"Actor: Roger Llo"

• Debussy: Pelleas et Melisande | DVD | (09/10/2000) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Debussy's great literary opera, Pelléas et Mélisande, based on Maeterlinck's dramatic reading of the classic tale of sibling rivalry, was first performed in 1902. This 1988 production was recorded at the Opéra National de Lyon, swapping a traditional medieval forest setting for a fin de siècle Castle Allemonde in which the characters wander through vast, shadowy and empty halls. The cast features Colette Alliott-Lugaz as a mercurial Mélisande and Francois le Roux as a Byronic Pelléas, with José van Dam as his brother Golaud, the austere fly in the ointment. Little actually happens on stage. The characters circle each other, describing events and emotions which they only half understand. Often, their recitative is introspective rather than a means of external communication. The drama is played out in the landscape of the mind, punctuated and emphasised by Debussy's remarkable, brooding and atmospheric score. At times, it becomes the swirling stuff of nightmare, an aspect to which John Eliot Gardiner's assured conducting pays close attention. The opera might come to its inevitable end, but there is a strong sense that these ghost-like figures are doomed to repeat their tragic tale endlessly. Uncomfortably haunting stuff, with moments of breathtaking beauty. --Piers Ford

• Double Platinum | DVD | (19/06/2000) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  A soapy backstage melodrama originally produced for network broadcast, Double Platinum downplays showbiz verisimilitude to turn on the tears. With 60s soul queen Diana Ross and 90s pop princess Brandy sharing production credit as well as billing, this formulaic tearjerker focuses on its stars' dramatic chops more than their musical prowess, a choice that won't deter their respective audiences, even as it disappoints less partisan music fans who might have hoped for a stronger musical component.Olivia King (Ross) is the former St. Louis housewife who abandoned her family for pop stardom, only to return 18 years later determined to meet, and reconcile with, her daughter, Kayla (Brandy), now nurturing her own footlight fantasies. But when the prodigal mom finally does reveal herself to the bright, feisty teen, Kayla is outraged and then hard-boiled. Olivia's offer to help the undeniably talented girl make industry contacts is accepted, with the bitter caveat that the superstar should abandon any hopes of a true maternal bond with her embittered daughter. The usually imperious Olivia meekly accepts those terms, while the secretly yearning Kayla keeps up her tough-cookie cover, but the plot telegraphs its ultimate destination, even as the tears flow.Both stars acquit themselves well in the story's stormier clashes, and the emotional tug of the story is well engineered to soak hankies. Less credulous viewers will be hampered by the original songs--when Ross steps on-stage, her regal demeanour and flashy (if occasionally silly) gowns support her supposed status as a legend, but the utterly forgettable, generic songs she mouths deflate that image. That said, viewers less interested in the actual music than the glitzy idea of the two characters may well be content to wallow in the waterworks of a story that could as easily have been titled Divas: The Next Generation. --Sam Sutherland, Amazon.com

• The Dead Next Door | DVD | (24/09/2001) from £25.63   |  Saving you £-1.64 (-6.80%)   |  RRP £23.99

  This well-known film financed by Sam 'Evil Dead' Raimi follows the effects of a deadly virus which turns corpses into flesh-eating zombies. A crack team of soldiers called The Zombie Squad fight a non-stop struggle for life and death....

• Only Fools And Horses - Complete Only Fools And Horses - The Series And Specials | DVD | (31/10/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £199.99

  This mammoth of a box set is a dream come true for any fan of Trotter's Independent Traders PLC. Featuring all the episodes from series 1-7 and the following specials: 1. The Story Of Only Fools And Horses 2. Time On Our Hands 3. Sleepless In Peckham 4. Dates 5. Fatal Extraction 6. Frog's Legacy 7. Heroes & Villains 8. Modern Men 9. If They Could See Us Now 10. Jolly Boy's Outing 11. Miami Twice 12. Mother Nature's Son 13. Rodney Come Home 14. Royal Flush 15. To Hull & Back 16. Strangers On The Shore

• Blackmail | DVD | (11/02/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £1.99

  Two low-life con men lose big-time on a sure thing. Forced to come up with the cash by their loan shark this stylish dark thriller takes you on a roller coaster plot boasting illegal boxing gambling extortion drugs murder necrophilla love seduction and ritual execution by golf ball...

• Only Fools and Horses - Complete Anniversary Box Set | DVD | (05/09/2011) from £11.99   |  Saving you £25.00 (250.25%)   |  RRP £34.99

  Voted Britain's best ever sitcom in millennium polls, Only Fools and Horses has a muddled history on video. This release should make things clearer, containing for the first time the complete fifth series on a double-video. Dating from 1986, the episodes have previously appeared on the compilations Tea for Three and Watching the Girls Go By.Like so much great comedy, pathos lies behind these cleverly scripted, deceptively straightforward tales, continuing the tradition of lovable rogues in BBC sitcoms from Steptoe and Son and Porridge. David Jason's Del Boy dreams of becoming a millionaire, "this time next year", but we know life isn't like that. In "From Prussia with Love", Del, kid-brother Rodney (Nicholas Lyndhurst) and Uncle Albert (Buster Merryfield) replay Three Men and a Baby , while "The Miracle of Peckham" raises the church roof. "The Longest Night" has our trio as prisoners of the world's most useless criminal, while Rodney has an unhappy encounter with a sunbed in "Tea For Three". The gormless one turns unlikely film-maker, resulting in a "Video Nasty", before the series ends with "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?", testing family loyalties when Del is offered the chance of a lifetime. Essentially British and very re-watchable, Only Fools and Horses deserves the description classic comedy. --Gary S. Dalkin