"Actor: Hope Clarke"

• 24: Series 1 | DVD | (14/10/2002) from £14.93   |  Saving you £35.06 (234.83%)   |  RRP £49.99

  Such a simple idea--yet so fiendishly complex in the execution. 24, as surely everyone knows by now, is a thriller that takes place over 24 hours, midnight to midnight, in 24 one-hour episodes (well, 45-minute episodes if you extract the ad breaks). Everything to take place in real time--on-screen and off-screen time the same--which means no flash-backs, no flash-forwards, no nice handy time-dissolves. Every strand of the plot has to be dovetailed and interlocked to make sure that things happen just when they should, in the right amount of time. Not that easy. Creator Robert Cochran and his team of writers and directors have done a pretty impressive job in putting the jigsaw together and keeping the tension ratcheted up high, as Federal Agent Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) hares around LA trying to stall an assassination attempt on a black Presidential candidate and rescue his wife and daughter from the clutches of the Balkan baddies. Twists, turns, revelations and cliffhangers are tossed at us with satisfying regularity. It’s not perfect: we get some hokey plot devices (instant amnesia, anybody?) and the final twist, once you start thinking back, makes no sense whatsoever. There are altogether too many huggy family moments ("I love you, Dad." "I love you, son"); and as for überbaddie Dennis Hopper’s "Serbian" accent… Even so, this is undeniably mould-breaking TV. Sutherland, rescuing his career from the doldrums in one heroic leap, fully deserves his Golden Globe. Sets and locations are artfully deployed--we gain a real sense of LA’s splayed-out geography--and Sean Callery’s score is a powerful, brooding presence. Like Murder One and The Sopranos, 24 is one of those series future TV thrillers will have to measure themselves against. On the DVDs: 24 is released in a six-disc box set. On discs 1- 5 there are no extras, but disc 6 includes the "alternative" ending and a preview of Series 2, presented by an urbane Kiefer Sutherland, that tells us precisely nothing. The transfer, in 16x9 widescreen and 2.0 Dolby Digital sound, does the high production values of the original every justice.--Philip Kemp

• 24 - Season 1 | DVD | (15/09/2008) from £20.55   |  Saving you £29.44 (143.26%)   |  RRP £49.99

  Such a simple idea--yet so fiendishly complex in the execution. 24, as surely everyone knows by now, is a thriller that takes place over 24 hours, midnight to midnight, in 24 one-hour episodes (well, 45-minute episodes if you extract the ad breaks). Everything to take place in real time--on-screen and off-screen time the same--which means no flash-backs, no flash-forwards, no nice handy time-dissolves. Every strand of the plot has to be dovetailed and interlocked to make sure that things happen just when they should, in the right amount of time. Not that easy. Creator Robert Cochran and his team of writers and directors have done a pretty impressive job in putting the jigsaw together and keeping the tension ratcheted up high, as Federal Agent Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) hares around LA trying to stall an assassination attempt on a black Presidential candidate and rescue his wife and daughter from the clutches of the Balkan baddies. Twists, turns, revelations and cliffhangers are tossed at us with satisfying regularity. It’s not perfect: we get some hokey plot devices (instant amnesia, anybody?) and the final twist, once you start thinking back, makes no sense whatsoever. There are altogether too many huggy family moments ("I love you, Dad." "I love you, son"); and as for überbaddie Dennis Hopper’s "Serbian" accent… Even so, this is undeniably mould-breaking TV. Sutherland, rescuing his career from the doldrums in one heroic leap, fully deserves his Golden Globe. Sets and locations are artfully deployed--we gain a real sense of LA’s splayed-out geography--and Sean Callery’s score is a powerful, brooding presence. Like Murder One and The Sopranos, 24 is one of those series future TV thrillers will have to measure themselves against. On the DVDs: 24 is released in a six-disc box set. On discs 1- 5 there are no extras, but disc 6 includes the "alternative" ending and a preview of Series 2, presented by an urbane Kiefer Sutherland, that tells us precisely nothing. The transfer, in 16x9 widescreen and 2.0 Dolby Digital sound, does the high production values of the original every justice.--Philip Kemp

• The Seven Little Foys | DVD | (12/04/2004) from £10.78   |  Saving you £5.21 (32.60%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Eddie Foy a vaudeville entertainer marries Madeleine a ballerina and soon their family grows... Eddie realises that his children could help him out of a tight spot....

• 24: Series 1 - 3 | DVD | (09/08/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £99.99

  24' is an innovative television drama where the entire series takes place in one day. Each of the 24 episodes covers one hour told in real time. And all the time the clock keeps ticking... This box set contains all three series of the high-octane adventures of Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) and his CTU team.

• Frederick Forsyth Presents: A Casualty of War | DVD | (29/06/2009) from £8.98   |  Saving you £1.00 (14.31%)   |  RRP £7.99

  Fredrick Forsyth: A Casualty Of War

• Seventeen Again | DVD | (04/04/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  When a divorced couple of grandparents are unwittingly exposed to a secret formula, they find themselves 17 years old once more. As their son and grandchild race to find a 'cure' for their condition, will the grandparents want to go back to being old again?