"Actor: Janet Maw"

• The Barchester Chronicles | DVD | (02/10/2006) from £8.45   |  Saving you £16.54 (195.74%)   |  RRP £24.99

  The acclaimed 1982 BBC adaptation of Anthony Trollope's novels. The community of Barchester is shaken from its cosy complacency when a newspaper's crusade against the Church of England's practice of self-enrichment misfires. Overnight Rev. Harding (Donald Pleasence) becomes a pawn in a battle between his younger daughter's beau John Bold (David Gwillim) and his older daughter's husband. Little do they realise that the worst is yet to come until a regime change delivers Barcheste

• Mayor Of Casterbridge | DVD | (26/09/2005) from £19.75   |  Saving you £0.24 (1.22%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Thomas Hardy's powerful tale of a rich and respectable man who drunkenly auctions his wife and child at a West Country fair. The remorse of the Mayor of Casterbridge finally destroys him. The script was penned by Dennis Potter.

• The Barchester Chronicles | DVD | (30/05/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  The first two episodes of this BBC miniseries only hint at the delights to come. A lawsuit aimed at church reform in the town of Barchester forces a decent middle-aged clergyman (Donald Pleasence) into a moral crisis and a conflict with his son-in-law, a pompous archdeacon (Nigel Hawthorne, The Madness of King George). The gracefully written and acted narrative shows glimpses of dry wit--but in episode 3, the arrival of a new bishop (Clive Swift, Keeping Up Appearances), his imperious wife (Geraldine McEwan, The Magdalene Sisters), and his devious chaplain (Alan Rickman, Truly Madly Deeply, the Harry Potter movies) launches The Barchester Chronicles into a satirical power struggle all the more mesmerizing because of the smallness of the territory. The scheming of the citizens and clergy of this British town is both Byzantine and wonderfully comic as the tempestuous personalities claw and dig at each other. Rickman, in one of his first film or television roles, turns in a tour de force of oily ambition. McEwan's ferocious machinations are downright terrifying, while the sputtering Hawthorne seems constantly in danger of bursting a vein. At the center of it all is Pleasence. Making goodness compelling has always been difficult, since wickedness is always more dramatic; but Pleasence brings a deep and stirring passion to his role that proves as engaging as all the back-biting that surrounds him. And these are just the more familiar faces; a host of lesser-known actors give equally superb performances. The final episode (of seven) will have you on pins and needles. The Barchester Chronicles, adapted from two novels by Anthony Trollope, is one of those marvels of British television, a skillful production that proves intelligent fare can be hugely entertaining. --Bret Fetzer

• Midsomer Murders - Birds Of Prey | DVD | (08/08/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £16.99

  Nothing is as it seems behind the well-trimmed hedges of the picturesque cottages in the idyllic English county of Midsomer. Beneath the tranquil surface of sleepy village life exist dark secrets scandals and downright evil. John Nettles stars as the humorous thoughtful and methodical Detective Chief Inspector Barnaby. Troy and PC Sarah Pearce are in Midsomer Magna investigating a wildlife crime while Barnaby follows up on the discovery of the car and body of Julian Shepherd in the