"Actor: Betty Warren"

• Passport To Pimlico | DVD | (21/06/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £13.99

  An archaic document found in a bombsite reveals that the London district of Pimlico has for centuries technically been part of France. The local residents embrace their new found continental status seeing it as a way to avoid the drabness austerity and rationing of post-war England. The authorities do not however share their enthusiasm... A whimsical and charming British film 'Passport To Pimlico' is one of the finest examples of the classic Ealing comedies.

• Ealing Comedy DVD Collection - Hue and Cry/Passport to Pimlico/The Titfield Thunderbolt | DVD | (28/04/2003) from £21.36   |  Saving you £13.63 (63.81%)   |  RRP £34.99

  This second collection of Ealing Comedy, while not quite as important a reissue as the first box, is nonetheless essential viewing for all aficionados of classic English film. In Passport to Pimlico a group of Londoners demonstrate, paradoxically, their Englishness by eccentrically choosing the Burgundian citizenship granted them by a rediscovered medieval charter. Similarly, in The Titfield Thunderbolt neighbours outraged by the closing of their local branch line steal an antique locomotive from the museum and run their own railway. A similar sense of taking charge of your own life fills Hue and Cry as a group of boys, infuriated that crooks have been using their favourite comic to send messages, summon scores of others by radio to help them track down and capture the gang. There are shared themes here, a shared sense of the importance of eccentricity and imagination to a healthy society as well as excellent ensemble acting from casts that include Stanley Holloway, Margaret Rutherford and Sid James. The box is filled out with a television documentary about the history of Ealing Studios. It covers its early silent days, the golden age that produced the classic comedies and such important films as The Cruel Sea, its time as a BBC studio and its possible renaissance under new management. On the DVD: Ealing Comedy presents the three films and the documentary in 1.33:1 (i.e., 4:3), and has excellent mono sound that does full justice to both dialogue and scores. The extra features include introductions to the four films in the first box set by such luminaries as Terry Gilliam and Martin Scorsese as well as DVD-ROM files of the original brochures for all seven films. --Roz Kaveney

• Champagne Charlie | DVD | (13/11/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  The life and highly entertaining times of 19th century English music hall performer George Leybourne (aka Champagne Charlie) and his rivalry with the Great Vance (Stanley Holloway)... A thoroughly enjoyable but sadly neglected musical comedy from the Ealing Studio.

• Hill Street Blues - Season 2 | DVD | (12/06/2006) from £12.59   |  Saving you £23.66 (208.83%)   |  RRP £34.99

  ""Let's be careful out there."" The complete second season of Steve Bochco's ground-breaking cop show. Episodes Comprise: 1. Hearts and Minds 2. Blood Money 3. The Last White Man on East Ferry Avenue 4. The Second Oldest Profession 5. Fruits of the Poisonous Tree 6. Cranky Streets 7. Chipped Beef 8. The World According to Freedom 9. Pestolozzi's Revenge 10. The Spy Who Came in From Delgado 11. Freedom's Last Stand 12. Of Mouse and Man 13. Zen and