate (Dir. Jonathan Demme 2004): When his army unit was ambushed during the first Gulf War Sergeant Raymond Shaw (Liev Schreiber) saved his fellow soldiers just as his commanding officer Major Ben Marco (Denzel Washington) was knocked unconscious. Brokering the incident for political capital Shaw eventually becomes a vice-presidential nominee while Marco is haunted by dreams of what happened or indeed didn't happen in Iraq. Searching for peace from

• The Caretaker | DVD | (21/10/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  The Caretaker was the play that made Harold Pinter's name when it was first performed at the Arts Theatre London in 1960 and it remains probably his most famous. Two years later Clive Donner's film version began shooting after producer Michael Birkett had raised the finance from such figures as Noel Coward Richard Burton Elizabeth Taylor Peter Sellers Peter Hall and Leslie Caron - all passionate admirers of the play. For the film two of the cast of the original production

• A Day in the Death of Joe Egg (Standard Edition) | Blu Ray | (29/08/2022) from £13.79   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Playwright Peter Nichols adapted his own blackly comic 1967 Tony Award-winning play for this confrontational film version by director Peter Medak. Alan Bates and Janet Suzman play a married couple struggling to come to terms with their daughter's disability using comedy and cruelty to dispel the desperation of their situation. This uncomfortable, provocative film about marriage, children and life choices is startlingly funny as well as deeply moving. Product Features High Definition remaster Original mono audio Audio commentary with director Peter Medak and film historian Sam Dunn Remembering the Day: Janet Suzman on ˜Joe Egg' (2017, 18 mins): interview with the acclaimed actor From Stage to Screen: Peter Nichols on ˜Joe Egg' (2017, 20 mins): interview with the celebrated playwright Original theatrical trailer New and improved English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing