"Actor: Peter John"

• Joy Division - Under Review | DVD | (30/10/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  The music of troubled Manchunian band Joy Division is put under the spotlight.

• Thunderbirds: Volume 1 | DVD | (19/07/2004) from £5.46   |  Saving you £10.53 (192.86%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Filmed in VIDECOLOR [explosions, drum roll, music builds to a climax] and SUPERMARIONATION"! The opening sequence of Thunderbirds is itself a masterclass in Gerry Anderson's marionette hyperbole: who else would dare to make a virtue out of the fact that (a) the show is in colour and (b) it's got puppets in it? But everything about this series really is epic: Thunderbirds is action on the grandest scale, pre-dating such high-concept Hollywood vehicles as Armaggedon by 30 years and more (the acting is better, too), and fetishising gadgets in a way that even the most excessive Bond movies could never hope to rival. Unsurprisingly, it transpires that the visual effects are by Derek Meddings, whose later contributions to Bond movies like The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker echo his pioneering model work here. As to the characters, the clean-cut Tracey boys take second place in the audiences' affections to their cool machines--the real stars of the show--while comic relief is to be found in the charming company of Lady Penelope and her pink Rolls (number plate FAB1), driven by lugubrious chauffeur Parker, whose "Yes, milady" catchphrase resonated around school playgrounds for decades. (Spare a thought for poor old John Tracey, stuck up in space on Thunderbird 5 with only the radio for company.) The puppet stunt-work is breathtakingly audacious, and every week's death-defying escapade is nailbitingly choreographed in the very best tradition of disaster movies. First shown in 1964 and now digitally remastered, Thunderbirds is children's TV that still looks and sounds like big-budget Hollywood. On this DVD: International Rescue's very first adventure provides a template for all the rest: in "Trapped in the Sky" an experimental new aircraft becomes the target of an evil Bond-style megalomaniac who wants to get his hands on all the neat pieces of kit operated by the Tracey siblings. The show introduces, in fetishistic detail, the recurring set-pieces: Thunderbird 1 taking off from the roll-back swimming pool, which pod will Thunderbird 2 use this week--the mole or the submarine perhaps?--and so on. Nostalgia fans will be pleased to learn that despite digital remastering the puppet strings are still in evidence, and no amount of high-tech restoration could remove the clunky expository dialogue: Stewardess: "It's the maiden flight of the new atomic-powered Fireflash." Passenger: "Isn't that the new aircraft that flies six times the speed of sound?" Stewardess: "That's right, but don't worry: it's perfectly safe." [Cut to: interior, Fireflash landing gear, a device clearly labelled "Auto-Bomb Detonator Unit"] Sinister bad guy (talking to himself for no readily apparent reason): "Perfect. Enough explosives to smash the Atomic Reactor." In the second episode, "Pit of Peril", an absurdly impractical US Army vehicle falls into the eponymous pit, necessitating use of pod five, the mole. Joy! Lady Penelope indulges in some James-Bond-style counter-espionage measures in the third episode, "The Perils of Penelope", while Parker indulges some of his famous Eliza Dolittle-isms; although he is trumped by the Cary Grant sound-a-like character Sir Jeremy Hodge (or 'odge as Parker would have it), whose response to a crisis is, "I say, open the door, we're British!". Then it's back to the action for the fourth episode, "Terror in New York City", in which poor Virgil is shot down by the US Navy in Thunderbird 2 before the boys must rescue an unscrupulous newshound from the wreckage of the Empire State Building (featuring the first appearance of their very own yellow submarine, Thunderbird 4) --Mark Walker

• That's Carry On | DVD | (07/07/2003) from £20.00   |  Saving you £-7.01 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Celebrating twenty years of classic Carry On films two of the film's best loved stars Kenneth Williams and Barbara Windsor return to Pinewood Film Studios to unwrap some rib-tickling moments to the series. From the original military mayhem of 'Carry On Sergeant' through to the really ancient archaeological gags of 'Carry On Behind' our saucy hosts get their titters out for this laugh-a-second gallop through the most successful series of British comedy films ever made. With a cast

• All Creatures Great And Small : Complete BBC Series 5 | DVD | (03/03/2008) from £7.95   |  Saving you £20.03 (403.83%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Based on James Herriot's autobiographical best sellers 'If Only They Could Talk' and 'It Shouldn't Happen to a Vet' the long running TV series All Creatures Great and Small continued to satisfy the Herriot hysteria of the British public.

• The Champions | DVD | (30/08/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  When British jocky Bob Champion is struck down with cancer in the prime of his career his desire to live is determined by a single promise; on successful recovery he will ride jump prospect Aldaniti in the 1981 Grand National... John Hurt gives a truly stunning performance as Bob Champion in this true story of courage dedication and the strength of the human spirit.

• Augustus - the First Emperor | DVD | (22/08/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £1.99

  As the empire kneeled in defeat one man stood in triumph. In 42 BC Rome is in the middle of a civil war. Together with his friend Agrippa the young Augustus goes to Spain in order to help Julius Caesar in his struggle against the troops of Pompey. Caesar honours his adopted son Augustus with a triumphal entry into Rome and then sends him to Greece together with his friends Agrippa and Maecenas. There Augustus hears the news of Caesar's assassination and he returns to Rome with his friends. Back in Rome he is able to gain both the support of the people and political power. In his struggle with the conspirators against Caesar he finds an ally in Marc Antony. Augustus and Marc Antony are able to defeat the forces of Brutus and Cassius at the battle of Phillipi. But now Augustus has to share his empire with Marc Antony who in the meantime has become the lover of the Egyptian queen Cleopatra. Augustus declares war on both of them and after a successful military campaign he becomes the sole ruler of the Roman Empire. During his rule Rome not only experiences a period of peace and prosperity it is also an age in which both art and culture flourish. His new wife Livia Drusilla becomes his most important political advisor. It is she who discovers that Iullus (the son of Marc Antony and lover of Augustus' daughter Julia) is plotting to murder the emperor...

• All Creatures Great And Small - Series 6 - Complete | DVD | (18/08/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Based on James Herriot's autobiographical best sellers If Only They Could Talk and It Shouldn't Happen to a Vet the long running TV series All Creatures Great and Small is back with Series 6! Featuring all 12 episodes from Series 6!

• That Beryl Marston...! - The Complete Series | DVD | (20/04/2009) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  The Classic TV Sitcom Series

• Night of The Eagle (Cult Classics) | DVD | (01/07/2024) from £7.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• I'm All Right Jack | DVD | (16/02/2004) from £14.21   |  Saving you £2.78 (16.40%)   |  RRP £16.99

  After a decade on radio in The Goons, 1959's I'm All Right Jack set Peter Sellers on the road to international stardom. Sellers played both Sir John Kennaway, and unforgettably, the Bolshy trade union leader Fred Kite (he would go on to take three roles in Dr Strangelove and featured endless disguises in The Pink Panther in 1963) series. The result is laugh-out-loud comedy with a satiric edge, lampooning the then burning issue of industrial relations. Bertram Tracepurcel's (Dennis Price) plans to make a fortune from a missile contract, a scheme which involves manipulating his innocent nephew Stanley Windrush (Ian Carmichael) into acting as the catalyst in an escalating labour dispute, from which the socialist Mr Kite is only too keen to make capital. Management and labour both have their self-serving hypocrisy dissected in this ingenious comedy, actually a sequel to the military comedy Private's Progress (1956), but which stands independent of the earlier film. Both films were made by the brothers John and Roy Boulting, director and producer of such British classics as Brighton Rock (1947), Seven Days to Noon (1950), Carlton-Browne of the F.O. (1959) and Heaven's Above (1963). The superb cast of I'm All Right Jack also features Richard Attenborough, John Le Mesurier, Margaret Rutherford and Terry Thomas. --Gary S. Dalkin

• The Overlanders | DVD | (26/01/2009) from £11.99   |  Saving you £4.00 (25.00%)   |  RRP £15.99

  The Overlanders

• The Doug McClure Fantasy Adventure Triple Pack | DVD | (21/03/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £29.99

  Three cracking Doug McClure titles in one fantastic box set. The Land That Time Forgot: The adventure you will never forget... Edgar Rice Burroughs collaborated with Michael Moorcock to write the script for The Land Before Time adapted from his own novel. A German U-boat torpedos a British ship during WW1 and the survivors are taken onboard. But the U-boat gets lost and drifts into a mist-filled prehistoric land. Soon they find themselves battling dinosaurs neanderthals

• Sophie's Choice | DVD | (19/09/2005) from £6.50   |  Saving you £0.49 (7.54%)   |  RRP £6.99

  The sunny streets of Brooklyn, just after World War II. A young would-be writer named Stingo (Peter MacNicol) shares a boarding house with beautiful Polish immigrant Sophie (Meryl Streep) and her tempestuous lover, Nathan (Kevin Kline); their friendship changes his life. This adaptation of the bestselling novel by William Styron is faithful to the point of being reverential, which is not always the right way to make a film come to life. But director Alan J. Pakula (All the President's Men) provides a steady, intelligent path into the harrowing story of Sophie, whose flashback memories of the horrors of a Nazi concentration camp form the backbone of the movie. Streep's exceptional performance--flawless Polish accent and all--won her an Oscar, and effectively raised the standard for American actresses of her generation. No less impressive is Kevin Kline, in his movie debut, capturing the mercurial moods of the dangerously attractive Nathan. The two worlds of Sophie's Choice, nostalgic Brooklyn and monstrous Europe, are beautifully captured by the gifted cinematographer Néstor Almendros, whose work was Oscar-nominated but didn't win. It should have. --Robert Horton, Amazon.com

• Honeymoon In Vegas | DVD | (07/06/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Writer-director Andrew Bergman is capable of funny, funny stuff, but Honeymoon in Vegas runs out of jokes long before it runs out of comic ideas. The result is a series of comedy concepts that never get past the one-liner stage and are distinctly unsatisfying. Still, there is plenty to be amused by in this story of a reluctant bridegroom (Nicolas Cage) who finally agrees to marriage, only to lose his fiancée (Sarah Jessica Parker) in a crooked poker game to a professional gambler (James Caan). The rest of the movie deals with his frantic attempt to get his fiancée back, while coping with a Vegas in the throes of an Elvis-impersonator convention. That's the funniest thing about the whole movie (most notably the team of parachuting Elvises at the end), but even that is drawn out in ways that are more clever than laughter-inducing.--Marshall Fine, Amazon.com

• Rasputin | DVD | (24/07/2000) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Prince Alexei heir to the last Tsar is a hemophiliac. The Tsarina is persuaded to allow a mysterious monk Rasputin to use his powers of healing on the Prince. Against the wishes of the Tsar Rasputin tends to the young Prince - with frighteningly successful results. So begins a relationship which ended in Rasputin's murder and the eventual downfall of Imperial Russia...

• Thunderbirds: Volume 3 | DVD | (19/07/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Filmed in VIDECOLOR [explosions, drum roll, music builds to a climax] and SUPERMARIONATION"! The opening sequence of Thunderbirds is itself a masterclass in Gerry Anderson's marionette hyperbole: who else would dare to make a virtue out of the fact that (a) the show is in colour and (b) it's got puppets in it? But everything about this series really is epic: Thunderbirds is action on the grandest scale, pre-dating such high-concept Hollywood vehicles as Armaggedon by 30 years and more (the acting is better, too), and fetishising gadgets in a way that even the most excessive Bond movies could never hope to rival. Unsurprisingly, it transpires that the visual effects are by Derek Meddings, whose later contributions to Bond movies like The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker echo his pioneering model work here.As to the characters, the clean-cut Tracey boys take second place in the audiences' affections to their cool machines--the real stars of the show--while comic relief is to be found in the charming company of Lady Penelope and her pink Rolls (number plate FAB1), driven by lugubrious chauffeur Parker, whose "Yes, milady" catch phrase resonated around school playgrounds for decades. (Spare a thought for poor old John Tracey, stuck up in space on Thunderbird 5 with only the radio for company.) The puppet stunt-work is breathtakingly audacious, and every week's death-defying escapade is nail-bitingly choreographed in the very best tradition of disaster movies. First shown in 1964 and now digitally remastered, Thunderbirds is children's TV that still looks and sounds like big-budget Hollywood.On this DVD: The four episodes are: "End of the Road", "The Uninvited", "Sun Probe" and "Operation Crash Dive".

• Phantoms | DVD | (07/01/2002) from £45.15   |  Saving you £-30.16 (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Either Dean Koontz shouldn't adapt his own bestsellers, or his 1983 novel Phantoms was a pack of horror clichés to begin with, or this movie is 15 years past its due date. What might have seemed fresh at the time of Poltergeist now feels like it was made from a derivative script with pages missing. Plagued by reckless leaps of logic, the movie starts with adequately eerie atmosphere and a perversely twisted performance by Scream 2's Liev Schreiber, but decays into a familiar hash of gross-out effects, resulting from the annihilation of a small Colorado town by an evil force known as "The Ancient Enemy". In a dreary role that insults the twilight of his distinguished career, Peter O'Toole plays a paleobiologist whose crackpot ideas have become tabloid fodder; but he holds the key to conquering the beast. Or does he? Sure enough, an obligatory coda leaves room for anticlimactic doubt. Phantoms has a few genuinely creepy highlights, including a devilish beastie resembling an angry flying scorpion, and horror fans will surely find something to admire, but everyone else is advised to proceed with caution and lowered expectations. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com

• The Tommy Steele Story | DVD | (19/07/2010) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  On the night of his greatest triumph as a musical performer whilst surrounded by press men Tommy looks back on how he got started.... With a career in the Merchant Navy a second hand guitar an anonymous Calypso bar far far away - this is how the The Tommy Steele Story begins.

• And Now The Screaming Starts | DVD | (20/01/2003) from £33.76   |  Saving you £-17.77 (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  It is 1795 England and the lovely Catherine (Stephanie Beacham) arrives at the foreboding manor where she is to marry Sir Charles Fengriffen (Witchfinder General's Ian Ogilvy ). Almost immediately upon arrival Catherine is set upon by a series of strange hallucinations and visions involving a severed hand as well as a creepy eyeless ghost. Catherine's sanity to say nothing of her life is threatened as she tries to uncover the source of the supernatural happenings and a sudden pregnancy only adds to the mystery as she slowly begins to find out what dark secrets really exist at Fengriffen! Peter Cushing stars in the blood-curdling tale. As with just about anything he is in Cushing doesn't just carry the film he steals it! As the 18th-century psychiatrist Dr. Pope he serves as a sort of Sherlock Holmes-ish character investigating the claims of ghosts and struggles in vain to find a way to cure with reason what he perceives as Catherine's delusions. Beacham and Ogilvy give solid genre performances but when Cushing is on screen it is simply his film. Veteran heavy Herbert Lom (perhaps best remembered for his recurring role in the Pink Panther series as Peter Sellers's psychotic boss) is chilling in a flashback appearance. Gravelly voiced beatle-browed Patrick Magee makes the most of an underwritten role while Ian (The Saint) Ogilvy and Stephanie Beacham carry the film superbly as the tormented bride and groom.

• Under Milk Wood | DVD | (27/10/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Under Milk Wood is the Dylan Thomas' magnum opus which carries the double legacy of the author's extensive work for radio - a medium for which he had an almost intuitive grasp - and his skill and ability as a poet. The play describes the thoughts of a stranger (Richard Burton) who whilst wandering through a small Welsh village seems to know the intimate details of the life of a selection of the town inhabitants. Described in poetic terms we learn that most of the inhabitants are very strange people indeed - we are told about their innermost desires and thoughts. Under Milk Wood is a sensitive often comic examination of Welsh life in which the people are viewed as being particularly blessed. This is a must have DVD for any Dylan Thomas fan and lover of great literature.