"Actor: Peter Martin"

• The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy | DVD | (28/01/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  The original BBC radio adventures of Arthur Dent (an ape-descendant whose anger at the apparently inexplicable destruction of his home planet Earth, situated in an obscure corner of the outer spiral arm of the galaxy, is expressed in frequent irritation at friendly automatic doors and vending machines) and his travelling companions, Ford Prefect (an itinerant towel-carrying hitch-hiker originally from a small planet somewhere in the vicinity of Betelgeuse), Zaphod Beeblebrox (the notorious ex-Galactic President and patron of Eccentrica Galumbits, the triple-breasted whore of Eroticon Six) and Marvin the Paranoid Android (who's still suffering from that terrible pain in all the diodes down his left side) proved to be such a success for the BBC that its transition to TV was (almost) inevitable. In 1981 several key members of the radio cast made the move to the small screen. Simon Jones' bewildered Arthur Dent remains the central character, shambling around in his dressing gown (a fact easy to forget on radio); Mark Wing-Davey's Zaphod Beeblebrox is the same as his boastful radio persona, even if the second head utterly fails to convince. Unfortunately, newcomers David Dixon (as Ford Prefect) and the irritating Sandra Dickinson (as Trillian) are no match for their radio predecessors.The problem here is not so much the low-budget look as the script itself, which is lovingly faithful to the radio series in a way that Douglas Adams' novels aren't. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was a lucid, satirical, occasionally profound, utterly unique comic invention on radio. As such, it has nothing to gain from TV. The script needs no visual elaboration--that's best left to the listener's own imagination. Only the animated renditions of the Guide itself enhance Peter Jones' wonderfully dry narration; otherwise--paradoxically, perhaps--by supplying images the concept is oddly diminished here.On the DVD: A suitably eclectic not to say eccentric collection of extra features makes this a wholly satisfying two-disc set, neatly packaged in a fold-out slipcase. On the second disc there's an hour-long "making of" documentary from 1992 featuring contributions from the cast and crew, including Douglas Adams; and then there's even more in a 20-minute section entitled "Don't Panic!". A fascinating behind-the-scenes peek at filming as the clock runs out on studio time and a look at the recording of the original radio series complete the first part. Then navigate to the "Outer Planets" to find outtakes, a deleted scene, Zaphod's animatronic second head on Tomorrow's World and Peter Jones's witty and shambolic introduction to the first episode, plus more besides. The series itself is presented in standard 4:3 ratio and Dolby stereo. --Mark Walker

• Anastasia | DVD | (17/04/2019) from £2.83   |  Saving you £3.16 (111.66%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Stomping out their usual cuteness and carbon copying Disney's grand animation style to a tee, directors Don Bluth and Gary Goldman (An American Tail) create a successful musical comedy from the story of the lost Russian princess. Adapting the story of imperialism and revolution is tricky, and subsequently the film's opening is weak. Once Anya (voiced by Meg Ryan, sung by Liz Callaway) is a teenager and on her own (suffering from some degree of amnesia), Anastasia is quite pleasing though never refreshingly new. 20th Century Fox's big-money gamble to horn in on Disney's realm is worthy. The songs, especially the recurrent "Once Upon a December" by Broadway team Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty, are better than Disney's recent efforts. It's worth picking up the soundtrack. The mix of cell animation and computer work is vivid. The collection of vocal talent is also strong, from John Cusack (as Dimitri, who wants to earn the reward by bringing Anya to Paris) to Hank Azaria as an amusing albino bat. Kelsey Grammer helps turn a roly-poly sidekick into a warm and strong supporting character. The biggest drawback is Bluth/Goldman's insistence on having a typical villain. Surprisingly, the story would be strong enough without one and the undead corpse of Rasputin (Christopher Lloyd) is unneeded and unoriginal. --Doug Thomas

• Doctor Who - The Power Of The Daleks Special Edition | Blu Ray | (27/07/2020) from £13.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Patrick Troughton stars in this recreation of a lost classic from 1966. The TARDIS brings the Doctor, Polly and Ben to a colony on the swamp planet of Vulcan. Soon after arriving, the Doctor witnesses a brutal murder. Meanwhile, in another part of the colony an ancient crashed space capsule has been discovered in the swamps. The colony's misguided chief scientist opens the capsule and discovers a group of strange metal 'creatures' inside. The creatures appear to be long dead. The Doctor calls the metal creatures 'Daleks' and claims that they are incredibly dangerous. 'Power of the Daleks' was the first Doctor Who story to star Patrick Troughton as the Doctor - broadcast between November and December 1966. Sadly, none of the six original broadcast episodes of 'Power of the Daleks' any longer exist in the BBC Film Archives. However, complete audio recordings of the lost episodes have survived in the hands of private collectors. And it is these audio recordings that are used as the basis for this special animated production of the programme. Now in a brand new edition and brought to you in glorious black and white... Includes exciting new special features: Two new documentaries about Power of the Daleks 1993 BBC audio version of The Power of the Daleks narrated by Tom Baker Raw incidental music Photogrammetry Featurette Whicker's World - I Don't Like My Monsters to Have Oedipus Complexes Daleks - The Early Years: A 1992 documentary presented by Peter Davison Robin Hood - 1953 Episode: Patrick Troughton's earliest surviving TV appearance BBC archive footage from BBC regional news, BBC Breakfast, Blue Peter and Newsnight Previously unreleased animation trailers and animatics Additional bonus material: Audio commentaries by Anneke Wills on each episode Animation test footage Photo Gallery, including previously unreleased and rediscovered full colour on-set photos from 1966. Servants & Masters - The Making of The Power of the Daleks Doctor Who The Highlanders

• Brassed Off | DVD | (10/09/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Take The Full Monty, add a sharper emotional edge and replace the strutting strippers with a dignified British band. That's the essence of Brassed Off, a bittersweet gem released in 1996, a year before its more popular (and Oscar-nominated) counterpart. In the Yorkshire town of Grimley, there has always been a coal mine, just as for the last 111 years there has been a brass band and it seems that Danny (the wondrous Pete Postlethwaite) has been the director for every one of those years. Tory economic policies, however, are closing coal mines around the country in favour of nuclear power and Grimley appears to be next on the list. Danny is unfazed by the threat, claiming, "It's music that matters." But some of the men are about to quit the band until the appearance of Gloria (Tara Fitzgerald at her most radiant), who dazzles the all-male group (including old flame Andy, played by Ewan McGregor) first with her beauty, then with her flügelhorn playing. The new member gives the band a boost as they continue to perform and compete but closure remains very real, as director Mark Herman (Little Voice) accompanies the band's performances (played with gusto by the Grimethorpe Colliery Band) with scenes of angry labour-management confrontations and family strife. In this context, some of the characters claim that the music is an irresponsible form of escapism. It becomes clear, however, from a touching performance of "Danny Boy" to the stirring conclusion at Royal Albert Hall, that music is an expression of the human spirit, a bit of beauty and sanity in a harsh world. With defiance, the band can play "Land of Hope and Glory" even when the land offers them neither. --David Horiuchi

• Sorcerer (40th Anniversary Collector's Edition) | Blu Ray | (06/11/2017) from £14.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Exiled from their home nations, four strangers from separate corners of the earth agree to undertake a dangerous mission to transport unstable dynamite through the dense jungle of South America in order to earn their passage home. When the slightest bump in the road could equal instant death, the real question is not whether these men will survive this nerve-shredding ordeal but who will they have become if they return at all? After the success of The French Connection and The Exorcist, William Friedkin began work on his biggest project to date. Seizing the moment, he embarked on an ambitious and lengthy shoot in the dense jungles of the Dominican Republic and like Werner Herzog with Fitzcoraldo and Francis Ford Coppola on Apocalypse Now, Friedkin battled the elements, came face-to-face with nature and emerged victorious. Now, 40 years since its release, Sorcerer is regarded by critics and filmmakers alike as a true lost cinematic masterpiece a feat of filmmaking that encapsulates the revolutionary artistry of 1970s American cinema that is a triumph to behold Special Features: Sorcerers A Conversation with William Friedkin and Nicolas Winding Refn (74 mins) The Mystery of Fate A letter from director William Friedkin Newly commissioned artwork to celebrate the 40th Anniversary Reversible sleeve containing the newly commissioned and original theatrical artwork

• Doctor Who – The Collection Season 20 Blu-Ray Limited Edition Packaging | Blu Ray | (18/09/2023) from £59.98   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Continue Your Doctor Who Archive With The Ultimate Collectors' Set Arc Of Infinity Snakedance Mawdryn Undead Terminus Enlightenment The King's Demons The Five Doctors (20th Anniversary Special) Product Features All 7 classic stories newly restored for Blu-ray and packed with extra material including: The Five Doctors - 40th Anniversary Restoration Brand new restoration of the original 1983 anniversary special, with Hd film material, optional 2023 special effects, new 5.1 soundtrack and multiple audio commentaries featuring Peter Davison, David Tennant, Elisabeth Sladen, Nicholas Courtney, Janet Fielding, Mark Strickson, Carole Ann Ford and more Brand New Updated Special Effects For Snakedance and Enlightenment Making-of Documentaries Exclusive to Blu-ray, new documentaries covering Arc Of Infinity and The King's Demons Brand New Featurettes Including a new interview with Martin Clunes On The Road The trip of a lifetime - a European road trip with Peter Davison, Janet Fielding and Sarah Sutton In Conversation Matthew Sweet chats to Janet Fielding and Sarah Sutton Behind The Sofa Blu-ray Trailer A brand new short film made to promote this Blu-ray release Studio Footage Immersive 5.1 Surround Sound Exclusive new surround mixes for Snakedance and The Five Doctors Rare Convention Footage Archive Treats Pdf Written Archive Scripts & rare archival material The Five Doctors - 1995 Special Edition - And Much More! Each disc also features extensive Special Features previously released on DVD including: Making Of Documentaries, Featurettes, Audio Commentaries, Info Text, Isolated Music and more.

• Taste The Blood Of Dracula | DVD | (28/06/2013) from £4.99   |  Saving you £13.00 (260.52%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Taste the Blood of Dracula is one of the best of Christopher Lee's Dracula series for Hammer. A group of businessmen who, out of sight of their families, like nothing more than to frequent brothels and generally behave in sensation-seeking ways, are persuaded by Dracula's servant (a splendidly manic Ralph Bates) that summoning up the orthodontically-challenged aristocrat would be the ultimate thrill. They warily agree, purchasing relics for the necessary ritual from a shifty dealer (Roy Kinnear--who else?), but panic halfway through the proceedings and decide to kick their initiator to death instead. Unfortunately, it's too late, and Dracula materialises as they make good their escape, swearing to avenge the murder of his servant. While the subsequent descent into paranoia by the three villains-Dracula himself hardly counts in comparison with this odious bunch--isn't exactly the stuff of Rosemary's Baby, it still infuses the plot with an element of psychodrama that is unusual for a Hammer fang-fest. There are strong performances pretty much all round, but Peter "Clegg" Sallis quakes exceptionally nicely as one of the trio of miscreants. The sets, props and costumes are of an unusually high order, too. --Roger Thomas

• Wings Of Desire | Blu Ray | (22/02/2010) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  An angel in Berlin decides to become human after falling in love with a mortal. One of Wim Wenders' biggest commercial successes and arguably his most accessible film to date Wings of Desire (aka: Der Himmel uber Berlin) centres around two trench-coated angels Damiel (Bruno Ganz) and Cassiel (Otto Sander) wandering the streets of post-war pre-unification Berlin. Invisible to humans they listen to the tortured thoughts of the mortals occasionally dispensing heavenly solace to those in need. An encounter with a beautiful circus trapeze artist Marion (Solveig Dommartin) sees Damiel falling in love and longing to give up his immortal state in order to experience the simple joys of human experience. Damiel is assisted in his transformation by an American actor (Peter Falk) filming on location in the city himself a former angel who has traded in his wings for a mortal existence. Scripted by Wenders and respected German playwright and novelist Peter Handke the film is impeccably shot by legendary cinematographer Henri Alekan (Jean Cocteau's cameraman on La belle et la bete) blossoming from the monochrome perspective of the angels to colour following Damiel's eventual transmutation. As ever with Wenders music plays an important part and the film features rare on-screen performances by the bands Crime And The City Solution and Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds. Multi-award winning (including the Best Director prize at the 1987 Cannes Film Festival) and hugely acclaimed Wings Of Desire is a delightfully poetic celebration of the human condition. It famously inspired Brad Silberling's 1998 hit film City of Angels starring Nicolas Cage and Meg Ryan. In 1993 Wenders reunited with Ganz Sander Dommartin and Falk along with Nastassja Kinski and Willem Dafoe for a sequel Faraway So Close!.

• The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy Special Edition | Blu Ray | (01/10/2018) from £12.99   |  Saving you £5.00 (38.49%)   |  RRP £17.99

  For the first time in the history of the universe, the complete Hitcher's Guide to the Galaxy is available in high definition! The cult classic British series from the mind of Douglas Adams is back in this very special edition. Featuring all episodes in full HD and 5.1 audio plus over 5 ½ hours of new and existing bonus material. Unbeknownst to its inhabitants, Earth is to be demolished to make way for an intergalactic highway. Arthur Dent (Simon Jones), an unassuming Englishman, is whisked off the planet to safety by his alien friend Ford Prefect (David Dixon), and launched on a dizzying journey through space and time (with only a towel, and a fish to help them) to discover the meaning of life itself.

• Royle Family Special Edition | DVD | (13/11/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £49.99

  Sit down put your feet up light a fag and join Britain's first family in their sitting room for the complete three series of The Royle Family as well as the Christmas specials and the Finale episode! The Royle Family is a real-life comedy set in a Manchester council house. Imagine a secret camera placed in the living room of an average working class family. The intense drama and emotions of everyday life such as whose turn it is to go to the off-licence is set against the continuous hum of the television. The rosy hue of their life is yellowed only by a nicotine haze. Series 1: 1. Bills Bills Bills 2. Making Ends Meet 3. Sunday Afternoon 4. Jim's Birthday 5. Another Woman? 6. The Wedding Day Series 2: 1. Pregnancy 2. Sunday Lunch 3. Nana's Coming To Stay 4. Nana's Staying! 5. Barbara's Finally Had Enough Series 3: 1. Hello Baby Dave 2. Babysitting Again 3. Decorating 4. Elise Funeral 5. Antony's Going To London 6. The Christening Also includes the 1999 and 2000 Christmas Special episodes as well as the Finale!

• Oscar | DVD | (22/02/2005) from £6.99   |  Saving you £8.00 (114.45%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Anchor Bay presents seven films from Showtime's much-anticipated Masters Of Horror series!

• The Innocents (Blu-ray) | Blu Ray | (23/08/2010) from £54.99   |  Saving you £-30.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  The Innocents tells of an impressionable and repressed governess Miss Giddens (Deborah Kerr) who agrees to tutor two orphaned children Miles (Martin Stephens) and Flora (Pamela Franklin). On arrival at Bly House she becomes convinced that the children are possessed by the perverse spirits of former governess Miss Jessel (Clytie Jessop) and her Heathcliffe-like lover Quint (Peter Wyngarde) who both met with mysterious deaths. Based on the novel The Turn Of The Screw by Henry James.

• Verdi-Don Carlo | DVD | (14/11/2005) from £19.29   |  Saving you £5.69 (34.91%)   |  RRP £21.99

• Doctor Who - Mara Tales | DVD | (07/03/2011) from £12.99   |  Saving you £17.00 (130.87%)   |  RRP £29.99

  Two adventures from the early 1980s with Peter Davison starring as the Time Lord. Titles Comprise: Kinda: The Doctor (Davison) Tegan (Janet Fielding) Adric (Matthew Waterhouse) and Nyssa (Sarah Sutton) land on paradisical Deva Loka for rest and recuperation. However the military expediton on the planet has lost several crew members and the Doctor and Adric are taken hostage by the near hysterical Hindle. Meanwhile Tegan's dreams have provided the gateway to an ancient evil the snake-like Mara. The Doctor must prevent the Mara from taking over the Kinda and destroying the expedition as the wheel of creation begins to turn. Snakedance: A loose sequel to 'Kinda' Tegan must have made a mistake when she was setting the co-ordinates for the TARDIS because the Doctor certainly hadn't intended landing on Manussa. When the Doctor learns that Manussa was once the home of the Sumaran Empire he realises that an evil force has begun to take over Tegan's will. This force the Mara is planning to use Tegan as a vehicle to retake power on Manussa. Just as the celebrations to commemorate the destruction of the Sumaran Empire by the Federation are about to take place the Legend of Mara is about to come true.

• The Royle Family | DVD | (15/05/2006) from £10.00   |  Saving you £29.99 (299.90%)   |  RRP £39.99

  Sit down put your feet up light a fag and join Britain's first family in their sitting room for the complete three series of The Royle Family! The Royle Family is a real-life comedy set in a Manchester council house. Imagine a secret camera placed in the living room of an average working class family. The intense drama and emotions of everyday life such as whose turn it is to go to the off-licence is set against the continuous hum of the television. The rosy hue of their life is yellowed only by a nicotine haze. Series 1: 1. Bills Bills Bills 2. Making Ends Meet 3. Sunday Afternoon 4. Jim's Birthday 5. Another Woman? 6. The Wedding Day Series 2: 1. Pregnancy 2. Sunday Lunch 3. Nana's Coming To Stay 4. Nana's Staying! 5. Barbara's Finally Had Enough Series 3: 1. Hello Baby Dave 2. Babysitting Again 3. Decorating 4. Elise Funeral 5. Antony's Going To London 6. The Christening Also includes the 1999 and 2000 Christmas Special episodes!

• The Thick of It: Specials | DVD | (13/04/2009) from £3.33   |  Saving you £17.92 (865.70%)   |  RRP £19.99

  This DVD contains specials from 2006 & 2007 and includes additional commentaries & cast interviews. Special 2006: The team from the Department of Social Affairs and Citizenship is back with brand-new bigger problems to solve. Something goes terribly wrong on BBC2's Newsnight and everything begins to unravel for Malcom Tucker as enemies in the Government and the Opposition both make bids for power. Special 2007: The Westminster village is now in meltdown after the Prime Minister's shock resignation. As all the various factions begin jockeying for the top jobs Malcolm Tucker is now fighting to save his political career. The Thick Of It is devised by Armando Iannucci and written by Jesse Armstrong Simon Blackwell and Tony Roche.

• The Game | DVD | (09/11/2007) from £8.65   |  Saving you £7.34 (84.86%)   |  RRP £15.99

  It's not quite as clever as it tries to be, but The Game does a tremendous job of presenting the story of a rigid control freak trapped in circumstances that are increasingly beyond his control. Michael Douglas plays a rich, divorced, and dreadful investment banker whose 48th birthday reminds him of his father's suicide at the same age. He's locked in the cage of his own misery until his rebellious younger brother (Sean Penn) presents him with a birthday invitation to play "The Game" (described as "an experiential Book of the Month Club")--a mysterious offering from a company called Consumer Recreation Services. Before he knows the game has even begun, Douglas is caught up in a series of unexplained events designed to strip him of his tenuous security and cast him into a maelstrom of chaos. How do you play a game that hasn't any rules? That's what Douglas has to figure out, and he can't always rely on his intelligence to form logic out of what's happening to him. Seemingly cast as the fall guy in a conspiracy thriller, he encounters a waitress (Deborah Unger) who may or may not be trustworthy, and nothing can be taken at face value in a world turned upside down. Douglas is great at conveying the sheer panic of his character's dilemma, and despite some lapses in credibility and an anticlimactic ending, The Game remains a thinking person's thriller that grabs and holds your attention. Thematic resonance abounds between this and Seven and Fight Club, two of the other films by The Game 's director David Fincher. -- Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com

• Columbo | DVD | (09/04/2001) from £7.08   |  Saving you £2.91 (41.10%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Pilot: Prescription: Murder Psychiatrist Roy Fleming and his wife are celebrating their anniversary when he is called to deal with a patient - Susan Hudson. On returning he has to soothe his angry wife with the promise of a trip to Acapulco. When Fleming's wife is found dead Columbo is brought in to investigate and seeds of doubt are planted in his mind which typically he can not ignore. 2: Fade In To Murder Ward Fowler a star with a reputation for being difficult and demandin

• Ealing Comedy DVD Collection - The Ladykillers/Kind Hearts and Coronets/The Lavender Hill Mob/The Man in the White Suit | DVD | (02/09/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Four of the British film industry's best-loved comedies in one box set makes The Ealing Comedy Collection absolutely essential for anyone who has any passion at all for movies. The set contains Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949), The Lavender Hill Mob (1951), The Man in the White Suit (1951) and The Ladykillers (1955). Ealing's greatest comedies captured the essence of post-war Britain, both in their evocation of a land once blighted by war but now rising doggedly and optimistically again from the ashes, and in their mordant yet graceful humour. They portray a country with an antiquated class system whose crumbling conventions are being undermined by a new spirit of individual opportunism. In the delightfully wicked Kind Hearts and Coronets, a serial killer politely murders his way into the peerage; in The Lavender Hill Mob a put-upon bank clerk schemes to rob his employers; The Man in the White Suit is a harshly satirical depiction of idealism crushed by the status quo; while The Ladykillers mocks both the criminals and the authorities with its unlikely octogenarian heroine Mrs "lop-sided" Wilberforce. Many factors contribute to the success of these films--including fine music scores from composers such as Benjamin Frankel (Man in the White Suit) and Tristram Cary (The Ladykillers); positively symphonic sound effects (White Suit); marvellously evocative locations (the environs of King's Cross in Ladykillers, for example); and writing that always displays Ealing's unique perspective on British social mores ("All the exuberance of Chaucer without, happily, any of the concomitant crudities of his period")--yet arguably their greatest asset is Alec Guinness, whose multifaceted performances are the keystone upon which Ealing built its biting, often macabre, yet always elegant comedy. On the DVD: The Ealing Comedy Collection presents the four discs in a fold-out package with postcards of the original poster artwork for each. Aside from theatrical trailers on each disc there are no extra features, which is a pity given the importance of these films. The Ladykillers is in muted Technicolor and presented in 1.66:1 ratio, the three earlier films are all black and white 1.33:1. Sound is perfectly adequate mono throughout. --Mark Walker

• Columbo - Series 1 | DVD | (13/09/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £34.99

  TV detective fans rejoice: Peter Falk's rumpled and infallible Lt. Columbo joins the DVD precinct with a five-disc set that features the detective's first nine appearances for NBC. Though Falk as Columbo (no first name) made his TV debut in 1967, the detective had actually first appeared on an episode of the 1960-61 Chevy Mystery Show (Bert Freed played the role) written by veteran TV scribes Richard Levinson and William Link (The Fugitive, Alfred Hitchcock Presents). The pair turned the episode into a stage play titled Prescription: Murder, which was adapted into a TV movie in 1967 with Falk in the lead. NBC greenlit a two-hour Columbo pilot (Ransom for a Dead Man) in 1971, and the series was launched that fall as part of the NBC Sunday Mystery Movie, a rotating 90-minute program that alternated Columbo with episodes of MacMillan and Wife and McCloud (another Levinson/Link creation). Viewers were quickly won over by Falk's shrewd performance as he matched wits with a host of exceptional guest stars (including Gene Barry, Patrick McGoohan, and others), all of whom assumed that the disheveled detective would never figure out their "perfect crimes"; the popularity and quality of the original series allows Falk to continue to don the trenchcoat some 30 years later for occasional Columbo TV movies. All seven 90-minute episodes of the 1971-72 debut season are included here, along with Prescription: Murder and Ransom for a Dead Man; unfortunately, as the lieutenant himself would say, "Oh, just one more thing"--no extras are included in the set, but having these fine TV mysteries in one set should be reward enough for armchair sleuths. --Paul Gaita