"Actor: Hugh Thomas"

• Downton Abbey: The Complete Collection | DVD | (24/10/2016) from £48.99   |  Saving you £-20.59 (N/A%)   |  RRP £28.40

  Splendour and romance, desire and heartbreak, scandal and rumours Spanning the idyllic pre-war era through the storms of The Great War and beyond to the roaring 1920s, Downton Abbey tells the story of a complicated community. Home to the Crawley family for generations, it is also where their servants live, plan and dream and they are as fiercely jealous of their rank as anyone. Some of them are loyal to the family and committed to Downton as a way of life, others are moving through on the lookout for betterment or love or just adventure. The difference is that they know so many of the secrets of the family, while the family know so few of theirs. But for all the passions that rage beneath the surface, this is a secure and ordered world and, at first glance, it seems it will last forever. Little do they know, family or staff, that the tides of change will not leave Downton unscathed. SERIES ONE BONUS DELETED SCENES HOUSE IN HISTORY DOWNTON ABBEY THE MAKING OF DOWNTON ABBEY SERIES TWO BONUS EPISODE ONE COMMENTARY DELETED SCENES HOUSE TO HOSPITAL FASHION AND UNIFORMS ROMANCE IN A TIME OF WARFARE SERIES THREE BONUS DOWNTON ABBEY IN 1920 LADY MARY'S WEDDING DAY LADY EDITH'S WEDDING DAY THE MEN OF DOWNTON ABBEY AN INTERVIEW WITH SHIRLEY MACLAINE BEHIND THE SCENES THE CRICKET MATCH SERIES FOUR BONUS THE MAKING OF THE DOWNTON DIARIES NEW ARRIVALS SERIES FIVE BONUS THE ROARING TWENTIES A DAY WITH LADY ROSE BEHIND THE SCENES - DAY 100 THE MANNERS OF DOWNTON ABBEY SERIES SIX BONUS MORE MANNERS OF DOWNTON ABBEY THE CARS OF DOWNTON FAREWELL HIGHCLERE CHANGING TIMES LEGACY DISC ONE FEATURE DOCUMENTARY: THE STORY OF DOWNTON ABBEY THE CREATOR'S FAVOURITE SCENES SUPERCUTS LEGACY DISC TWO CHARACTER DOCUMENTARIES BAFTA CELEBRATES DOWNTON ABBEY

• Four Weddings And A Funeral | DVD | (17/04/2019) from £7.18   |  Saving you £12.81 (178.41%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Charles (Grant) is witty and charming but at the age of 32 is looking like a serial monogamist. His life has been full of girlfriends but he just can't commit to any of them. The more weddings he and his close circle of friends attend the less they want to get married themselves. Until one particular Saturday at one particular wedding Charles meets Carrie (MacDowell)... Instantly smitten Charles begins to pursue her only to learn that she is ready to take the plunge with som

• Sister Act / Sister Act 2: Back In The Habit | DVD | (01/09/2008) from £9.89   |  Saving you £8.10 (81.90%)   |  RRP £17.99

  In Sister Act, Whoopi Goldberg plays a Reno lounge singer who hides out as a nun when her villainous boyfriend (Harvey Keitel) goes gunning for her. Maggie Smith is the mother superior who has to cope with Whoopi's unorthodox behaviour, but the cute script turns the tables and shows the latter energising the stodgy convent with song and attitude. A real crowd-pleaser and a perfect vehicle for Goldberg, this is a happy experience all around. --Tom Keogh, Amazon.com Whoopi Goldberg returns in Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit, a gratuitous, poorly written sequel that contrives a reason to get her character back into Maggie Smith's convent. The "socially conscious" plot finds Goldberg being asked to relate to a bunch of street kids and pull them together into a choir. Since a bad guy is needed, the script grabs that old chestnut about a rich guy (James Coburn) preparing to close down the convent's school, and runs with it. The film is slow and unconvincing from start to finish, although co-stars Mary Wickes and Kathy Najimy get some good laughs, and the music is pretty spirited. --Tom Keogh, Amazon.com

• Four Weddings and A Funeral | Blu Ray | (12/05/2014) from £59.99   |  Saving you £-44.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  When it was released in 1994 Four Weddings and a Funeral quickly became a huge international success, pulling in the kind of audiences most British films only dream of. It's proof that sometimes the simplest ideas are the best. In terms of plot, the title pretty much says it all. Revolving around… well, four weddings and a funeral (though not in that order), the film follows Hugh Grant's confirmed bachelor Charles as he falls for visiting American Carrie (Andy McDowell), whom he keeps bumping into at various functions. But with this most basic of premises, screenwriter Richard Curtis has crafted a moving and thoughtful comedy about the perils of singledom and that ever-elusive search for true love. In the wrong hands, it could have been a horribly schmaltzy affair, but Curtis' script--crammed with great one-liners and beautifully judged characterisations--keeps things sharp and snappy, harking back to the sparkling Hollywood romantic comedies of the 1930s and 1940s. The supporting cast, including Kristin Scott Thomas, Simon Callow and Rowan Atkinson (who starred in the Curtis-scripted television show Blackadder) is first rate, at times almost too good--John Hannah's rendition of WH Auden's poem "Funeral Blues" over the coffin of his lover is so moving you think the film will struggle to re-establish its ineffably buoyant mood. But it does, thanks in no small part to Hugh Grant as the bumbling Charles (whose star-making performance compensates for a less-than-dazzling Andie MacDowell). Though it's hardly the fault of Curtis and his team, the success of the Four Weddings did have its downside, triggering a rash of inferior British romantic comedies. In fact, we had to wait until 1999's Notting Hill for another UK film to match its winning charm (scripted, again, by Curtis and also starring Grant). --Edward Lawrenson

• Four Weddings And A Funeral | DVD | (29/07/2005) from £5.97   |  Saving you £10.02 (167.84%)   |  RRP £15.99

  When it was released in 1994 Four Weddings and a Funeral quickly became a huge international success, pulling in the kind of audiences most British films only dream of. It's proof that sometimes the simplest ideas are the best: in terms of plot, the title pretty much says it all. Revolving around, well, four weddings and a funeral (though not in that order), the film follows Hugh Grant's confirmed bachelor Charles as he falls for visiting American Carrie (Andy McDowell), whom he keeps bumping into at the various functions. But with this most basic of premises, screenwriter Richard Curtis has crafted a moving and thoughtful comedy about the perils of singledom and that ever-elusive search for true love. In the wrong hands, it could have been a horribly schmaltzy affair, but Curtis' script--crammed with great one-liners and beautifully judged characterisations--keeps things sharp and snappy, harking back to the sparkling Hollywood romantic comedies of the 30s and 40s. The supporting cast, including Kristin Scott Thomas, Simon Callow and Rowan Atkinson (who starred in the Curtis-scripted television show Blackadder) is first rate, at times almost too good: John Hannah's rendition of WH Auden's poem "Funeral Blues" over the coffin of his lover is so moving you think the film will struggle to re-establish its ineffably buoyant mood. But it does, thanks in no small part to Hugh Grant as the bumbling Charles (whose star-making performance compensates for a less-than-dazzling Andie MacDowell). Though it's hardly the fault of Curtis and his team, the success of the Four Weddings did have its downside, triggering a rash of far inferior British romantic comedies. In fact, we had to wait until 1999's Notting Hill for another UK film to match its winning charm--scripted, yet again, by Curtis and starring Grant. --Edward Lawrenson

• Basic Instinct 2 (2006) | DVD | (07/08/2006) from £6.75   |  Saving you £13.24 (196.15%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Sharon Stone returns as novelist Catherine Tramell in this sequel to the iconic 1992 thriller.

• Four Weddings And A Funeral/The Full Monty/Jack And Sarah | DVD | (08/06/2009) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Titles Comprise: Four Weddings & A Funeral: Charles (Grant) is witty and charming but at the age of 32 is looking like a serial monogamist. His life has been full of girlfriends but he just can't commit to any of them. The more weddings he and his close circle of friends attend the less they want to get married themselves. Until one particular Saturday at one particular wedding Charles meets Carrie (MacDowell)... Instantly smitten Charles begins to pursue her only to learn that she is ready to take the plunge with someone else! Charles tries very hard not to fall in love with her and finally finds himself standing at the altar on his own wedding day. At last he knows who he wants to spend the rest of his life with...but is it the woman standing next to him in the white dress? Full Monty: Dole queue Job Club domestic discord - the world is falling apart for six unemployed Sheffield steelworkers. But one of them has had enough. Determined to beat the system Gaz (Carlyle) hatches a plan that will make him and his friends serious rich - and quickly! He convinces them that a strip routine will bring in the punters especially when that act reveals the ultimate - the Full Monty! As our local heroes prepare for the big night word gets round that a very special act is about to storm the clubs of steel city. Director Peter Cattaneo combines black comedy roaring hilarity and all the absurdity heartache and pathos of six men trying to keep body soul and dignity together. Well just about! The most successful British film of all time The Full Monty also boasts a superb soundtrack with hits by Hot Chocolate and Tom Jones. Jack And Sarah: Jack (Richard E. Grant) has it all - a perfect marriage a successful career and a dream home. But his world crumbles when his wife dies giving birth to their daughter Sarah. Even though he is struggling to cope with his broken heart and a newborn baby Jack rejects the offers of help from his family (Judy Dench and David Swift) in a bid to prove his independence. Instead he builds a quirky family of his own when he takes on a down-and-out (Ian McKellen) to be his housekeeper and American waitress Amy (Samantha Mathis) to be his nanny. Once Amy moves in life becomes a series of mishaps and conflicts with touchingly funny moments as the mis-matched characters learn to live with each other. But when Jack's female boss begins to show more than a professional interest in him the tension mounts as Amy and Jack begin to realise their true feelings for each other....

• Bitter Moon | DVD | (09/02/2009) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  From acclaimed director Roman Polanski comes this erotically-charged drama starring Hugh Grant and Kristin Scott Thomas as a respectable married couple. While on a trip to Istanbul they come across Oscar and his young Parisian wife Mimi who take it upon themselves to tell the story of their passionate relationship from its sexual beginnings to its current abusive and spiteful stage.

• V/H/S | DVD | (28/01/2013) from £3.89   |  Saving you £12.10 (311.05%)   |  RRP £15.99

  When a group of petty criminals are hired by a mysterious party to retrieve a rare piece of found footage from a rundown house in the middle of nowhere, they soon realise that the job isn't going to be as easy as they thought. In the living room, a lifeless body is slumped before a hub of old television sets, surrounded by stacks of VHS tapes. As they search for the right one they are treated to a seemingly endless number of horrifying videos, each more terrifying than the last.

• Sister Act 2 - Back In The Habit | DVD | (08/04/2002) from £2.99   |  Saving you £12.00 (401.34%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Whoopi Goldberg returns in a gratuitous, poorly written sequel that contrives a reason to get her character back into Maggie Smith's convent. The "socially conscious" plot finds Goldberg being asked to relate to a bunch of street kids and pull them together into a choir. Since a bad guy is needed, the script grabs that old chestnut about a rich guy (James Coburn) preparing to close down the convent's school, and runs with it. The film is slow and unconvincing from start to finish, although co-stars Mary Wickes and Kathy Najimy get some good laughs, and the music is pretty spirited. --Tom Keogh

• The Dogs Of War | DVD | (11/02/2002) from £11.93   |  Saving you £2.32 (21.74%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Based on the novel by Frederick Forsyth, The Dogs of War is an uneasy mix of espionage and combat that never really succeeds in either role. Based around the character of Paul Shannon, the film follows events in the fictional African state of Zagaro. Hired on a reconnaissance mission by a nameless multi-national corporation, Shannon is captured and tortured before his release, only to return to the country to lead a small band of mercenaries (the dogs of the title) in a bloody coup. The first section of the movie works best, building a real sense of tension and unease, not least through a typically understated performance by Christopher Walken as the paranoid loner who keeps a pistol in his fridge (watch too for a brief appearance from a young Jim Broadbent). There are obvious references to the by-then obsolete school of Vietnam filmmaking in the second section, with the Asian enemy replaced by an African one. The gung-ho mentality of the soldiers is, however, so two-dimensional that the viewer develops little empathy for their plight. The action is slow and drawn out, with the seemingly endless pregnant pauses operating as a means for enabling the film to achieve a reasonable running time. On the DVD: little is on offer here aside from the usual scene selection, audio and subtitle options and original cinema trailer. --Phil Udell

• Funeral In Berlin | DVD | (05/01/2004) from £5.50   |  Saving you £10.49 (190.73%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Funeral in Berlin (1967) is the sequel to 1965's The Ipcress File, again featuring Michael Caine as reluctant spy Harry Palmer. It was clearly the filmmakers' intention to make Palmer a harder-nosed James Bond, and director Guy Hamilton was brought to this project in between Goldfinger and Diamonds Are Forever for that purpose. There's espionage intrigue, easy women (Eva Renzi as Samantha Steel), and gunplay. But without the gadgetry, one-liners, or even the John Barry score of the first movie, the Bond comparison runs dry. Against the backdrop of a bombed-out industrial wasteland that was Berlin in the mid-Sixties, Palmer is sent to facilitate the defection of Col. Stock (Oscar Homolka). Numerous sub-plots weave together involving indifferent chief Ross (Guy Doleman from IPCRESS), mission aide Johnnie Volkon (Paul Hubschmid), and the untrustworthy Kreutzman (Günter Meisner, who was more memorable as Slugworth in Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory). It all comes down to revealing who's working for whom and who's really defecting in the set-piece funeral of the title. The main reason the series continued (Ken Russell's OTT Billion Dollar Brain came next) was the commanding presence of Caine. It's fun to hear him try German, and he manages a few subtle comic gems, such as when a waiter asks "Bitte mein heir?" and he replies, "No. Lager please", but the best moment of characterisation recalling the womanising Palmer of Len Deighton's novels is the put down guaranteed to win any woman: "You're useless in the kitchen. Why don't you go back to bed?" --Paul Tonks

• Bitter Moon | DVD | (16/08/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Roman Polanski explores the uttermost depths of sexual perversion and experimentation in this erotic drama with more than a hint of black comedy. Nigel (Hugh Grant) and Fiona (Kristin Scott-Thomas) a repressed English couple eager to rekindle their fading marriage by taking a luxury cruise get more than they bargained for. Enroute they meet Oscar (Peter Coyote) a crippled American and his beautiful wife Mimi (Emmanuelle Seigner) who both enthral and appal Nigel with riveting acco

• Sister Act / Sister Act 2: Back In The Habit | DVD | (26/09/2005) from £11.01   |  Saving you £8.98 (81.56%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Sister Act: A Hilariously Divine Comedy!"" -ABC Radio Network. Relive all the fun laughter and irresistible music of Sister Act - the inspired comedy hit that packed pews everywhere! Whoopi Goldberg stars as a sassy low-rent lounge singer forced to hide out from the mob in the last place anyone would ever look for her - a convent. While she's there her irreverent behavior attracts a flock of faithful followers and turns the nuns' tone-deaf choir into a soulful chorus of swin

• Earth vs The Flying Saucers | DVD | (14/10/2002) from £14.49   |  Saving you £-1.50 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Notable neither for its director nor its stars, Earth vs the Flying Saucers has been given the widescreen DVD treatment rather because of its special-effects man, the legendary Ray Harryhausen. A Twilight Zone styled voiceover introduces Dr Marvin Russell and his wife of two hours as they're buzzed by an overhead flying saucer--the first of many. When a translation device reveals the saucer-occupants' fiendish plan to take over the world, it's time for a good old army-alien punch-up. Cue screenfuls of avuncular patriarchs, loads of techno-flannel space-speak and plenty of gratuitous American-monument destruction. A by-numbers B-movie, this is only really notable for Harryhausen's stop-motion FX work--and though this, his fifth feature, isn't a patch on his later Technicolor masterpieces, his trick of demolishing facsimiles of recognisable landmarks is cited by many premier filmmakers as being hugely influential on their work. This is very much of its time, the saucer-people arousing few of the thrills engendered by his later creations (Sinbad's Cyclops, for example). And with Cold War fears now just a memory, the Ruskies, or rather aliens, can no longer prevail upon a zeitgeist of xenophobic paranoia for their power. On the DVD: Earth vs the Flying Saucers's black-and-white picture is clean and crisp in this anamorphic 1.85:1 widescreen transfer and the Dolby digital mono soundtrack is clear enough. The theatrical trailer will please fans of kitsch, as will the featurette "This Is Dynamation" produced at the same time as the first Sinbad movie. The real corker here though is the generously proportioned documentary "The Harryhausen Chronicles": narrated by Leonard Nimoy, it features a stellar cast of devotees (George Lucas among them) waxing lyrical about the influence of Harryhausen's films, and allows the man himself to ramble fascinatingly over clips of his filmic canon. If you're a fan, it's Harryhausen heaven. --Paul Eisinger

• The Abominable Dr Phibes | Blu Ray | (10/11/2014) from £16.39   |  Saving you £3.60 (21.96%)   |  RRP £19.99

  The Abominable Dr Phibes is an unusually beautiful horror classic in which Vincent Price stars as the titular genius who specialises in organ music, theology and concocting bizarre deaths for anyone who wrongs him. Discovering why is half the fun, so for now let's just say that Phibes is a little mad and very, very angry. Aided by his assistant, the lovely, silent Vulnavia, Phibes begins cutting a gory swathe through London's medical community, with the dogged Inspector Trout hot on his tail. The film contains many pleasures--exquisite art direction and a dark sense of humour among them--but the real treat is in watching an old pro such as Price at work. Whether he's playing his organ, staring down a victim or drinking through his neck, Price is at the top of his game. He mixes dark menace with wry comic touches, revealing both Phibes' maniacal obsession and offhanded confidence in his own genius. Settle in for an evening of elegant gore--and if an attractive, mute deliverywoman comes to the door, whatever you do, don't answer! --Ali Davis

• Quatermass And The Pit | DVD | (13/11/2006) from £10.35   |  Saving you £2.64 (25.51%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Workmen unearth prehistoric skulls while carrying out excavations on the London Underground. Very soon a strange and malevolent force is unleashed.

• 3 Classic Sci-Fi Films Of The Silver Screen - Missile To The Moon / Earth Vs The Flying Saucers / Planet Outlaws | DVD | (04/04/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £4.99

  Missile to the Moon: An expedition to the moon arrives to find a sinister female presiding over a race of moon-women. A remake of 'Cat Women of the Moon'. Earth Vs The Flying Saucers: Aliens travel to Earth to seek help for their dying planet. However when they arrive at a U.S Army base the Army mistakenly greet them with gunfire... Planet Outlaws (aka Destination Saturn): The re-edited version of the 1939 Universal serial 'Buck Rogers'. Buck and his comrade Buddy are released from suspended animation after 500 years on ice. The world which they once knew is now under the control of Killer Kane a terrifying mobster. Needless to say the duo quickly get onboard a plan to take down the criminal mastermind and his band of futuristic assasins.

• Doctor Phibes Rises Again | DVD | (20/10/2003) from £16.95   |  Saving you £-3.96 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  The title says it all--the abominable Dr Phibes Rises Again and he's as ruthless as ever. No longer content with merely avenging his wife's death, Phibes is now bent on her resurrection. With his mute assistant, Vulnavia, he sets off for Egypt, meting out bizarrely elaborate deaths--everything from clockwork snakes to a particularly severe exfoliation treatment--to all who stand in his way. This time Phibes has two competitors to race against: the trusty Inspector Trout and the renowned archaeologist Biederbeck, who has his own reasons for chasing Phibes. Like its predecessor, Dr Phibes Rises Again adds dark wit and imaginative art direction to the mix. Vincent Price is once again in high form, playing his organ with swooping arms and adding dry comic touches with a delicately cocked eyebrow. Watch out for cameos from a host of familiar faces, including Peter Cushing, Terry Thomas and Beryl Reid. --Ali Davis

• V/H/S | Blu Ray | (28/01/2013) from £8.95   |  Saving you £6.04 (67.49%)   |  RRP £14.99

  When a group of petty criminals are hired by a mysterious party to retrieve a rare piece of found footage from a rundown house in the middle of nowhere, they soon realise that the job isn’t going to be as easy as they thought. In the living room, a lifeless body is slumped before a hub of old television sets, surrounded by stacks of VHS tapes. As they search for the right one they are treated to a seemingly endless number of horrifying videos, each more terrifying than the last.