"Actor: Bruce Purchase"

• Doctor Who - City Of Death | DVD | (07/11/2005) from £7.69   |  Saving you £12.30 (159.95%)   |  RRP £19.99

  A star-studded supporting cast enhances the enjoyment of the four-episode Doctor Who adventure City of Death. On holiday in modern-day Paris the Doctor (Tom Baker) and Romana (Lalla Ward) experience what turns out to be a ""crack in time."" Before long they have joined forces with a private eye named Duggan (Tom Chadbon) in thwarting the villain of the piece: Count Scarlioni (Julian Glover) who plans to steal the Mona Lisa - but for reasons that go far beyond financial

• Quatermass - Chapters 1 To 4 / The Conclusion | DVD | (07/04/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £34.99

  John Mills stars as the eponymous Professor in 1979s Quatermass, the fourth, final and best of the celebrated television science fiction serials. The Professors early adventures were 1950s TV productions, all made into cult Hammer films, including the excellent Quatermass and the Pit (1967). Here Quatermass, now an elderly scientist searching for his missing grand-daughter, finds himself facing a new alien nightmare in a convincingly bleak near-future Britain of urban decay, social collapse and unchecked violence. Written by Nigel Kneale, as were all the Quatermass stories, this was an intelligent extrapolation of 1970s industrial-strife-ridden Britain, a continuation of the apocalyptic British SF tradition of John Wyndham (The Day of the Triffids was serialised by the BBC two years later). Thanks to a generous budget sufficient to allow for an international theatrical version, the production values are impressively large-scale, and the naturalistic performances from a cast including Simon MacCorkindale, Barbara Kellerman and Brenda Fricker add greatly to the sense of reality. Best of all, John Mills brings tremendous class to an adventure which remains a rare example of serious, ideas-based adult TV SF. Director Piers Haggard (Pennies from Heaven) packs considerable tension and not a few scares into Kneales epic canvas. On the DVD: Quatermass is presented on three DVDs with two 50-minute episodes and perfunctory production notes on each of the first two discs. The 4:3 picture is good for a 1970s TV series, though there is some minor print damage. Sound is adequate two-channel mono. Disc 3 offers the 101-minute international theatrical version, called The Quatermass Conclusion. This version contains some slightly stronger, 15-rated material, and different credits. The disc also features an oddly presented but interesting 18-minute interview with Nigel Kneale which is centred on the original three Quatermass BBC serials. A 16-page booklet is informative and the packaging is among the most attractive to grace a DVD set thus far. --Gary S Dalkin

• Playing Away | DVD | (26/10/2009) from £10.35   |  Saving you £9.64 (93.14%)   |  RRP £19.99

  From acclaimed Black British filmmaker Horace Ove (Pressure 1975) comes this comedy of manners in which a West Indian cricket team from Brixton travel to a Suffolk village to play against the local team as the culmination of the village's 'Third World Week'. Ove subtly explores and undermines white and black stereotypes and succeeds in linking two familiar but strange cultures through the simple device of a sports game.

• The Sea Change | DVD | (03/06/2002) from £4.75   |  Saving you £1.24 (26.11%)   |  RRP £5.99

  'The Sea Change' is a contemporary romantic comedy about Rupert a city hot-shot. After a failed marriage proposal to his girlfriend Alison Rupert finds himself with 24 hours to change dramatically or lose the woman he loves!

• Playing Away | DVD | (26/05/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  The tale of a West Indian cricket team from Brixton travelling to a Suffolk village to play against the local team as the culmination of the village's 'Third World Week' and the inevitable culture clash that takes place. They get into all kinds of confrontations in the pub at the vicar's stuffy reception and over women but that is nothing compared to what happens during the big match.