"Actor: Booth Colman"

• Planet Of The Apes - The Television Series | DVD | (18/08/2003) from £17.05   |  Saving you £-6.81 (N/A%)   |  RRP £10.24

  Set around a dozen years after the 1967 Charlton Heston-starring Oscar winner of the same name, this Planet of the Apes is a 1974 TV spin-off that attempts to recapture the appeal of the original apes films. A second spaceship arrives on the planet, the basic plot being the same as in 67, as two surviving humans go on the run with a renegade chimpanzee, Galen (Roddy McDowell essentially reprising his Cornelius character under another name). The actor provides the strongest lead, while Booth Colman as Zaius (replacing Maurice Evans from the original film), offers fine support. The humans Ron Harper and James Naughton are relatively bland, a buddy duo very much anticipating Starsky and Hutch, while the stories, in which our heroes have a new adventure each week and then move on, fall very much into the formula that dominated earlier shows such as The Fugitive, Star Trek and Alias Smith and Jones. This is a post-apocalyptic world where everyone has perfect hair and make-up. But if the action and effects are limited, at least that gives the stories room to concentrate on some moral debates about the nature of human violence. A show finally hamstrung by the tight limitations of its formula, Planet of the Apes: The Television Series lasted only 14 episodes and was cancelled so abruptly it lacks any resolution. Nevertheless its reappearance offers a welcome chance to reassess it in context with the classic movies it apes. On the DVD: Planet of the Apes: The Television Series is presented on four discs, including all 14 episodes. The sound is good mono and the 4:3 colour picture is excellent considering the show's age. Print damage is minor though occasionally quite noticeable, and there is some fading in a few shots. Otherwise this is the best these shows have ever looked. The only extras are trailers for the movie box set and for Tim Burton's 2001 cinema "reimagining". --Gary S Dalkin

• McCloud - Season 1 And 2 | DVD | (25/09/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £34.99

  Deputy Marshal Sam McCloud (the late Dennis Weaver) of Taos N.M. is assigned to the 21st Precinct of the NYPD to study local police methods and where he can stay close to his girl Chris Coughlin a writer for her father's paper the New York Chronicle. McCloud is a keen and brilliant investigator who cuts an unusual figure in a trademark Stetson and sheepskin coat... Series 1: 1. Who Says You Can't Make Friends In New York City? 2. Horse Stealing On Fifth Avenue 3. The Concrete Corral 4. The Stage Is All The World 5. Walk In The Park 6. Our Man In Paris Series 2: 1. Encounter With Aries 2. Top Of The World Ma! 3. Somebody's Out To Get Jennie 4. The Disposal Man 5. A Little Plot At Tranquil Valley 6. Fifth Man In A String Quartet 7. Give My Regrets To Broadway

• Shootdown | DVD | (02/08/2004) from £5.92   |  Saving you £-1.93 (N/A%)   |  RRP £3.99

  At 32 000 feet a Korean 747 passenger jet is blown open by a Soviet missile. The mangled aircraft manages to stay airborne for a few minutes but then plummets into the frigid Japanese sea with no survivors. Officials try to keep the story out of the press but soon the entire world knows. Nan Moore the mother of a passenger from the aircraft begins to search out the answers to her son's meaningless death and she finds that her own government may even be responsible. Nan Moore will stop at nothing not even the law to face the frightening questions and to find the vital answers that are raised through her determination.