"Actor: Peter Ho"

• Britten: Owen Wingrave - Berlin/Nagano | DVD | (22/12/2003) from £24.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Owen Wingrave is perhaps Britten's most radical opera, both politically and artistically. Originally written for television, and here presented in a 2001 Channel 4 version, the 1970 score is based, like The Turn of the Screw, on a Henry James ghost story. Britten, though, is more in tune than James with the pacifism into which Owen revolts from a long family tradition of military service. The fluid, impassioned, often declamatory music given Owen makes him one of the most sympathetic of Britten's outsider protagonists, though he has a streak of self-centredness, which stops him being an implausible paragon. Gerald Finley is quite admirable in the part, conveying fully the sense that by losing and dying at the hands of family ghosts, Owen demonstrates the integrity which is central to his character. The other parts are admirably filled here, notably Martyn Hill as Owen's harsh General grandfather, Josephine Barstow as his aunt and Charlotte Hellekant as the fiancee who unknowingly sends him to his death. They and Elizabeth Gale are quite extraordinary in the first act quartet of recrimination and condemnation. This excellent performance compares vocally with the original on almost entirely equal terms--modern technology means that the ghost scenes are far more dramatic and plausible. Kent Nagano and the Berlin Orchestra do full subtle justice to the chamber orchestra sonorities of one of Britten's most interesting scores, never overstressing its complex musical architecture at the expense of the drama. On the DVD: Owen Wingrave is presented in a widescreen 16:9 visual aspect ratio with PCM stereo sound. It is accompanied by The Tender Heart, a documentary about Britten's career full of personal reminiscences by his surviving friends, colleagues and family, that concentrates on Peter Grimes, the War Requiem and Death in Venice, the three popular masterpieces of his early, middle and late career. It has menus and subtitles in English, French, German and Spanish. --Roz Kaveney

• Family Films | DVD | (07/10/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  This box set contains four titles: Charade: Regina's husband is murdered and his money goes missing. A number of searchers come forward to find the money and end up dead. A classic whodunnit. The Millionairess: A spoilt wealthy heiress is able to buy anything she wants. She falls in love with an Indian doctor who foils all her attempts to buy him. At War With The Army: Set in World War II this side-splitting comedy launched Hollywood's most successful partnership. The Road To Bali: Two song-and-dance men get work as divers which takes them to an idyllic tropical island. There they discover priceless jewels and a beautiful princess.

• Jericho Mansions | DVD | (29/03/2004) from £10.45   |  Saving you £-4.46 (-74.50%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Leonard Grey (Caan) is superintendent of Jericho Mansions. His world may be small but he cares for every inch of it. For the last thirty years the building has been his universe as beyond the front door of the apartment block lies a terrifying agoraphobic nightmare into which for as long as he can remember he has never dared to venture. Yet Leonard's sanctuary is beginning to crumble as forces conspire to kick him out including a murder in which all the clues point to him alone...

• Romeo And Juliette - Berlioz | DVD | (27/02/2006) from £24.28   |  Saving you £-4.29 (-21.50%)   |  RRP £19.99

  From the Kulturzentrum Gasteig MunichHector Berlioz - Romeo Et Juliette - Symphonie Dramatique op.17

• Windtalkers / Hart's War / Platoon | DVD | (04/10/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Windtalkers: In 1942 several hundred Navajo Americans were recruited as Marines and trained to use their language as code. Marine Joe Enders (Nicolas Cage) is assigned to protect Ben Yahzee (Adam Beach) - a Navajo code talker the Marines' new secret weapon. Enders' orders are to protect his code talker but if Yahzee should fall into enemy hands he's to protect the code at all costs. Against the backdrop of the horrific Battle of Saipan when capture is imminent Enders is forced to make a decision: if he can't protect his fellow Marine can he bring himself to kill him to protect the code? Harts War: Fourth generation war hero Col. William McNamara is imprisoned in a brutal German POW camp. Still as the camp's highest-ranking American officer he commands his fellow inmates keeping a sense of honour alive in a place where honour is easy to destroy all under the dangerous ever-watchful eye of SS Major Wilhelm Visser. Never giving up the fight to win the war McNamara is silently planning waiting for his moment to strike back at the enemy. A murder in the camp gives him the chance to set a risky plan in motion. With a court martial to keep Visser and the Germans distracted McNamara orchestrates a cunning scheme to escape and destroy a nearby munitions plant enlisting the unwitting help of young Lt. Tommy Hart. Together with his men McNamara uses a hero's resolve to carry out his mission ultimately forced to weigh the value of his life against the good of his country. Platoon: Chris Taylor (Charlie Sheen) is a young naive American who upon his arrival in Vietnam quickly discovers that he must do battle not only with the Viet Cong but also with the gnawing fear physical exhaustion and intense anger growing within him. While his two commanding officers (Oscar-nominated Tom Berenger and Willem Dafoe) draw a fine line between the war they wage against the enemy and the one they fight with each other the conflict chaos and hatred permeate Taylor suffocating his realities and numbing his feelings to man's highest value...life. Winner of four Academy Awards including Best Picture and based on the first-hand experience of Oscar-winning director Oliver Stone Platoon is powerful intense and starkly brutal.

• Please Sir! - The Best Of Please Sir! - Vol. 1 | DVD | (03/02/2003) from £20.97   |  Saving you £-10.98 (-109.90%)   |  RRP £9.99

  They're Off: Bernard's class is taking his teaching methods a little too seriously when they place a bet based on what he told them in class. Appalled Bernard has to cancel the bet or the school will cancel him! Common Law: Bernard plays detective after Sharon is molested in the park on the way home from school. Prepared to be surprised because you'll be shocked at the identity of the culprit! Panalal Passes: By The first Parent Teacher Association meeting is a failure when only the parents of the new boy Panalal turn up. But when Bernard organises a second PTA meeting it's not the parents who are too lazy to turn up it's the teachers!

• Whatever Happened To Aunt Alice? | DVD | (02/07/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  What Ever Happened to Aunt Alice? sees a change of direction for Robert Aldrich's unofficial trilogy which all involve "ageing actresses" in macabre thrillers (What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? and Hush ... Hush, Sweet Charlotte). The busy Aldrich only produced What Ever Happened to Aunt Alice?, calling in TV director Lee H Katzin (a Mission: Impossible regular) to handle the megaphone. Aldrich also opted to shoot the film in pastel colours appropriate to the unusual Arizona desert setting rather than the gothic black and white of the earlier films. The film cast the less iconic Geraldine Page as the genteelly unpleasant Mrs Clare Marrable. Left apparently penniless by her departed husband, Mrs M opts to keep up appearances by hiring a succession of timid elderly housekeepers, bossing them around with well-spoken nastiness, duping them out of their life savings and, on the pretence of getting help with a midnight tree-planting program, lures them into their own graves, batters them to death and plants lovely pines over them. Page gets her own way with the meek likes of Mildred Dunnock, until the feistier, red-wigged R!uth Gordon applies for the job and gets down to amateur sleuthing. While Bette Davis and her partners went wildly over the top in previous films, Page and Gordon play more subtly, finding odd pathetic moments in between the monstrous, irony-laced horror stuff. The supporting cast of pretty or handsome young things, mostly putty in the hands of the manipulative Page, contribute striking little cameos (Rosemary Forsyth sports a pleasing 1969 hairdo as the kindly but intimidated neighbour), but the film belongs to its leading ladies, delivering a fine line in twist-packed cat-and-mouse theatrics. The video is handsomely letterboxed, as befits a film made before widescreen films were shot with all the action in the middle of the frame to facilitate television sales. --Kim Newman

• Lassie | UMD | (10/04/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Lassie has to try and make her way home in time for Christmas in this charming family movie.

• The South Bank Show: Volume 2 | DVD | (31/12/2013) from £26.98   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Pusher / Bleeder | DVD | (14/07/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Nicholas Winding Refn's searing pair of Danish underworld thrillers are provacative mesmerising and blisteringly fast-paced cinema. Pusher: A frenzied week in the life of Frank a Danish drug dealer fighting for his livelihood and his life when a deal goes tragically wrong. Bleeder: Malice and misfortune plague the relationship of Leo and Louise. When jealousy leads to an act of violence the retribution is swift and savage for the couple and their circle of friends.

• Mirror Mirror | DVD | (08/03/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  A collection of four mighty frightening modern horror movies. Includes: Mirror Mirror Mirror Mirror 2 - Raven Dance Mirror Mirror 3 - The Voyeur and Mirror Mirror 4 - Reflection.

• Rumpole Of The Bailey - Series 6 | DVD | (15/03/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Leo Mc Kern stars as the eccentric bibulous Old Bailey defence lawyer Horace Rumpole in the magnificent and hugely popular series penned by the barrister-playwright John Mortimer. This double DVD includes all the episodes from the sixth series of 'Rumpole Of The Bailey'.

• The John Thaw Tribute Collection | DVD | (11/11/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  A tribute to John Thaw which includes: 'Inspector Morse - The Dead Of Jericho' in which Morse investigates the mysterious circumstances surrounding the death of Anne Stavely. Based on the novel by Colin Dexter. 'Kavanagh QC - Nothing But The Truth' which centres on James Kavanagh who has climbed to the top of his profession as one of the leading criminal advocates in London. He takes on the defence of a student accused of raping a middle-aged housewife. 'Goodnight Mister Tom' finds To

• Thunderbirds: Collection Part 1 (Vols 1 - 4 ) | DVD | (19/07/2004) from £87.73   |  Saving you £-23.74 (-37.10%)   |  RRP £63.99

  Trapped In The Sky: Criminal mastermind the Hood puts a bomb on a plane. International Rescue must foil the Hood's evil plans and at the same time save Tin-Tin who is on board. Pit Of Peril: The Sidewinder a revolutionary mobile army unit disappears underground during testing. Brains concocts an elaborate and risky scheme to rescue the men on board. The Perils Of Penelope: Professor Borender an important scientist and Lady Penelope are both abducted. T

• Rumpole Of The Bailey: Series 4 | DVD | (11/08/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Leo McKern stars as the irrepressible Horace Rumpole in this classic series written by the barrister-playwright Sir John Mortimer.

• Fletch / Sergeant Bilko / King Ralph | DVD | (06/09/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  King Ralph: This heart warming comedy starring John Goodman as the unlikliest king ever.... A freak accident kills off the whole Royal Family and a new heir must be found. The last person anyone expects it to be is lounge singer Ralph Jones who goes from one disaster to another as he reluctantly becomes King Ralph.... Sgt. Bilko: Sgt. Bilko is back and up to his old tricks. The arrival of Major Thorn threatens to put a stop to the casino under-the-table deals and Bilko's other illicit businesses... Fletch: Chevy Chase is at his hilarious best in this suspense-packed comedy thriller based on Gregory McDonald's novel. Fletch is an investigative reporter who's constantly changing his identity. While working on a drug expose Fletch attracts the attention of a strange business man (Tim Matheson) who wants to be killed so his wife will inherit more insurance. The wily Fletch senses a scam and soon he's up to his byline in frame-ups murder police corruption and forbidden romance. It'll be the story of the year if he can stay alive to meet his deadline!

• Pusher | DVD | (31/07/2000) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  To deal or not to deal: that is the question. Pusher is the story of Frank a small time drug pusher playing with the big boys. He loves the job the life and most of all the money. When a deal goes wrong Frank has 18 hours to come up with the cash or go on the run in fear of his life.

• Murphy's War | DVD | (06/02/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Murphy is the sole survivor of his crew that has been decimated by a German U-Boat in the closing days of World War II. He lands on a forgotten island and begins to plot his vengence. He wishes to sink the U-Boat that has floated up by means of any method imaginable to him and sets about to make the courageous attempt assisted by Louie the islands Government Admistrator.

• Abominable Snowman, The / X The Unknown | DVD | (08/03/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £23.99

  A double bill of vintage horrors from Hammer Studio: Val Guest directs Nigel Kneale's script of The Abominable Snowman (1957) while Leslie Norman directs Jimmy Sangster's Quatermass-inspired X The Unknown (1956).

• Hootie And The Blowfish - A Series Of Short Trips | DVD | (12/09/2005) from £17.53   |  Saving you £-4.54 (-34.90%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Take A Series Of Short Trips with Mark Dean Darius and Soni - and get to know them. This release features a never before seen video: Be The One shot on location in Asia. Also included is behind the scenes footage and interviews with the band - completely uncensored - and 14 of the bands favourite tunes.