"Actor: Lucy Martin"

• The Office - The Complete Series 1 (2 Disc Set) | DVD | (14/10/2002) from £3.85   |  Saving you £16.14 (419.22%)   |  RRP £19.99

  It feels both inaccurate and inadequate to describe The Office as a comedy. On a superficial level, it disdains all the conventions of television sitcoms: there are no punch lines, no jokes, no laugh tracks and no cute happy endings. More profoundly, it's not what we're used to thinking of as funny. Most of the fervently devoted fan base that the programme acquired watched with a discomfortingly thrilling combination of identification and mortification. The paradox is that its best moments are almost physically unwatchable. Set in the offices of a fictional Slough paper merchant, The Office is filmed in the style of a reality television programme. The writing is subtle and deft, the acting wonderful and the characters beautifully drawn: the cadaverous team leader Gareth, a paradigm of Andy McNab's readership; the monstrous sales rep, Chris Finch; and the decent but long-suffering everyman Tim, whose ambition and imagination have been crushed out of him by the banality of the life he dreams uselessly of escaping. The show is stolen, as it was intended to be, by insufferable office manager David Brent, played by cowriter Ricky Gervais. Brent will become a name as emblematic for a particular kind of British grotesque as Alan Partridge or Basil Fawlty, but he is a deeper character than either. Partridge and Fawlty are exaggerations of reality, and therefore safely comic figures. Brent is as appalling as only reality can be. --Andrew Mueller On the DVD The Office, Series 1 is tastefully packaged as a two-disc set appropriately adorned with John Betjeman's poem "Slough". The special features occupy the second disc and consist of a laid-back 39-minute documentary entitled "How I Made The Office by Ricky Gervais", with co-writer Stephen Merchant and the cast contributing. Here we discover that Gervais spends his time on set "mucking around and annoying people", and that actress Lucy Davis (Dawn) is the daughter of Jasper Carrott; as well as seeing parts of the original short film and the original BBC pilot episode; plus we get to enjoy many examples of the cast corpsing throughout endless retakes. There are also a handful of deleted scenes, none of which were deleted because they weren't funny. --Mark Walker

• My Life is Murder: Series 3 | DVD | (20/11/2023) from £20.03   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• A Star Is Born - 2 Disc Special Edition | DVD | (17/04/2019) from £4.87   |  Saving you £9.12 (187.27%)   |  RRP £13.99

  A musical remake of the classic 1937 film of the same name, A Star is Born was designed as Judy Garland's comeback vehicle after she had been cruelly axed by MGM studios for professional unreliability. Her erratic moods caused serious production delays this time around, too, but the behind-the-scenes turmoil was certainly worth it--Garland gives just about the greatest one-woman show in movie history. The story is the stuff of pure Hollywood legend. Aspiring actress-singer Esther Blodgett meets fading matinee idol Norman Maine (James Mason), who navigates her to stardom under the more melodious handle of Vickie Lester. As she rises meteorically, he declines into alcoholic self-pity--and the result, if you haven't guessed, is plenty of heartbreak. Mason lends subtle support in a role Cary Grant refused as too downbeat for his image, but Garland grabs centre stage with an all-out emotional performance that rivets the attention. Director George Cukor was famous for coaxing the very best out of screen divas, and A Star is Born must be counted as his crowning achievement. The lush visual style that he contributes provides a suitable setting for Garland's deep, rich voice--throbbing with melancholy in the Harold Arlen-Ira Gershwin ballad "The Man That Got Away", then capering joyfully in the gargantuan musical number "Born in a Trunk". Moss Hart's script takes many cynical swipes at the pretensions of Tinsel Town--perhaps too many for the taste of studio boss Jack Warner, who ordered drastic cuts in the film after its premiere. --Peter Matthews

• Following | DVD | (07/07/2003) from £14.74   |  Saving you £1.25 (8.48%)   |  RRP £15.99

  When writer Bill (Jeremy Theobald) is confronted by his latest 'target' of inspiration a man called Cobb (Alex Haw) he is drawn into a life of snooping and breaking and entering...

• Taking The Flak | DVD | (17/08/2009) from £21.59   |  Saving you £-1.60 (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Taking The Flak (2 Disc)

• Jupiter Moon 3 - Return To Space City | DVD | (20/12/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Jupiter Moon is about the perils of life on the very frontier of human existence. It is about the loves passions and ambitions of young people growing up in an alien and dangerous environment many millions of miles away from Earth.... It is the year 2050 and mankind has established a space city on Jupiter's moon. In orbit around the moon is the spaceship Ilea home of Columbus College University Of Space.

• Last House On The Left | DVD | (30/08/2010) from £20.23   |  Saving you £-0.24 (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Bold powerful and starkly realistic this chilling cinematic debut of horror master Wes Craven (Scream) is a shocking journey into the heart of evil. Written and directed with almost unbearable dramatic tension (Chicago Sun Times) The Last House on the Left will make you deadbolt your doors and frantically mutter: It's only a movie... it's only a movie... it's only a movie.! Easy going Mari Collingwood and her fun loving friend Phyllis are on their way to a Bloodlust concert to celebrate Mari's 17th birthday when three escaped convicts kidnap and torture them. But Mari and Phyllis are fighters and although they are drugged and beaten into unconsciousness stuffed in a car trunk and driven into the woods for even more brutality they are still alive.... But for how long?

• A Good Old Fashioned Orgy | DVD | (21/05/2012) from £4.99   |  Saving you £11.00 (220.44%)   |  RRP £15.99

  A group of 30-year-olds who have been friends since high school attempt to throw an end-of-summer orgy.

• Black Books - The Complete Series 3 | DVD | (04/10/2004) from £6.54   |  Saving you £13.45 (67.30%)   |  RRP £19.99

  The third series of cult comedy set in a second hand bookshop. Dylan Moran stars as the bohemian and frequently drunk owner who has one major problem with his line of work: he hates customers! Help is at hand however in the form of mild-mannered Manny (Bill Bailey) who proves to be something of a star at selling books and Fran (Tamsin Greig)their under achieving friend. This dubious trio form a family of sorts to protect each other from the realities of modern London but nothing can protect them from each other! Black books is a haven of books wine and conversation the only threat to the groups peace and prosperity is their own limitless stupidity. Episodes comprise: 1. Manny Come Home 2. Elephants And Hens 3. Moo-ma And Moo-pa 4. A Little Flutter 5. The Travel Writer 6. Party

• Adventures Of The Galaxy Rangers - Phoenix / New Frontier | DVD | (13/05/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £3.99

  In 2086 two peace loving alien ambassadors arrive at the World Federation of Earth. Waldo and Zorro seek protection from a syndicate of alien outlaws that are terrorizing their planets. In return Waldo gives the World Federation plans for an interstellar hyperdrive - offering mankind it's first gateway to the stars! The Federation assembles a team to protect the people of Earth and its space allies. With the assistance of their alien friends the Galaxy Rangers stand ready to blast off and do battle against the unknown challenges of outer space.