"Actor: Joan Hickson"

• Miss Marple - The Body In The Library | DVD | (24/03/2000) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  The suspense of Miss Marple: The Body in the Library isn't the edge-of-your-seat variety; it's simply a perplexing puzzle that keeps niggling at the back of your mind. Just as one piece of the puzzle falls into place, another gap opens up, thanks to one of Agatha Christie's most intricate plots. Considering what a long film this is (150 minutes, lengthier than most Christie adaptations), it's impressive how tightly the mystery grips the viewer's attention. And not a second of Joan Hickson's marvellous performance as Miss Marple should be missed (the other performances, alas, fall short, except for Gwen Watford as Dolly Bantry, in whose library the body is found). To people meeting her for the first time, Jane Marple appears to be a sweet old dear, whose comments on the murder investigation are more likely to involve an obscure recollection of a frog jumping out of someone's coat than to have any direct bearing on the case. But as Christie fans know, beneath that dithery exterior lies one of the shrewdest minds in England. Hickson's understated portrayal reveals the humour in her character without ever making a mockery of Miss Marple and the results are delightful to watch. --Larisa Lomacky Moore, Amazon.com

• A Day in the Death of Joe Egg (Standard Edition) | Blu Ray | (29/08/2022) from £13.79   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Playwright Peter Nichols adapted his own blackly comic 1967 Tony Award-winning play for this confrontational film version by director Peter Medak. Alan Bates and Janet Suzman play a married couple struggling to come to terms with their daughter's disability using comedy and cruelty to dispel the desperation of their situation. This uncomfortable, provocative film about marriage, children and life choices is startlingly funny as well as deeply moving. Product Features High Definition remaster Original mono audio Audio commentary with director Peter Medak and film historian Sam Dunn Remembering the Day: Janet Suzman on ˜Joe Egg' (2017, 18 mins): interview with the acclaimed actor From Stage to Screen: Peter Nichols on ˜Joe Egg' (2017, 20 mins): interview with the celebrated playwright Original theatrical trailer New and improved English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing

• Carry On Girls | DVD | (27/08/2001) from £15.05   |  Saving you £-5.06 (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Carry On Girls was the last really successful instalment of the epic series of British film comedies. It's studded with gems of cameo performances and a tremendously innuendo-laden Talbot Rothwell script that is easily the equal of any of its predecessors. The setting, a beauty contest to raise the profile of the dismal resort Fircombe-on-Sea, is ripe for politically incorrect activity of the sort that could only be conducted by Sid James at the height of his lecherous powers. Enter Bernard Bresslaw in a corset, Wendy Richard as Ida Downs, Barbara Windsor as Miss Easy Rider and a host of other semi-clad lovelies and watch as the whole thing rises to a slapstick climax of frisky old colonels, bikinis, bosoms and itching powder. In the smaller roles, Joan Hickson (BBC television's Miss Marple) is hilarious as an elderly woman who believes she is a man-magnet and the always under-used Patsy Rowlands excels as the downtrodden mayor's wife, a worm who finally turns. But in many ways this is June Whitfield's film. As the terrifying reactionary councillor Mrs Prodworthy, with a butch lesbian sidekick, she plots the downfall of her male colleagues with classic lines. "Rosemary, get the candle", she orders as Patsy Rowlands requests initiation into the cause. Margaret Thatcher never sounded so ominous. On the DVD: Like most of the other DVD Carry On releases, this one is presented in 4:3 format with a mono soundtrack. All right, you don't really need anything more sophisticated to recreate the cosy ritual of Carry On watching in your living room. And the print is good and sharp. But apart from the usual scene index, the lack of extras reflects a disappointingly unimaginative approach to celebrating a genre of film comedy that, for all its low budget reputation, provided a showcase for the cream of a whole generation of British comic actors. They deserve better.--Piers Ford

• Deadly Nightshade | DVD | (04/03/2013) from £6.29   |  Saving you £6.70 (106.52%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Robert Matthews (Emrys Jones) is arrested in Cornwall when he is mistaken for convict John Barlow, to whom he bears a striking resemblance. When Barlow hears of this, he makes his way to Matthews' cottage and takes his place. When there is a local shipwreck, one of the survivors is Anne Farrington, Matthews' fiancée. Barlow takes her in, maintaining his imposture, but soon discovers that Matthews is not all he seems.

• Miss Marple - A Pocketful Of Rye | DVD | (10/07/2000) from £13.19   |  Saving you £6.80 (51.55%)   |  RRP £19.99

  After the hugely successful 'Murder In The Library' Joan Hickson returns in a brand new Miss Marple mystery on DVD 'A Pocketful Of Rye'. Miss Marple yet again has to solve a suspicious murder with her incredible powers of perception. In this sinister tale set in the 1940's Miss Marple sets about unravelling the mysterious murder of city financier Rex Fortescue. When the cause of death is identifed as poisoning suspicion falls on the occupants of the family home Yew Tree Lodge. But the police are baffled because the only clue to the heartless murder is a handful of rye in the dead man's pocket. However when another murder shortens the list of suspects the connection with the nursey rhyme Sing a song of sixpence becomes all too clear to Miss Marple! So the unlikely sleuth sets off for Yew Tree lodge...