"Actor: Bill Wallis"

• Keep The Aspidistra Flying | DVD | (12/07/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  In this wonderfully witty adaptation of George Orwell's novel Gordon (Grant) and Rosemary (Bonham Carter) may be a middle class 1930s couple but they've got some very modern ideas. Eccentric Gordon whose budding poetry skills have led him into thinking he might just be a literary genius decides to give up his nice job as an advertising copy writer in a bid to embrace poverty and his art. However long-suffering girlfriend Rosemary has to work hard to keep her career (and their unco

• The Bourne Identity | DVD | (02/09/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £13.99

  Not to be confused with the 2002 Matt Damon big-screen version, this adaptation of The Bourne Identity is a 1988 two-part TV miniseries based on the Robert Ludlum paperback bestseller. "How can I find out who I am if I've been turned into another person?", cries amnesiac Richard Chamberlain, fished out of the sea by drunken doc Denholm Elliott, who patches him up and discovers a Swiss bank account number sewn into his thigh. Coming to believe that he is Jason Bourne, international assassin, our hero is sought after by the CIA, several European police forces and the gang of an evil terrorist. He hooks up with unlikely economist Jaclyn Smith to get to the bottom of the mystery, stay alive and face the big baddie. Stretched over three hours, this has room for a lot of the complex plot dropped from the big-screen movie, but it also means that the thrills are often interrupted by soap opera scenes. Chamberlain is perhaps too aptly cast as a man without an identity, but Smith matches him for lack of expression without any excuse given in the script. Aside from Donald Moffatt and Shane Rimmer in the CIA, the supporting cast mostly consists of distinguished Brits delivering value-for-money ham, mostly with cod-French accents, especially Anthony Quayle as a DeGaulle-style General, Jacqueline Pearce as a dress-designing spy and Peter Vaughan as a heavy Swiss banker. On the DVD: The Bourne Identity, though made for TV, is presented in widescreen, which sometimes chops off the tops of actors' heads like breakfast eggs but mostly looks fine. There are optional English subtitles. --Kim Newman