"Actor: Martin Cole"

• The West Wing - Complete Season 1 | DVD | (17/04/2019) from £12.85   |  Saving you £49.14 (382.41%)   |  RRP £61.99

  Aaron Sorkin's American political drama The West Wing is more than mere feel-good viewing for sentimental US patriots. It is among the best-written, sharpest, funniest and most moving American TV series of all time. In its first series, The West Wing established the cast of characters comprising the White House staff. There's Chief of Staff Leo McGarry (John Spencer), a recovering alcoholic whose efforts to be the cornerstone of the administration contribute to the break-up of his marriage. CJ (Alison Janney) is the formidable Press Spokeswoman embroiled in a tentative on-off relationship with Timothy (Thirtysomething) Busfield's reporter. Brilliant but grumpy communications deputy Toby Ziegler, Rob Lowe's brilliant but faintly nerdy Sam Seaborn and brilliant but smart-alecky Josh Lyman make up the rest of the inner circle. Initially, the series' creators had intended to keep the President off-screen. Wisely, however, they went with Martin Sheen's Jed Bartlet, whose eccentric volatility, caution, humour and strength in a crisis make for such an impressively plausible fictional President that polls once expressed a preference for Bartlet over the genuine incumbent. The issues broached in the first series have striking, often prescient contemporary relevance. We see the President having to be talked down from a "disproportionate response" when terrorists shoot down a plane carrying his personal doctor, or acting as broker in a dangerous stand-off between India and Pakistan. Gun control laws, gays in the military and fundamentalist pressure groups are all addressed--the latter in a most satisfying manner ("Get your fat asses out of the White House!")--while the episode "Take This Sabbath Day" is a superb dramatic meditation on capital punishment. Handled incorrectly, The West Wing could have been turgid, didactic propaganda for The American Way. However, the writers are careful to show that, decent as this administration is, its achievements, though hard-won, are minimal. Moreover, the brisk, staccato-like, almost musical exchanges of dialogue, between Josh and his PA Donna, for instance, as they pace purposefully up and down the corridors are the show's abiding joy. This is wonderful and addictive viewing. --David Stubbs

• Dirty Rotten Scoundrels | DVD | (17/04/2019) from £5.99   |  Saving you £7.00 (116.86%)   |  RRP £12.99

  On its original release in 1988, the pairing of Steve Martin and Michael Caine in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels was seen as something of a dream ticket. Viewing the film many years later, that assessment still proves completely accurate: the casting is perfect. American Freddy Benson and Briton Lawrence Jamieson are con men who work the French Riviera--at first as colleagues, later as rivals--praying on rich, gullible women before finally meeting their match. Having spent the decade veering between popular rubbish and low-key quality, for once Caine was able to find a populist vehicle that did justice to his talents. Steve Martin is, well, very Steve Martin but there are few better suited to the visual comedy of his character. The film has an old-fashioned feel (no sex, violence or bad language) and owes much to the earlier period of film humour--it really doesn't take that much imagination to see this as an Ealing comedy. All round, it's a stylish, charming, witty film. On the DVD: Extras are few, limited to scene selection, subtitles and the very funny trailer. Picture quality is superb, allowing the film's exotic setting to sparkle and there are many scenes of breathtaking beauty. Given that the film is full of fantastic comedy set pieces, the ability to select scenes is a real plus, allowing to the viewer to locate that classic Martin pratfall at the push of a button. --Phil Udell

• Death Comes to Pemberley | DVD | (10/02/2014) from £9.25   |  Saving you £10.74 (116.11%)   |  RRP £19.99

  It is the eve of the Darcys annual Lady Anne ball at their magnificent Pemberley home and Elizabeths fifth ball as lady of the house. Darcy and Elizabeth are relaxing with their guests after supper when the festivities are brought to an abrupt halt. A scream calls them to the window and a hysterical Lydia Bennet tumbles out of a carriage screaming murder. What follows is the sombre discovery of a dead man in Pemberley woods a brother accused of murder and the beginning of a nightmare which will threaten to engulf Pemberley and all the Darcy's hold dear. BBC's new drama based on P.D. James' follow-up to 'Pride and Prejudice'

• Doc Martin Series 1 & 2 (Internet Exclusive) | DVD | (02/10/2006) from £3.98   |  Saving you £17.27 (634.93%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Featuring all the episodes from series 1 & 2 of Doc Martin. Dr Martin Ellingham (Martin Clunes) is forced to give up his career as an eminent surgeon and retrain as a GP after developing a phobia to blood. A vacancy arises in the sleepy Cornish hamlet of Portwenn following the death of the local GP. A regular visitor to Portwenn as a child with his Aunt Joan (Stephanie Cole) Martin applies for the position. However his complete lack of social skills and human understanding are going to get him into plenty of scrapes that's for sure! Winner of the Best Comedy Drama at the 2004 British Comedy Awards. Series 1: 1. Going Bodmin 2. Gentlemen Prefer 3. Sh*t Happens 4. The Portwenn Effect 5. Of All the Harbours in All the Towns 6. Haemophobia Series 2: 1. Old Dogs 2. In Loco 3. Blood is Thicker 4. Aromatherapy 5. Always on my Mind 6. The Family Way 7. Out of the Woods 8. Erotomania

• Doc Martin - Series 1 | DVD | (31/10/2005) from £9.15   |  Saving you £10.84 (118.47%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Dr Martin Ellingham (Martin Clunes) is forced to give up his career as an eminent surgeon and retrain as a GP after developing a phobia to blood. A vacancy arises in the sleepy Cornish hamlet of Portwenn following the death of the local GP. A regular visitor to Portwenn as a child with his Aunt Joan (Stephanie Cole) Martin applies for the position. However his complete lack of social skills and human understanding are going to get him into plenty of scrapes that's for sure! Win

• Boxing Day | DVD | (28/11/2022) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Melvin, a British author living in America, returns home to London for the holidays to introduce his American fiancé (Lisa) to his eccentric British-Caribbean family. Their relationship is put to the test, as she discovers the world Melvin left behind revolves around his ex-girlfriend (Georgia), who is now an international pop star!

• Rambo: First Blood Part II | DVD | (08/07/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  After Rocky and its sequels, Sylvester Stallone cast about for another character that would bring him the same kind of box-office hit--and found it in disillusioned Vietnam vet John Rambo in First Blood, a solid little action thriller. So when all else failed, Stallone went back to the same well in hopes of recapturing the same commercial success. Which this film did. But where First Blood was a no-nonsense thriller that pitted Stallone against a worthy (and not necessarily bad) Brian Dennehy, this one is a sadistic chest-thumper in which Rambo gets to go back to Vietnam: ostensibly, he is there to rescue missing POWs, but in fact the movie was a lame excuse for him to refight the Vietnam War--and win. Audiences ate up the cruel Vietcong (and their Russian manipulators) and Stallone's bogus heroics, but it was strictly by-the-numbers action. --Marshall FineThe Rambo trilogy is also available on DVD as a complete set.

• Blue Streak | DVD | (26/06/2000) from £5.51   |  Saving you £0.48 (8.71%)   |  RRP £5.99

  If Eddie Murphy's comic tone turns on a dime, Martin Lawrence can perhaps be described as sauntering around the dime, looking around to see if anyone else has seen it, then picking the dime up, pocketing it, and casually walking off. He lazily indicates his humour, as if it's too much trouble to actually make the joke--and that distance is what makes him funny. At his best, Lawrence describes a kind of comic space and wanders around in it, claiming it for himself the way a dog might mark his territory, suggesting that what you think is funny doesn't matter to him; he just happens to be where the jokes are, and if you aren't laughing, that's your problem. In Blue Streak, Lawrence plays a jewel thief who plants a stolen diamond in the ventilation duct of a building under construction. When he's released from prison a few years later, he discovers that the building is now a Los Angeles police station. His solution: he impersonates a detective. Of course, everyone believes his disguise. Not only that, using his inside knowledge, he solves several crimes and earns the general admiration of the force. It's a standard fish-out-of-water setup and the plot doesn't take any chances with the formula, but Lawrence wears his role like a loose suit and does a little low-key boogie whenever he can, drawing you into the absurdity with a cock of his head and a roll of his eyes. --Bret Fetzer, Amazon.com

• Doc Martin - Series 2 | DVD | (03/04/2006) from £4.28   |  Saving you £15.71 (367.06%)   |  RRP £19.99

  The grumpy Doctor Martin Ellingham (Martin Clunes) is back for a follow-up appointment in this the second series of the hit ITV comedy-drama. Featuring all 8 episodes! Episodes Comprise: 1. Old Dogs 2. In Loco 3. Blood is Thicker 4. Aromatherapy 5. Always on my Mind 6. The Family Way 7. Out of the Woods 8. Erotomania

• Mean Girls 2 | DVD | (09/05/2011) from £7.25   |  Saving you £8.74 (120.55%)   |  RRP £15.99

  The Plastics are back in the long-awaited follow-up to the smash-hit Mean Girls…and now the clique is more fashionable, funny and ferocious than ever! Confident senior Jo (Meaghan Martin) begins the new school year by breaking her own cardinal rule: don’t get involved in girl drama. But when she sees timid Abby (Jennifer Stone) preyed upon by Queen Bee Mandi (Maiara Walsh) and her minions, she takes sides in a viciously funny girl-world-war that turns the whole school upside down.

• Doc Martin - Series 3 - Complete | DVD | (18/02/2008) from £8.03   |  Saving you £11.96 (148.94%)   |  RRP £19.99

  It seems the grumpiness is acute - and chronic. The bad mood is no longer in remission. All the symptoms are there: the truculence the tactlessness the caustic take on everyone and everything. Martin Clunes is back as Doc Martin the man whose bedside manner leaves a lot to be desired in ITV 1's prime-time award-winning comedy drama Doc Martin: Series 3. Series 3 follows the ongoing accidents emergencies and comic mishaps in Portwenn as the good doctor bumbles through life all the while trying to pursue his burgeoning but seemingly ill-fated romance with headmistress Louisa Glasson (Caroline Catz). Martin's clumsy attempts to woo her have so far failed. But could a breakthrough in their turbulent relationship mean wedding bells? Aunt Joan (Stephanie Cole) is still trying her best to provide him with emotional support in the face of the villagers' disquiet. But even she despairs at his caustic comments especially when romance blossoms for her with a new man in the village. While son Al (Joe Absalom) travels the world Bert Large (Ian MacNeice) decides it's time to abandon Portwenn's plumbing troubles and pursue a new career - as a restaurateur with disastrous consequences. Pauline Lamb (Katherine Parkinson) the feisty surgery receptionist is bored with her job and needs a new challenge. So the doctor arranges for her to train as a phlebotomist - but a dangerous addiction threatens to ruin her life. And new to Portwenn this time is PC Joe Penhale (John Marquez) who has ideas way above his station. And agoraphobia. And narcolepsy. Not great for a policeman. So book your appointment with Doc Martin - if you dare. (To be taken in moderation after dinner with a nice cup of tea. Keep out of the reach of anyone with a fragile ego.)

• Big Momma's House | DVD | (14/05/2001) from £5.99   |  Saving you £7.00 (53.90%)   |  RRP £12.99

  No one tries very hard in Big Momma's House, so your enjoyment of this Martin Lawrence vehicle pretty much depends on how much amusement you're able to derive from a guy dressed up as a very ample woman. The setup is of the eye-rolling, only-in-Hollywood nature: Lawrence, as detective Malcolm Turner, is after a killer, and apparently the only way to capture him is to pose as the bad guy's ex-girlfriend's grandmother, who--the film cannot stress this point too much--is quite large. Apparently, Sherry (Nia Long), the young woman in question--she's as attractive as Big Momma is, well, you know--is none too bright, for she falls for Malcolm's ruse, which of course ostensibly amuses mainly because it's so transparent. She at least has an excuse--she hasn't seen Big Momma in two years--but Big Momma's oblivious friends must be functional morons. Screenwriters Darryl Quarles and Don Rhymer didn't tax themselves very much, as they have Malcolm-as-Big-Momma going through fairly predictable motions--botching a meal and delivering a baby unconventionally (Big Momma's a midwife), but ruling at basketball and self-defence and protecting Sherry while trying vainly not to flirt with her. Paul Giamatti is wasted as Malcolm's partner; director Raja Gosnell's clunky sense of comic rhythm is bewildering, because he used to be an editor (he brought a similar lack of magic to Home Alone 3). Lawrence won't have anyone forgetting Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon in Some Like It Hot, Dustin Hoffman in Tootsie, or Robin Williams in Mrs Doubtfire anytime soon. Eddie Murphy in The Nutty Professor 2: The Klumps is far more accomplished, versatile, and funny. --David Kronke, Amazon.com

• Tales Of Beatrix Potter | DVD | (12/07/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £13.99

  Entertaining children's stories danced by the Royal Ballet wearing animal masks. Music by John Lanchbery choreography by Frederick Ashton. The adventures are alive with same energy and passion of the books and feature unheard melodies from British Museum manuscripts recovered and transcribed by composer John Lanchbery. As the characters waltz their way across set to the rhythm of the songs you'll join in with the merriment and hot step with the cast - a must see treat for the entire family.

• The West Wing - Season 1 Part 1 | DVD | (08/04/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £35.99

  Aaron Sorkin's American political drama The West Wing, set in the White House, has won innumerable awards--and rightly so. Its depiction of a well-meaning Democrat administration has warmed the hearts of countless Americans. However, The West Wing is more than mere feel-good viewing for sentimental patriots. It is among the best-written, sharpest, funny and moving American TV series of all time. In its first series, The West Wing established the cast of characters who comprise the White House staff. There's Chief of Staff Leo McGarry (John Spencer), a recovering alcoholic whose efforts to be the cornerstone of the administration contribute to the break-up of his marriage. CJ (Alison Janney) is the formidable Press Spokeswoman embroiled in a tentative on-off relationship with Timothy (Thirtysomething) Busfield's reporter. Brilliant but grumpy communications deputy Toby Ziegler, Rob Lowe's brilliant but faintly nerdy Sam Seaborn and brilliant but smart-alecky Josh Lyman make up the rest of the inner circle. Initially, the series' creators had intended to keep the President off-screen. Wisely, however, they went with Martin Sheen's Jed Bartlet, whose eccentric volatility, caution, humour and strength in a crisis make for such an impressively plausible fictional President that polls once expressed a preference for Bartlet over the genuine incumbent. The issues broached in the first series have striking, often prescient contemporary relevance. We see the President having to be talked down from a "disproportionate response" when terrorists shoot down a plane carrying his personal doctor, or acting as broker in a dangerous stand-off between India and Pakistan. Gun control laws, gays in the military, Fundamentalist pressure groups are all addressed--the latter in a most satisfying manner ("Get your fat asses out of the White House!")--while the episode "Take This Sabbath Day" is a superb dramatic meditation on Capital punishment. Handled incorrectly, The West Wing could have been turgid, didactic propaganda for The American Way. However, the writers are careful to show that, decent as this administration is, its achievements, though hard-won, are minimal. Moreover, the brisk, staccato-like, almost musical exchanges of dialogue, between Josh and his PA Donna, for instance, as they pace purposefully up and down the corridors are the show's abiding joy. This is wonderful and addictive viewing.--David Stubbs

• The Final Countdown | DVD | (04/02/2002) from £6.98   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £3.99

  With a tantalising "what-if?" scenario and a respectable cast of Hollywood veterans, The Final Countdown plays like a grand-scale episode of The Twilight Zone. It's really no more than that, and time-travel movies have grown far more sophisticated since this popular 1980 release, but there's still some life remaining in the movie's basic premise: what if a modern-era navy aircraft carrier--in this case the real-life nuclear-powered USS Nimitz--was caught in an anomalous storm and thrust 40 years backwards in time to the eve of Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor? Will the ship's commander (Kirk Douglas) interfere with history? Will the visiting systems analyst (Martin Sheen) convince him not to? Will a rescued senator from 1941 (Charles Durning) play an unexpected role in the future of American politics? Veteran TV director Don Taylor doesn't do much with the ideas posed by this potentially intriguing plot; he seems more interested in satisfying aviation buffs with loving footage of F-14 "Jolly Roger" fighter jets, made possible by the navy's generous cooperation. That makes The Final Countdown a better navy film than a fully fledged time-travel fantasy, but there's a nice little twist at the end, and the plot holes are easy to ignore. James Cameron would've done it better, but this popcorn thriller makes an enjoyable double bill with The Philadelphia Experiment. --Jeff Shannon

• The West Wing - Complete Seasons 1 and 2 | DVD | (17/11/2003) from £79.99   |  Saving you £2.00 (2.50%)   |  RRP £81.99

  Aaron Sorkin's American political drama The West Wing is more than mere feel-good viewing for sentimental US patriots. It is among the best-written, sharpest, funny and moving American TV series of all time. In its first series, The West Wing established the cast of characters who comprise the White House staff. There's Chief of Staff Leo McGarry (John Spencer), a recovering alcoholic whose efforts to be the cornerstone of the administration contribute to the break-up of his marriage. CJ (Alison Janney) is the formidable Press Spokeswoman embroiled in a tentative on-off relationship with Timothy (Thirtysomething) Busfield's reporter. Brilliant but grumpy communications deputy Toby Ziegler, Rob Lowe's brilliant but faintly nerdy Sam Seaborn and brilliant but smart-alecky Josh Lyman makes up the rest of the inner circle. Initially, the series' creators had intended to keep the President off-screen. Wisely, however, they went with Martin Sheen's Jed Bartlet, whose eccentric volatility, caution, humour and strength in a crisis make for such an impressively plausible fictional President that polls once expressed a preference for Bartlet over the genuine incumbent. The second series of The West Wing takes up where the first one left off and, a few moments of slightly toe-curling patriotic sentimentalism apart, maintains the series' astonishingly high standards in depicting the everyday life of the White House staff of a Democratic administration. With Aaron Sorkin's dialogue ranging as ever from dry, staccato mirth to almost biblical gravitas, an ensemble of overworked (and curiously undersexed) characters and an overall depiction of the workings of government that's both gratifyingly idealised yet chasteningly realistic, The West Wing is one of the all-time great American TV dramas. --David Stubbs

• The West Wing - Season 2 Part 1 | DVD | (07/04/2003) from £28.98   |  Saving you £9.00 (33.35%)   |  RRP £35.99

  The second series of The West Wing takes up literally where the first series left off and, after a few moments of slightly toe-curling patriotic sentimentalism, maintains the series' astonishingly high standards in depicting the everyday life of the White House staff of a Democratic administration. The two-part opener covers the immediate aftermath of the assassination attempt on President Bartlet (Martin Sheen), switching between the anxious wait on the injured and flashbacks to Bartlet's campaign for the Presidency. Other peaks in a series exceedingly short on troughs include "Noel", the episode in which Alan Arkin's psychiatrist forces Josh Lynam to confront his post-traumatic stress disorder and the concluding episodes in which President Bartlet, having lost his secretary Mrs Landingham in a tragic car accident, rails angrily against God in Latin. Other new features of this series include the introduction of Ainsley Hayes, a young Republican counsel hired after she beats communications deputy Sam Seaborn (Rob Lowe) in a TV debate ("Sam's getting his ass kicked by a girl!" crow his colleagues), as well as the revelation (to us first, then later his staff) that the President has been suffering from multiple sclerosis. Meanwhile, the White House must move heaven and earth to make incremental political gains as well as deal with a host difficulties abroad, demonstrating, some might argue, more compassion, skill and restraint than that exercised by the real-life US administration. With Aaron Sorkin's dialogue ranging as ever from dry, staccato mirth to almost biblical gravitas, an ensemble of overworked (and curiously undersexed) characters and an overall depiction of the workings of government that's both gratifyingly idealised yet chasteningly realistic, The West Wing is one of the all-time great American TV dramas. --David Stubbs

• Inspector Morse - Series 6 | DVD | (21/02/2005) from £25.63   |  Saving you £-0.64 (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  This box set features the entire sixth series of the classic British Television drama Inspector Morse. Episodes comprise: 1. Dead On Time: Morse becomes deeply involved when a Don apparently commits suicide. The man's wife Susan was once engaged to Morse who makes no secret of the fact that he is still in love with her... 2. Happy Families: A wealthy industrialist is murdered yet his family seem uninterested until a second murder occurs... 3. The Death

• Keeping Mum - Series 2 | DVD | (23/03/2009) from £4.75   |  Saving you £10.24 (215.58%)   |  RRP £14.99

  The Beares are back for a second helping of the hit BBC series 'Keeping Mum' as Stephanie Cole and Martin Ball reprise their roles as demanding mother and dutiful son. Peggy is up to her old tricks again and poor Andrew is once more the reluctant guardian teacher peacemaker and pragmatist. Still living in the shadow of older and 'favourite' child Richard this second series sees Andrew more determined than ever to have a life outside of the house and to cut the apron strings once and for all. Featuring the same stellar support cast as series one and a cameo appearance by Prunella Scales as Peggy's sister Marjorie enjoy eight episodes of family fun with the Beares.

• The Mile High | DVD | (30/01/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Fasten your seatbelts for the flight of a lifetime! What do pilots and cabin crew get up to both in and out of uniform? Mile High is the sexy drama series which follows the lives and loves of six airline crew from sharing a house in London to travelling across different countries and time zones. Young and sexy they work hard and play even harder!