"Actor: Robin Walters"

• Telling Secrets | DVD | (03/12/2001) from £11.45   |  Saving you £-6.47 (N/A%)   |  RRP £1.99

  Detective Jay Jensen (Ken Olin) investigates the brutal murder of Stacey Eckhart a young mother who has been having an affair with the husband of a respected socialite Faith Kelsey (Cybill Shepherd). When the police follow up all the possivle leads they discover that Faith is a woman without conscience. She's capable of seducing cops manipulating her lovers and planning the most cold-blooded murders. She is a woman who will stop at nothing to get equal with those who betray her and she always gets what she wants. Based on a true story.

• Alan Bleasdale Presents - Reqiuem Apache - Ch4 | DVD | (28/05/2018) from £5.11   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Based on the play by Jim Morris. Blood on the Dole follows the lives of four teenagers, two boys and two girls, struggling to cope after being thrust into the real world for the first time after leaving school. Living in deprived Merseyside, the four youths' bright-eyed optimism for their futures and new-found freedom is soon crushed by the realities of unemployment, poverty, and the brutal reality of living and trying to find work in a city in decline. They all soon find themselves in the hopeless situation of facing complete dependence on state handouts, the dole . The four teenagers instead find themselves turning to each other to find the strength to survive. An impressively fresh social commentary and portrayal of teenage love set within a disturbingly authentic account of disenfranchised youth. With austerity still very much a part of our political climate, and recent films such as I, Daniel Blake continuing to challenge such government policy, Blood on the Dole is still a hugely relevant watch today. Produced by BAFTA-winner Alan Bleasdale as a part of the Alan Bleasdale Presents series, a Channel 4 anthology showcasing and given a platform to new, up-and-coming talent young writers. After his successes in landmark dramas including Boys from the Black Stuff, The Monocled Mutineer and GBH, in 1994 Channel 4 gave Alan Bleasdale the opportunity to find and mentor new TV writers. Four big-budget, standalone films were made as a result, with top casts and experimental storylines.

• The 13th Sign | DVD | (27/11/2000) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  The 13th Sign is a no-budget horror-action flick in which a solar-eclipse provides the backdrop for all manner of cultish goings-on in rural England. Obvious fans of The Wicker Man, directors Adam Mason and Jonty Acton gamely try to imbue the action with that film's sinister tones, most notably through the creepy rural setting and the appearance of a suave, philosophy-spouting country lord. Sadly they don't stop there, also throwing in (among a plethora of other jarring and disparate elements) a copious dose of supernatural mumbo-jumbo and a trio of cyberpunk hitmen. The film's miniscule budget is an Achilles' heel that cannot be disguised by enthusiasm alone. It is all very well staging a Desperado-style face-off to wow your audience, but its impact will inevitably be dampened somewhat if it has to take place outside the village Co-op. What we are left with then is a buxom, blood-drenched heroine gamely fighting a losing battle against bizarre bounty-hunters, lazily possessed rednecks, unconvincingly fiery-eyed demons and production values that make The 13th Sign look like the goriest and most convoluted You've Been Framed clip of all time. --Paul Philpott