"Actor: Brenda"

• Vera - Series 2 | DVD | (21/05/2012) from £12.89   |  Saving you £12.10 (93.87%)   |  RRP £24.99

  The first series of Vera may have left the show a little bit of work to do, but this follow-up run of stories improves things with considerable skill. The basic premise remains similar. Vera follows the work of Detective Chief Inspector Vera Stanhope, a woman driven to solve crime, whilst battling a catalogue of problems of her own. So far, so conventional. Television is hardly short of detectives, after all. But Vera has a trump card, and her name is Brenda Blethyn. The Oscar-nominated actress gives a considered performance in the title role, and the lends the show the gravitas it needs to keep us hooked. Blethyn is front and centre for much of the four episodes collected together here, and it's a complex collection of cases she's presented with. For instance, she has to face the mysterious suicide of a former colleague, and the odd murder of a social worker, each of which comes with a labyrinthine backstory that Vera needs to get to grips with. There are still problems with Vera that this second series doesn't completely solve. Based once more on Ann Cleeves' novels, the wonderful Blethyn has proven to be a divisive choice amongst hardened fans of the books, and whilst her character is deepened here, more work on the writing and less reliance on the leading actress would serve the show well. That said, her adventures here are fleshed out, interesting, and intriguing to watch. And Vera continues, as it did in the second half of its maiden series, to improve. Well worth a look. --Jon Foster

• Beyond The Sea | DVD | (18/04/2005) from £6.20   |  Saving you £13.79 (222.42%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Double Oscar-winner Kevin Spacey directs and stars in this biopic of popular crooner Bobby Darin.

• Romantic Comedy | DVD | (13/02/2006) from £68.83   |  Saving you £-18.84 (N/A%)   |  RRP £49.99

  Pride And Prejudice: The five Bennet sisters have all been raised by their mother with one purpose in life - finding a husband. However the second eldest Lizzie can think of 100 reasons not to marry. When Mrs Bennet hears the exciting news that a wealthy bachelor and his circle of sophisticated friends are to take up summer residence in a nearby mansion the Bennets are abuzz with the hope that potential suitors will be in full supply. Obligingly the newcomer Mr Charles Bingl

• Vera Series 1-8 | DVD | (19/03/2018) from £11.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  All the episodes from the ITV crime thriller based on the novels by Ann Cleeves. Detective Chief Inspector Vera Stanhope (Brenda Blethyn) along with Detective Sergeant Joe Ashworth (David Leon) and their team, carry out various murder investigations. Series 1 episodes are: 'Hidden Depths', 'Telling Tales', 'The Crow Trap' and 'Little Lazarus'. Series 2 episodes are: 'The Ghost Position', 'Silent Voices', 'A Certain Samaritan' and 'Sandancers'. Series 3 episodes are: 'Castles in the Air', 'Poster Child', 'Young Gods' and 'Prodigal Son'. Series 4 episodes are: 'On Harbour Street', 'Protected', 'The Deer Hunters' and 'Death of a Family Man'. Series 5 episodes are: 'Changing Tides', 'Old Wound', 'Muddy Waters' and 'Shadows in the Sky'. Series 6 episodes are: 'Dark Road', 'Tuesday's Child', 'The Moth Catcher' and 'The Sea Glass'. Series 7 episodes are: 'Natural Selection', 'Dark Angel', 'Broken Promise' and 'The Blanket Mire'. Series 8 episodes are: 'Blood and Bone', 'Black Ice', 'Home' and 'Darkwater'.

• Mariah Carey - Around The World | DVD | (26/04/1999) from £10.25   |  Saving you £-4.26 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Mariah Carey the biggest selling female artist of the decade invites her fans to join her on-stage and backstage as she travels around the world on a concert tour with stops in Australia Hawaii Japan and glittering Manhattan. Through the magic of Dolby Digital multichannel surround sound you'll experience the full power of some of Mariah's biggest hits and revel in a series of very special exclusive performances. Programme Start Butterfly Intro/Emotion Fantasy Dreamlover

• Belonging | DVD | (26/07/2010) from £15.25   |  Saving you £-0.26 (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  This high budget movie is based on the novel by Stevie Davies and written by Bafta award-winner Alan Plater whose previous television credits include A Very British Coup and The Last of the Blonde Bomb Shells. From Bafta award winner The Producers (The Politicians Wife Seeing Red) and directed by Christopher Menaul (Wall of Silence State of Mind) Belonging is a bittersweet drama set in the picturesque market town of Shrewsbury. At first glance it's just a domestic tale about marital breakdown but a closer inspection reveals a tender perceptive and at times deeply funny story. The range of rich and diverse characters and the closely observed trivia of family life are what transform this simple story into a glorious depiction of human endurance. Jess (Brenda Blethyn - Saving Grace Secrets And Lies) and Jacob Copplestone (Kevin Whately - Inspector Morse Auf Wiedersehein Pet Lewis The Children) have been happily married for twenty years and now live with Jacob's cantankerous and demanding mother May (Rosemary Harris - Spider-Man) his sweet and good natured aunt Brenda (Anna Massey - Pinochet In Suburbia) and his devout and elderly cousin Nathan (Peter Sallis - Last Of The Summer Wine Wallace & Grommitt). With selfless dedication Jess has given up her job as a librarian to care for the oldies. But when her husband disappears Jess's world starts to fall apart. She now has to question the entire basis on which her life has been built and come to terms with her new found freedom while contending with her exasperating relations.

• Children's Film Foundation Bumper Box Vol.3 | DVD | (23/08/2021) from £24.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  For over 30 years, The Children's Film Foundation produced quality entertainment for young audiences, employing the cream of British filmmaking talent. Unavailable for years, these much-loved films finally make a welcome return to out screens. The Bumper Box Collection Vol.3 includes the following the following CFF adventures; The Clue of the Missing Ape, Adventure in the Hopfields, Tim Driscoll's Donkey, Runaway Railway, Calamity the Cow, Cry Wolf, Big Wheels and Sailor, Breakout and Our Exploits at West Poley. As always the films feature a plethora of familiar faces, including George Cole, Melvyn Hayes, John Moulder-Brown, Ronnie Barker, Shelia Reid, Brenda Fricker and of course last but not least, the one and only Phil Collins!

• Secrets and Lies | DVD | (22/07/2019) from £11.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Hortense (Marianne Jean-Baptiste) is a young, black optometrist whose adoptive parents have recently died. Cynthia (Brenda Blethyn) is a sad, unmarried mother who works in a factory and lives in a shabby terraced house with her confrontational daughter Roxanna (Claire Rushbrook). Cynthia's brother Maurice (Timothy Spall) is a successful photographer who lives comfortably in suburbia with his wife Monica (Phyllis Logan). In a misplaced effort to re-unite the family, Maurice & Monica throw a small barbecue party for Roxanne's 21st birthday. When Cynthia brings along her new friend Hortense, chaos ensues and some painful truths are revealed.

• Maniac Cop 3: Badge of Silence | Blu Ray | (19/11/2013) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Dead Man Running | DVD | (01/03/2010) from £4.49   |  Saving you £13.50 (300.67%)   |  RRP £17.99

  When it becomes apparent that the recession is hitting the criminal world as hard as it is hitting Wall Street, notorious gangster and loan shark, Mr. Thigo (50 Cent) arrives in London to shake things up and make an example out of one of his late payers.

• Secrets And Lies (Wide Screen) | DVD | (16/08/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  If a film fan had never heard of director Mike Leigh, one might explain him as a British Woody Allen. Not that Leighs films are whimsical or neurotic; they are tough-love examinations of British life--funny, outlandish and biting. His films share a real immediacy with Allens work: they feel as if they are happening now. Leigh works with actors--real actors--on ideas and language. There is no script at the start (and sometimes not at the end). Secrets and Lies involves Hortense (Marianne Jean-Baptiste), an elegant black woman wanting to learn her birth mothers identity. She will find its Cynthia (Brenda Blethyn), who is one of the saddest creatures weve seen in film. Shes also one of the most real and, ultimately, one of the most loveable. Timothy Spall is Cynthias brother, a giant man full of love who is being slowly defeated by his fastidious wife (Phyllis Logan). There is a great exuberance of life in Secrets & Lies, winner of the Palme DOr and best actress (Blethyn) at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival--not Zorba-type life but the little battles fought and won every day. Leighs honest interpretation of daily life is usually found only on the stage. Secrets & Lies is more realistic than a stage production, however, especially when Leigh shows us uninterrupted scenes. Critic David Denby states that Leigh has "made an Ingmar Bergman film without an instant of heaviness or pretension." If that sounds like your cup of tea, see Secrets & Lies. --Doug Thomas

• Casualty - Series 1 | DVD | (10/04/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £29.99

  One of the BBC's flagship dramas Casualty depicts the lives of the patients doctors nurses and paramedics attending the frantically busy accident and emergency department of Holby General Hospital. Now approaching its twentieth year on television this is where it all started: the hard-hitting storylines; the accurate portrayal of life in the casualty department; and that theme tune. At a time when medical dramas produced in the UK were thin-on-the ground this was

• Quatermass - Chapters 1 To 4 / The Conclusion | DVD | (07/04/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £34.99

  John Mills stars as the eponymous Professor in 1979s Quatermass, the fourth, final and best of the celebrated television science fiction serials. The Professors early adventures were 1950s TV productions, all made into cult Hammer films, including the excellent Quatermass and the Pit (1967). Here Quatermass, now an elderly scientist searching for his missing grand-daughter, finds himself facing a new alien nightmare in a convincingly bleak near-future Britain of urban decay, social collapse and unchecked violence. Written by Nigel Kneale, as were all the Quatermass stories, this was an intelligent extrapolation of 1970s industrial-strife-ridden Britain, a continuation of the apocalyptic British SF tradition of John Wyndham (The Day of the Triffids was serialised by the BBC two years later). Thanks to a generous budget sufficient to allow for an international theatrical version, the production values are impressively large-scale, and the naturalistic performances from a cast including Simon MacCorkindale, Barbara Kellerman and Brenda Fricker add greatly to the sense of reality. Best of all, John Mills brings tremendous class to an adventure which remains a rare example of serious, ideas-based adult TV SF. Director Piers Haggard (Pennies from Heaven) packs considerable tension and not a few scares into Kneales epic canvas. On the DVD: Quatermass is presented on three DVDs with two 50-minute episodes and perfunctory production notes on each of the first two discs. The 4:3 picture is good for a 1970s TV series, though there is some minor print damage. Sound is adequate two-channel mono. Disc 3 offers the 101-minute international theatrical version, called The Quatermass Conclusion. This version contains some slightly stronger, 15-rated material, and different credits. The disc also features an oddly presented but interesting 18-minute interview with Nigel Kneale which is centred on the original three Quatermass BBC serials. A 16-page booklet is informative and the packaging is among the most attractive to grace a DVD set thus far. --Gary S Dalkin

• Vera: Series 11 (Eps 3 & 4) | DVD | (31/01/2022) from £7.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  BAFTA and Golden Globe -winning actress Brenda Blethyn stars as the unorthodox but brilliant DCI Vera Stanhope in this hit crime drama. Vera may be unconventional and unglamorous, but she faces the world with her caustic wit, guile and courage, and what she lacks in charm she more than makes up for in wisdom and insight. Vera and her trusted team investigate tragic and intriguing cases, chasing ruthless killers, unravelling complex mysteries and uncovering secrets that sometimes stray a little too close to home. Set against the atmospheric landscapes of the breathtaking Northumberland countryside, this top-rating drama is inspired by the bestselling novels and characters created by acclaimed author Ann Cleeves.

• How About You | DVD | (08/11/2010) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  How About You

• Little Voice | DVD | (22/01/2001) from £5.88   |  Saving you £12.11 (205.95%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Michael Caine was robbed of an Oscar. He gives his finest performance in a decade as big-talking small-time agent Ray Say, a paunchy, pale life of the party hiding his desperation under gold chains and cool bravura. When he hears the almost magical voice of Jane Horrocks's meek little LV (short for Little Voice) fill her bedroom with the rich voice of Judy Garland, he sees his ticket to the big time. Little Voice is ostensibly LV's story, and in fact the original play was written for Horrocks, whose amazing vocal impressions of Garland, Shirley Bassey and Marilyn Monroe (among others) form the centrepiece performance of the film. But as directed by Mark Herman (Brassed Off), the story of this mousy girl who shuts herself in from a bellowing world is just as overwhelmed by the bombastic characters as LV herself. Brenda Blethyn babbles a blue streak as LV's overbearing mother, Mari, an ageing widow who escapes her unhappiness in carousing and becomes almost pathologically jealous when Ray's attentions turn from her to LV. As Ray puts his dreams on the line for LV's showcase, he reveals his true self: a venal man who spits and barks out his bottled-up anger in an astoundingly bile-filled delivery of Roy Orbison's "It's Over." The showstopping moment once again overwhelms LV's tale, but Caine's performance is so astounding it seems a fair trade. --Sean Axmaker

• PD James: The Adam Dalgliesh Chronicles | DVD | (05/11/2018) from £74.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  A spectacular critical and ratings success when first transmitted on ITV, Upstairs, Downstairs still maintains its position as one of the major success stories of British television worldwide. Multi-award-winning (including ones from BAFTA, the Writers' Guild, the Royal Television Society, Emmys and Golden Globes), the series stars Jean Marsh, Gordon Jackson, Angela Baddeley, Pauline Collins and Lesley-Anne Down. Upstairs, Downstairs takes place at 165 Eaton Place from the turn of the century through the Great War and into the Roaring Twenties. It concerns the Bellamy family: politician Richard Bellamy, his wives Marjorie and Virginia, wastrel son James, wayward daughter Elizabeth and his flighty ward, Georgina Worsley. The house domestics are led by Hudson, the butler, a conservative Scot who must contend with the 'below stairs' behaviour of the household staff, including cook Mrs Bridges and maids Rose and Sarah. Features: The Story of Upstairs, Downstairs five exclusive documentaries Commentaries for selected episodes Variant version of On Trial Archive interviews with Gordon Jackson, Jean Marsh and Angela Baddeley An interview with composer Alexander Faris, and a 5.1 mix of Faris conducting the Upstairs, Downstairs theme with a live orchestra Russell Harty Goes Upstairs, Downstairs a 1975 Christmas special

• Ally McBeal - Season 1 | DVD | (21/02/2005) from £19.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Meet Ally McBeal she over-analyses her relationships (and sometimes lack of) to the point of becoming emotionally neurotic. Sounds annoying? It can be. Sounds so-American? It can be. Sounds addictive? It will be... They are young successful lawyers some of them could even be called beautiful a lot of them could be called eccentric and they all work and play together. In this first season we are introduced to the Unisex (the bathroom they all share). Ally is living with Renee st

• Music From Another Room | DVD | (07/02/2005) from £6.39   |  Saving you £6.60 (50.80%)   |  RRP £12.99

  When five year old Danny helps deliver a family friend's baby Anna he tells his father that he will one day marry her. But it's not until he moves back to America- twenty five years later- that fate steps in and literally knocks him off his bike- and into the arms of a beautiful grown up Anna (Mol)! And while destiny might be on his side Danny (Law) discovers that time is not... because Anna is not only sure of her feelings for Danny but she's also engaged to be married to someone

• Passport to Shame | Blu Ray | (23/03/2020) from £14.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  A superior sexploitation thriller showcasing fiery performances from both Herbert Lom (as a sinister pimp) and Diana Dors (as one of his workers), Passport to Shame was the feature directorial debut for BAFTA-nominated Alvin Rakoff. With camerawork from Nicolas Roeg and a memorable performance from Odile Versois as the innocent caught up in a life of crime, it is presented here as a brand-new High Definition remaster from original film elements in its original theatrical aspect ratio. Vicki, a young French girl on the run from the Parisian police, arrives in London. Believing herself to be safe, she is horrified to discover that Nick - a violent, scheming pimp - has designs on making her the latest acquisition to his girls of the night ... Special Feature: Image gallery