"Actor: Nicholas Art"

• Criminal Minds Seasons 1-12 | DVD | (04/12/2017) from £84.95   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  All the episodes from the first 12 seasons of the American crime drama following an elite team of FBI profilers as they analyse the country's most twisted criminal minds, anticipating their next moves before they strike again. Season 1 episodes: 'Extreme Aggressor', 'Compulsion', 'Won't Get Fooled Again', 'Plain Sight', 'Broken Mirror', 'L.D.S.K.', 'The Fox', 'Natural Born Killer', 'Derailed', 'The Popular Kids', 'Blood Hungry', 'What Fresh Hell?', 'Poison', 'Riding the Lightning', 'Unfinished Business', 'The Tribe', 'A Real Rain', 'Somebody's Watching', 'Machismo', 'Charm and Harm', 'Secrets and Lies' and 'The Fisher King: Part 1'. Season 2 episodes: 'The Fisher King: Part 2', 'P911', 'The Perfect Storm', 'Psychodrama', 'Aftermath', 'The Boogeyman', 'North Mammon', 'Empty Planet', 'The Last Word', 'Lessons Learned', 'Sex, Birth, Death', 'Profiler, Profiled', 'No Way Out', 'The Big Game', 'Revelations', 'Fear and Loathing', 'Distress', 'Jones', 'Ashes and Dust', 'Honor Among Thieves', 'Open Season', 'Legacy' and 'No Way Out: Part 2 - The Evilution of Frank'. Season 3 episodes: 'Doubt', 'In Birth and Death', 'Scared to Death', 'Children of the Dark', 'Seven Seconds', 'About Face', 'Identity', 'Lucky', 'Penelope', 'True Night', 'Birthright', '3rd Life', 'Limelight', 'Damaged', 'A Higher Power', 'Elephant's Memory', 'In Heat', 'The Crossing', 'Tabula Rasa' and 'Lo-Fi'. Season 4 episodes: 'Mayhem', 'The Angel Maker', 'Minimal Loss', 'Paradise', 'Catching Out', 'The Instincts', 'Memoriam', 'Masterpiece', '52 Pickup', 'Brothers in Arms', 'Normal', 'Soul Mates', 'Bloodline', 'Cold Comfort', 'Zoe's Reprise', 'Pleasure Is My Business', 'Demonology', 'Omnivore', 'House On Fire', 'Conflicted', 'A Shade of Gray', 'The Big Wheel', 'Roadkill', 'Amplification' and 'To Hell... and Back'. Season 5 episodes: 'Faceless, Nameless', 'Haunted', 'Reckoner', 'Hopeless', 'Cradle to Grave', 'The Eyes Have It', 'The Performer', 'Outfoxed', '100', 'The Slave of Duty', 'Retaliation', 'The Uncanny Valley', 'Risky Business', 'Parasite', 'Public Enemy', 'Mosley Lane', 'Solitary Man', 'The Fight', 'Rite of Passage', '... A Thousand Words', 'Exit Wounds', 'The Internet Is Forever' and 'Our Darkest Hour'. Season 6 episodes: 'The Longest Night', 'JJ', 'Remembrance of Things Past', 'Compromising Positions', 'Safe Haven', 'Devil's Night', 'Middle Man', 'Reflection of Desire', 'Into the Woods', 'What Happens at Home...', '25 to Life', 'Corazon', 'The Thirteenth Step', 'Sense Memory', 'Today I Do', 'Coda', 'Valhalla', 'Lauren', 'With Friends Like These', 'Hanley Waters', 'The Stranger', 'Out of the Light', 'Big Sea' and 'Supply and Demand'. Season 7 episodes: 'It Takes a Village', 'Proof', 'Dorado Falls', 'Painless', 'From Childhood's Hour', 'Epilogue', 'There's No Place Like Home', 'Hope', 'Self Fulfilling Prophecy', 'The Bittersweet Science', 'True Genius', 'Unknown Subject', 'Snake Eyes', 'Closing Time', 'A Thin Line', 'A Family Affair', 'I Love You, Tommy Brown', 'Foundation', 'Heathridge Manor', 'The Company', 'Divining Rod', 'Profiling 101', 'Hit' and 'Run'. Season 8 episodes: 'The Silencer', 'The Pact', 'Through the Looking Glass', 'God Complex', 'The Good Earth', 'The Apprenticeship', 'The Fallen', 'The Wheels On the Bus', 'Magnificent Light', 'The Lesson', 'Perennials', 'Zugzwang', 'Magnum Opus', 'All That Remains', 'Broken', 'Carbon Copy', 'The Gathering', 'Restoration', 'Pay It Forward', 'Alchemy', 'Nanny Dearest', 'No. 6', 'Brothers Hotchner' and 'The Replicator'. Season 9 episodes: 'The Inspiration', 'The Inspired', 'Final Shot', 'To Bear Witness', 'Route 66', 'In the Blood', 'Gatekeeper', 'The Return', 'Strange Fruit', 'The Caller', 'Bully', 'The Black Queen', 'The Road Home', '200', 'Mr. and Mrs. Anderson', 'Gabby', 'Persuasion', 'Rabid', 'The Edge of Winter', 'Blood Relations', 'What Happens in Mecklinburg...', 'Fatal', 'Angels' and 'Demons'. Season 10 episodes: 'X', 'Burn', 'A Thousand Suns', 'The Itch', 'Boxed In', 'If the Shoe Fits', 'Hashtag', 'The Boys of Sudworth Place', 'Fate', 'Amelia Porter', 'The Forever People', 'Anonymous', 'Nelson's Sparrow', 'Hero Worship', 'Scream', 'Lockdown', 'Breath Play', 'Rock Creek Park', 'Beyond Borders', 'A Place at the Table', 'Mr. Scratch', 'Protection' and 'The Hunt'. Season 11 episodes: 'The Job', 'The Witness', ''Til Death Do Us Part', 'Outlaw', 'The Night Watch', 'Pariahville', 'Target Rich', 'Awake', 'Internal Affairs', 'Future Perfect', 'Entropy', 'Drive', 'The Bond', 'Hostage', 'A Badge and a Gun', 'Derek', 'The Sandman', 'A Beautiful Disaster', 'Tribute', 'Inner Beauty', 'Devil's Backbone' and 'The Storm'. Season 12 episodes: 'The Crimson King', 'Sick Day', 'Taboo', 'Keeper', 'The Anti-Terror Squad', 'Elliott's Pond', 'Mirror Image', 'Scarecrow', 'Profiling 202', 'Seek and Destroy', 'Surface Tension', 'A Good Husband', 'Spencer', 'Collision Course', 'Alpha Male', 'Assistance Is Futile', 'In the Dark', 'Hell's Kitchen', 'True North', 'Unforgettable', 'Green Light' and 'Red Light'.

• Buffy the Vampire Slayer - Season 2 (New Packaging) | DVD | (03/10/2011) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £27.99

  At the heart of the first years of Joss Whedon's Buffy the Vampire Slayer was the romance between Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar), slayer of all things evil, and hunky Angel (David Boreanaz), the tortured vampire destined to walk the earth with a soul. The second season of Buffy took the Buffy-Angel pas de deux from ecstasy to agony in a now-classic plot arc that catapulted the show from WB teen drama to true TV greatness. You see, if the cursed Angel ever experiences true happiness for a moment, he'll revert to being an evil vampire again. And guess what happens after Buffy and Angel finally declare their love for one another and consummate their relationship... Buffy found its true momentum during the second season, as geeky Xander (Nicholas Brendon) fell in love with popular girl Cordelia (Charisma Carpenter), Willow (Alyson Hannigan) gave up her crush on Xander in favour of werewolf boy Oz (Seth Green), and watcher Giles (Anthony Stewart Head) began a sweetly tentative relationship with computer teacher (and witch) Jenny Calendar (Robia LaMorte). Mayhem came to Sunnydale, though, in the form of evil vampires Drusilla (Juliet Landau) and Spike (drolly wicked James Marsters), who were more than ready to aid and abet Angel as he turned bad. It all sounds like horror-action mayhem (and there are great fight scenes), but Buffy took on its plotlines with amazing depth, intelligence, and humour. And oh, man, the love story! Buffy and Angel's tragic relationship is one of the most heartbreaking you'll ever find. Buffy's final dilemma finds her having to save the world at Angel's expense, and Gellar (who deserves a passel of Emmys for her work) is phenomenal at telegraphing Buffy's swirling conflicts between love and duty. This is some of the best TV ever made, period. --Mark Englehart

• Freefall - Flight 174 | DVD | (26/06/2006) from £8.98   |  Saving you £-2.99 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Flight 174 is both the story of a hero in the making and a gripping disaster movie telling the up-close moment-by-moment suspense of a plane's harrowing freefall to almost certain disaster. This nail-biting thriller which is based on the book by one of the authors of Midnight Express boasts a fine cast including William Devane Shelley Hack Scott Hylands and Winston Rekert.

• The Way to the Stars | DVD | (17/05/2004) from £7.99   |  Saving you £2.00 (25.03%)   |  RRP £9.99

  In 1940 a deserted airfield somewhere in the heart of England becomes a bustling bomber command station. In 1942 advance units of the American Air Force arrive to join The Royal Air Force and help turn the tide of World War II. So unfolds the story of a group of flyers and their 'missions'. Peter Penrose (John Mills) a young RAF pilot is sent to Halfpenny Field close to the small town of Shepley. His Squadron Leader Flight Lieutenant David Archdale (Michael Redgrave) gives him inspiration and encouragement and they fast become friends. They are joined by a young American pilot Johnny (Douglas Montgomery) which complicates the friendship. This is the story of the group's private lives - particularly their loves during war-time.

• Buffy the Vampire Slayer - Season 7 (New Packaging) | DVD | (03/10/2011) from £26.98   |  Saving you £1.01 (3.60%)   |  RRP £27.99

  The seventh and final season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer begins with a mystery: someone is murdering teenage girls all over the world and something is trying hard to drive Spike mad. Buffy is considerably more cheerful in these episodes than we have seen her during the previous year as she trains Dawn and gets a job as student counselor at the newly rebuilt Sunnydale High. Willow is recovering from the magical addiction which almost led her to destroy the world, but all is not yet well with her, or with Anya, who has returned to being a Vengeance demon in "Same Time, Same Place" and "Selfless," and both women are haunted by their decisions. Haunting of a different kind comes in the excellent "Conversations with Dead People" (one of the show's most terrifying episodes ever), in which a mysterious song is making Spike kill again in spite of his soul and his chip. Giles turns up in "Bring on the Night" and Buffy has to fight one of the deadliest vampires of her career in "Showtime". In "Potential" Dawn faces a fundamental reassessment of her purpose in life. Buffy was always a show about female empowerment, but it was also a show about how ordinary people can decide to make a difference alongside people who are special. And it was also a show about people making up for past errors and crimes. So, for example, we have the excellent episodes "Storyteller", in which the former geek/supervillain Andrew sorts out his redemption while making a video diary about life with Buffy; and "Lies My Parents Told Me," in which we find out why a particular folk song sends Spike crazy. Redemption abounds as Faith returns to Sunnydale and the friends she once betrayed, and Willow finds herself turning into the man she flayed. Above all, this was always Buffy's show: Sarah Michelle Gellar does extraordinary work here both as Buffy and as her ultimate shadow, the First Evil, who takes her face to mock her. This is a fine ending to one of television's most remarkable shows. --Roz Kaveney

• Are You Being Served? - Series 5 | DVD | (05/06/2006) from £6.35   |  Saving you £9.64 (151.81%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Back again for another healthy portion Are You Being Served? features the limp-wristed Mr. Wilberforce Clayborne Humphries and that blue-rinsed battle-axe Mrs 'Betty' Slocombe leading the outrageous department store staff through a fifth series of outrageously funny episodes! Episodes Comprise: 1.Mrs. Slocombe Expects 2.A Change Is as Good as a Rest 3.Founder's Day 4.The Old Order Changes 5.Take-Over 6.Goodbye Mr. Grainger 7.It Pays to Advertise

• Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Complete Season 3 | DVD | (18/10/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £79.99

  Action-packed Season Three develops major characters and plot lines brewing over the last couple of years. The Mayor, this season's major baddie, wants to become an invincible demon by slaughtering everyone at Sunnydale High's graduation ceremony but he's going to torture them all by giving his speech first. Bad-girl vampire-slayer Faith wants to get one over on Buffy and becomes even more rotten. Angel comes back from hell but isn't sure what to do about his girlfriend. Willow meets her evil gay vampire duplicate from another dimension. Xander loses his virginity but still has to contemplate his essential uselessness. Cordelia gets less whiny and has to work in a dress-shop when her father becomes bankrupt. Giles wears tweed and drinks tea, though it is revealed that he used to be a warlock and in a punk band. Besides the soap opera, there are monsters, curses and vampires (inevitably). --Kim Newman On the DVD: The DVDs are presented in a standard television 4:3 picture ratio and in a clear Dolby sound that does full justice both to the sparkling dialogue and to the always impressive indie-rock and orchestral scores. Special features include an overview of Season Three by its creator Joss Whedon, and by writers Marti Noxon, David Fury, Doug Petrie and Jane Espenson and documentaries on the weapons, clothes special effects of the show and the speech/verbal tone which makes it what it is-"Buffyspeak". The episodes "Helpless", "Bad Girls", "Consequences" and "Earshot" have commentaries by, Fury, Petrie, director James Gershman and Espenson, in which we find out some fascinating details about the way the scripts mutate and about the particular illuminations added to scripts by actors' performances. After complaints about the Season 2 DVD packaging, the disc envelopes include a protective coating. --Roz Kaveney

• Rhubarb Rhubarb / Mr H Is Late | DVD | (09/09/2002) from £22.99   |  Saving you £-10.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Two hilarious short films from British funny man Erik Sykes: 'Rhubarb Rhubarb' concerns a mad game of golf and in 'Mr H Is Late' a coffin is late for a funeral...

• Buffy the Vampire Slayer - Season 4 (New Packaging) | DVD | (03/10/2011) from £13.69   |  Saving you £14.30 (104.46%)   |  RRP £27.99

  Having battled a hellish vampire master, an evil boyfriend, a rogue slayer, a giant man-eating demon-snake thing, and a particularly nasty high school principal, Buffy Summers embarked on one of her biggest challenges in the fourth season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer: college. With boyfriend Angel out of the picture (and on his own show) and Sunnydale High destroyed, new horizons were to be tackled for Buffy and the rest of the Scooby gang. There were cute guys (Buffy's new boyfriend Riley), cute girls (Willow's new girlfriend Tara--yes, Willow's gay!), frat parties, irritating roommates, harsh professors, and, oh yes, a secret military initiative that was experimenting on the demon population (Riley's part of it). Buffy truly hit its golden years in the fourth season--just when you thought this show couldn't get any better, Joss Whedon and his creative team pulled out all the stops and took Buffy and co. into rich new territory. By far, the highlight of the season (and the entire series) was the Emmy-nominated "Hush," a nearly dialogue-free episode in which the creepy "Gentlemen" rob Sunnydale of its collective voice, and Buffy and Riley finally come face to face with each other's hidden identities. While Frankenstein-esque monster Adam wasn't the show's best villain (you'll have to wait until next season's Glory for that), he was a worthy adversary for the biotech age, and the military milieu was a nice contrast to Buffy's previous gothic outings. Season 4 also marked the return of blonde vampire Spike (who developed a crush on Buffy), the ascension of vengeance demon Anya to full-time cast status, and the brief return of bad slayer Faith (in a fab two-part body-switching episode). Throughout, the entire cast, headed by the unparalleled Sarah Michelle Gellar, worked television magic of the kind rarely seen on the small screen. This is Buffy at its best. --Mark Englehart

• Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Complete Season 2 | DVD | (18/10/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £34.99

  After the first season of Buffy The Vampire Slayer became a ratings success the show was renewed with a bigger budget and twice as many episodes. Seeds are sown through the early episodes for many of the stunning plot developments later in the season: there's a slow burn for the relationships building between Buffy and Angel (no surprise), Giles and Jenny (nice surprise), and Xander and Cordelia (huge surprise). Most importantly, we're introduced to important semi-regulars Spike and Drusilla ("School Hard"), Oz ("Inca Mummy Girl") and fellow Slayer Kendra ("What's My Line Part 1"). Their appearances tackle youth issues such as sibling rivalry, sexual maturity and rejection. But nothing that came before it prepared audiences for the latter half of season 2. In the extraordinary double act of "Surprise" and "Innocence" every aspect of the show grows up in a big hurry: the result of Buffy sleeping with Angel is a series of tragedies everyone is powerless to predict or prevent, a piece of powerful storytelling conveyed with pared-down dialogue and remarkable performances from the young cast. All of these threads are tied together then torn apart by the two-part finale "Becoming". With a cliffhanger ending to rival The Empire Strikes Back, the second chapter of Buffy The Vampire Slayer closes in tantalising style leaving everything at stake. --Paul Tonks On the DVD: The computer-animated menu opens this gorgeous box set in style with a tour through a dark and oppressive cemetery, a lavish display of graphics that's all the more impressive when compared to the uneventful DVD for the first season. Most of the extra features are concentrated on the last disc, which includes the obligatory biographies, trailers and TV spots that add little value to hardcore fans but serve as a good introduction to the world of Buffy for non-adepts. The three featurettes are captivating: "Designing Buffy" offers a wealth of information about the set designs, and even includes a walk through of Buffy's home; "A Buffy Bestiary" features every monster from the second season, and "Beauty and the Beats" explores the make-up artistry and special effects. There are also brief cast interviews, in which James Masters ("Spike") reveals his American accent. All in all the extras make a worthy accompaniment to the spectacular season 2 episodes, though one might regret that Joss Whedon did not offer a commentary on the double bill season finale "Becoming". --Celine Martig

• Buffy the Vampire Slayer - Season 5 (New Packaging) | DVD | (03/10/2011) from £26.98   |  Saving you £1.01 (3.60%)   |  RRP £27.99

  The fifth season of Joss Whedon's hit series started out in excellent form as slayer extraordinaire Buffy Summers (Sarah Michelle Gellar) did battle with the most famous of vampires (that Dracula guy) and then went on to spar with another nemesis, little sister Dawn (Michelle Trachtenberg). Wait--Buffy has a teenage sister? Where has she been the past four years? And why is everyone acting like she's always been around? Turns out that young Dawn is actually "The Key," a form of pure energy that, true to its name, helps open the gates between different dimensions. To protect said key from falling into the wrong hands, a group of monks gave it human form and sent it to the fiercely protective Buffy for safekeeping, creating new memories of Dawn for everyone as if she'd existed... well, always. Why all the super secrecy? There's this very, very, very bad girl named Glory (Clare Kramer) who wants the key very badly, and will do anything to get it. Oh, and by the way, Glory isn't just a run-of-the-mill demon... she's way worse. Some fans will tell you that Buffy "jumped the shark" with the introduction of Dawn, when in actuality this season was the pinnacle of the show's achievement, as there was superb comedy to be had ("Buffy Vs. Dracula," the double-Xander episode "The Replacement," the introduction of the "Buffybot" in "Intervention") as well as some of television's best drama. The Whedon-scripted and -directed "The Body" remains one of Buffy's best episodes, when the young woman who faces down supernatural death on a daily basis finds herself powerless in the wake of her mother's sudden passing. The first third or so of the season was a bit choppy, but once the evil Glory came into her own, Buffy was a television force to be reckoned with. Kramer was the show's best villain (after the evil Angel, natch), and the supporting cast was never better. But as always, it was the superb Gellar who was the powerful centre of the show, sparking opposite lovelorn vampire Spike (James Marsters) and wrestling with moral dilemmas rarely seen on television. With this season, Buffy Summers became, like Tony Soprano, one of television's true greats. --Mark Englehart

• Buffy the Vampire Slayer - Season 3 (New Packaging) | DVD | (03/10/2011) from £24.90   |  Saving you £3.09 (12.41%)   |  RRP £27.99

  The third season of Joss Whedon's Buffy the Vampire Slayer was marked by the arrival in Sunnydale of renegade slayer Faith (Eliza Dushku), a moody loner who seemed to like her demon-staking calling just a little too much. While Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar) was always wary of Faith, the two developed a deep friendship and appreciative rapport--that is, until the evil mayor of Sunnydale (Harry Groener) tapped into Faith's dark side and lured her into his plot to take over the world, first as a double agent spying on Buffy, then as out-and-out nemesis. And as the mayor's ascension approached--which happened to fall on Sunnydale High's graduation day--Buffy and Faith's battles got nastier and nastier, as Buffy attempted to wrestle with her dark side (literally and figuratively), save the world and her friends, and keep her lover Angel (David Boreanaz) out of Faith's evil clutches. Chock-full of exceptional episodes, this third season started out with a bang (the superb season opener "Anne," in which a runaway Buffy finally returns to her Slayer calling) and never let up. Among other highlights, the season introduced former vengeance demon and soon-to-be regular Anya (Emma Caulfield), fleshed out Angel's tortured character (and readied him for his own series), and featured a hilarious doppelganger Willow (Alyson Hannigan), a vampire from a parallel universe, who in Willow's own words was "evil and... skanky... and kinda gay!" (Total foreshadowing there, folks.) The season's pièce de résistance, though, was the two-parter "Graduation Day," wherein Faith tries to kill Angel, and the students of Sunnydale High prepare to do battle with a mutated mayor and his army of demons. Aside from the series' exceptional writing and acting, this compelling year of Buffy was anchored by the consistently excellent Gellar, as well as Dushku's complicated Faith, a girl you truly love to hate. By the time you finish these episodes, Faith will have cast a spell on you that you'll find very hard to shake. --Mark Englehart

• Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Complete Season 5 | DVD | (18/10/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £79.99

  The fifth season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer is about illusions and the truth that they often reveal; suddenly Buffy has a younger sister, has always had a younger sister. Michelle Trachtenberg as the moody, gawky Dawn achieves the considerable triumph of walking into an established stock company of well-known characters--Xander, Willow, Giles and so on--with the perfect assurance of a long-term member of the cast. Of course, nothing is as it seems; even Glory, the mad brain-sucking beauty in a red dress who is the villain of the year, turns out to be even more than she seems. Sarah Michelle Gellar as Buffy manages to convey heartbreak, self-involvement and real heroism as her relationship with her emotionally dense soldier boyfriend Riley hits the shoals and the blonde vampire Spike starts to show an altogether inappropriate interest. This season is also about the hard truth that there are some enemies it is impossible to fight. Even being around Buffy and Dawn is dangerous for their friends, as Glory and her minions proceed by a process of elimination. The eventual confrontation, when it comes, is genuinely shocking. Meanwhile, the vampire Spike's obsessed desire for Buffy takes them both to some very strange places and Willow and Tara have their love tested in the most gruelling of ways. And in the quietly upsetting episode "The Body", the cast produce their most impressive performances yet as they have to deal with another enemy they cannot fight. --Roz Kaveney

• Sherlock Holmes - The Musgrave Ritual / The Abbey Grange | DVD | (09/06/2003) from £9.97   |  Saving you £0.02 (0.20%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Two more mysteries for the detective Sherlock Holmes to solve! The Musgrave Ritual: Holmes and Watson are staying with Reginald Musgrave at Hurlstone Manor. During their stay the butler disappears after he has been dismissed for prying into family documents examining details of the Musgrave ritual. Then when Rachel the housemaid vansihes Holmes begins to employ his deductive powers. The Abbey Grange: When Sir Eustace Brackenstall is bludgeoned to death in his dinning room Holmes is called in. After interviewing Lady Mary Sir Eustace's wife who herself was assaulted in the attack Holmes concludes that it is the work of the notorious Lewisham gang and hands the matter over to the local constabulary. But on the way back to London something is nagging in Holmes mind...

• Buffy the Vampire Slayer - Season 6 (New Packaging) | DVD | (03/10/2011) from £99.99   |  Saving you £-72.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £27.99

  The sixth season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer followed the logic of plot and character development into some gloomy places. The year begins with Buffy being raised from the dead by the friends who miss her, but who fail to understand that a sacrifice taken back is a sacrifice negated. Dragged out of what she believes to have been heavenly bliss, she finds herself "going through the motions" and entering into a relationship with the evil, besotted vampire Spike just to force her emotions. Willow becomes ever more caught up in the temptations of magic; Xander and Anya move towards marriage without ever discussing their reservations; Giles feels he is standing in the way of Buffy's adult independence; Dawn feels neglected. What none of them need is a menace that is, at this point, simply annoying--three high school contemporaries who have turned their hand to magical and high-tech villainy. Added to this is a hungry ghost, an invisibility ray, an amnesia spell and a song-and-dance demon (who acts as rationale for the incomparable musical episode "Once More, with Feeling"). This is a year in which chickens come home to roost: everything from the villainy of the three geeks to Xander's doubts about marriage come to a head, often--as in the case of the impressive wedding episode--through wildly dark humour. The estrangement of the characters from each other--a well-observed portrait of what happens to college pals in their early 20s--comes to a shocking head with the death of a major character and that death's apocalyptic consequences. The series ends on a consoling note which it has, by that point and in spite of imperfections, entirely earned. --Roz Kaveney

• Are You Being Served? - The Movie | DVD | (22/04/2002) from £14.84   |  Saving you £-0.85 (N/A%)   |  RRP £13.99

  Writers Jeremy Lloyd and David Croft managed something quite clever with this, the film version of the 1970s sitcom Are You Being Served?. The idea of this cheery collection of comedy stereotypes--the pompous one, the vulgar one, the camp one, the shifty one and so on--being confined within a department store was a master stroke, as it allowed any kind of situation to arise without the plot having to exceed the restrictions imposed by the set. How, then, to keep the same theme for the big screen without just offering the television series writ large? Simple: send the whole cast on holiday together but make sure they can't leave their hotel, a state of affairs contrived easily enough by throwing a guerilla uprising into the plot. So it is, then, that the staff of Grace Bros. descend on the Costa Plonka while the store is closed for refurbishment. There are all the usual jokes involving knickers, boobs, toilets and gay sex (sometimes all at once), adding up to a good slice of nostalgic fun for anyone who was there when lapels really were that wide. Incidentally, this item is worth having just for the wonderful Frank Langford caricatures on the cover. On the DVD: Are You Being Served? comes to the digital format with just one extra item, a trailer.--Roger Thomas

• England's Summer of Cricket 2012 | DVD | (15/10/2012) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £29.99

  Packed with nearly 8 hours of action from England's 2012 summer of cricket. England went into the 2012 summer ranked the world's best Test team and aiming for top spot in the One-Day game. In their way stood Test and ODI series against an emerging West Indies side and the mighty South Africa, plus a One-Day series against the old enemy, Australia. The summer began with Andrew Strauss back in the runs and wickets for Stuart Broad. Darren Sammy and Marlon Samuels starred for the Windies, and there was an incredible world record innings at number 11 by Tino Best. Then, under Alastair Cook, the One-Day side were far too good for Australia as England eased to a comprehensive series victory. But the biggest challenge was still to come... Kevin Pietersen's scintillating 149 and an exciting 95 from Jonathan Bairstow gave England hope against South Africa but they were up against a side at the very top of their game, with Hashim Amla in sensational form. The home side went to the final match at Lord's desperately trying to cling on to top spot, a struggle which came down to a thrilling last day of the series... It was to be Strauss's last match as he announced his retirement from the game. But the One-Day side ended the summer on a high. An even contest against South Africa saw England end 2012 as the number one side in the world.

• X-Men: Beginnings Trilogy | DVD | (10/07/2017) from £4.99   |  Saving you £14.92 (299.00%)   |  RRP £19.91

  Although the superhero comic book has been a duopoly since the early 1960s, only DC's flagship characters, Superman and Batman (who originated in the late 1930s) have established themselves as big-screen franchises. Until now--this is the first runaway hit film version of the alternative superhero X-Men universe created for Marvel Comics by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and others. It's a rare comic-book movie that doesn't fall over its cape introducing all the characters, and this is the exception. X-Men drops us into a world that is closer to our own than Batman's Gotham City, but it's still home to super-powered goodies and baddies. Opening in high seriousness with paranormal activity in a WW2 concentration camp and a senatorial inquiry into the growing "mutant problem", Bryan Singer's film sets up a complex background with economy and establishes vivid, strange characters well before we get to the fun. There's Halle Berry flying and summoning snowstorms, James Marsden zapping people with his "optic beams", Rebecca Romijn-Stamos shape-shifting her blue naked form, and Ray Park lashing out with his Toad-tongue. The big conflict is between Patrick Stewart's Professor X and Ian McKellen's Magneto, super-powerful mutants who disagree about their relationship with ordinary humans, but the characters we're meant to identify with are Hugh Jackman's Wolverine (who has retractable claws and amnesia), and Anna Paquin's Rogue (who sucks the life and superpowers out of anyone she touches). The plot has to do with a big gizmo that will wreak havoc at a gathering of world leaders, but the film is more interested in setting up a tangle of bizarre relationships between even more bizarre people, with solid pros such as Stewart and McKellen relishing their sly dialogue and the newcomers strutting their stuff in cool leather outfits. There are in-jokes enough to keep comics' fans engaged, but it feels more like a science fiction movie than a superhero picture. --Kim Newman

• A Kid In King Arthur's Court | DVD | (17/07/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Faith in oneself is crucial but often difficult to develop. Calvin Fuller (Thomas Ian Nicholas) a misfit from the 20th-century ""Knights"" baseball team lacks self-confidence. Imagine his alarm when he's sucked into the Middle Ages to answer the wizard Merlin's (Ron Moody) plea for a ""Knight"" to save King Arthur and Camelot from the scheming Lord Belasco (Art Malik). Intense culture shock befalls all involved as a bewildered Calvin dines on pig snouts and learns to lance while King Ar

• Urban Gothic - Series 1 And 2 Complete | DVD | (07/03/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Featuring both series 1 and 2 of the cult classic televison series. Behind the facade of London's shiny dockside developments its designer boutiques and coffee bars lie forgotten dark corners and darker secrets. It's a city where anything can happen and being young and pretty wont always save you. From vampire documentaries to alien-infested supermarkets from teenage necromancy to ghostly East End gangsters you'll find tales of the city to chill the blood in Urban Gothic.