"Actor: Mary Donnelly Haskell"

• Dolly Parton - Blue Valley Songbird | DVD | (25/06/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  In a totally unexpected piece of casting, Blue Valley Songbird stars Dolly Parton as a country singer/songwriter with big hair, large breasts and lots of lippy. The comparison ends there, though, because here she plays Leana Taylor, a talented performer hampered by her provincial background (and unpleasant manager/boyfriend) who realises she must escape her small-town roots in order to achieve her true potential. This isn't the most taxing of narratives, but it's the music that counts here. This movie is of the "musical drama" genre--take a star musical performer, give them the lead role in a movie, then furnish them with every excuse to perform therein so long as it can be done as a realistic element within the overall story--and as such it's highly agreeable. Parton not only has buckets of musical talent but also has plausible acting skills, even if the viewer is bound to think that these are mainly to do with being Dolly Parton. In any event, the songs are excellent, so this is well worth watching even if you find yourself fast-forwarding until you see someone picking a guitar up.--Roger Thomas

• One Woman's Courage | DVD | (02/04/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  She must tell the courts what she saw... even if it kills her. Grace McKenna has an unfaithful husband a difficult family and a drinking problem. Then one fateful day she witnesses a woman being brutally murdered. She decides against all advice to testify to what she saw. Only her testimony can put the murderer behind bars. But despite her evidence the killer is let off. Now that he's free he wants to silence the only witness to his crime. Grace's life is on the line. Desperate to stay alive she prepares to come face to face with her pursuer and her own fears. Based on a true story.