"Actor: Frank Thornton"

• Spanish Fly | DVD | (22/04/2013) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  The screen vibrates with bounderism and caddishness when comedy icons Terry-Thomas and Leslie Phillips star as rivals in this sunny, mid-'70s sex comedy set on the Mediterranean island of Minorca. Spanish Fly is featured here in a brand-new transfer from original film elements in its as-exhibited theatrical aspect ratio. Despite the scenery and sunshine, expat Sir Percy de Courcy feels dejected. In a cunning wheeze to make some much-needed money, he's bought 100,000 gallons of local wine, ho...

• Are You Being Served? Series 1-5 Box Set | DVD | (17/07/2006) from £44.90   |  Saving you £15.09 (33.61%)   |  RRP £59.99

  ""I'm free!"" With these words just one unforgettable character among many in this classic TV sitcom was born. From the comedy pens of Jeremy Lloyd and David Croft (Dad's Army) came the DepartMental comedy madness that is Are You Being Served?. There's hilarity at Grace Brothers the High Street department store with a difference. Join in the fun as limp-wristed Mr Humphries and that blue-rinsed batle axe Mrs Slocombe lead the outrageous department store staff through the first five series of outrageously funny episodes! Series 1: 1. Are You Being Served? (Pilot Episode) 2. Dear Sexy Knickers 3. Our Figures Are Slipping 4. Camping In 5. His And Hers 6. Diamonds Are A Man's Best Friend Series 2: 1. The Clock 2. Cold Comfort 3. The Think Tank 4. Big Brother 5. Hoorah For The Holidays Series 3: 1. The Hand Of Fate 2. Coffee Morning 3. Up Captain Peacock 4. Cold Store 5. Wedding Bells 6. German Week 7. Shoulder To Shoulder 8. New Look 9. Christmas Crackers Series 4: 1. No Sale 2. Top Hat and Tails 3. Forward Mr. Grainger 4. Fire Practice 5. Fifty Years On 6. Oh What a Tangled Web 7. The Father Christmas Affair (1976 Christmas Special episode) Series 5: 1. Mrs. Slocombe Expects 2. A Change Is as Good as a Rest 3. Founder's Day 4. The Old Order Changes 5. Take-Over 6. Goodbye Mr. Grainger 7. It Pays to Advertise

• The BFG | DVD | (08/04/2002) from £5.76   |  Saving you £0.23 (3.99%)   |  RRP £5.99

  This beautifully animated film will captivate any adult or child who has ever been touched by the magical stories of Roald Dahl. The fantasy dream world of the BFG has been wonderfully brought to life by award-winning British animators Cosgrove Hall and now looks and sounds even better on DVD. When little Sophie is taken from her orphange bed one night it's just the beginning of a thrilling adventure with The Big Friendly Giant. As they catch dreams together in Dream Country and blow them into children's bedroom trouble appears in the shape of The Bloodbottler and Fleshlumpeater - big bad giants who like to gobble children for breakfast! It's up to Sophie and The BFG to persuade the Queen Of England to help them stop the giants and thwart their fiendish plans...

• Tomb Of Ligeia | DVD | (17/10/2005) from £14.90   |  Saving you £-1.91 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Cat or woman or a thing too evil to mention? Roger Corman and Vincent Price hook up for yet more horror in Edgar Allan Poe's most terrifying tale of passion possession and PURR-fect evil! When a dead wife sinks her claws into immortality - and comes back as a ferocious feline - she leads her husband's (Price) new bride on a deadly game of cat and mouse. And when the fur starts flying she soon learns that even in death... she can land on her feet!

• A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum | DVD | (12/01/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  The words of the opening song pretty much describe the menu in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum--"Something familiar, something peculiar, something for everyone: a comedy tonight!"--a frantic adaptation of the stage musical by Larry Gelbart and Burt Shevelove. The wild story, based on the Latin comedies of Plautus and set in ancient Rome, follows a slave named Pseudolus (Zero Mostel, snorting and gibbering) as he tries to extricate himself from an increasingly farcical situation; Mostel and a bevy of inspired clowns, including Phil Silvers, Jack Gilford and Buster Keaton, keep the slapstick and the patter perking. The cast also includes the young Michael Crawford as a love-struck innocent. This project landed in the lap of Richard Lester, then one of the hottest directors in the world after his success with the Beatles' films. Lester telescoped the material through his own joke-a-second sensibility, and also ripped out some of the songs from Stephen Sondheim's Broadway score. The result is very close to the vaudeville spirit suggested by the title--though anyone with a low tolerance for Zero Mostel's overbearing buffoonery may be in trouble. Oddly enough, amid all the frenzy, Lester creates a grungy, earthy Rome that seems closer to the real thing than countless respectable historical films on the subject. Frankie Howerd, who played Pseudolus on the London stage, kept the tradition going with his Up Pompeii TV series. --Robert Horton

• Gonks Go Beat | DVD | (27/05/2019) from £10.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Kenneth Connor, Terry Scott and Are You Being Served's Frank Thornton star in this groovy comedy-musical-sci-fi fantasia that could only have been made in the '60s! Featuring performances from Lulu and the Luvvers, The Nashville Teens and the Graham Bond Organisation, Gonks Go Beat is presented here as a transfer from the original film elements in its original theatrical aspect ratio. In the far future, Earth has split into two musically-opposing factions: Beatland where all the cool cats live and Balladisle, where it's customary to sport smart jumpers and trouser creases. Perturbed at this squabbling The Great Galaxian decides to send an ambassador to bring harmony to these unruly Earthlings. Unfortunately, the only one available is a rather unorthodox chap with a disgraceful record of incompetence! Special Features: Theatrical trailer Image gallery PDF material

• Are You Being Served? - Series 7 | DVD | (17/04/2019) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  There's hilarity at Grace Brothers the High Street department store with a difference. Join in the fun as limp-wristed Mr Humphries and that blue-rinsed batle axe Mrs Slocombe lead the outrageous department store staff through a seventh series of outrageously funny episodes! Episodes Comprise: 1. The Junior 2. String Stuff This Insurance 3. The Apartment 4. Mrs. Slocombe Senior Person 5. The Hero 6. Anything You Can Do 7. The Agent 8. The Punch And Judy Affair

• The Bfg | DVD | (01/01/2008) from £5.38   |  Saving you £0.61 (11.34%)   |  RRP £5.99

  This beautifully animated film will captivate any adult or child who has ever been touched by the magical stories of Roald Dahl. The fantasy dream world of the BFG has been wonderfully brought to life by award-winning British animators Cosgrove Hall and now looks, and sounds, even better on DVD.When little Sophie is taken from her orphanage bed one night, it's just the beginning of a thrilling adventure with The Big Friendly Giant. As they catch dreams together in Dream Country and blow them into children's bedrooms, trouble appears in the shape of the Bloodbottler and Fleshlumpeater - big, bad giants who like to gobble children for breakfast!It's up to Sophie and The BFG to persuade the Queen of England to help them stop the giants and thwart their fiendish plans.

• Are You Being Served - Series 8 | DVD | (17/04/2019) from £9.42   |  Saving you £6.57 (69.75%)   |  RRP £15.99

  The eighth series of Classic BBC sitcom Are You Being Served.

• Are You Being Served? - Series 9 | DVD | (17/04/2019) from £7.31   |  Saving you £8.68 (118.74%)   |  RRP £15.99

  An ailing department store where the management are beginning to show signs of wear and tear and the staff are clashing! The ninth series of this classic comedy finds Mr. Humphries Mrs.Slocombe Miss Brahms Captain Peacock Mr Rumbold and Mr Berry up to their necks in shop floor scandal and shenanigans as usual. Mr. Humphries is accused of stealing and his distinguished career could end in disgrace. When found guilty in a shop floor trial he' then dismissed but Mr Harman later finds the missing money at the back of the till! A handsome golf professional comes to the floor for a demonstration and accidentally hits Mrs. Slocombe on the head with a ball. Totally convinced she is a little girl Mrs. Slocombe wrecks havoc on the store as she cavorts around the department. Mrs Slocombe's cat is missing and in comforting her Mr. Humphries finds himself entangled more deeply than he would have liked. When Mrs Slocombe invents an aphrodisiac perfume Mrs. Peacock finds her husband's trousers in the wrong hands and there's a big misunderstanding. Plus all hell breaks loose when the staff's CB radio advert for Grace Brothers attracts a rush of truck drivers to the store. Finally what does the future hold for this shopping institution? It looks like bad news for Grace Brothers when there is interest in buying the store by the Japanese; so the staff take their problems to Number Ten where they contact President Reagan by phone and Mrs. Thatcher gets fashion tips from Mr. Humphries!

• Are You Being Served? - Series 5 | DVD | (05/06/2006) from £6.35   |  Saving you £9.64 (151.81%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Back again for another healthy portion Are You Being Served? features the limp-wristed Mr. Wilberforce Clayborne Humphries and that blue-rinsed battle-axe Mrs 'Betty' Slocombe leading the outrageous department store staff through a fifth series of outrageously funny episodes! Episodes Comprise: 1.Mrs. Slocombe Expects 2.A Change Is as Good as a Rest 3.Founder's Day 4.The Old Order Changes 5.Take-Over 6.Goodbye Mr. Grainger 7.It Pays to Advertise

• Are You Being Served? - The Movie | DVD | (22/04/2002) from £14.84   |  Saving you £-0.85 (N/A%)   |  RRP £13.99

  Writers Jeremy Lloyd and David Croft managed something quite clever with this, the film version of the 1970s sitcom Are You Being Served?. The idea of this cheery collection of comedy stereotypes--the pompous one, the vulgar one, the camp one, the shifty one and so on--being confined within a department store was a master stroke, as it allowed any kind of situation to arise without the plot having to exceed the restrictions imposed by the set. How, then, to keep the same theme for the big screen without just offering the television series writ large? Simple: send the whole cast on holiday together but make sure they can't leave their hotel, a state of affairs contrived easily enough by throwing a guerilla uprising into the plot. So it is, then, that the staff of Grace Bros. descend on the Costa Plonka while the store is closed for refurbishment. There are all the usual jokes involving knickers, boobs, toilets and gay sex (sometimes all at once), adding up to a good slice of nostalgic fun for anyone who was there when lapels really were that wide. Incidentally, this item is worth having just for the wonderful Frank Langford caricatures on the cover. On the DVD: Are You Being Served? comes to the digital format with just one extra item, a trailer.--Roger Thomas

• Early Bird, The / Press For Time | DVD | (12/05/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Norman Wisdom reprises his best-loved character, the comically inept Pitkin, in 1965's The Early Bird, ably supported once again by Edward Chapman in his final appearance as Mr Grimsdale. This time around Wisdom is the only milkman working for Grimsdale's Dairy, a small business threatened by a menacing large corporation in the shape of Consolidated Dairies and their electric milk floats. Grimsdale and Pitkin must evoke the Dunkirk spirit to save their family firm from the grasp of the faceless giant. Of course, the wafer-thin plot is the merest excuse for a series of calamitous set pieces in which Wisdom wreaks havoc in his trademark bumbling manner. The best bits involve a disastrous game of golf, the usual shenanigans with a fire hose and a virtuoso tour de force opening sequence as the household struggles to wake up in the morning, all set to Ron Goodwin's tongue-in-cheek music score. --Mark Walker In Press for Time Norman Wisdom offered his version of the crusading reporter movie, though by 1966 time was running out for Norman's style of big-screen comedy. Perhaps a sign of his growing frustration with the formulaic nature of his pictures was that he stretched himself to play not just his usual underdog hero, but also his own mother and his grandfather, the Prime Minister. Wisdom also cowrote the movie in which, as a reporter in a small seaside town, he causes chaos for the council, organises a beauty parade and dresses as a suffragette. Though now nearing the end of his years as a movie star, Wisdom shows himself to still be as polished as ever at his own brand of good-natured slapstick. --Gary S Dalkin

• The Early Bird | DVD | (12/11/2001) from £16.24   |  Saving you £-3.26 (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Norman Wisdom reprises his best-loved character, the comically inept Pitkin, in 1965's The Early Bird, ably supported once again by Edward Chapman in his final appearance as Mr Grimsdale. This time around Wisdom is the only milkman working for Grimsdale's Dairy, a small business threatened by a menacing large corporation in the shape of Consolidated Dairies and their electric milk floats. Grimsdale and Pitkin must evoke the Dunkirk spirit to save their family firm from the grasp of the faceless giant. Of course, the wafer-thin plot is the merest excuse for a series of calamitous set pieces in which Wisdom wreaks havoc in his trademark bumbling manner. The best bits involve a disastrous game of golf, the usual shenanigans with a fire hose and a virtuoso tour de force opening sequence as the household struggles to wake up in the morning. Wisdom's own brand of Jerry Lewis-inspired clowning, with mugging and pratfalls aplenty, is all good clean fun with little or none of the smutty innuendo that characterised the contemporary Carry On series. He carries this film, as he does all his others, solely on the strength of his winningly naïve charm: this is innocent comedy from the days before supermarkets really did wreck all the local businesses, not to mention from the days before The Godfather gave a whole new spin on the comedy value of going to bed with your horse. On the DVD: There are no extra features on this disc at all. Given Wisdom's household-name status and the longevity of these much-loved movies, this seems like a sadly missed opportunity. The 4:3 picture has not been digitally remastered and shows its age, as does the muddy mono soundtrack. Only Ron Goodwin's wonderfully tongue-in-cheek music score comes across reasonably well. --Mark Walker

• Spanish Fly | DVD | (24/09/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  The opening credits of Spanish Fly promise "Leslie Phillips vs. Terry-Thomas", making this the British comic innuendo version of King Kong vs. Godzilla or Frankenstein vs. the Wolf Man, with the two masters of fnarr-fnarr lecherous English lounge lizardry pitted against each other. It's a sunstruck, terminally silly slice of fluff of the stripe that passed for a sex film in 1976 ("Go and butter yourself", someone says) but seems almost comically innocent these days. The sort of film that boasts special credits for women's fashions by Cornelia James and underwear by Janet Reger, it tells the story of a gap-toothed con man (Thomas) exiled to sunny Spain. He adds ground-up cantharides to undrinkable plonk to create a market for aphrodisiac wine, and impotent underwear tycoon (Phillips) benefits from the effects of the product as he gets to grips with four lovely models, until his wife (Sue Lloyd) shows up and a side-effect means he starts barking like a dog. The stars are game, but the material--from a story by producer Peter James, now a horror novelist--is skimpier than the starlets' bikinis and none of the pretty girls has any comic timing (though they all get topless scenes). Students of British pop culture will note the bizarre juxtaposition of hiring an uncredited Francis Matthews, the upright voice of Captain Scarlet, to dub the roles of a gay Spanish photographer and (for one bad gag) a disgusted dog. On the DVD: The picture is fullscreen. There are no extras.--Kim Newman

• Are You Being Served? - Series 7 | DVD | (09/10/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  There's hilarity at Grace Brothers the High Street department store with a difference. Join in the fun as limp-wristed Mr Humphries and that blue-rinsed batle axe Mrs Slocombe lead the outrageous department store staff through a seventh series of outrageously funny episodes! Episodes Comprise: 1. The Junior 2. String Stuff This Insurance 3. The Apartment 4. Mrs. Slocombe Senior Person 5. The Hero 6. Anything You Can Do 7. The Agent 8. The Punch And Judy Affair