"Actor: Man Parrish"

• 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

• 17 Again | Blu Ray | (17/04/2019) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  "17 Again" offers the question; what if you could go back and do things a little differently? Well, a man heading nowhere fast wishes exactly that and one morning wakes up as his 17-years-old self with a chance at rewriting history!

• American Ballet Theatre Now | DVD | (08/03/2001) from £24.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  America's leading ballet soloists display highlights from their repertoire.

• Nomi Song-Klaus Nomi Odyssey | DVD | (17/10/2005) from £10.78   |  Saving you £-2.79 (N/A%)   |  RRP £7.99

  He came from outer space to save the human race. Part documentary part music film part sci-fi The Nomi Song is a 'non-fiction film' or maybe even an oral history. It's not just the tale it's the telling. But it is also visual partly because Klaus himself was so visual someone who's main concern was putting forth an image of himself in everything he did - literally illustrated by the photos films videos and artworks that go with it and featuring many never before seen live performances. However there are also the images that the stories conjure up images that no actual picture could capture that emerge out of impressions memories and even exaggerations fermenting in somebody's brain for twenty years. It's like a novel with a whole cast of characters and supporting players - revealing themselves as much as (and sometimes more than) they do Klaus - with subplots background stories flashbacks and contradictions.