"Director: Rick Roberts"

• Mixed Blessings - The Complete Series 3 | DVD | (02/07/2012) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Created and written by Sid Green (Morecambe and Wise: Two of a Kind, The Strange World of Gurney Slade), Mixed Blessings stars Christopher Blake (That's My Boy) and Muriel Odunton as a mixed-race couple struggling to placate their disapproving and constantly bickering families. This popular and - for its time - provocative series also stars much-loved sitcom stalwarts Carmen Munro (The Fosters), and Joan Sanderson (Please Sir!).With Susan expecting the couple's first child, there's no shortage of advice from everyone around her. Thomas's father Edward thinks a family holiday by the sea is just the ticket at such an exhausting time; Thomas naturally assumes that the role of a father-to-be is to help as much as possible. Susan, however, insists that he shouldn't interfere... unless she asks him to!

• Mickey's Magical Christmas - Snowed In At The House Of Mouse | DVD | (17/11/2003) from £4.25   |  Saving you £7.74 (182.12%)   |  RRP £11.99

  Though promoted as a "full-length holiday movie", Mickey's Magical Christmas is more of a Christmas special spin-off from Disney's House of Mouse TV series. The premise is something like an animated Muppet Show: Mickey, Goofy and Donald run a nightclub for an audience of Disney characters, with plenty of songs, skits and cartoons. There's not much story to this holiday special--Mickey whips up an impromptu party for stranded guests and instils a "Humbug" quacking Donald with the holiday spirit--but it's full of sight gags and comic bits with dozens of Disney characters, from Ludwig von Duck to Pumba and Timmon. The special begins with the short Pluto's Christmas Tree and ends with the entire 1983 short film Mickey's Christmas Carol. However, the highlight is a comic retelling of The Nutcracker with Donald as a reluctant Mouse King (complete with phony Mickey Mouse ears) and John Cleese as the exasperated narrator. The special is utterly unmemorable as a whole, but nonetheless bright, light, cute and sure to keep the attentions of young tots. --Sean Axmaker, Amazon.com

• Mickey's House Of Villains | DVD | (06/10/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Mickey's House of Mouse Villains seeks to do for Halloween what Mickey's Magical Christmas: Snowed In at the House of Mouse (2001) did for Yuletide. It's an anthology set on Halloween in the titular house, a nightclub where characters--including Donald Duck, Goofy, Jafar, Cruella de Vil, and Captain Hook--gather to watch Disney cartoons. There's a perfunctory framing plot with the villains taking over the House, but the 65 minutes is almost entirely filled by eight short cartoons. Five are very recent, with clinically clean computer animation, and three are vintage gems glowing with the warm detailed look of Golden Age Disney. These are Trick or Treat (1952), Donald Duck and the Gorilla (1944), and Lonesome Ghosts (1937), in which Mickey, Donald and Goofy star in what was surely the inspiration for Ghostbusters. The best of the new adventures is Mickey's Mechanical House, in which the mouse moves into a futuristic house which goes disastrously wrong. It's made all the more entertaining by a poetic rhyming narration delivered by John Cleese. Young children will love it all, while older fans may prefer a compilation of vintage Disney shorts. On the DVD: Mickey's House of Mouse Villains DVD contains a well-designed animated quiz game, "Wheel of Misfortune", that should entertain young fans for a while. Otherwise, the extras consist of three trailers and a "Fright Reel": a three-minute compilation of Disney clips with two Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtracks. The choice amounts to the same sound effects with or without music. The sound is good, except for the three vintage animations, which are in mono. The picture is 4:3 and is generally very sharp, though varies a little with the source material. --Gary S Dalkin

• Honour Amongst Men | DVD | (26/03/2018) from £3.43   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• A World at War Collection | DVD | (02/11/2020) from £11.19   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Triple bill of British war dramas. In 'The Eastern Front - Point of No Return' (2020) a band of German soldiers are caught behind enemy lines and do all they can to return to safety. But along the severe extremes of the Eastern Front they find themselves under constant attack. In 'We Go in at Dawn' (2020) British lieutenant Victor Lawrence (Christos Lawton) is held in a POW camp and assumes a false identity, hoping his Nazi captors will not realise his significance. Tasked with securing his release is special forces operative John Seabourne (Kelvin Fletcher), who must liaise with his French counterparts in order to free Lawrence in time for D-Day. In 'Behind the Line: Escape to Dunkirk' (2019) British soldier Danny (Sam Gittins) and his squadron are captured by German soldiers and taken to a POW camp deep in the Ardennes Forest. When the camp officers set up a boxing tournament their aim is to humiliate the British men. However, Danny proves himself to be a more than capable fighter. As the tournament garners more interest the prisoners realise that this could be the perfect distraction to allow them to escape...