"Actor: Alec McCowen"

• The Age Of Innocence | DVD | (15/10/2001) from £4.99   |  Saving you £8.00 (160.32%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Martin Scorsese does not sound like the logical choice to direct The Age of Innocence, an adaptation of Edith Wharton's novel about the manners and morals in New York society in the 1870s. But these are mean streets, too, and the psychological violence inflicted between characters is at least as damaging as the physical violence perpetrated by Scorsese's usual gangsters. At the centre of the tale is Newland Archer (Daniel Day-Lewis), a somewhat diffident young man engaged to marry the very respectable May Welland (Winona Ryder). But Archer is distracted by May's cousin, the Countess Olenska (a radiant Michelle Pfeiffer), who has recently returned from Europe. As a married woman seeking a divorce, the Countess is an embarrassment to all of New York society. But Archer is fascinated by her quick intelligence and worldly ways. Scorsese closely observes the tiny details of this world and this impossible situation; this is a film in which the shift of someone's eyes can be as significant as the firing of a gun. The director's sense of colour has never been keener, and his work with the actors is subtle. --Robert Horton, Amazon.com

• Cry Freedom Blu-Ray | Blu Ray | (15/03/2021) from £8.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  The unforgettable friendship of two unforgettable men on Blu-Ray for the very first time. The tension and the terror that was a recent South Africa is powerfully portrayed in director Richard Attenborough's sweeping store of black activist Stephen Biko (Denzel Washington - Malcom X), head of the 'Black Conciousness' movement and a liberal white newspaper editor who risks his own life to bring Biko's message to the world. After learning of apartheid's true horrors through Biko's eyes, editor Donald Woods (Kevin Kline - Wild Wild West) discovers that his friend has been silenced by the police. Detemined not to let Biko's message go unheard, Woods undertakes a perilous quest to escape South Africa and bring Biko's tale of courage to the world. This riveting, true story offers a stirring account of a man at his most evil and most heroic.

• Shakespeare: The Animated Tales | DVD | (02/09/2013) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £29.99

  Renowned author and Shakespeare scholar Leon Garfield adapts 12 plays, abridged and animated renditions of the classic texts that are fully faithful to the narrative and language of the Bard. The adaptations use a variety of animation techniques and features the vocal talents of Felicity Kendal, Alun Armstrong, Joss Ackland and Zoe Wanamaker, among others. The plays are: 'Macbeth'; 'Hamlet'; 'Romeo and Juliet'; 'Othello'; 'Twelfth Night'; 'As You Like It'; 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'; 'The Ta...

• Mr Palfrey of Westminster | DVD | (16/08/2010) from £16.61   |  Saving you £8.38 (50.45%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Mr Palfrey is a mild unassuming middle-aged man - the quintessential middle-rank British civil servant who enjoys a spot of fishing in his spare time. Mr Palfrey is also a spook... As a senior investigator for the Special Intelligence Service Palfrey's office is based close to the Houses of Parliament. His work is assigned by his female boss known only as 'the Co-ordinator' and assisting him is Blair a younger man adept at dealing with the nastier aspects of counter-intelligence. Beginning life as a pilot in Thames' Storyboard anthology and notable for its intelligent highly credible depiction of Cold War-era counter-espionage Mr Palfrey Of Westminster stars Alec McCowen (Travels With My Aunt) as the meticulous master spycatcher; John Shrapnel Leslie Phillips Ronald Hines and Martin Jarvis are among several high-profi le actors making guest appearances and writers include George Markstein (The Prisoner) and Philip Broadley (Public Eye Department S). This first-time release on DVD comprises both series originally screened in 1984 and 1985 the Storyboard pilot of 1983 and the 'postscript' play transmitted in 1989 and featuring Clive Wood as Blair.

• Hanover Street | DVD | (16/09/2002) from £10.85   |  Saving you £2.14 (19.72%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Written and directed by Peter Hyams 'Hanover Street' stars Harrison Ford as David a WWII American bomber pilot who meets and falls in love with a beautiful nurse during an air raid in London. Unbeknownst to him she is married. David is then shot down behind enemy lines while accompanying a British agent into France. In the midst of danger David comes to realise that the agent is his lover's husband...

• Never Say Never Again | DVD | (23/04/2001) from £16.25   |  Saving you £-0.26 (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  After years of enduring Roger Moore in the role of James Bond, it was good to have Sean Connery back in 1983 for Never Say Never Again, a one-time-only trip down 007's memory lane. Connery's Bond, a bit of a dinosaur in the British secret service at (then) 52, is still in demand during times of crisis. Sadly, the film is not very good. In this rehash of Thunderball, Bond is pitted against a worthy underwater villain (Klaus Maria Brandauer); and while the requisite Bond Girls include beauties Kim Basinger and Barbara Carrera, they can't save the movie. The script has several truly dumb passages, among them a (gasp) video-game duel between 007 and his nemesis that now looks utterly anachronistic. For Connery fans, however, this widescreen print of the Irvin Kershner (The Empire Strikes Back) film is a chance to say a final goodbye to a perfect marriage of actor and character. --Tom Keogh

• Storyboard - The Complete Series | DVD | (11/02/2013) from £11.99   |  Saving you £28.00 (233.53%)   |  RRP £39.99

  This highly regarded Thames anthology from the 1980s presented a diverse range of high-quality single dramas that would serve as pilots for possible future series. Among these screenplays were many notable successes: these included 'Woodentop', which introduced The Bill's much-loved characters PC Carver and WPC Ackland; 'Lytton's Diary', both created by and starring Peter Bowles; and linked screenplays The Traitor' and 'A Question of Commitment', featuring Alec McCowen in the role of master spycatcher Mr Palfrey. Episodes Comprise: Inspector Ghote Moves in. Judgement Day. Secrets. Woodentop. The Traitor. Lytton's Diary. King & Castle. Ladies in Charge. Thank You, Miss Jones. Making News. Snakes and Ladders. A Question of Commitment. Hunted Down. Special Features: Singles' Night: Starring Robin Nedwell. Originally produced as a Storyboard edition, this play was ultimately transmitted outside the series banner.

• Frenzy | DVD | (17/10/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  By the time Alfred Hitchcock's second-to-last picture came out in 1972, the censorship restrictions under which he had laboured during his long career had eased up. Now he could give full sway to his lurid fantasies, and that may explain why Frenzy is the director's most violent movie by far--outstripping even Psycho for sheer brutality. Adapted by playwright Anthony Shaffer, the story concerns a series of rape-murders committed by suave fruit-merchant Bob Rusk (Barry Foster), who gets his kicks from throttling women with a necktie. This being a Hitchcock thriller, suspicion naturally falls on the wrong man--ill-tempered publican Richard Blaney (Jon Finch). Enter Inspector Oxford from New Scotland Yard (Alex McCowan), who thrashes out the finer points of the case with his wife (Vivian Merchant), whose tireless enthusiasm for indigestible delicacies like quail with grapes supplies a classic running gag.Frenzy was the first film Hitchcock had shot entirely in his native Britain since Jamaica Inn (1939), and many contemporary critics used that fact to account for what seemed to them a glorious return to form after a string of Hollywood duds (Marnie, Torn Curtain, Topaz). Hitchcock specialists are often less wild about it, judging the detective plot mechanical and the oh-so-English tone insufferable. But at least three sequences rank among the most skin-crawling the maestro ever put on celluloid. There is an astonishing moment when the camera backs away from a room in which a murder is occurring, down the stairs, through the front door and then across the street to join the crowd milling indifferently on the pavement. There is also the killer's nerve-wracking attempt to retrieve his tiepin from a corpse stuffed into a sack of potatoes. Finally, there is one act of strangulation so prolonged and gruesome it verges on the pornographic. Was the veteran film-maker a rampant misogynist as feminist observers have frequently charged? Sit through this appalling scene if you dare and decide for yourself. --Peter Matthews

• Henry V | DVD | (17/06/2002) from £6.54   |  Saving you £3.45 (52.75%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Very few first-time film directors would have been capable of making such a triumphant adaptation of Henry V; but a still-youthful Kenneth Branagh's years of stage experience paid off handsomely and his 1989 version qualifies as a genuine masterpiece, the kind of film that comes along once in a decade. He eschews the theatricality of Laurence Olivier's stirring, fondly remembered 1945 adaptation to establish his own rules: Branagh plays it down and dirty, seeing the Bard's play through revisionist eyes, framing it as an anti-war story in contrast to Olivier's patriotic spectacle. Branagh gives us harsh close-ups of muddied, bloody men, and of himself as Henry, his hardened mouth and wilful eyes revealing much about the personal cost of war. Not that the director-star doesn't provide lighter moments: his scenes introducing the French Princess Katherine (Emma Thompson) trying to learn English quickly from her maid are delightful. What may be the crowning glory of Branagh's adaptation comes when the dazed leader wanders across the battlefield, not even sure who has won. As King Hal carries a dead boy (a young Christian Bale) over the hacked bodies of both the English and French, a panorama of blood and mud and death greet the viewer as Branagh opens up the scene and Patrick Doyle's rousing hymn "Non nobis, Domine" provides marvellous counterpoint (like the director, the composer was another filmic first-timer). A more potent expression of the price of victory could scarcely be imagined. --Rochelle O'Gorman, Amazon.com

• Shakespeare: The Animated Tales | DVD | (28/03/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £39.99

  This Animated Shakespeare Box Set winner of 2 Emmy awards contains 12 of the bard's plays that were originally broadcast on BBC2 in 1994. The scripts for the 'Animated Tales' have been adapted from the original Shakespeare by Leon Garfield. A reknowed Shakespearean scholar Garfield worked closely with a panel of academic experts to create plays that are masterfully abridged to only 30 minutes yet are faithful to Shakespeare's language and plots. The 12 episodes are : 1.

• The Loneliness Of The Long Distance Runner | DVD | (14/04/2003) from £39.99   |  Saving you £-20.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Following the success of Karel Reisz's 'Saturday Night and Sunday Morning' Alan Sillitoe adapted another of his works for the screen this time a short story of a disillusioned teenager rebelling against the system to make Tony Richardson's 'The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner' one of the great British films of the 1960s. Newcomer Tom Courtenay is compelling as the sullen defiant Colin refusing to follow his dying father into a factory job railing against the capitalist bosses and preferring to make a living from petty thieving. Arrested for burglary and sent to borstal Colin discovers a talent for cross-country running earning him special treatment from the governor (Michael Redgrave) and the chance to redeem himself from anti-social tearaway to sports day hero. With Colin a favourite to win against a local public school tensions build as the day approaches...

• David Copperfield | DVD | (09/08/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Born to a weak but loving mother soon after his father dies David Copperfield is nine years old when his mother Clara marries Mr Murdstone. A cruel man who believes in extreme discipline he has no hesitation in sending David away to school. Shortly after he is sent away Clara dies and Murdstone seizes the opportunity to send him away for good this time into menial labour at a London wine merchants. It is here that David meets the genial Micawber family and his aunt Betsey arrange

• The One That Got Away | DVD | (11/08/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  War drama story of Franz Von Werra the German pilot who when captured refuses to remain caged. Based on real life events...

• Night To Remember - Limited Edition, All-Region/1080p | Blu Ray | (08/07/2022) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Classic documentary drama based on Walter Lord's book about the sinking of the Titanic in 1912. Told from the perspective of Second Officer Charles Lightoller (Kenneth More), the story follows the supposedly ˜unsinkable' ship as she embarks on her maiden voyage and ultimately founders in the North Atlantic Ocean.From Veteran British director Roy Ward Baker.Product Features1080p High definition presentationNEW Video Interview by critic Matthew SweetNEW Interview with film historian Jo BottingThe Making of A Night to Remember documentaryTheatrical TrailerLimited Edition slipcase on the first 1500 copies with unique artwork.More features to be announced .

• 3 Classic Cult Comedies - Wilt / Leon The Pig Farmer / Personal Services | DVD | (20/10/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Wilt - Henry Wilt is a teacher of liberal studies to students on day-release from the nearby pie factory. His night-time fantasies are full of ways in which to murder his bossy wife Eva. When she goes missing Police Inspector Russell Flint attempts to charge Wilt for the 'crime'... Leon The Pig Farmer - A young Jewish estate agent in London suffers an identity crisis when he discovers that his real father is a Yorkshire pig farmer... Personal Services - Julie Walters gives a sterling performance in this riotous comedy which takes a look behind the scenes at the sex-life of the British inspired by the life the notorious Madam Cynthia Payne...