"Actor: Alex Ford"

• Bertie And Elizabeth | DVD | (10/06/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  A portrayal of the life of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother focusing on her courtship with the future King George VI the birth of their daughters Elizabeth and Margaret and the war years finally leading to Bertie's early death in 1952.

• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Season 3 | DVD | (23/06/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £84.99

  Deep Space Nine's third series begins eventfully, with Sisko promoted to captain and being gifted a prototype warship equipped with a cloaking device, while Odo learns where he came from. In the two-part opening tale, this clever gambit is played to hook viewers into the idea of DS9 becoming an ongoing mystery/conflict show. Why the sudden intense format tweaking? Mostly this was to ensure the show continued to thrive when a really rather greedy production hierarchy fast-tracked Voyager onto the air mid-season (cue unnecessary crossover episode with Tuvok). Of greater concern was ratings thief Babylon 5, which played its counter-Trek cards at precisely the right time. Fortunately the result (initially at least) was a genuine boost for DS9. Cast members seemed to have hit their stride and played off one another more assuredly than before. For example, Odo's character took several additional interesting twists, especially in his relationship with Kira. Rene Auberjonois had a very good year, directing two episodes to boot. Avery Brooks had begun this trend with the previous year's penultimate show. The real surprise was seeing Jonathan Frakes's name working behind the camera on three occasions, because he also appeared on screen in his alternate rogue Riker role, when Thomas dramatically steals the Defiant. Other welcome cameos that aided the feeling of casual camaraderie included the return of Lwaxana Troi, as well as first appearances by Quark's Mum, the spooky Founder Leader, the lovely Leeta and the sneaky Eddington. Clint Howard--a cult Trek figure--was briefly welcomed back, and with the many faces of Jeffrey Combs another was born. Stories progressed the complicated Bajoran/Cardassian healing process, while simultaneously brewing potential conflicts far worse than the behind-the-scenes ratings war. --Paul Tonks

• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Season 6 | DVD | (08/12/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £84.99

  Deep Space Nine's sixth series began ambitiously with a six-part story arc devoted to the Dominion War. This was a brave move in many ways, but a sensible one too. Whereas other SF shows wouldn't commit to showing the impact of war (Babylon 5), here there were numerous visible sacrifices. Characters were frequently kidnapped and held prisoner, allowing screen time for other members of the ever-growing cast (at its peak there were as many as 18 individuals with speaking roles per episode). This year also introduced the idea of Starfleet Intelligence and its sinister Section 31; alliances were built only to crumble almost immediately; Sisko led a suicide mission and at long last his destiny as the Emissary took a serious turn. Amid all this sturm und drang the writers felt it necessary to inject some levity. In fact, there was so much comedic sidetracking this year it actually seemed sometimes as if they were afraid of the series’ dark tone. Witness: Quark undergoing a temporary sex change, leading a Magnificent Seven-style band of Ferengi (with a cameo from Iggy Pop), Morn's non-speaking character being sorely missed, the blend of Troi and Guinan into 60's crooner Vic Fontaine and, in one fan favourite episode ("Far Beyond the Stars"), Sisko having visions of himself and the crew as 1950s staff writers on pulp magazine Incredible Tales. There were also cute reconciliations amongst Worf's extended family (leading to Trek's first cast wedding), and even the revelation of Bashir's genetically enhanced origins quickly became a subject for easy jokes. Any of these events would have been satisfactorily cute if the war had ended and the show had moved on. But confusing the viewer, every so often the battle would be rejoined mid-episode. The clinching proof that no grand design was really at work was in the sudden and brutal dispatch of Dax. Actress Terry Farrell gave sufficient forewarning of having had enough of the show, but specifically asked not to be killed off. Despite all the jarring humour scattered about after the strong opening, the show seemed unable to avoid reverting to shock tactics for its finale. All of which hardly made the promised final year seem a particularly enticing prospect. --Paul Tonks

• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Season 7 | DVD | (22/12/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £84.99

  The seventh and final series of Deep Space Nine came down to loose ends, tying some existing ones together and allowing others to unravel. Symptomatic of the unwillingness to let DS9 go was the immediate arrival of a replacement Dax, though poor Nichole deBoer as Ezri Dax had to have known she'd already missed the boat. Her appearance encouraged last-minute romances to blossom, with Bashir finally getting some action, Odo finally getting together with Kira and Sisko finally proposing to Kassidy. Another contributing cute factor were numerous trips to the Holosuite wherein the all-knowing Vic Fontaine dished out philosophical advice. That was when the crew weren't in there to play baseball against the Vulcans or when Nog wasn't commiserating about the loss of a leg. Oh yes, and don't forget the war! There was an early announcement that the show would attempt a 10-part resolution to the Dominion War, but viewers could be forgiven for forgetting all about it with so much sentimental distraction. When the horrors of war did resurface, they at least injected a few surprises into the mix. Odo and his ambiguously "evil" Founders were hit with a melting disease, prompting a backstabbing race for the power of developing and owning a cure. The original baddie Cardassians finally settled on the Federation's side. Contrary to these interesting twists, however, were the unexpected turns taken by matters relating to Sisko's spiritual destiny. Suddenly the mystery of the wormhole and an entire religious belief system was reduced to the problem of translating correctly the words of a sacred book. The struggle to join with some evil aliens significantly diluted the attempt at resolving what had begun seven years before in the show's pilot episode. Ultimately, Sisko's destiny, as with all those who'd followed him to the open-ended climax, was to be decided elsewhere. In a move that was either bold and daring--or possibly born of desperation for not having thought things through properly--the show's storylines were to be continued in a series of spin-off books. --Paul Tonks

• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Season 5 | DVD | (27/10/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £84.99

  Deep Space Nine's fifth series was a turning point from which there was no going back. Character and information overload took over, and the complicated twists and turns in the build up to war either hooked viewers securely, or sent them away with a headache. The Klingon faction instigated by Worf's arrival was occasionally played for laughs, but mostly their hard-headed personalities made all efforts at diplomacy moot. In the opening episode a chilling possibility is proposed as to why might be: have the Changelings infiltrated already and replaced key personnel? Some fans saw this as a flawed X-Files-style development. Nevertheless it sowed a seed of insidious suspicion from here on, affecting all the principal casts' relationship with one another, even allowing Odo and Quark an opportunity to confess a degree of friendship. Expanding on the new theme of duplication, the crew also made numerous trips to their Mirror Universe counterparts. As well as new uniforms and the milestone 100th episode, Nana Visitor and Alexander Siddig comically got to disguise the arrival of their child during filming. More laughs came from the fan favourite "Trials and Tribble-ations" with CG allowing Sisko and crew to interact with Kirk and a cameo from Leonard Nimoy. Avery Brooks began taking a backseat as of this year, partly a result of the now-overcrowded cast. Although Sisko's destiny would be foreshadowed by his first vision and the introduction of the Pah-wraiths, the Captain was in an increasingly sulky mood. Brooks only directed one episode, allowing room for regulars LeVar Burton and Rene Auberjonois to do more behind the camera. Joining them were Alexander Siddig, Michael Dorn and even Andrew Robinson. Available space started to seem hardly deep enough. --Paul Tonks

• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Season 1 | DVD | (24/03/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £84.99

  Of all the spin-off TV incarnations of Star Trek, Deep Space Nine had the hardest job persuading an audience to watch. By all accounts, Gene Roddenberry had concerns about the idea before his death in 1991. It took two more years to develop, and when it finally aired in 1993 reasons for that concern were evident right away. The show was dark (literally), characters argued a lot, no one went anywhere and the neighbouring natives were hardly ever friendly. Yet for all that the show went against the grain of The Great Bird's original vision of the future, it undeniably caught the mood of the time, incorporating a complex political backdrop that mirrored our own. In the casting, there was a clear intent to differentiate the show from its predecessors. Genre stalwarts Tony Todd and James Earl Jones were considered for Commander Sisko before Avery Brooks. The one let down at the time was that Michelle Forbes did not carry Ensign Ro across from TNG, but when the explosive Nana Visitor defiantly slapped her hand on a console in the pilot episode, viewers knew they were in for a different crew dynamic. In fact, the two-part pilot show ("The Emissary") is largely responsible for DS9's early success. Mysterious, spiritual, claustrophobic, funny and feisty, it remains the most attention-grabbing series opener (apart from the Classic original) the franchise has had. The first year may have relied on a few too many familiar faces--like Picard, Q and Lwaxana Troi--but these were more than outweighed by refreshingly detailed explorations of cultures old and new (Trill, Bajoran, Cardassian, Ferengi). As it turned out, Deep Space Nine was the boldest venture into Roddenberry's galaxy that had been (or ever would be) seen. On the DVD: Star Trek Deep Space Nine, Series 1's hour of special features is split between seven featurettes that really would have worked better edited together. Covering the show's origins and most aspects of Year One's production design, they all crib from interviews with actors and crew from the 1992 shoot (exclusively so in the 10 "Hidden Files"). Other interviews conducted in 1999 and 2002 tend to be more revealing, although the solo section on Major Kira is curiously lacking in recent input. While the designers describe their work with passion, creators Michael Piller and Rick Berman come off as stiff and lacking in knowledge. Hopefully this is something that will improve through the next six box sets. The interactive CD-ROM to build a DS9 database on your PC is something that will become more involving, too. Obviously the most important thing is the episodes themselves, and despite the lack of a commentary to enhance the best of them, sound in 5.1 and the crisp full-frame picture do them ample justice. --Paul Tonks END

• Henry V: Royal Shakespeare Company | Blu Ray | (31/03/2016) from £23.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Harlan County War | DVD | (16/08/2004) from £5.99   |  Saving you £2.00 (33.39%)   |  RRP £7.99

  It's Her Turn To Fight Back. Academy Award-winner Holly Hunter (The Piano) stars as Ruby the wife of a coal miner in Harlan County Kentucky. After two senseless deaths the union calls a strike against the mining company. What follows is one of the most violent bitter and notorious union battles in history. With no end to the strike in sight Ruby decides to fight the company her way. Ted Levine (Georgina) and Stellan Skarsgard (Good Will Hunting) also star in this fictional

• Abbott And Costello - Jack And The Beanstalk | DVD | (21/01/2002) from £10.23   |  Saving you £5.75 (79.42%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Bud and Lou take on a babysitting job and find themselves involved in the Jack And The Beanstalk fairy tale.

• The Gilded Cage | DVD | (27/05/2013) from £12.13   |  Saving you £0.86 (6.60%)   |  RRP £12.99

  American actor Alex Nicol heads the cast of this 1954 British crime melodrama The Gilded Cage. Steve (Alex Nicol) a US security officer finds that his brother in London is involved in a racket to smuggle a priceless painting out of the country. Things hot up a murder is committed and the brothers are caught up in the affair and have to fight hard to expose the gang behind the smuggling and murder. A Tempean production directed by John Gilling produced by Robert S. Baker and Monty Berman responsible for the TV adventure series The Saint.

• Jack And The Beanstalk / Africa Screams | DVD | (08/05/2006) from £6.15   |  Saving you £-1.16 (N/A%)   |  RRP £4.99

  Africa Screams (Dir. Charles Barton 1949): Abbott and Costello go on an African safari armed with a secret map which will lead them to hidden diamonds... Jack And The Beanstalk (Dir. Jean Yarbrough 1952): Bud and Lou take on a babysitting job and find themselves involved in the Jack And The Beanstalk fairy tale! One of the very few colour films that Abbott and Costello made beginning in black and white but then turning into a full on colourful fairy tale. One of the

• Strip Jack Naked | DVD | (08/08/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  British director Ron Peck's look back at at the production of his groundbreaking ""Nighthawks "" which candidly explored a closeted gay schoolteacher's inner conflicts. The director tells very poignantly his own story of self-discovery and coming out. Most striking is the story of how much effort and determination it took to get Nighthawks made and why there are hundreds of names in the closing credits that the ""producers would like to give thanks to"" - they are people who sent in sma

• Brother To Brother | DVD | (18/09/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  The critically acclaimed drama that invokes the glory days of the Harlem Renaissance. As an elderly man poet Bruce Nugent meets a young black gay artist struggling to find his voice and together they embark on a surreal narrative journey through his inspiring past. Winner of the Special Jury Prize at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival.

• Living Terror | DVD | (08/11/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £20.99

  This box set features three films where the beasts takes the power back! komodo: Emerald Island a tropical haven where fifteen-year-old Patrick spent many happy summer holidays. But now ever-expanding industrial plants have replaced the summer homes and in place of the friends with whom he played a hidden and unimaginable terror lurks. Within minutes Patrick's world collapses as his family are attacked by fearsome creatures leaving him orphaned and unable to describe the traumatic events he barely survived. Patrick's grandmother locates Victoria Juno a fiercely committed young doctor who believes she can help him. She decides that the best way to dislodge Patrick's memories is to return him to the scene of his terror - the island whose bloodthirsty inhabitants robbed him of the ones he loved. But the devilish terror that existed before has grown in number and ferocity. When Patrick Dr. Juno and their party arrive on the island they are met with deadly consequences. Dr. Juno must take on insurmountable odds in order to recover Patrick's psychological well-being and Patrick must come face to face with his greatest fear. But can any human overcome the predatory instinct of the Komodo Dragon. They Nest: Off the coast of Maine an African cargo vessel mysteriously explodes and crashes into the harbour. What no one knows is that the crew have already been dead for days... Dr. Ben Cahill (Thomas Calabro) arrives on Orrs Island to resolve some personal problems and receives a hostile reception. The locals do not like outsiders and in particular Jack Wald (John Savage) does his best to make Ben feel unwelcome. Soon bizarre and frightening deaths start to occur on the island. Each victim appears to have died by natural causes yet each has red insect bite-marks on their flesh. When Wald's dead body is discovered all fingers point to Ben. To clear his name Ben performs an autopsy to establish the true cause of Wald's death. He is horrified to discover insect cocoons filling the man's chest. A rare breed of African cockroaches has invaded the island and are using the insides of humans as breeding grounds. When a new hybrid of flying cockroaches evolve and begin to engulf the island the town's people must run for their lives to escape the hordes of bugs or face being eaten alive! Arachnid: A viral outbreak on a remote South Pacific island lures a secret expedition to investigate. The natives there are dying from a lethal cocktail of neurotoxins and the most likely cause is a venomous spider bite. The suspect - a previously unknown species of arachnid. Now a terrifying predator with a voracious appetite and a killer instinct is hunting ex-Navy pilot Lauren Mercer and her team of soldiers and scientists. To make matters worse the thing is multiplying at a ferocious rate. And when Mercers team finds the wreckage of a crashed spaceship it becomes clear that the extraterrestrial arachnid is more than just a new species of spider.

• Abbott And Costello - Laugh-A-Thon | DVD | (21/04/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Abbott & Costello Classic Comedies three-disc collector's set consists of oddments from the latter days of their career that have fallen into public domain; which means you don't get their best routines or classiest productions, and indeed find the double act doing fairly tired schtick as Costello is chubbily chicken-hearted and Abbott grumpily money-grubbing. Africa Screams is a 1949 safari parody, with Costello running away yelping from sundry alligators, gorillas (including a Kong-sized giant), cannibals ("Chief have sweet tooth for little fat man") and lions amid backlot jungles as Abbott competes with stock villains for a fortune in diamonds. Jack and the Beanstalk, from 1952, finds the duo attempting to sell themselves as children's entertainers in a Wizard of Oz-influenced fairytale book-ended by sepia modern-day segments. The magical story unfolds in wonderfully gruesome cheap colour with some of the worst musical numbers ever committed to film ("he's perpendicular-la-la") as Jack the Clod (Costello) and Mr Dinkelpuss the Butcher (Abbott) climb the beanstalk and plod around the Giant's lair until the story runs out. Possibly the most interesting item is the third disc, which offers an episode of the Colgate Comedy Hour (aka The Abbott and Costello Show) from the 1950s. It shows the pair doing live routines closer to their original vaudeville act than their film roles (including an amazingly cruel bit in which Abbott slaps Costello every time he says the word "tin"). A loose plot about Latin American intrigue, with Lou hired to stand in for an assassination target "El Presidente", makes room for speciality guest stars ranging from child xylophonist Baby Mistin to four starlets (including Jane Russell and Rhonda Fleming) harmonising on a "Happy Easter" medley. Best of all, and now funnier than the comedy, are original hard-sell ads for household products like "Ajax, the foaming action cleanser" and "Halo, the shampoo that glorifies your hair". --Kim Newman