Drama

• Dog Days | DVD | (24/02/2003) from £14.98   |  Saving you £5.01 (33.44%)   |  RRP £19.99

  If your idea of Austrians is of cheerful folk cavorting about mountains or relaxing in old-world coffee-shops, Dog Days will come as quite a shock. Set amid the residential streets and shopping precincts of a charmless, sterile southern suburb of Vienna, documentary-maker Ulrich Seidl's first feature revels in the ugliness, both physical and moral, of his characters. None of these are people you'd want to spend time with: in fact most of them you'd go several miles out of your way to avoid, which perhaps accounts for the strangely perverse fascination there is about watching them. Dog Days--it takes place, as you might guess, during a sticky, sweltering July heatwave that improves tempers not one bit--comes on rather like a low-rent version of Robert Altman's Short Cuts. We meet a dozen or so main characters, all of whom gradually come to impact on each other's lives in various ways. Among them, a girl with a psychotically jealous boyfriend; an elderly man who obsessively stockpiles groceries, first weighing them to check for the least hint of short measure; an estranged couple still sharing a house, where the wife entertains her lovers under her husband's morose gaze; a middle-aged schoolteacher whose abusive lover invites lowlifes to join in humiliating her; a no-hoper salesman of security systems; and the world's most excruciatingly irritating hitch-hiker. There's a dark humour at work here; after a while the sheer bleakness and collective vindictiveness become wincingly funny. Seidl's disenchanted view of his compatriots, and his contempt for their vaunted gemütlichkeit, is epitomised by his image of a man forced to sing the Austrian national anthem ("A nation blessed by its sense of beauty") stark naked with a lighted candle up his backside. To cap it all, he can't remember the words. --Philip Kemp

• Waterloo Road Series Five - Autumn Term | DVD | (14/06/2010) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Rival pupils rival teachers - if someone thought opposites attract they're about to find out otherwise - I predict a riot! It's a whole new dawn for Waterloo Road when the school is joined together with the John Foster School. Its pupils are a little posher a little prouder and a lot more disciplined - or that's how it seems on the surface. It's not long before a culture-clash between the schools becomes a massed turf war and that's only the beginning of the challenges facing Rachel Mason as Head Teacher. She's also up against a ruthless new Executive Head Max Tyler who wants to bring his iron rule to the pupils of Waterloo Road - and won't let anyone stand in his way. Max brings with him a bullying attitude along with a new teacher and ex-lover Helen Hopewell. Max's marriage and severed relationship with Helen doesn't prevent him seducing teacher Kim Campbell into supporting him a policy of divide and conquer which soon leaves the school at breaking point. Elsewhere Steph finds herself under a new department head the openly lesbian Jo Lipsett and Tom Clarkson takes on his role of department head responsible for Grantley Budgen and Max Tyler's fragile prot''g'' Helen Hopewell. Pupils new and old face problems of their own as they have to live with the consequences of their actions - and others - from bullying through drink offences schizophrenia and even murder. It's more than just a new term for Waterloo Road it's a new beginning. And with every new beginning comes new challenges - but the bigger they are the harder they fall.

• Poldark - Series 2 - Part 2 | DVD | (06/10/2003) from £5.63   |  Saving you £15.35 (581.44%)   |  RRP £17.99

  The second half of the acclaimed second series of the classic BBC drama. Welcome to Cornwall near the turn of the nineteenth century where an air of celebration pervades. However even as Admiral Lord Nelson defeats the french fleet in the battle of the Nile the situation between the recently returned Ross Poldark and George Warleggan is no nearer a conclusion. And things at home aren't much better for Ross for Demelza is playing a very dangerous game with Lord Falmouth's nephew

• Those Were The Days | DVD | (09/06/2014) from £10.17   |  Saving you £1.08 (12.12%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Adapted from Arthur Pinero's relentlessly popular stage farce The Magistrate Those Were the Days was a perfect early vehicle for the comedic brilliance of Will Hay. Hay's feature-length debut is a typically entertaining study of the upstanding but ineffectual magistrate Mr Poskett while a youthful John Mills is the 20-year-old stepson who must pretend to be 15 to preserve the secret of his mother's falsified age; Angela Baddeley and veteran character-comedians Claude Allister H.F. Maltby and George Graves are among an impressive supporting cast. Presented in a brand-new digital transfer from the original film elements this rare cinematic gem - directed by former variety star Thomas Bentley - notably includes a wonderful evocation of the atmosphere of a 1890s music hall with Lily Morris and Harry Bedford among a number of leading acts featured. Special Features: Image Gallery Original Script PDF

• The Scarlet Letter | DVD | (10/05/2004) from £14.22   |  Saving you £0.77 (5.41%)   |  RRP £14.99

  When intimacy is forbidden and passion is a sin love is the most defiant crime of all. Hester Pryanne is a beautiful sensual woman in the New World Of Americas. She is a free spirit trapped in a harsh and puritanical colony and dominated by a violent husband Roger Chillingworth. She falls in love with the reverend a passionate man of God who risks everything for their tempestuous affair. But the couple must face the settlers toughened by their harsh lives bent on purging sin

• Blue Lamp, The / The Nanny | DVD | (23/06/2003) from £14.99   |  Saving you £1.00 (6.67%)   |  RRP £15.99

  This is a double-feature of two British crime classics, The Blue Lamp (1949) and The Nanny (1965). The Blue Lamp is the film that introduced PC George Dixon, played by Jack Warner, later immortalised in the BBC's long-running Dixon of Dock Green (1955-76). Here Dixon's murder is the catalyst for an exciting London manhunt, shot largely on location in a fast-moving, starkly efficient style showing the influence of The Naked City (1948). The war-damaged East End and the car chases through almost vehicle-free streets offer a documentary-like vision of a London now long gone, and a young Dirk Bogarde makes a serious impact in an early starring role. In contrast, The Nanny has a superstar, the imported Hollywood legend Bette Davis, in the declining years of her career. Just one of three psychological thrillers Hammer produced in 1965 (the others were Frantic and Hysteria), the film capitalises on the popularity of Davis's Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962) with a comparable mix of hateful insanity and paranoia. The screenplay skilfully juggles the audience's sympathies between a superb Davis and the dysfunctional family of which she becomes a part, developing a powerful sense of dread which shows such clichéd later fare as The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (1992) how to do this sort of thing with real class. On the DVD: The Blue Lamp and The Nanny are presented in black and white with adequate mono sound. The Blue Lamp is in its original 4:3 ratio; The Nanny is cropped from its theatrical 1.85:1 to 4:3, though it's only in a few shots that it becomes obvious that information is missing at the sides of the screen. The print of The Blue Lamp is soft and grainy, while The Nanny is grainy with a considerable amount of flicker. There are no extras. --Gary S. Dalkin

• The Door In The Floor | DVD | (04/07/2005) from £7.47   |  Saving you £10.52 (140.83%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Adapted from an acclaimed novel by John Irving "The Door in the Floor" explores the complexities of love in its brightest, most mysterious, and darkest corners.

• The Scarlet Pimpernel - Series 1 | DVD | (21/07/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Suspecting that the Pimpernal is an English aristocrat Chauvelin is sent to England to discover the identity of the mystery man. Once there Chauvelin meets his former lover the beautiful French actress Marguerite who is married to a foppish English aristocrat. Marguerite reluctantly gives Chauvelin information to find the elusive Pimpernel and has unwittingly betrayed him...

• Let Him Have It | DVD | (28/06/2004) from £9.85   |  Saving you £-3.86 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  From the director of The Krays comes a horrifying true story of injustice and murder..... A policeman is shot dead and two South London boys stand accused of his murder. The verdict and the sentence passed upon the young Derek Bentley proved to be as controversial as the crime. Both the verdict and the sentence were subsequently quashed. This is the case that shocked the nation.

• Route Irish | DVD | (23/05/2011) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Fergus (Mark Womack) returns to his native Liverpool for the funeral of his childhood friend Frankie, a fellow private security contractor who has been killed on Route Irish, the deadly and now infamous stretch of road between Baghdad airport and the Green Zone. Route Irish is a fast-paced conspiracy thriller that delivers a fresh insight into the moral and political corruption at play in Iraq.

• Merchant-Ivory Connoisseur Collection | DVD | (25/10/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £49.99

  Maurice Maurice Hall and Clive Durham find themselves falling in love at Cambridge. In a time when homosexuality was punishable by imprisonment, the two must keep their feelings for one another a complete secret. After a friend is arrested and disgraced for 'the unspeakable vice of the Greeks', Clive abandons his forbidden love and marries a young woman. Maurice however, struggles with questions of his identity and self-confidence, seeking the help of a hypnotist to rid himself of his ...

• Titanic | DVD | (11/02/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £0.99

  Southampton - April 1912: the Titanic is ready to sail. Early that morning the first passengers begin to board in amazement at the huge ship. Excited children create mischief while the First Second and Third Class passengers line up at their respective gangplanks. But out of sight of human eyes all the animals that populate the Titanic will tell their own story: Geoffrey the cat a family of mice the ducks and squirrels and the two Dalmatians belonging to the famous singer Molly Harte. Together they embark on the real adventures on board the Titanic.

• Pavee Lackeen | DVD | (22/05/2006) from £8.99   |  Saving you £11.00 (122.36%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Winnie lives in a trailer in a desolate part of Dublin, where her family struggle with prejudice and poverty.

• Casanova | DVD | (31/05/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  The Italian adventurer and libertine Giovanni Jacopo Casanova lived from 1725 to 1798 but in this six-part series Dennis Potter attempted to find a contemporary relevance through his central themes of sex and religion. He commented that Casanova ""was concerned with religious and sexual freedom and these are the things we have to address ourselves to now."" Casanova was imprisoned in Venice in 1755 and Potter used that event as a central device constantly inter-cutting to contrast C

• Of Mice And Men | DVD | (24/09/2007) from £19.78   |  Saving you £-4.79 (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Set in the U.S.A in 1930's California Of Mice and Men paints a bold vivid picture of life in the depression era and tells the tragic tale of George (Burgess Meredith) and Lenny (Lon Chaney Jr.) two itinerant farm hands searching for a safe haven from the cruelties of the world. Nominated for the Best Picture Academy Award in 1939 ""Of Mice and Men"" features a moving Oscar-nominated score from legendary composer Aaron Copland.

• Ordet | DVD | (13/03/2006) from £14.59   |  Saving you £5.40 (37.01%)   |  RRP £19.99

  A classic contrast of institutional religion vs. a personal interpretation of faith based on the play by Kaj Munk this is the story of a man who is ridiculed for believing he is Christ until his miracles heal two families of different faiths angry at each other over a love affair between their children.

• Midsomer Murders 2 | DVD | (10/07/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £99.99

  This thrilling box set contains a further ten investigations for the two detectives DCI Barnaby and Sergeant Troy in a special gift box. Episodes Comprise: 1. Blue Herrings 2. Judgement Day 3. Garden Of Death 4. Destroying Angel 5. Electric Vendetta 6. Who Killed Cock Robin 7. Dark Autumn 8. Tainted Fruit 9. Market For Murder 10. A Worm In The Bud For synopses please refer to the individual products.

• True Blue | DVD | (11/02/2002) from £29.94   |  Saving you £-19.95 (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  On one level, True Blue is a distillation of the brutal physicality and unique focus demanded of participants in the annual University Boat Race between Oxford and Cambridge. Based on legendary oarsman and Oxford coach Dan Topolksi's book about the 1987 race, it is also a tale of revenge; dominant Oxford had been defeated the year before and wanted the title back. More than that, though, it is a story of sporting obsession and the Machiavellian resources required to last the course in an event shrouded in ritual. When a clutch of lantern-jawed American international rowers muscle in on the Oxford team and threaten, quite literally, to rock the boat with their disregard for any of the tradition surrounding the race or Topolski's coaching methods, the fragile concept of team spirit is splintered. Ferdinand Fairfax's film, full of fine performances, builds the tension through a series of confrontations and a constantly shifting balance of power over the year leading up to the race. The intuitive relationship between the besieged Topolski (the excellent Johan Leysen) and the President of the College Captains, Donald McDonald (the quietly impassioned Dominic West) is particularly well drawn. With more than a hint of Chariots of Fire, not least in the Vangelis-like soundtrack, this is a moving and beautifully observed film about sporting passion.On the DVD: True Blue is presented in widescreen with a 16:9 anamorphic video aspect ratio that makes excellent use of the sweeping vistas of the Thames for the racing and training scenes which dominate the film. Stanislas Syrewicz's brooding score underpins the action at every stage and, thanks to the quality of the Dolby Surround soundtrack, helps to bring an appropriately epic, theatrical feel to your home viewing. --Piers Ford

• Pearl Harbor (Vanilla Disk) | DVD | (01/01/1998) from £11.00   |  Saving you £4.99 (45.36%)   |  RRP £15.99

  An epic blockbuster with astounding visual effects, Pearl Harbor is another unforgettable motion picture from producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Michael Bay, the hit making team that brought you Armageddon. Featuring Ben Affleck (Good Will Hunting, Armageddon), Josh Hartnett and Kate Beckinsale (Brokedown Palace) in a tremendous all-star cast. As the lives and loves of a generation are tragically swept into the greatest conflict modern man has ever known - World war II - the events at Pe...

• Gypsy Woman | DVD | (07/02/2005) from £11.91   |  Saving you £-5.92 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Whilst attending the inquest surrounding the death of one his workers property developer Leon Hawthorne meets the deceased man's widow Natalie. Enchanted he sets about tracking her down...