"Actor: Patrick Drury"

• Father Ted : Complete Box Set | DVD | (04/11/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £49.99

  Father Ted is one of those rare sitcoms that defies categorisation--it owes as much to Flann O'Brien and Samuel Beckett as it does to Monty Python--and its blend of satire, character comedy and anarchic surrealism has made it a cult favourite around the world. Exiled to remote Craggy Island, Father Ted shares a house with the breathtakingly stupid Father Dougal Maguire and the constantly inebriated Father Jack, who has a small vocabulary and a taste for furniture polish. Their housekeeper, Mrs Doyle, takes care of them with a never-ending supply of tea and sandwiches: "Go on now, Father, won't you try one? They're diagonal." Together they fight boredom by dressing up as Elvis, startling ducks at the fair and provoking nuns. This set compiles the entire three-year series. --Simon Leake

• Father Ted : The Very Best Of Father Ted | DVD | (18/11/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Is it a sitcom? Is it a serious documentary about the Catholic priesthood? No, it's The Very Best of Father Ted, a choice collection of episodes from Graham Linehan and Arthur Matthews' affably surreal sitcom. Ted's the normal one, as evidenced by his moving Song for Europe entry, "My Lovely Horse"--a modern classic if ever there wasn't one. Gasp as "poor idiot boy" Father Dougal becomes a rollerblading fiend in "Cigarettes and Alcohol and Rollerblading"; be amazed as super Ted saves Craggy Island from a deadly milk-float in the stunning blockbuster sequel "Speed 3" (well, it's faster and more fun than Speed 2); fall off the window-sill as devoted housekeeper Mrs Doyle utters the line that's almost Shakespearean in its sublimity, "Cup of tea, Father?". Graham Norton pops up to annoy everyone in "The Mainland", there's a whole host of Elvis impersonators in "Competition Time", and meanwhile Father Jack doesn't need an excuse to hit the bottle (or to smash one over someone's head) in any episode. Not saying Mass has probably never been so much fun. On the DVD: The Very Best of Father Ted on disc has six episodes as opposed to five on the video release: the extra one is the Christmas special, "A Christmassy Ted". Extra features are selected commentaries by Graham Linehan and Ardal O'Hanlan, a clip compilation of each character, and a rather poor photo gallery. Picture is 4:3 and sound basic stereo. --Gary S Dalkin

• Father Ted - The Complete 1st Series | DVD | (20/08/2001) from £13.54   |  Saving you £6.45 (32.30%)   |  RRP £19.99

  From its very beginning in 1995, Graham Linehan and Arthur Matthews' affable sitcom Father Ted occupied a previously undiscovered niche in TV comedy: by turns endearing and surreal, it was always effortlessly hilarious. Ted's the almost normal one, fighting the good fight to keep his sanity amid the chaos of his own household, where he lives with "poor idiot boy" Father Dougal, psychotically devoted housekeeper Mrs Doyle and foul-mouthed Father Jack, who doesn't need an excuse to hit the bottle (or smash one over someone's head) in any episode and whose vocabulary consists of just three immortal words: "Drink, Feck, Girls!"The first series opens with "Good Luck, Father Ted" as we learn just how dreary life on Craggy Island really is when Funland arrives (which boasts such attractions as Freak Pointing and the Spinning Cat!). Everyone's patience is tested further when "Entertaining Father Stone"--quite possibly the most boring man on Earth--in the second episode. Proving bad publicity can be good publicity, Ted and Dougal then accidentally manage to attract audiences to the blasphemous film "The Passion of St Tibulus". Their ingenuity is tested to the limit in "Competition Time" as they become "The Three Ages of Elvis". Dermot Morgan's Ted is at his most sympathetic in "And God Created Women" when he gets the wrong end of the stick about the intentions of romantic novelist Polly Clarke. Then, lastly, in " Grant Unto Him Eternal Rest", everyone rallies round at Father Jack's "funeral" to reminisce about what a fine priest and good-natured fellow he was! These six episodes made for a wonderful series debut; catchphrases were born ("Drink!"), as were regular characters (Jim Norton's sinister Bishop Brennan); and like Mrs Doyle's ever-wandering facial mole, audiences wanted it to "go on go on go on".On the DVD: the only extra is an exceedingly self-deprecatory commentary from co-writer Graham Linehan, who explains the origins of the characters and how he wrote in collaboration with Arthur Matthews. He frequently and hilariously compares himself with others (chiefly Mel Brooks on Young Frankensteinand The Producers). Fans will be delighted to hear many jokes that nearly made it into the show, but will undoubtedly end up somewhere else! --Paul Tonks

• Father Ted - Series 3 | DVD | (20/05/2002) from £9.20   |  Saving you £10.79 (117.28%)   |  RRP £19.99

  This set contains the final series of Father Ted, which ended abruptly in 1998 with the death of its talented comic star, Dermot Morgan. The eight episodes here are a little uneven, but the best stuff is classic, laugh-out-loud satire, including "Are You Right There, Father Ted", in which Morgan's titular Catholic priest is re-banished to Ireland's Craggy Island, a green rock replete with paranoid sheep, randy milkmen, Nazi memorabilia collectors and an inexplicably large community of Chinese immigrants. Outstanding, too, is "Speed 3", in which Ted discovers that a number of babies recently born on Craggy all look like a self-made swinger named Pat Mustard. "Kicking Bishop Brennan Up the Arse" speaks for itself, and "The Mainland" gives supporting actor Ardal O'Hanlon (as idiotic fellow cleric Dougal) a great showcase. --Tom Keogh

• The Awakening | DVD | (25/06/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  The evil one must not live again! An archeologist discovers his daughter is possessed by the spirit of an Egyptian queen. To save mankind he must destroy her.

• Soldier Soldier - The Complete Series 3 | DVD | (11/04/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £29.99

  The complete third series of the hugely popular army drama starring Robson Green Jerome Flynn Holly Aird and Gary Love. These thirteen episodes see the King's Fusiliers on location in New Zealand and Germany... Episodes Comprise: 1.Shifting Sands 2.Live Fire 3.Base Details 4.Fall Out 5.Disintegration 6.Hide And Seek 7.Trouble And Strife 8.Hard Knocks 9.Camouflage 10.Staying Together 11.Dutch Courage 12.Stand By Me 13.Leaving

• Father Ted - Series 2 - Part 2 | DVD | (25/02/2002) from £9.21   |  Saving you £10.78 (53.90%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Among the five episodes collected here are two of Father Ted's finest half-hours. "Rock-A-Hula Ted" was one of the few episodes in which the writers of the show abandoned any concern for their largely British audience and stacked the script with explicitly Irish references: Craggy Island's "Lovely Girls" festival is a burlesque of the all-too-genuine "Rose Of Tralee" pageant, and fire-breathing pop singer Niamh Connolly--played with aplomb by Clare Grogan--an obvious enough Sinead O'Connor manqué. "New Jack City", meanwhile is the classic episode in which the choleric Father Jack is finally despatched to an old folks' loony bin only to be replaced by the mesmerisingly appalling ragga-fixated chain-smoker Father Fintan Stack. As one of the high points of the Father Ted series this episode is also one of the high points of television comedy. There isn't much wrong with the other three episodes here, either. On the DVD: an interactive menu allows the selection of individual episodes, and segments within those episodes. The only extra feature is the option of watching the episodes with the dialogue replaced with a commentary by co-writer Graham Linehan and actor Ardal O'Hanlon, who plays Father Dougal Maguire. Occasionally interesting and revealing though this is, it gets rapidly wearing in this form, and would have worked much better if transcribed in an accompanying booklet. The disc is presented in 4:3 aspect ratio with English subtitles available.--Andrew Mueller

• The Beiderbecke Connection | DVD | (10/11/2003) from £13.70   |  Saving you £-3.71 (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  The ongoing saga of investigative schoolteachers Trevor Chaplin and Jill Swinburne continues in this four part series....

• Midsomer Murders - Who Killed Cock Robin? | DVD | (11/10/2004) from £7.20   |  Saving you £9.79 (135.97%)   |  RRP £16.99

  Chief Inspector Barnaby is pitted against one of his old rivals when what at first seems like a routine road accident opens the door on a much more sinister crime.... An Irish stranger vanishes after being knocked down by Dr Burgess on his way home from an evening's drinking. Barnaby discovers the visitor to be Sean O'Connell a disgraced vet turned horse whisperer then his search brings him face to face with an old adversary Melvyn Stockard. Stockard's daughter is about t

• Midsomer Murders - Death In Chorus | DVD | (25/12/2006) from £4.98   |  Saving you £12.01 (241.16%)   |  RRP £16.99

  The strangely flush population of Midsomer faces another murder investigation when a choir singer gets offed in the run-up to the annual competition.