"Actor: Derek Hardwick"

• Gathering Storm | DVD | (17/04/2019) from £7.19   |  Saving you £6.80 (94.58%)   |  RRP £13.99

  The Gathering Storm is a fictionalised portrayal of Winston Churchill and his wife Clementine during their wilderness years of the 1930s. It deservedly won numerous awards, including an Emmy, BAFTA and Golden Globe in recognition of Albert Finney's wonderful central performance. Equally deserving were those for all aspects of the production design: period wardrobe, set dressing and use of location are equally impressive, apparently ensuring that this production has everything going for it in its depiction of pre-War Britain. The snag is that its restriction to TV movie format, a mere 90 minutes, excludes a lot of historical context that ought not to have been left out. Seeing Churchill's adoration of his wife (Vanessa Redgrave) or the family woes troubling Ralph Wigram (Linus Roache) is all very emotionally dramatic, but it uses precious screen time that might have been better devoted to highlighting the political situation abroad, or indeed the monarchy's situation at home. The enterprise smacks a little too much of sentimental contrivance, lionising Churchill in rose-tinted retrospect. True, some attempt is made to acknowledge the personality traits that excluded him both from office and popularity prior to Germany's re-building, but like so much else pertinent to the machinations of anticipating the war, these are glossed over for familial feel-goodery and button-pushing poignancy. This is a film that's easy to admire, but ought not to be mistaken for well-rounded history. On the DVD: The Gathering Storm doesn't look or sound quite as crisp and clear as you'd hope for a recent TV-movie transfer. That's down to some obvious grain in the picture, and the 2.0 surround audio that tends to lose quieter dialogue moments. There are extensive cast and crew biographies that will no doubt help international viewers place the naggingly familiar British faces. There's also the accumulatively enthusiastic commentary from director Richard Loncraine and producer Frank Doelger, which happily points many of them out. --Paul Tonks

• Othello | DVD | (22/08/2011) from £28.35   |  Saving you £-11.36 (N/A%)   |  RRP £16.99

  Shakespeare's tragic story of how a great man's vanity is manipulated by a jealous aide to bring about his downfall. A film by Stuart Burge of JohnDexter's production of 'Othello' at The National Theatre.

• The Ten Commandments | DVD | (09/04/2001) from £11.30   |  Saving you £4.69 (29.30%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Legendary silent film director Cecil B. DeMille didn't much alter the way he made movies after sound came in, and this 1956 biblical drama is proof of that. While graced with such 1950s niceties as VistaVision and Technicolor, The Ten Commandments (DeMille had already filmed an earlier version in 1923) has an anachronistic, impassioned style that finds lead actors Charlton Heston and Yul Brynner expressively posing while hundreds of extras writhe either in the presence of God's power or from orgiastic heat. DeMille, as always, plays both sides of the fence as far as sin goes, surrounding Heston's Moses with worshipful music and heavenly special effects while also making the sexy action around the cult of the Golden Calf look like fun. You have to see The Ten Commandments to understand its peculiar resonance as an old-new movie, complete with several still-impressive effects such as the parting of the Red Sea. --Tom Keogh, Amazon.com

• Nicholas Nickleby | DVD | (13/11/2006) from £10.98   |  Saving you £2.01 (15.50%)   |  RRP £12.99

  When Nicholas Nickleby's father dies and leaves his family destitute his uncle the greedy moneylender Ralph Nickleby finds Nicholas a job teaching in a repulsive school in Yorkshire. Nicholas flees the school taking with him one of the persecuted boys Smike and they join a troop of actors. Nicholas then has to protect Smike while trying to stop his Uncle Ralph taking advantage of his sister Kate and later his sweetheart Madeline Bray whose father is in debtor's prison.... A glorious Ealing Studios adaptation of Charles Dickens' celebrated novel!

• Ten Commandments 65th Anniversary - Limited Edition Steelbook | Blu Ray | (23/11/2021) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Mesmerised | DVD | (15/03/2004) from £7.88   |  Saving you £-1.89 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  This psychodrama is set in New Zealand during the 1880's and is based on the true story of an orphaned 18 year old who marries a cruel much older man. He constantly abuses her and keeps her under his thumb until she finally snaps and kills him. Later she is tried in court for murder...

• The Ten Commandments | DVD | (30/08/2004) from £18.99   |  Saving you £-3.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Cecil B. DeMille's Biblical epic starring Charlton Heston and Yul Brynner is a vintage product of the old Hollywood studio system complete with sweeping scenery and breathtaking effects including the crossing of the Red Sea by thousands of Hebrew slaves. With a dramatic and gripping plot superbly acted by Heston as the Hebrew saviour Moses The Ten Commandments has lost none of the impact and power it held over audiences on its initial release back in 1956.