This box set features the entire second series of the classic British Television drama Inspector Morse. Episodes comprise: 1. The Wolvercote Tongue: Morse is called to investigate the suspicious death of a wealthy American tourist Laura Poindexter. She was on a cultural tour of Britain with her husband and their visit to Oxford had a special significance for them. Laura had inherited a precious jewel known as 'The Wolvercote Tongue' and had announced her intention t
School boy Patrick Smash has an amazing ability to fart! As he learns to harness his strange power he begins a weird and wonderful journey that takes him from fame to deathrow and finally onto his life-long goal: to become an astronaut.
Chance In A Million the classic 1980s series widely regarded as one of the best UK sitcoms of its day comes to DVD for the very first time! Episodes Comprise: Plumstones Honour Thy Father and Mother Flowing with the Tide The Birthday Party Man of Iron Stuff of Dreams The Taxman Cometh For Whom the Bell Tolls The Lost Weekend And What Shall We Do for a Ring? Winning Streak Naming the Day Goodbye Mr Hemstridge Guess Who's Not Coming for Dinner The Blessing The Once and Future Chance Pre-Matrimonial Tension The Wedding
Amadeus triumphs as gripping human drama sumptuous period epic glorious celebration of the music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - and as the winner of eight 1984 Academy Awards including Best Picture (produced by Saul Zaentz) Actor (F. Murray Abraham) Director (Milos Forman) and Adapted Screenplay (Peter Shaffer).
Queen Victoria strikes up an an unlikely friendship with a young Indian clerk named Abdul Karim. Click Images to Enlarge
When it was released in 1994 Four Weddings and a Funeral quickly became a huge international success, pulling in the kind of audiences most British films only dream of. It's proof that sometimes the simplest ideas are the best: in terms of plot, the title pretty much says it all. Revolving around, well, four weddings and a funeral (though not in that order), the film follows Hugh Grant's confirmed bachelor Charles as he falls for visiting American Carrie (Andy McDowell), whom he keeps bumping into at the various functions. But with this most basic of premises, screenwriter Richard Curtis has crafted a moving and thoughtful comedy about the perils of singledom and that ever-elusive search for true love. In the wrong hands, it could have been a horribly schmaltzy affair, but Curtis' script--crammed with great one-liners and beautifully judged characterisations--keeps things sharp and snappy, harking back to the sparkling Hollywood romantic comedies of the 30s and 40s. The supporting cast, including Kristin Scott Thomas, Simon Callow and Rowan Atkinson (who starred in the Curtis-scripted television show Blackadder) is first rate, at times almost too good: John Hannah's rendition of WH Auden's poem "Funeral Blues" over the coffin of his lover is so moving you think the film will struggle to re-establish its ineffably buoyant mood. But it does, thanks in no small part to Hugh Grant as the bumbling Charles (whose star-making performance compensates for a less-than-dazzling Andie MacDowell). Though it's hardly the fault of Curtis and his team, the success of the Four Weddings did have its downside, triggering a rash of far inferior British romantic comedies. In fact, we had to wait until 1999's Notting Hill for another UK film to match its winning charm--scripted, yet again, by Curtis and starring Grant. --Edward Lawrenson
Set in the Middle Ages – Arn, the son of a Swedish nobleman, must journey to the Holy Land on horseback as a sentence for falling in love with a forbidden romantic partner, Cecilia, who in turn, is banished to spend the rest of her days in a convent. The harsh voyage carries Arn through the heart of the medieval world and into the core of brutal and bloody Crusades. Both he and Cecilia must learn to fight to survive, to confront evil and overcome tremendous suffering and misery, guided by the faith that one day they will be reunited. Arn returns home to fight for his love and his life’s mission: to unite Sweden into one kingdom. Contains over 70 minutes of extra footage.
A supernatural, occult thriller from Iron Maiden's Bruce Dickinson and Monty Python director and editor, Julian Doyle, about a shy lecturer who becomes possessed by the late black magician, Aleister Crowley when an experiment goes awry.
Set in Florence and the English countryside, the film tells the story of a young English couple, Lucy Honeychurch (Helena Bonham Carter) and George Emerson (Julian Sands), who encounter passion whilst on holiday in Italy. Defying the Victorian conventions of their elders they dare to be true to their feelings, each other and true love. Superbly adapted from E.M. Forster's classic novel, and boasting a wonderful supporting cast including Daniel Day-Lewis, Maggie Smith, Dame Judi Dench, Denholm Elliot and Simon Callow, A Room With A View was a world-wide smash hit and cemented the reputation of Merchant Ivory as masters of the period film.
Starring Dan Stevens (Downton Abbey, Beauty and the Beast) as Charles Dickens, The Man Who Invented Christmas tells the true story of how the iconic author came to write the seminal yuletide novel A Christmas Carol in only six weeks. Set in 1840s London, Dickens had been struggling to come up with fresh ideas after the failure of his last three works. However, when he's inspired by the vision of a story that would fire the hearts of humanity, he set out to write and self-publish a book that would reignite his career. As the likes of Ebenezer Scrooge (played by Academy Award-winner Christopher Plummer) and The Ghosts of Christmases Past, Present and Future start coming to life in his head, Dickens began creating a masterpiece that gave birth to the Christmas we know and love today.
Not wanting to live in the shadows any longer, Winnie-the-Pooh, Piglet, Owl, and Tigger take their fight to the town of Ashdown, leaving a bloody trail of death and mayhem in their wake.
2015 marks the centenary year of the remarkable Orson Welles, and this insightful documentary explores the enigma and polymath that was Welles. Jean-Luc Godard once said of this exceptional actor, writer and director: All of us will always owe him everything. Directed by critically-acclaimed documentary maker, Chuck Workman, Magician divides Welles' life into four chapters, with Workman portraying him as an artist who never stopped working throughout his career, but whose unconventional approach ensured he was much misunderstood by Hollywood. Magician is a montage, featuring scenes from almost every existing Welles film - from Hearts of Age to rarely-seen clips from his final unfinished films such as Don Quixote - as well as his television and commercial work. This is an essential film not just for fans of the great Orson Welles, but anyone interested in the magic of cinema.
A new animated version of Charles Dickens' classic tale of Scrooge and the three ghosts that visit him one Christmas Eve.
A note-perfect cinematic event whose immortality was assured from its opening night, Amadeus is an unlikely candidate for the Director's Cut treatment. Like one of Mozart's operas, the multiple Oscar-winning theatrical version seemed perfectly formed from the outset--ideal casting, costumes, sets, cinematography, lighting, screenplay, music, music, music--so the reinstatement of an extra 20 minutes simply risks adding "too many notes". Yet though this extended cut can hardly be said to improve a picture that needed no improvement, it does at least flesh out a couple of small subplots and shed new light on certain key scenes. Here we learn why Constanze Mozart bears such ill-will towards Salieri when she discovers him at her husband's deathbed: he has insulted and degraded her after she came to him for help. We also see deeper into the reasons why Mozart has no pupils: not only has Salieri poisoned the Emperor's mind against him, but the only promisingly lucrative teaching job he can find ends disastrously when he realises that the master of the house just wants music to quiet his barking dogs. In a humiliating coda to that episode, a drunk and desperate Wolfgang returns later to beg for money only to be coldly rejected. The structure of the picture is otherwise unaltered. On the DVD: Amadeus--The Director's Cut finally accords this masterful work the DVD treatment it deserves. The handsome anamorphic widescreen picture is accompanied by a choice of Dolby 5.1 or Dolby stereo sound options, and it's all contained on one side of the disc (the original single-disc DVD release was that crime against the format, a "flipper"). Director Milos Forman and writer Peter Shaffer provide a chatty though sporadic commentary, but they're obviously still too mesmerised by the movie to do much more than offer the odd anecdote. Disc 2 contains an excellent new hour-long "making of" documentary, with contributions from Forman, Shaffer, Sir Neville Marriner and all the main actors, taking in the scriptwriting, choice of music, casting and problems involved in filming in Communist Czechoslovakia with half the crew and extras working for the Secret Police. --Mark Walker
Directed and written by legendary rock promoter Simon Napier-Bell, manager of The Yardbirds, T Rex and George Michael, and created to coincide with the 50 anniversary of the partial decriminalisation of homosexuality, this is an engaging journey through the subsequent years of how those changes affected LGBT lives. It features interview with leading activists and cultural commentators including Ian McKellen, Elton John, Matt Lucas, Derek Jacobi and Simon Callow.
Chicken Run: Trouble is brewing down on Mrs Tweedy's poultry farm: the chickens are revolting (yes that old chestnut) and clucky hen Ginger (voiced by Julia Sawalha) is planning her latest coop um coup. Getting one or two birds out of the farm is no problem whatsoever. Unfortunately Ginger plans to get everyone out at the same time and when one of the would-be escapees happens to be kind-hearted but bird-brained Babs (Jane Horrocks) Ginger is fighting a losing battle. As she contemplates her next escape attempt with Scottish engineering genius Mac (Lynn Ferguson) Ginger sees their salvation in the form of a rooster named Rocky (Mel Gibson) if the cocksure Rocky can teach all of the hens how to fly then they can all fly out of Tweedy's clutches before she gives them the chop! James And The Giant Peach: This is the story of James Henry Trotter a lonely orphan sent to live with his horribly wicked and greedy Aunts Spiker (Joanna Lumley) and Sponge (Miriam Margoyles). When James meets a strange old man who promises that marvelous things will happen indeed they do. Escaping his aunts by climbing inside a giant peach that mysteriously and suddenly grows on their barren tree he meets some very unusual new friends and as they break free in the peach from Spiker and Sponge they embark on a series of wildly imaginative adventures. Anastasia: The lost Russian Princess Anastasia and her incredible quest to find her true identity. When the shadow of revolution falls across Russia Anastasia the royal family's youngest daughter barely escapes with her life. Years later joined by a band of heroic companions Anastasia must battle the evil Rasputin his sidekick Bartok the bat and a host of ghostly minions in a headlong race to reach Paris reclaim her rightful destiny.... and solve the greatest mystery of the 20th century!
In the deepest jungles of Africa, two tribes will fight a savage war unless a sacred animal can be found so they're sending for the only man who can help, Ace Ventura (Jim Carrey)! Ace embarks on a delicate mission from the English Consul General (Simon Callow) to help a people untouched by civilisation. Blind to fear and immune to pain Ace must gain the respect of the tribe, discover the animal within and answer: When Nature Calls!
A film by Mike Nichols of Carrie Fisher's semi-autobiographical novel, Postcards from the Edge is an intermittently hilarious, occasionally tear-stained account of an actress' struggle with addiction and with her competitive star mother. Meryl Streep turns in yet another flawlessly perfect performance as Suzanne, who is coping with cleaning up while making yet another idiot cop film. Shirley Maclaine is effective and overpowering as her hard-drinking Old Hollywood star mother perpetually trying to remould her daughter, singing Sondheim songs at parties, showing off her still-perfect legs and occasionally driving into trees. Among the many guest stars, Dennis Quaid is self-effacingly unpleasant as an unreliable boyfriend, Gene Hackman charismatic as a fatherly director and Annette Benning impressive in a cameo as a starlet rival. Nichols' standard slickness is very much on display here; this is perhaps too obviously manipulative a film in which the emotional detail is never quite as impressive as the central performances and script deserve. On the DVD: The DVD takes the rather subversive risk of giving the commentary role to Carrie Fisher, who discusses entertainingly how the screenplay evolved from her original novel, occasionally making clear that certain sentimentalisations of the characters were not her idea; she argues coherently that the film makes Meryl Streep's character a little too much the martyr. She also gives us a lot of faintly scurrilous Hollywood and family gossip. It also provides the theatrical trailer and filmographies for the director and major players. --Roz Kaveney
Geraldine McEwan takes over the coveted mantle of the titular super sleuth in one of a series of all-star cast adaptations of Agatha Christie's Miss Marple novels. The Bantrys wake to find the body of a young woman in their library. But who is she? How did she get there? And what is the connection with another dead girl whose remains are discovered in an abandoned quarry? The Bantrys invite Miss Marple to solve the mystery...
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