"Actor: George McGrath"

• Punchline | DVD | (14/06/2004) from £5.40   |  Saving you £0.59 (10.93%)   |  RRP £5.99

  At the height of the stand-up comedy boom of the 1980s, Punchline offered the revelation that many comedians were, in fact, rather psychologically unstable individuals for whom performing was an outlet for hostility and aggression. Wow--who would have guessed? This film focuses on two who meet and forge an unlikely friendship: Tom Hanks plays a caustic, self-destructive comic looking for his big break and Sally Field plays a more Roseanne-like comedian who begins neglecting her husband (John Goodman) and children because she gets such a kick out of performing. The offstage stuff is strictly soap opera, but Hanks and Field both develop solid comedic rhythms once they get behind a microphone. --Marshall Fine, Amazon.com

• Elgar | DVD | (22/07/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  BFI Video continues its successful strand of Archive Television releases with Ken Russell' s classic documentary Elgar first shown in 1962 as the 100th programme in the BBC's Monitor series. This partly dramatised account of the life of composer Sir Edward Elgar also includes footage of Elgar at the Three Choirs Festival and a recording of the opening of Abbey Road Studios when 'Land Of Hope And Glory' was played.