"Director: Tony"

• Tony Palmer - Margot | DVD | (24/10/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Above all this is a film about a beautiful woman who still for most people is ballet with music (Prokofiev/Tchaikovsky) which for most people is music; a film about an immensely popular woman but with a very dark story to tell. She remains fourteen years after her death the most famous ballerina of our time spectacular in roles such as Giselle Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty and Odette in Swan Lake. And when already in her 40's she teamed up with

• Mademoiselle | DVD | (31/08/2009) from £14.41   |  Saving you £2.84 (21.60%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Mademoiselle

• William Walton - At The Haunted End Of The Day | DVD | (11/03/2002) from £20.00   |  Saving you £-4.01 (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  First screened on ITV's South Bank Show in 1981, At the Haunted End of the Day remains the only full-length documentary on Sir William Walton, and is probably the most perceptive of Tony Palmer's composer studies from the 1980s. The first half of Walton's life is the stuff of novels: his unremarkable childhood in Oldham; his years as a chorister at Oxford University; his induction into "high society" by the Sitwell family; above all, the series of major works written during the 1920s and early 30s. The second half--when Walton relocated to Ischia and, surrounded by the tropical garden his wife Susana created, continued to compose impressive but often overlooked works--allows for some stunning footage of the Italian coastline. Musical contributions are plentiful, notably the young Simon Rattle directing Belshazzar's Feast and the First Symphony, and there are revealing interviews with Sacheverell Sitwell and Laurence Olivier. Interspersed throughout is film of the composer at work and in transit: laconic, self-deprecating, yet resolutely aware of his own worth. On the DVD: At the Haunted End of the Day arrives on disc in a standard TV 4:3 video aspect that reproduces well, though picture quality varies according to location. The soundtrack has the required immediacy. There are no subtitles, nor any extras: a "20 years on" postscript would have been welcome, though Palmer does provide some candid observations on the making of music documentaries in the accompanying booklet.--Richard Whitehouse

• Terrahawks - Vol. 3 | DVD | (23/09/2002) from £15.71   |  Saving you £0.28 (1.80%)   |  RRP £15.99

  The third volume of classic episodes from Gerry Anderson's puppetry series. Gunfight at Oak's Corral: The Terrahawks are searching for a cube missing in the desert after losing a fight with a zeroid. The badly damaged cube is still highly dangerous as Zelda proves by using it to transmit her hypnotic abilities. The Ugliest Monster of All: Zelda unveils her next threat to Earth; a monster hideous beyond her wildest imaginings - but to humans Yuri is a cute cuddly

• Joseph Andrews | DVD | (31/08/2009) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Joseph Andrews

• Callan - Series 1 - Part 2 Of 3 - Episodes 4 - 6 | DVD | (03/09/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Introduced in "A Magnum for Schneider", the hour-long 1967 Armchair Theatre episode written by James Mitchell about a disillusioned British secret agent Callan (Edward Woodward), went on to offer four popular (if downbeat) series, a spin-off movie remaking the original story and a some-years-later wrap-up play "Wet Job". Remembered for its very distinctive opening titles, with a swinging broken light bulb and a memorable theme tune, the series adopted a Deighton-LeCarré approach to the grim, treacherous, grubby business of Cold War espionage and made a TV star of the intense Woodward as the sweaty, sometimes conscience-stricken, sometimes robotic Callan. Even in the 21st century this still seems a strong show, its complex stories and impressive performances outweighing a low-budget mix of video and film in the production that makes it seem less "professional" than other shows of the time. In a dramatic device that has long since fallen out of fashion in television, Callan episodes tend to wind up by leaving the audience to work out all the connections of the plot while Callan himself sits gloomily and ponders the wretchedness of his squalid world. --Kim Newman

• The King's Beard | DVD | (13/01/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  A man who has plans to become a wealthy barber travels to the Mirrored Kingdom to seek his fortune. But none of the men in the town want a haircut for the King sports the longest beard in the world...

• Terrahawks | DVD | (23/09/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £34.99

  Space: 2020. Humans on the NASA Mars Expedition base make first contact with an alien species. Unfortunately the alien is Zelda Imperial Queen of the Planet Guk and she destroys the base as the first step in her plan to destroy all human life on Earth. Only the intrepid Terrahawks stand in her way...

• The Fantastic World of Michael Crawford | DVD | (29/07/2013) from £9.43   |  Saving you £-2.44 (N/A%)   |  RRP £6.99

  Michael Crawford has starred in some of the biggest box-office hits of all time. From Frank Spencer in Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em, to the original Phantom in Phantom of the Opera, both in London's West End and on Broadway; from circus showman in Barnum to EFX, the multi- million extravaganza at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, then the biggest hotel in the world, which he dominated for over two years, playing Merlin, Houdini and H.G. Wells, and which broke all existing box office records. He is the ...

• Matt Roberts the Fat Loss Plan | DVD | (16/05/2011) from £2.29   |  Saving you £3.70 (61.80%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Matt Roberts is THE Celebrity personal fitness trainer! Find out the secret of Melanie C's amazing transformation in this easy to follow fitness programme. The Fat Loss Plan has been put together by Matt Roberts for anyone to follow this easy 4 stage plan to losing weight - Stage 1. Cardiovascular exercises Stage 2. Resistance training Stage 3. Stretches Stage 4. Nutrition If you want to look like a star and lose weight fast the Matt Roberts Fat Loss Plan can show you how!

• Sublime | DVD | (11/06/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Maybe... if you spend your life worrying... then the only way that your life will have meaning is if what you fear becomes real. Admitted to Mt. Abaddon Hospital for a routine procedure George Grieves discovers that his condition is much more serious and complicated than originally expected; and as his own fears begin to manifest around him he learns that Mt. Abaddon is not a place where people come to get better... it is a place where people come to die.

• The World of Peter Sellers | DVD | (18/01/2010) from £14.55   |  Saving you £-0.56 (N/A%)   |  RRP £13.99

  The original uncut 1971 intimate study with and about the legendary actor which, as he later admitted, was 'the only portrait which really understood me'. Banned by the BBC at the time, this devastating film reveals the full tragedy of a man who had everything, but believed he had nothing. With contributions from Ringo Starr, Raquel Welch, Laurence Harvey, Yul Brynner, Harvey Orkin, Kenneth Tynan, Graham Stark and especially Spike Milligan and other friends who loved him.

• God Rot Tunbridge Wells - The Life Of Georg Frederic Handel | DVD | (28/04/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £13.99

  Tony Palmer: God Rot Tunbridge Wells - The Life of Georg Frederic Handel

• The Wagner Family | DVD | (21/02/2011) from £7.95   |  Saving you £6.04 (43.20%)   |  RRP £13.99

  This brand new DVD from the acclaimed director Tony Palmer tells thecontroversial story of the Wagner family. It was originally broadcast inSeptember 2009 on ITV1 as one of the final programmes of The South BankShow and is now being made available in an extended version.This is a film about a family, a family which has ruled the theatre in Bayreuth in southernGermany for the last 140 years, some say still the greatest threatre in the world. There'sno doubt that Richard Wagner who built it was the most influential composer in the whole of the 19th Century. But his family has survived a mixture of lies, deception, fraud and dangerous political alliances. The story of this family is a soap opera that makesCoronation Street look like Noddy-in-Toyland. It’s a family – in many ways the Royal familyof Germany – at war with itself.

• Five Corners | DVD | (26/03/2007) from £9.94   |  Saving you £1.04 (14.96%)   |  RRP £7.99

  A young psychotic man returns to his neighborhood after release from prison. He seeks the young lady he previously tried to rape and the young man who protected her with twisted ideas of love for her and hate for him.

• The Notorious Mr. Bout | DVD | (13/10/2014) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Viktor Bout was a Russian entrepreneur, a war profiteer, an aviation magnate, an arms smuggler and, strangest of all, an amateur filmmaker. Until three days prior to his 2008 arrest on charges of conspiring to kill Americans, Bout kept the camera running, documenting a life spent in the gray areas of international law. Dubbed the 'merchant of death'; and portrayed by Nicolas Cage in LORD OF WAR, Viktor Bout can justifiably be called the world's most famous arms dealer. With unprecedented acce.

• Farscape 4.2 | DVD | (07/04/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Episodes 6-10 of Farscape's fourth series continue the themes set at the start of the year while concentrating on one-off adventures. John Crichton is still upset that Aeryn Sun has not confided in him about her pregnancy; Aeryn is still trying to cope with the loss of his dead copy; Chiana is trying in her lascivious way to get them back together; Scorpius and Sikozu are gradually becoming integrated into the life of the crew, and John and the others are trying to learn to trust their former arch-enemy. In "'Natural Election"', the process of choosing which of the crew shall be captain becomes more urgent when the living ship Moya is attacked by a space-dwelling plant that hangs around wormholes; "John Quixote" has Crichton and Chiana trapped in a surreal gameworld full of old friends and enemies; in "I Shrink, Therefore I Am", Crichton has to rescue his friends from bounty-hunters who have shrunk them and hidden them in their heavily-armoured bodies. Aeryn finds herself compelled to homicidal violence in "'A Prefect Murder"' and time goes wonky on her; Crichton has to get into drag and Scorpius has to vomit a lot to save their crewmates from getting caught in the cross-fire of "Coup by Clam". These are enjoyable albeit routine episodes of the most imaginative space opera ever to hit the TV screen, though they only hint at the wonders that were to come later in this final series. On the DVD: Farscape 4.2 has a wealth of special features that include two deleted scenes--one of them a touching discussion of their love lives between Aeryn and Chiana--and a text guide to swearing in the Farscape universe. There is a documentary about the special effects and a prolonged interview with Claudia Black in which she talks about how the show stretched her as an actress. It is presented in widescreen with a visual aspect ratio of 4:3 and has Dolby Digital sound. --Roz Kaveney

• The People's Passion | DVD | (01/04/2000) from £13.92   |  Saving you £4.07 (22.60%)   |  RRP £17.99

  The People's Passion is a BBC/NVC Arts co-production, originally shown on BBC in short instalments, but presented here as a single 50-minute programme. This is a musical version of the story of Holy Week, the narrator sung by the leading American opera star Jessye Norman, commenting on the action played-out by a very familiar British television cast. The use of modern dress and readily identifiable faces such as Robert Hardy (Pilate), Patricia Hodge (Procula), Ron Moody (The Donkey Minder) and Kevin Whatley (Judas) is an excellent device to stress the contemporary relevance of the story. Though if this is the aim, it is a brave move to refuse to "dumb down" musically, Donald Fraser's score being more in the English classical tradition of Vaughan-Williams' Pilgrim's Progress, than a populist Jesus Christ, Superstar musical. Rather old-fashioned, too, is the portrayal of Jesus, who does not speak but is danced in Spirit by Jonathan Cope, and given voice by the boys of St Paul's Cathedral Choir. With Thomas Allen also appearing as The Centurion--in rather more dignified style than John Wayne in The Greatest Story Ever Told--this is a direct, uncluttered and highly effective version of The Passion.On the DVD: The picture is presented at approximately 1.7:1 ratio, but lacking anamorphic enhancement for widescreen televisions. The sound, disappointingly for a 1999 production, is PCM stereo. The booklet offers biographies of only Jessye Norman and Jonathan Cope, but does not include the libretto, which can be printed out via a DVD-ROM. The programme can be viewed with or without English subtitles. --Gary S. Dalkin

• Rarg | DVD | (10/03/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £4.99

  RARG is a land so perfect that the sun never rises until it is absolutely sure that everyone is awake. It is a wonderful fantasy world where the population thrives on making exciting new discoveries. Until one day an astonishing discovery is made. The Rargians discover that they are just a dream. They are being dreamt by a man called Edwin Barnes who is in imminent danger of being woken up by his alarm clock. And so the adventure begins! This is a BAFTA nominated children's classic animated tale created by award winning animator Tony Collingwood narrated by Sir Nigel Hawthorne and with music from the London Symphony Orchestra this is a wonderful tale to be enjoyed by children and adults alike.

• Dennis And Gnasher Making Mischief! | DVD | (18/10/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  13 episodes of hi-jinks and tomfoolery with Dennis and his ever-faithful companion Gnasher! Episode list: The Competition Summer Holiday Menace Power Dennisaurusrex Dennis Sitting Haunted House Oil Strike Mauled The Trial Journey To The Centre Of The Bed Skull And Crossbones Snowbound and Monster Menace.