"Actor: Louie Elias"

• Airwolf - Vol. 3 | DVD | (18/03/2002) from £9.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Moffett's Ghost: On a secret mission behind the Iron Curtain Hawke loses control of the onboard computer which was programmed on a timer by Airwolf's creator Dr. Moffett... now Airwolf is set to destroy any aircraft in its range. Severance Pay: When one of Hawke's friends is denied retirement benefits and in revenge threatens to divulge sensitive information Hawke attempts to bring the ex-employee to his senses. HX1: When an incredible helicopter the HX1 seems to have been

• Charlie's Angels - Series 1 | DVD | (23/06/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £39.99

  Back in the late 1970s Charlie's Angels was wildly popular television at its most self-consciously banal. The jiggly, joggly jolly first series' three (and best-remembered) belles--lioness Farrah Fawcett (then Farrah Fawcett-Majors), pin-up babe Jaclyn Smith and thinking man's beauty Kate Jackson--were something like primetime Spice Girls, gracing countless magazine covers and bestselling posters. The idea (even if a fan of the show didn't happen to be a straight male) was that one was compelled to choose a favourite angel as a kind of ink-blot window into one's subconscious life. While the 2000 Angels feature film kept faith with the original show's self-mockingly sloppy storytelling, there's nothing like seeing the old episodes for a lesson in narrative hubris. Basically, the three leading characters were bored policewomen wooed away to a private firm owned and operated by the unseen sybarite, Charlie (voiced--over speakerphone--by an uncredited John Forsythe). After a long set-up each week, the girls' investigations typically saw them going undercover as fashion models--no great stretch--in "Night of the Strangler", nurses in "Terror on Ward One", roller-derby stars in "Angels on Wheels" and vulnerable convicts (of course) in "Angels in Chains". The exploitation factor is not as bad as it might have been. The cast was so glamorous, their chemistry so perfect, that Charlie's Angels never became a mere meat market. Despite such nods to modernity as Fawcett's no-bra look, the episodes were old-fashioned in their heroine-in-peril appeal, yet there was a difference: the Angels looked out for themselves and each other. --Tom Keogh

• Charlie's Angels - Night Of The Strangler / To Kill An Angel | DVD | (21/05/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £3.99

  Once upon a time...there were three girls who went to the Police Academy...and they were each assigned very hazardous duties...but I took them away from all that...and now they work for me. My name is Charlie. To Kill An Angel: A trip to the carnival leads to a tunnel of horrors when Kelly gets caught in the crossfire between two paid killers and an autistic child. Night Of The Strangler: The Angels bare all - almost - as undercover fashion models while investigating a kinky case of multiple murders.

• Airwolf - Vol. 2 | DVD | (01/10/2001) from £4.98   |  Saving you £5.01 (100.60%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Airwolf appeared only two years after Knight Rider and, perplexingly, the same year as the short-lived Blue Thunder series. However, creator Donald P Bellisario had spent more than a little time in fully conceptualising this series. Although the format allowed for stories-of-the-week, a B-plot always ran as background motivation for the individual tales. This was a trick Bellisario would also use to good effect later in Magnum P.I. and Quantum Leap. The hook that sustains the audience here is an extremely bitter sub-plot: Stringfellow Hawke (Jan-Michael Vincent) is a peculiar anti-hero to root for since he is effectively being held to ransom and doing the same in return. His brother St. John is held captive somewhere and until his release the Airwolf chopper is Hawke's to keep hidden and use under the covert instructions of "Archangel". His best friend Dominic Santini (the ever-appealing Ernest Borgnine) is a surrogate father figure caught up in the family history. All this pre-determined angst means this is never a show that plays itself for laughs. Very specific character flaws are upfront from the beginning. We are hammered over the head with the idea of Hawke being a tortured intellectual; hence the cello, log cabin retreat and inability to smile. Of course the real star is the spurious technology showcased in the Mach One helicopter armed to the teeth and able to defy the laws of physics on a regular basis. As the mid-80s looked increasingly to the lighter side in most television successes, Airwolf is a rare display of aggression. Justice is fought, but dig only a little way and the moral motivations are often in question. Toward the end of its third season things began to lose coherence and after a year's pause the show was magically resurrected with an all-new cast. It didn't last. --Paul Tonks

• Airwolf - Vol. 4 | DVD | (16/09/2002) from £7.85   |  Saving you £2.14 (27.26%)   |  RRP £9.99

  The ultimate in Eighties action! Stringfellow Hawke (Vincent) and his irascible mentor Dominic Santini (Borgnine) continue their fight for freedom justice and liberty with the mighty Airwolf experimental helicopter at their disposal... Includes the episodes Dambreakers Random Target and The American Dream.

• Airwolf - Vol. 1 | DVD | (09/04/2001) from £4.95   |  Saving you £5.04 (101.82%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Airwolf appeared only two years after Knight Rider and, perplexingly, the same year as the short-lived Blue Thunder series. However, creator Donald P Bellisario had spent more than a little time in fully conceptualising this series. Although the format allowed for stories-of-the-week, a B-plot always ran as background motivation for the individual tales. This was a trick Bellisario would also use to good effect later in Magnum P.I. and Quantum Leap. The hook that sustains the audience here is an extremely bitter sub-plot: Stringfellow Hawke (Jan-Michael Vincent) is a peculiar anti-hero to root for since he is effectively being held to ransom and doing the same in return. His brother St. John is held captive somewhere and until his release the Airwolf chopper is Hawke's to keep hidden and use under the covert instructions of "Archangel". His best friend Dominic Santini (the ever-appealing Ernest Borgnine) is a surrogate father figure caught up in the family history. All this pre-determined angst means this is never a show that plays itself for laughs. Very specific character flaws are upfront from the beginning. We are hammered over the head with the idea of Hawke being a tortured intellectual; hence the cello, log cabin retreat and inability to smile. Of course the real star is the spurious technology showcased in the Mach One helicopter armed to the teeth and able to defy the laws of physics on a regular basis. As the mid-80s looked increasingly to the lighter side in most television successes, Airwolf is a rare display of aggression. Justice is fought, but dig only a little way and the moral motivations are often in question. Toward the end of its third season things began to lose coherence and after a year's pause the show was magically resurrected with an all-new cast. It didn't last. --Paul Tonks