"Actor: Joan"

• Accidental Hero | DVD | (04/07/2005) from £16.19   |  Saving you £-10.20 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Dustin Hoffman plays a lowlife who happens upon a plane crash and rescues the passengers, but doesn't really care about the value of his deed or the attendant publicity when the media starts searching for the hero. Another fellow (Andy Garcia) steps into the gap and claims credit, and as his life changes for the better he takes on a Messianic glow. Geena Davis is the cynical television reporter who pushes the latter's fame in order to keep her story alive, and this film, directed by Stephen Frears (Prick Up Your Ears), takes a few familiar jabs at a manipulative and voyeuristic press. This is essentially an unofficial remake of Meet John Doe, though it is less dramatic and forceful in the end than Frank Capra's classic. Chevy Chase has an oddly anachronistic part as Davis' editor (maybe he thought he really was in Meet John Doe), but the film belongs to Hoffman, who makes his character a slightly cleaned-up version of the actor's own Ratso Rizzo in Midnight Cowboy. --Tom Keogh

• Dynasty Season 8 | DVD | (30/07/2012) from £34.99   |  Saving you £-5.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £29.99

  Television legends John Forsythe, Joan Collins and Linda Evans headline the glittering ensemble, while entertainment titan Aaron Spelling and creators Richard and Esther Shapiro have devised spectacular new surprises for the essential Eighth Season of the landmark hit drama. Powerful new players join the Carrington/Colby blood feud along with all the trademark glamour, high drama and eye-popping twists and turns - including a deadly hostage crisis, a brutal race for high office, a heart-wrenching battle over a surrogate baby and a final, fatal gunshot. Like no other series before or since, Dynasty is the ultimate guilty pleasure.

• Carry On Regardless | DVD | (29/01/2007) from £5.99   |  Saving you £7.00 (116.86%)   |  RRP £12.99

  It's non-stop romps as the Carry On team deliver the goods in one of the rudest and funniest of the Carry On films. The cast are all on top form as a bunch of no-hopers who join an agency in the search for a job. The anarchy mounts as they do a series of odd jobs including a chimps tea party trying to stay sober at a wine tasting and demolishing a house.

• Verdi: Il Trovatore -- Opera Australia | DVD | (05/06/2002) from £29.99   |  Saving you £-5.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Il Trovatore, Verdi's 1853 maelstrom of passion, infanticide, double-crossing and revenge, would be a mightily gamy affair if it didn't contain some of his finest arias, a cracker of a tenor's role and one of opera's most powerfully-written characters in the old gypsy woman, Azucena. Although Joan Sutherland, who plays the self-sacrificing lady-in-waiting Leonora in this 1983 Australia Opera production at Sydney Opera House, is the headline star, in truth the supreme assets of this recording are mezzo-soprano Lauris Elms' Azucena, a beautifully sung performance of haunted, wild-eyed sadness; and Sydney Nolan's wonderfully infernal sets, all purple and burnt ochre with suggestions of distorted faces. Sutherland came late to a part which allowed her to sing up a storm without taxing her rather stolid acting style. Her husband and musical director Richard Bonynge gives her the space to unleash some of Verdi's most fluidly opulent melodies--"D'amor sull'ali rosee" is a case in point--whose beauty is often at odds with the underlying horrors of the tale, based on a rather dodgy Spanish melodrama by Gutierrez. Sutherland has strong support from tenor Kenneth Collins as the doomed Manrico and Jonathan Summers as the vengeful Count. On the DVD: Il Trovatore on disc offers the inevitable shortcomings of a filmed for television performance: to the detriment of Nolan's designs (and the hard-pressed make-up team), the lighting doesn't translate well to video. Presented in 4:3 picture format, the quality is frequently murky. The PCM Stereo soundtrack also has its flat and fuzzy moments, particularly during chorus scenes ("Vedi! Le fosche notturne spoglie") when the orchestra drowns out the singing. But on the whole Sutherland et al sound great.--Piers Ford

• Another Day, Another Time - Celebrating The Music Of Inside Llewyn Davis | Blu Ray | (26/05/2014) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £22.99

  The Coen Brothers’ celebration of 1960s folk music in their film INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS inspired the concert ANOTHER DAY ANOTHER TIME. Produced by T Bone Burnett who also produced the film’s soundtrack and held in New York City’s Town Hall the concert features live performances of the film's music as well as songs from the early 1960s. Some of the greatest folk musicians (Avett Brothers Joan Baez Dave Rawlings Machine Rhiannon Giddens Lake Street Dive Colin Meloy The Milk Carton Kids Marcus Mumford Punch Brothers Patti Smith Willie Watson Gillian Welch and Jack White) and the star of INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS Oscar Isaac assembled for one unique evening. Featuring interviews with the musicians and behind the scenes footage while they’re rehearsing for the concert ANOTHER DAY ANOTHER TIME gives an insight on the role folk music plays for them.

• Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas | Blu Ray | (23/10/2017) from £11.85   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Fred Flintstone (Mark Addy) and Barney Rubble (Stephen Baldwin) are two of Bedrock s most confirmed bachelors. Wilma Slaghoople (Kristen Johnston) and Betty O Shale (Jane Krakowski) are two of the towns hottest single babes. In this prehistoric comedy of boy meets girl, see how it all began as Fred and Barney set to win the hearts of their favourite gals on a romantic getaway to exciting Rock Vegas . With meddling fron Wilma s socialite mother (Joan Collins), as well as competition from tycoon Chip Rockefeller, Fred just might need a little help from his friends to beat the odds and win the most important game of all...love.

• Monsieur Beaucaire | Blu Ray | (01/02/2022) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• The Scarlet Letter | DVD | (10/05/2004) from £14.22   |  Saving you £0.77 (5.41%)   |  RRP £14.99

  When intimacy is forbidden and passion is a sin love is the most defiant crime of all. Hester Pryanne is a beautiful sensual woman in the New World Of Americas. She is a free spirit trapped in a harsh and puritanical colony and dominated by a violent husband Roger Chillingworth. She falls in love with the reverend a passionate man of God who risks everything for their tempestuous affair. But the couple must face the settlers toughened by their harsh lives bent on purging sin

• Saraband For Dead Lovers | DVD | (07/05/2007) from £10.76   |  Saving you £2.23 (20.72%)   |  RRP £12.99

  A romance that rocked the thrones of kings. A historical romance of star-crossed lovers set in the days of George I based on the novel by Helen Simpson.

• Welcome To Me | DVD | (09/05/2016) from £5.00   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Shira Piven directs this dark comedy drama starring Kristen Wiig. Alice Kleig (Wiig) is a recent winner of an $86 million lottery jackpot with borderline personality disorder and an obsession with 'The Oprah Winfrey Show'. She decides to quit her medication and use her newfound wealth to fund her own talk show, 'Welcome to Me', which becomes a vehicle for everything she loves, including swans and meatloaf cake. The unexpected turns the show takes and Alice's unpredictable behaviour drives the producers to madness, and things soon start to spiral out of control.

• Strauss: Die Fledermaus -- Royal Opera House | DVD | (16/01/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Originally broadcast live by the BBC from the Royal Opera House on New Year's Eve 1990, this production of Die Fledermaus, Johann Strauss' masterpiece of comic operetta, was a truly historic occasion, marking the retirement from the stage of one of the greatest sopranos of the 20th century, Dame Joan Sutherland. Sung in English, in a version by John Mortimer, conducted by Sutherland's husband Richard Bonynge and directed for television by Humphrey Burton, this is an exceptional translation from stage to screen. The story, an elaborate farce with elements of satirical comedy set around a lavish masked ball in 19th-century Vienna comes to life through outstanding performances by a large, vivacious cast, including Judith Howarth, Nancy Gustason and Jochen Kowalski as Prince Orlofsky. Gorgeously designed, wonderfully costumed and enthusiastically played as it is, attention inevitably centres on the "special recital" by the "surprise guests": Sutherland herself, Marilyn Horne and Luciano Pavarotti. No finer, more exhilarating and touching a farewell could have been imagined. After the curtain there is a short, on-stage tribute to Sutherland by Jeremy Isaacs, bringing to a close a glorious, unforgettable evening of music-making for which the word "glittering" might have been invented. --Gary S. Dalkin On the DVD: By presenting the production on two discs the picture quality is maximised, and, by the standards of live-filmed opera, is very good indeed. The discs are presented with PCM stereo sound and a 4:3 TV ratio image. There are options for French and German subtitles, but unless trailers for two further Arthaus DVDs count, there are no extras. The booklet is well documented, though lacking the libretto. --Gary S. Dalkin

• Scarlet Street | DVD | (22/09/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  A major box office hit in its day despite being banned in three American states Scarlet Street is seen by many as one of Fritz Lang's finest films. Its film-noire setting sees Edward G. Robinson in one of his most emphatic performances as a middle-aged cashier Chris Cross who has a chance meeting with the wayward Kitty (Joan Bennett). Trapped in an unfulfilling marriage and desperate to be a painter Chris falls in love with Kitty. Kitty however is already under the spell of her conman boyfriend Johnny (Dan Duryea) and as Chris becomes obsessed with the irresistibly vulgar Kitty Johnny senses an opportunity to extort money from the love struck cashier.

• Monique | DVD | (01/08/2016) from £9.45   |  Saving you £3.54 (37.46%)   |  RRP £12.99

  When Bill and Jean engage Monique as an au pair for their children they have no idea what a shattering effect she will have on their lives-especially their sex lives. Bill is strongly attracted to the uninhibited, thoroughly desirable French girl, and succumbs to temptation. Jean, sexually unawakened, proves an exciting challenge to her and eventually achieves a lesbian fulfilment. Her new, intense sexual desire is a revelation to Bill, and the complex situation is uniquely resolved by an unusually satisfying ménage à trois relationship.

• Colonel March Investigates | DVD | (10/02/2014) from £9.99   |  Saving you £3.00 (30.03%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Colonel March Investigates

• Scatter My Ashes at Bergdorf's | DVD | (10/02/2014) from £6.23   |  Saving you £9.76 (156.66%)   |  RRP £15.99

  A glitzy glamorous insightful and truly breathtaking behind-the-scenes look at the world's most legendary department store. Featuring frank revealing and frequently outrageous interviews with Ashley and Mary-Kate Olsen Nicole Richie Joan Rivers Karl Lagerfeld Giorgio Armani Tom Ford Marc Jacobs Candice Bergen Vera Wang Michael Kors and many others.

• Black Limelight | DVD | (04/08/2014) from £7.98   |  Saving you £4.00 (66.78%)   |  RRP £9.99

  This gripping atmospheric crime thriller from Austrian-born director Paul Stein stars Oscar nominee Raymond Massey as a man at the centre of a multiple murder investigation a case that sparks a sensationalist press frenzy when it becomes clear that the killer only strikes when there is a full moon. Black Limelight (also known as Footsteps in the Sand) is presented in a brand-new transfer from the original film elements in its as-exhibited theatrical aspect ratio. A house stands full in the ugly glare of publicity with a police cordon round it and morbidly curious crowds at the gates. Inside Mary Charrington waits in horror and bewilderment for the next act in the tragedy. Her husband Peter is wanted for murder; the murder of a girl at a seaside bungalow. Following a series of killings the popular press has dubbed them the work of a Moon Maniac... and now Peter is somewhere in the countryside hiding and haunted by terror... SPECIAL FEATURES [] Image gallery [] Original script PDF

• Joan Sutherland - The Best Of | DVD | (03/04/2006) from £12.84   |  Saving you £2.15 (16.74%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Dame Joan Sutherland Australian Icon and declared National Treasure has been described as the foremost soprano of our age and one of the greatest operatic artists of all time. This DVD contains highlights of her stage performances with Opera Australia including many of her most internationally famous and highly acclaimed roles. Featuring: Lucrezia BorgiaAdriana LecouvreurLa fille duRegimentDialogues of the CarmelitesNormaDie FledermausIl trovator

• Dockers | DVD | (29/03/2004) from £6.40   |  Saving you £-0.41 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Dockers is a landmark one-off drama suspended somewhere between Ken Loach and Alan Bleasdale's Boys from the Blackstuff. A striking Channel Four production Dockers dramatises the infamous struggle that developed when five Merseyside dockworkers were fired for refusing to work overtime with no pay, and gained the support of co-workers who wouldn't cross their picket line. As a result, those who stood in solidarity with the original five were sacked as well--500 in total--leading to a two-year stand-off. Co-written by award-winning screenwriters Jimmy McGovern (Cracker) and Irvine Welsh (Trainspotting), the two-year ordeal is brought home with startling reality, not least because of the contribution of the real-life Liverpool dockers who helped develop the script in extensive writing workshops, lending the film an authenticity it might have otherwise lacked. While the narrative hangs around the moving central story of one family in which both father and son are caught up in the strike, dramatic conflicts develop on multiple levels: between father and son; between the families of the sacked workers (this is particularly well realised as one long-time friend, played by The Royle Family's Ricky Tomlinson, turns scab); and between the workers and the union that betrays them. Ken Stott and Crissy Rock (Ladybird, Ladybird) are outstanding as the central working-class couple, old before their time at 47, and if nothing else, the film reveals one further reason why Liverpool loved Robbie Fowler quite so ferociously: during post-goal celebrations, Fowler lifts his jersey to reveal a T-shirt emblazoned with a message of support for the wronged dockers, ensuring national attention for the action at a time when all hope seemed lost. --Tricia Tuttle

• Watch Your Stern | DVD | (24/05/2004) from £12.96   |  Saving you £1.03 (7.95%)   |  RRP £13.99

  All hands on deck for Titanic seaside laughs with the saucy Carry On crew! When an accident-prone sailor damages a secret blueprint his only hope is to get another from London. But then the Admiral arrives and he's forced to pose as a scientist - a female scientist!

• Carry On At Your Convenience | DVD | (27/08/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  In 1971 when Carry On at Your Convenience hit the screen, the series had long since become part of the fabric of British popular entertainment. Never mind the situation, the characters were essentially the same, film after film. The jokes were all as old as the hills, but nobody cared, they were still funny. But it's just too easy to treat them as a job lot of postcard humour and music hall innuendo. This tale of revolt at a sanitary ware factory--Boggs and Son, what else?--certainly chimed in with the state of the nation in the early 1970s when strikes were called at the drop of a hat. Here, tea urns, demarcation and the company's decision to branch out into bidets all wreak havoc. Kenneth Williams as the company's besieged managing director, Sidney James and Joan Sims give their all as usual, but it's the lesser roles that really add some lustre. Hattie Jacques as Sid's budgerigar-obsessed, sluggish put-upon wife and Renee Houston as a superbly domineering battleaxe with a penchant for strip poker remind us that in the hands of fine actors, even the laziest of caricatures becomes a real human being. On the DVD: Presented in 4:3 format with a good clean print and standard mono soundtrack, Carry On at Your Convenience feels as comfortable as an old pair of shoes. But where's the context? The lack of extras leaves the viewer wanting biographies and some documentary sense of the film's position in the series. The scene index is often arbitrary and the budget packaging means that we don't even get a full cast list. --Piers Ford