"Actor: Alf Joint"

• The Adventurer - The Complete Series | DVD | (27/03/2006) from £36.92   |  Saving you £-6.93 (N/A%)   |  RRP £29.99

  Gene Bradley is a debonair international film star and multi-millionaire businessman secretly working as a U.S. intelligence agent uncovering extortion and theft and rescuing defectors from behind the Iron Curtain. This release features every episode ever made of the 70's crime thriller. Episodes Comprise: 1.Miss Me Once Miss Me Twice And Miss Me Once Again 2.Poor Little Rich Girl 3.Thrust and Counter-Thrust 4.The Bradley Way 5.Return To Sender 6.Counterstrike 7.Love Alwa

• The Sherlock Holmes Catalogue - The Sign Of Four | DVD | (28/04/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  The Sign of Four is a 1987 feature-length version of Conan Doyle's second Sherlock Holmes novel, and is faithful to the original story except in one important detail: Dr Watson (Edward Hardwicke) does not get the girl. Otherwise, the familiar tale of the death of Bartholomew Sholto and the theft of the Agra treasure is all here, featuring a snappy performance by Jeremy Brett as Holmes doing some of the finest investigative work of his career. The famous climax, a chase on the Thames in which Holmes is almost struck dead by an exotic weapon, is handled very well. Sherlockians may have a hard time not seeing Watson's romantic pursuit of Mary Morstan (Lila Kaye), his first wife according to Doyle's book, but it would hardly have been practical in the context of the long-running Granada Television series. The rest is to be enjoyed, however. --Tom Keogh

• The Champions - The Complete Series | DVD | (16/02/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £49.99

  Craig Sterling (Damon) Sharron Macready (Bastedo) and Richard Barrett (Gaunt) are agents for an international intelligence organisation called NEMESIS. After a plane crash and being rescued by an unknown civilisation the trio make their way back Geneva to continue their work only to discover they have mysteriously developed super-human abilities like telepathy amazing memories and abnormal strengths. Instead of telling anyone about these developments they keep their secret quiet but use their new powers to help complete a range of dangerous assignments... This 8 DVD box set features all 30 episodes from the ITC series The Champions. Episodes: The Beginning The Invisible Man Reply Box No. 666 The Experiment Happening Operation Deep-Freeze The Survivors To Trap A Rat The Iron Man The Ghost Plane The Dark Island The Fanatics Twelve Hours The Search The Gilded Cage Shadow of the Panther A Case of Lemmings The Interrogation The Mission The Silent Enemy The Body Snatchers Get Me Out Of Here! The Night People Project Zero Desert Journey Full Circle Nutcracker The Final Countdown The Gun-Runners Autokill.

• The Champions - Vol. 1 - Episodes 1 And 2 - The Beginning / The Invisible Man | DVD | (10/07/2000) from £31.06   |  Saving you £-21.07 (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  By the end of the 1960s, British television had done adventurers and sleuths to death. If Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) was the supernatural spin on the mystery format, The Champions was the science-fiction version, mixing comic-book superheroics into the globe-trotting do-gooders formula. In the pilot, square-jawed Craig Sterling (Stuart Damon), model-gorgeous Sharron Macready (Alexandra Bastedo) and ironic Brit Richard Barrett (William Gaunt)--agents of an international good-guy organisation called Nemesis--find themselves in a Shangri-La-style forgotten Tibetan civilisation, where they undergo training in extrasensory perception and superhuman strength. Back home, they use their powers to tackle a mixture of ordinary crime and more complicated nefarious plans that have a semi-science fiction feel. The good-looking Damon and Bastedo seem to have had their personalities erased in the mountains, leaving Gaunt to shoulder all the acting weight. Nevertheless, it has a kind of creaky, straight-faced charm, like some lost British take on Marvel Comics' superhero teams. Volume One covers: "The Beginning", the pilot story, with Felix Aylmer as a Tibetan lama; and "The Invisible Man", which features cranial implants and bank robbery, with Peter Wyngarde (who played the title role in Jason King) as the baddie. --Kim Newman

• The Champions - Vol. 2 - Reply Box 666 / Experiment / Happening / Operation Deep Freeze | DVD | (12/02/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Craig Sterling (Damon) Sharron Macready (Bastedo) and Richard Barrett (Gaunt) are agents for an international intelligence organisation called NEMESIS. After a plane crash and being rescued by an unknown civilisation the trio make their way back Geneva to continue their work only to discover they have mysteriously developed super-human abilities like telepathy amazing memories and abnormal strengths. Instead of telling anyone about these developments they keep their secret quiet but use their new powers to help complete a range of dangerous assignments... Reply Box No. 666: Craig masquerades as a dead foreign agent. When he is given away as a spy he is dropped into the ocean and Richard and Sharron frantically search the Caribbean for him... The Experiment: Mad scientist Cranmore tries to recreate super-humans to equal the Nemesis trio. Sharron is tricked into the experiment and Cranmore awaits her rescue. Happening: Three men find themselves in an atomic test area with a bomb due to go off at any time. If it does it will devastate most of Australia. One of the men there is Richard Barrett... Operation Deep-Freeze: A tyrannical Central American leader establishes a nuclear missile base in Antarctica. The Champions get a frosty reception.

• The Champions - Vol. 4 - Dark Island / Fanatics / Twelve Hours / The Search | DVD | (16/07/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Craig Sterling (Damon) Sharron Macready (Bastedo) and Richard Barrett (Gaunt) are agents for an international intelligence organisation called NEMESIS. After a plane crash and being rescued by an unknown civilisation the trio make their way back Geneva to continue their work only to discover they have mysteriously developed super-human abilities like telepathy amazing memories and abnormal strengths. Instead of telling anyone about these developments they keep their secret quiet but use their new powers to help complete a range of dangerous assignments... The Dark Island: When three agents fail to return from a tropical island the Champions are sent to investigate. The Fanatics: When Richard Barrett infiltrates a gang of fanatical assassins he learns that Tremayne is to be their next victim. Will he be able to stop the killers in time? Twelve Hours: Richard and Sharron accompany a visiting President and his wife on a submarine journey but an assassination attempt means that they will require all of their powers to save him... The Search: After stealing an atomic submarine loaded with four nuclear weapons a neo Nazi regime holds London hostage...

• The Sorcerers | DVD | (06/12/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £2.99

  The Sorcerers, the second film directed by the lost "wunderkind" of British cinema Michael Reeves, may not have the scope and visceral impact of his masterpiece, Witchfinder General (1968), but there's enough fierce originality here to show what a tragic loss it was when he died from a drugs overdose aged only 24. The film also shows the effective use he made of minimal resources, working here on a derisory budget of less than £50,000--of which £11,000 went to the film's sole "named" star, Boris Karloff. Karloff plays an elderly scientist living with his devoted wife in shabby poverty in London, dreaming of the brilliant breakthrough in hypnotic technique that will restore him to fame and fortune. Seeking a guinea-pig, he hits on Mike, a disaffected young man-about-town (Ian Ogilvy, who starred in all three of Reeves' films). But the technique has an unlooked-for side effect--not only can he and his wife make Mike do their bidding, they can vicariously experience everything that he feels. At which point, it turns out that the wife has urges and desires that her husband never suspected. Karloff, then almost at the end of his long career, brings a melancholy dignity to his role; but the revelation is the veteran actress Catherine Lacey as the seemingly sweet old lady, turning terrifyingly avid and venomous as she realises her power. The portrayal of Swinging London, with its mini-skirted dollybirds thronging nightclubs where the strongest stimulant seems to be Coke rather than coke, has an almost touching innocence, but Reeves invests it with a dream-like quality, extending it into scenes of violent death in labyrinthine dark alleys. By this stage, some ten years after it started, the British horror cycle was winding down in lazy self-parody. Reeves had the exceptional talent and vision to revive it, had he only lived. On the DVD: The Sorcerers DVD has original trailers for both this film and Witchfinder General (both woefully clumsy); filmographies for Reeves, Karloff and Ogilvy; an "image gallery" (a grab-bag of posters, stills and lobby cards); detailed written production notes by horror-movie expert Kim Newman; and an excellent 25-minute documentary on Reeves, "Blood Beast", dating from 1999. The transfer is letterboxed full-width, with acceptable sound. --Philip Kemp

• The Champions - Vol. 3 - Survivors / To Trap A Rat / Iron Man / Ghost Plane | DVD | (14/05/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Craig Sterling (Damon) Sharron Macready (Bastedo) and Richard Barrett (Gaunt) are agents for an international intelligence organisation called NEMESIS. After a plane crash and being rescued by an unknown civilisation the trio make their way back Geneva to continue their work only to discover they have mysteriously developed super-human abilities like telepathy amazing memories and abnormal strengths. Instead of telling anyone about these developments they keep their secret quiet but use their new powers to help complete a range of dangerous assignments... The Survivors: While investigating the murders of three students in the Austrian Alps the Champions discover a map that leads them to a mine where a group of German soldiers were buried alive by the SS. To Trap a Rat: Drug addicts are becoming victims not only of their vice but the lethal effects of tainted dope which is being distributed in London. Scotland Yard cannot track down the dealers and the Nemesis organisation is asked to help. The Iron Man: Nemesis agents take on a very unusual role as domestic staff when asked to protect the life of a former dicator. Domestic duties give way to dangerous circumstances. The Ghost Plane: The Champions find themselves hot on the trail of a brooker when asked to investigate a man whose plans for a revolutionary aircraft have been shelved.

• The Sorcerers | DVD | (01/09/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  The Sorcerers, the second film directed by the lost "wunderkind" of British cinema Michael Reeves, may not have the scope and visceral impact of his masterpiece, Witchfinder General (1968), but there's enough fierce originality here to show what a tragic loss it was when he died from a drugs overdose aged only 24. The film also shows the effective use he made of minimal resources, working here on a derisory budget of less than £50,000--of which £11,000 went to the film's sole "named" star, Boris Karloff. Karloff plays an elderly scientist living with his devoted wife in shabby poverty in London, dreaming of the brilliant breakthrough in hypnotic technique that will restore him to fame and fortune. Seeking a guinea-pig, he hits on Mike, a disaffected young man-about-town (Ian Ogilvy, who starred in all three of Reeves' films). But the technique has an unlooked-for side effect--not only can he and his wife make Mike do their bidding, they can vicariously experience everything that he feels. At which point, it turns out that the wife has urges and desires that her husband never suspected. Karloff, then almost at the end of his long career, brings a melancholy dignity to his role; but the revelation is the veteran actress Catherine Lacey as the seemingly sweet old lady, turning terrifyingly avid and venomous as she realises her power. The portrayal of Swinging London, with its mini-skirted dollybirds thronging nightclubs where the strongest stimulant seems to be Coke rather than coke, has an almost touching innocence, but Reeves invests it with a dream-like quality, extending it into scenes of violent death in labyrinthine dark alleys. By this stage, some ten years after it started, the British horror cycle was winding down in lazy self-parody. Reeves had the exceptional talent and vision to revive it, had he only lived. On the DVD: The Sorcerers DVD has original trailers for both this film and Witchfinder General (both woefully clumsy); filmographies for Reeves, Karloff and Ogilvy; an "image gallery" (a grab-bag of posters, stills and lobby cards); detailed written production notes by horror-movie expert Kim Newman; and an excellent 25-minute documentary on Reeves, "Blood Beast", dating from 1999. The transfer is letterboxed full-width, with acceptable sound. --Philip Kemp

• The Protectors - Series 1 Vol. 2 - Episodes 9-16 | DVD | (24/06/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Another series from Lew Grade's ITC stable, The Protectors attracted high ratings on both sides of the Atlantic when screened during 1971-3. Combining the high-tech ingenuity of Mission: Impossible with the glamour of The Champions, the basic premise of jet-setting special agents going where governments fear to tread is typical of its era. As Harry Rule, Robert Vaughn develops the thinking man of action persona he perfected in The Man from U.N.C.L.E, complemented by Nyree Dawn Porter's stylish Contessa di Contini. The underrated Tony Anholt makes the most of his Mediterranean good looks as Paul Buchet. Ten episodes are included here, all following a well-honed formula of intrigue and strategy, but with enough variety in scenario and setting--a range of European cities and resorts--to offset routine. Look out for a host of soon-to-be-familiar faces. There's also Tony Christie's full-throated rendition of the "Avenues and Alleyways" theme to round off each episode. On the DVD: The Protectors on disc comes in a full-screen format that reproduces excellently for its age (Lew Grade's productions always seem to last well). Each episode is divided into four chapter headings, with English subtitles available. A detailed biography of Vaughn is included along with a gallery of captioned stills, some of which are curiously reproduced in black-and-white. Taken with a healthy dose of nostalgia, entertainment is assured. --Richard Whitehouse

• The Protectors - Series 1 Vol. 1 - Episodes 1-8 | DVD | (24/06/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Another series from Lew Grade's ITC stable, The Protectors attracted high ratings on both sides of the Atlantic when screened during 1971-3. Combining the high-tech ingenuity of Mission: Impossible with the glamour of The Champions, the basic premise of jet-setting special agents going where governments fear to tread is typical of its era. As Harry Rule, Robert Vaughn develops the thinking man of action persona he perfected in The Man from U.N.C.L.E, complemented by Nyree Dawn Porter's stylish Contessa di Contini. The underrated Tony Anholt makes the most of his Mediterranean good looks as Paul Buchet. Eight episodes are included here, all following a well-honed formula of intrigue and strategy, but with enough variety in scenario and setting--a range of European cities and resorts--to offset routine. Look out for a host of soon-to-be-familiar faces. There's also Tony Christie's full-throated rendition of the "Avenues and Alleyways" theme to round off each episode. On the DVD: The Protectors on disc comes in a full-screen format that reproduces excellently for its age (Lew Grade's productions always seem to last well). Each episode is divided into four chapter headings, with English subtitles available. With an informative run-down of how the series evolved and a gallery of captioned stills--some of which are curiously reproduced in black-and-white--taken with a healthy dose of nostalgia, entertainment is assured. --Richard Whitehouse