"Actor: Terence Alexander"

• The New Statesman - The Complete First Series | DVD | (23/04/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  The New Statesman is a multi-award winning masterpiece of political satire. Rik Mayall stars as the ruthless Alan B'Stard the egocentric MP who will stop at nothing to further his political career. Episodes comprise: Happiness Is A Warm Gun / Passport To Freedom / Sex Is Wrong / Waste Not Want Not / Friends Of St. James / Three Line Whipping / Baa Baa Black Sheep

• The League Of Gentlemen | DVD | (15/01/2001) from £14.98   |  Saving you £0.01 (0.07%)   |  RRP £14.99

  The League of Gentlemen is a sardonic crime drama in which Jack Hawkins plays an embittered retired army officer who recruits seven fellow ex-soldiers to carry out a bank raid with military precision. The film presents an England between post-war austerity and the more liberated 1960s where traditional moral certainties were rapidly being discarded; a London where ex-officers left on the scrapheap at war's end could justify turning their military experience to armed robbery. Unfortunately the tale is neither particularly amusing or thrilling, with an overlong central detour via an army camp prefacing the exciting heist and a largely anti-climactic ending. Nevertheless Hawkins effectively subverts his heroic officer type from The Cruel Sea (1953) and The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), and there's excellent support from a great cast including Nigel Patrick, Richard Attenborough and Roger Livesey. Bryan Forbes not only wrote the cynical screenplay but costarred with wife Nanette Newman in her first significant screen role. More influential than truly classic, The League of Gentlemen has lent its name to a modern BBC comedy, an "Extraordinary" comic strip-turned-movie, and proved the template for heist films ever since, including both versions of The Italian Job (1969 and 2003). On the DVD:The League of Gentlemen is presented in an anamorphically enhanced 16:9 transfer from an excellent condition print and mostly looks and sounds fine. There's minimal print damage, though sadly Philip Green's ironically patriotic main title music suffers from significant distortion. The only extra is the original trailer, which is now something of a period piece itself. --Gary S Dalkin

• Bulldog Breed, The / One Good Turn | DVD | (12/05/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  In 1960, Norman Wisdom was left all at sea in The Bulldog Breed. He had already made a farce of the army in The Square Peg (1958), so what better than to join the navy? Back in the real world, the Russians had kick-started the space race putting Sputnik into orbit, so Norman rapidly finds himself selected to be the first Brit in space. Playing to type, the result is excellent physical comedy and copious tomfoolery at the expense of the upper ranks. With support from John Le Mesurier and Edward Chapman (the legendary "Mr Grimsdale") and uncredited appearances from Oliver Reed and Michael Caine, this is a notable British comedy, with an unusually direct reference to the risqué Carry On movies. For his second starring role Norman Wisdom played the oldest orphan of Greenwood Children's Home in 1954's One Good Turn. Not only does he have to find the money to buy one of the orphans a model car, but after a visit to Brighton he discovers Greenwood is due to be closed down by the home's own unscrupulous chairman, a property developer with plans to build a factory on the site. Also starring Thora Hird, One Good Turn was surely a film with a personal resonance for Wisdom who was himself brought-up in an orphanage after his mother died and his father was unable to raise him. As would become a tradition, he contributes a song, "Please Opportunity", and the movie, though produced by Rank, now sits easily in that classic Ealing era where the ordinary man took on the big guys and won. The innocent knockabout humour remains appealing. --Gary S Dalkin

• Agatha Christie's Seven Dials Mystery | DVD | (03/03/2008) from £14.83   |  Saving you £2.16 (14.57%)   |  RRP £16.99

  This drama is based on the best-selling novel by Agatha Christie and starring Sir John Gielgud (Summer's Lease) Rula Lenska (Footballers Wives TV) Terence Alexander (Bergerac) Cheryl Campbell (William and Mary) and Christopher Scoular (A Dorothy L Sayers Mystery: Strong Poison). This stylish thriller is set in the midst of a high society weekend party. All appears to be going swimmingly until one of the guests fails to appear for breakfast and is later found dead. Broadcast at peak time on ITV in 1981 this is available for the first time on DVD in the UK.

• The Avengers : The Definitive Dossier 1965 (Box Set 1) | DVD | (01/04/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Swingingly stylish adventures with super spies John Steed and Mrs Peel! Flashback to the Sixties with the coolest duo in crimefighting! The Town of No Return: Steed finds a town full of ghosts and Emma gets into a harness. The Gravediggers: Steed drives a train and Emma is tied to the tracks... The Cybernauts: Steed receives a deadly gift and Emma pockets it. Death at Bargain Prices: Steed fights in ladies underwear and Emma tries feinting. Castle De'ath: Steed becomes a strapping Jock and Emma lays a ghost. The Master Minds: Steed becomes a genius and Emma loses her mind.

• Dangerous Cargo / Dead Man's Evidence | DVD | (14/10/2013) from £13.05   |  Saving you £-0.06 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Dangerous Cargo (1954)/Dead Man's Evidence (1962)

• Vault Of Horror | DVD | (13/10/2003) from £19.61   |  Saving you £-10.63 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  From Roy Ward Baker - 'the Grand Old Man' of British horror comes a collection of stories that will reach out and grip you in a vice of fear. Based on the spine-chilling comic-books ""Vault of Horror"" & ""Tales from the Crypt"" and featuring a sensationally star-studded cast these are the tales of five hapless men huddled together in a vault beneath the Thames each awaiting the fulfilment of their own prophetic nightmares. See Curt Jurgens as a murderous magician with a few rope

• Bergerac: Series 8 | DVD | (04/05/2009) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Bergerac the Jersey-based detective series stars John Nettles as Jim Bergerac a recovering alcoholic divorcee and father to a young daughter. He is a Detective Sergeant with the Bureau des Etrangers a department for non-residents on the Channel Island of Jersey. Episodes Comprise: 1. A True Detective (1 of 2) 2. My Name's Sergeant Bergerac (2 of 2) 3. The Dig 4. Roots of Evil 5. Entente Cordiale 6. In Love and War 7. Under Wraps 8. All the Sad Songs 9. The Messenger Boy 10. Diplomatic Incident 11. There for the Picking

• What's Good for the Goose | DVD | (02/04/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Norman Wisdom is an assistant bank manager who lives the routine humdrum life of taking his work home with him working as he eats meals kissing his children goodnight on the cheek his wife goodnight on her forehead and next morning work. On his way to a bankers' conference in Southport he meets hippy-happy Sally Gleeson. The brief interlude is over almost before it began but it gived the man anew look on life the chance of a better understanding with his wife and even a fresh approach to...his work. A tender mildly sexy and amusing story starring one of Britain's most loved comic actors. Also features an appearance by The Pretty Things.

• On The Beat / Man Of The Moment | DVD | (12/05/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  In 1962's On the Beat, Norman Wisdom's Pitkin, the most famous incarnation of his riotous buffoon character, is dreaming of something better as usual. Pitkin wants to follow in his father's footsteps and become a policeman, but being decidedly on the short side, has to settle for washing police cars. Of course it's not long before Norman is impersonating an officer of the law. Wisdom also plays his nemesis here, the German General Schreiber, as well as the chief suspect in a series of jewel robberies which only Pitkin's chaotic antics can solve. Terence Alexander effectively reprises his character from The Square Peg (1958), and Wisdom regular David Lodge, previously seen costarring in The Bulldog Breed (1960), is also on hand, though otherwise the supporting cast is less stellar than before. By the time of 1955's Man of the Moment, Wisdom was firmly established as Britain's favourite movie comedian, his shy, helpful and good-natured "gump" character forever unintentionally causing catastrophe in the great tradition of Charlie Chaplin. However, while Chaplin ventured into politics in Modern Times (1936) for satirical purposes, when Norman's minor civil servant here accidentally becomes the UK delegate at a conference in Geneva the emphasis is on farce and pratfalls. The plot sees Norman sticking up for the rights of the fictional kingdom of Tawaki against less-than-honest government interests, while his new-found status brings the attention of the ladies, including the return of his Trouble in Store (1953) costar Lana Morris. Continuing his collaboration with veteran director John Paddy Carstairs, the film is a polished laughter machine that continues to entertain. --Gary S Dalkin

• The One That Got Away | DVD | (11/08/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  War drama story of Franz Von Werra the German pilot who when captured refuses to remain caged. Based on real life events...

• The Avengers : The Definitive Dossier 1968 (Box Set 3) | DVD | (10/03/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  John Steed partnered with Tara King sees out the Sixties in style! Eight more episodes see elegant confrontations between our cool heroes and a variety of evil blaggards. This is 'The Avengers' at their most surreal and imaginative! Episode titles include: Super Secret Cypher Snatch Game False Witness Noon-Doomsday The Morning After Love All Take Me To Your Leader Stay Tuned

• The League Of Gentlemen | DVD | (26/01/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  The League of Gentlemen is a sardonic crime drama in which Jack Hawkins plays an embittered retired army officer who recruits seven fellow ex-soldiers to carry out a bank raid with military precision. The film presents an England between post-war austerity and the more liberated 1960s where traditional moral certainties were rapidly being discarded; a London where ex-officers left on the scrapheap at war's end could justify turning their military experience to armed robbery. Unfortunately the tale is neither particularly amusing or thrilling, with an overlong central detour via an army camp prefacing the exciting heist and a largely anti-climactic ending. Nevertheless Hawkins effectively subverts his heroic officer type from The Cruel Sea (1953) and The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), and there's excellent support from a great cast including Nigel Patrick, Richard Attenborough and Roger Livesey. Bryan Forbes not only wrote the cynical screenplay but costarred with wife Nanette Newman in her first significant screen role. More influential than truly classic, The League of Gentlemen has lent its name to a modern BBC comedy, an "Extraordinary" comic strip-turned-movie, and proved the template for heist films ever since, including both versions of The Italian Job (1969 and 2003). On the DVD:The League of Gentlemen is presented in an anamorphically enhanced 16:9 transfer from an excellent condition print and mostly looks and sounds fine. There's minimal print damage, though sadly Philip Green's ironically patriotic main title music suffers from significant distortion. The only extra is the original trailer, which is now something of a period piece itself. --Gary S Dalkin

• The New Avengers: The Complete Series - Episodes 1-26 | DVD | (02/09/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £59.99

  Sometimes dismissed as a pale descendant of a great original, The New Avengers deserves a second look and is perhaps best considered as a largely successful attempt to re-imagine its predecessor for 1970s audiences. Patrick McNee was never the most convincing of action heroes, and the decision to make his John Steed the supervisor and mentor of two younger agents was a sensible one--Steed's virtues are style, wisdom and fortitude rather than physical prowess. Gareth Hunt's Gambit has an unattractively smug side, but has also a louche charm. Joanna Lumley's Purdey is one of the most attractive heroines of genre television, astonishingly leggy and beautiful. Those who only know her later incarnation as Patsy in Absolutely Fabulous will understand now why such a fuss is made over her. The script team overlaps heavily with that of the original series; the new show has the same quirkiness, only occasionally varying it with a rather darker leCarrésque complexity or sudden outbreaks of Hammer Horror. If it lacks some of the sheer style of the original, that is a reflection of its period--the 1970s were less visually imaginative than the 60s. Tightly plotted, imaginatively cast with interesting guest stars, it is only with The Avengers that The New Avengers suffers by comparison. --Roz Kaveney

• Day of the Dead | Blu Ray | (05/04/2010) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  In this third and final shocker in the legendary trilogy from writer/director George A. Romero (Dawn of the Dead Night of the Living Dead) a small group of scientists and soldiers have taken refuge in an underground missile silo where they struggle to control the flesh-eating horror that walks the earth above. But will the final battle for the future of the human race be fought among the living or have they forever unleashed the hunger of the dead? Lori Cardille Joe Pilato Richard Liberty and Howard Sherman star in this controversial classic with groundbreaking gore effects by Tom Savini and featuring the most intense zombie carnage ever filmed.

• The Internecine Project | DVD | (25/04/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  The Internecine Project is a fantastic conspiracy-thriller based on the novel by Mort W. Elkind and starring the late James Coburn. Former secret agent Robert Elliot is to be promoted as a personal advisor to the President of the USA. However there are people who know of the corruption in his past life. His solution to the problem is to have them assassinated...

• Lord Peter Wimsey - Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club | DVD | (03/08/2009) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  The plot of The Unpleasantness At The Bellona Club takes a new turn concentrating not on who did it? but moreover when was it done? A vast inheritance depends on the timing of the deaths of an elderly brother and sister - the sequence of deaths is the Big Question. Once this is established only then can Peter Wimsey's sleuthing turn to who the murderer is...

• The New Statesman - The Complete Third Series | DVD | (13/10/2003) from £14.98   |  Saving you £-4.99 (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  The New Statesman is a multi-award winning masterpiece of political satire. Rik Mayall stars as the ruthless Alan B'Stard the egocentric MP who will stop at nothing to further his political career. Episodes comprise: Labour Of Love / The Party's Over / Let Them Sniff Cake / Keeping Mum / Natural Selection / Profit Of Boom

• On The Beat | DVD | (12/11/2001) from £8.96   |  Saving you £1.03 (11.50%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Having proved himself a war hero in The Square Peg (1958), Norman Pitkin, Norman Wisdom's most famous incarnation of his riotous buffoon character, is here demobbed and, as usual for a Wisdom movie, dreaming of something better. Norman wants to follow in his father's footsteps and become a policeman, but being decidedly on the short side, has to settle for washing police cars. Of course it's not long before Norman is impersonating an officer of the law. As in The Square Peg, Wisdom also plays his nemesis here, the German General Schreiber, as well as the chief suspect in a series of jewel robberies which only Pitkin's chaotic antics can solve. In fact, as if emphasising that On the Beat really is The Square Peg with different uniforms, Terence Alexander, who later found fame as Charlie Hungerford in the long running BBC series Bergerac, also returns, albeit playing a different character. Wisdom film-regular David Lodge, previously seen co-starring in The Bulldog Breed (1960) is also on hand, though otherwise the supporting cast is less stellar than before. Solid if very predictable feel-good entertainment, Wisdom's particular brand of charming anarchy proves again his box-office formula could withstand endless variations. --Gary S Dalkin

• The New Statesman - The Complete Fourth Series | DVD | (13/10/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  The New Statesman is a multi-award winning masterpiece of political satire. Rik Mayall stars as the ruthless Alan B'Stard the egocentric MP who will stop at nothing to further his political career. Episodes comprise: Back From The Mort / H*A*S*H / Speaking In Tongues / Heil And Farewell / A Bigger Splash / The Irresistible Rise Of Alan B'Stard