"Actor: Blakely"

• King Lear | DVD | (21/05/2007) from £12.98   |  Saving you £4.00 (36.40%)   |  RRP £14.99

  A production of the Shakespeare tragedy which brings out the themes of family relationship youth versus age and the struggle of good over evil.

• Charlie Bubbles (Standard Edition) | Blu Ray | (27/06/2022) from £9.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  After achieving international renown as one of the finest actors of his generation in films such as Saturday Night and Sunday Morning and Tom Jones, Albert Finney turned director for this surreal comic twist on the 'kitchen sink' dramas in which he'd made his name. Finney plays Charlie Bubbles, a successful writer suffering a mid-life crisis, who attempts to re-connect with his northern working-class roots and estranged family. Based on a screenplay by Shelagh Delaney (A Taste of Honey), the script clearly references both her and Finney's personal experience of their shared working class origins (both were Salford natives), and the consequences of achieving great success. Product Features High Definition remaster Original mono audio Audio commentary with film historians Thirza Wakefield and Melanie Williams A Very Personal Film (2018, 3 mins): a new interview with producer Michael Medwin Down to Earth (2018, 9 mins): director of photography Peter Suschitzky recalls working with actor-director Albert Finney Off the Cuff (2018, 9 mins): first assistant director Terence A Clegg discusses his time working on the film Finney and Football (2018, 17 mins): actor Timothy Garland remembers his role as Charlie Bubbles' son Motorway Café Society (2018, 9 mins): a new interview with actor Susan Engel Entirely Harmonised (2018, 15 mins): composer Misha Donat reflects upon his distinctive score for the film To Shape the Country (2018, 5 mins): a short appreciation by film critic Danny Leigh Another World (2018, 22 mins): John Harding, author of Sweetly Sings Delaney: A Study of Shelagh Delaney's Work 195868, discusses the author and playwright's career and her work with Finney CCTV Test Footage (1966, 3 mins, mute): previously unseen camera tests supervised by Stephen Frears, Finney's personal assistant on the film Original theatrical trailer Image gallery: promotional photography and publicity material New and improved English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing

• The Dogs Of War | DVD | (11/02/2002) from £11.93   |  Saving you £2.32 (21.74%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Based on the novel by Frederick Forsyth, The Dogs of War is an uneasy mix of espionage and combat that never really succeeds in either role. Based around the character of Paul Shannon, the film follows events in the fictional African state of Zagaro. Hired on a reconnaissance mission by a nameless multi-national corporation, Shannon is captured and tortured before his release, only to return to the country to lead a small band of mercenaries (the dogs of the title) in a bloody coup. The first section of the movie works best, building a real sense of tension and unease, not least through a typically understated performance by Christopher Walken as the paranoid loner who keeps a pistol in his fridge (watch too for a brief appearance from a young Jim Broadbent). There are obvious references to the by-then obsolete school of Vietnam filmmaking in the second section, with the Asian enemy replaced by an African one. The gung-ho mentality of the soldiers is, however, so two-dimensional that the viewer develops little empathy for their plight. The action is slow and drawn out, with the seemingly endless pregnant pauses operating as a means for enabling the film to achieve a reasonable running time. On the DVD: little is on offer here aside from the usual scene selection, audio and subtitle options and original cinema trailer. --Phil Udell

• Charlie Bubbles | DVD | (15/09/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £7.99

  Charlie Bubbles is a writer from working-class Manchester but he has gotten caught up in his riches and fame and has forgotten his ability to connect to people. He sets out to reconnect with the important people in his life and re-establish his roots and family.

• Long Ships | DVD | (28/07/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Viking brothers Rolfe (Widmark) and Orm (Russ Tamblyn) steal the Norse king's funeral ship, as well as his beautiful daughter Gerda (Beba Loncar), and head off in search of the fabled 'Mother of Voices,' a huge solid-gold bell and battle a maelstrom, a mutinous crew and vengeful Moorish troops...

• Agatha Christie's Evil Under The Sun | DVD | (07/01/2008) from £6.99   |  Saving you £6.00 (85.84%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Hercule Poirot is called in to investigate a case for an insurance company regarding firstly a dead woman's body found on a moor and then a important diamond sent to the company to be insured turns out to be a fake. Poirot discovers that the diamond was bought for Arlena Marshall by Sir Horace Blatt and Arlena is on her honeymoon with her husband and step-daughter on a tropical island hotel. He joins them on the island and finds that everybody else starts to hate Arlena for different reasons - refusing to do a stage show stopping a book and for having an open affair with Patrick Redfern another guest in full view of his shy wife. So it's only a matter of time before Arlena turns up dead strangled and Poirot must find out who it is....

• Equus (Blu-ray) | Blu Ray | (17/08/2020) from £12.98   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Alan Strang (Peter Firth) is a troubled teenager who suffers from an uncontrollable urge to blind horses. In court, facing prosecution for his actions, psychiatrist Dr Martin Dysart (Richard Burton) attempts to unravel the root causes of Alan's pathologic affliction. Adapted by Peter Shaffer from his own landmark, Tony-winning play, Equus is a gripping psychological thriller exploring how corrupted ideals can lead to grave consequences. Special Features: To Be Confirmed ***FIRST PRESSING ONLY*** Fully illustrated booklet with new essays

• Capone | DVD | (06/03/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  The man who made the Twenties roar! The story of the rise and fall of the infamous Chicago gangster Al Capone (Ben Gazzara) and the control he exhibited over the city during the prohibition years as well as with his subsequent fall...

• Equus | DVD | (04/08/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  A film adaptation of the play by Peter Shaffer, Equus stars Richard Burton as Martin Dysart, a psychiatrist who takes on an unusual case: a young stable boy (Peter Firth) who, in frenzy, has blinded six horses. Their sessions reveal that the boy has a quasi-religious fetish for horses and he rides them in the dead of night, experiencing an ecstasy unlike anything Dysart has ever known. Dysart begins to question: Is the pursuit of normalcy worth the loss of individual passions? Equus features a lot of hokum--its therapy scenes are absurd crescendos of revelation and insights--but its central question has substance, the direction is energetic, and the performances are powerful; Burton, handsome and haggard, brings a complex self-loathing to his role. It also features Jenny Agutter and Joan Plowright. --Bret Fetzer

• Man in a Suitcase: Volume 6 | Blu Ray | (28/06/2021) from £8.07   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  A discredited ex-CIA agent reduced to working as a private investigator, McGill travels the world as a 'gun for hire'. His unorthodox approach and strong sense of personal integrity often bring him into conflict with both his employers and the authorities, making him more enemies than friends... Starring Richard Bradford in a career-defining role as McGill, MAN IN A SUITCASE has been newly remastered in HD from the original 35mm film elements for this Blu-ray edition. McGill has never scrubbed up better than this!

• The Lost World - Underground | DVD | (12/04/2005) from £25.14   |  Saving you £-19.15 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  The story of an incredible expedition through a world untouched by time and civilisation a voyage to a land where humans are the species at risk of extinction!

• Man in a Suitcase: The Complete Series | Blu Ray | (14/10/2019) from £56.55   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  A discredited ex-CIA agent reduced to working as a private investigator, McGill travels the world as a 'gun for hire'. His unorthodox approach and strong sense of personal integrity often bring him into conflict with both his employers and the authorities, making him more enemies than friends... Starring Richard Bradford in a career-defining role as McGill, Man in a Suitcase has been newly remastered in High Definition from original 35mm film elements for this Blu-ray release. Featuring all thirty episodes, this critically acclaimed and highly popular action series has never looked better than this.

• The Hanged Man/Turtle's Progress: The Complete Series | DVD | (23/01/2017) from £31.92   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  This set comprises both The Hanged Man and Turtle's Progress, devised and scripted by The Power Game's Edmund Ward. THE HANGED MAN After three attempts to kill him, Lew Burnett, owner of an international construction company, decides to stay 'dead' in order to stay alive... Undercover and on borrowed time, he must draw his enemies out while confronting some painful truths. Starring Colin Blakely and Michael Williams, this powerful eight-part thriller also features appearances from Jane Seymour and Gareth Hunt. TURTLE'S PROGRESS Adopting a lighter tone, this spin-off charted the exploits of the petty crook first encountered in The Hanged Man, with Turtle and his accomplice Razor Eddie in accidental possession of a van containing eighty safe deposit boxes the proceeds of a bank job. Guest starring Antony Sher, Joss Ackland and Peter Bowles, Turtle's Progress prefigured Minder in its gritty London setting and sharp humour.

• Airport | DVD | (24/04/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £11.54

  Airport (Dir. George Seaton 1970): Take a non-stop flight with an all-star cast to a world of tension-filled human drama in this trend-setting box office blockbuster. Based on Arthur Hailey's runaway best seller the emotion-charged adventure stars Burt Lancaster as the manager of a glamorous international airport who must juggle personal crisis with professional responsibilities as he attempts to keep his blizzard torn facility open to rescue a bomb-damaged jetliner. The la

• A Man For All Seasons | DVD | (26/11/2001) from £17.98   |  Saving you £2.01 (11.18%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Robert Bolt's successful play, A Man for All Seasons, was not considered a hot commercial property by Columbia Pictures--a period piece about a moral issue without a star, without even a love story. Perhaps that's why Columbia left director Fred Zinnemann alone to make the film as long as he stuck to a relatively small budget. The results took everyone by surprise, as the talky morality play became a box-office hit and collected the top Oscars for 1966. At the play's heart is the standoff between King Henry VIII (Robert Shaw, in young lion form) and Sir Thomas More (Paul Scofield, in an Oscar-winning performance). Henry wants More's official approval of divorce, but More's strict ethical and religious code will not let him waffle. More's rectitude is a source of exasperation to Cardinal Wolsey (Orson Welles in a cameo), who chides, "If you could just see facts flat on without that horrible moral squint". Zinnemann's approach is all simplicity, and indeed the somewhat prosaic staging doesn't create a great deal of cinematic excitement. But the language is worth savouring, and the ethical politics are debated with all the calm and majesty of an absorbing chess game. --Robert Horton, Amazon.com

• This Sporting Life | Blu Ray | (09/06/2014) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Prolific British filmmaker Lindsay Anderson weaves this small, evocative tale of young life at the crossroads in early 1960s Northern England. A rough, sullen young man (Richard Harris) working in the local coal mines begins to make a name for himself as a star rugby player, but even as he begins to fall in love he cannot escape the harsh realities of the bleak life around him. The rugby sequences in the film are striking, but no more so than the depiction of downtrodden people living in the shadow of industry and corruption that too often crushes their spirit. Harris in one of his first roles, is remarkably effective as an unlikeable but sympathetic figure trying against hope to savour the small joys life has to offer, and the film also features the debut of renowned actress Glenda Jackson. One of a series of working-class, character-driven British imports, This Sporting Life is one of the best on the field. --Robert Lane

• Agatha Christie's Evil Under The Sun | DVD | (16/06/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  A star-studded cast heads this Agatha Christie story about the efforts of Hercule Poirot (Peter Ustinov) to fathom the mysterious death of a capricious star in a Mediterranean resort hotel...

• Rockliffe's Babies: The Complete Series | DVD | (17/04/2019) from £27.92   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  A controversial police procedural from the late 1980s, this ratings-winning drama charts the progress of seven trainee CID officers learning the ropes in some of London's toughest areas. Ian Hogg gives a career best performance as the tough, irascible Alan Rockliffe an old-school supervisor whose job it is to sort the wheat from the chaff. Featuring guest appearances from Lonnie Donegan, Norman Beaton, Pauline Quirke, Kevin Lloyd, John Michie and John Woodvine, this set contains both hard-hitting series of Rockliffe's Babies, complete and uncut. It's a busy week for the young plain-clothes Crime Squad PCs. A mixed bunch, with decidedly mixed abilities, they're thrown in at the deep end with a hooded prowler, an armed robbery and a mugging on the notorious Dragon Estate. They need to think fast, but if anyone can sharpen their instincts it's surely the quick-tempered DS Rockliffe.

• The Vengeance Of She | DVD | (29/01/2007) from £8.99   |  Saving you £4.00 (44.49%)   |  RRP £12.99

  When beautiful young Carol is taken over by the spirit of Ayesha queen of the lost city of Kuma an eccentric millionaire gives her refuge unaware that she brings the dark shadow of death to everything she touches...

• Agatha Christie DVD Collection | DVD | (24/06/2002) from £24.99   |  Saving you £15.00 (60.02%)   |  RRP £39.99

  The four films in this Agatha Christie Murder Mystery Collection demonstrate exactly why Christie's reassuringly formulaic whodunits have been extraordinarily resilient source material. In each we find a corpse (or several), an assorted group of suspects gathered in a self-contained location, all with a motive to commit murder, and the coincidental presence of the totem detective (Poirot or Miss Marple). Between 1974 and 1981, producers John Brabourne and Richard Goodwin mined the Christie seam for some of its ripest riches. Murder on the Orient Express (1974), directed by Sidney Lumet, features a cavalcade of stars including Ingrid Bergman, Lauren Bacall, John Gielgud and Sean Connery; while Christie herself gave Albert Finney's Poirot her blessing. The Art Deco setting exudes glamour; the plot is preposterously diverting; the lighting, silvery and washed-out, giving the suspects an appropriately grim and ghoulish air. With a superior Anthony Shaffer screenplay Death on the Nile (1978) saw Peter Ustinov taking over as Poirot. The backdrop of ancient Egyptian monuments helps bring this adaptation a touch of class, complemented by composer Nino Rota's epic theme tune. The Mirror Crack'd (1980) features Elizabeth Taylor and Kim Novak as rival Hollywood legends descending on a quaint English village to make a film, with Rock Hudson as Taylor's husband and Angela Lansbury as a rather unconvincingly robust Miss Marple. Shaffer returned to the fray, adapting Evil Under the Sun (1981) and moving Poirot from the Cornish Riviera to an island off the coast of Albania. Ustinov reprises his role and Maggie Smith returns, camper than ever, as the hotel owner inconvenienced by murder. On the DVD: It's a pity that the sound quality hasn't been sharpened up, though: Murder on the Orient Express sometimes evokes memories of the muffled incoherence of an old fleapit. Apart from trailers, extras are few and far between. There are no cast lists or filmographies. But Death on the Nile and Evil Under the Sun both feature interesting short promotional "'making of"' documentaries in 4:3 format. --Piers Ford