"Actor: David Heap"

• The Midnight Gang | DVD | (04/11/2019) from £3.98   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  The Midnight Gang is an adaptation of the book by David Walliams.When Tom gets hit on the head by a cricket ball, he finds himself on the miserable children's ward of St Hugo's Hospital, where he is greeted by a terrifying-looking porter and wicked matron. But things aren't as bad as they seem and Tom is soon to embark on the most thrilling journey of a lifetime!The Midnight Gang tells the extraordinarily heartwarming and funny story of five children on their quest for adventure! It is a story of friendship, magic and most importantly... making dreams and wishes come true.

• Lord Of The Flies | DVD | (16/09/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  In this classic 1963 adaptation of William Golding's novel Lord of the Flies, a planeload of schoolboys are stranded on a tropical island. They've got food and water; all that's left is to govern themselves peacefully until they are rescued. "After all", says choir leader Jack, "We're English. We're the best in the world at everything!" Unfortunately, living peacefully is not as easy as it seems. Though Ralph is named chief, Jack and the choristers quickly form a clique of their own, using the ever-effective political promise of fun rather than responsibility to draw converts. Director Peter Brook draws some excellent performances out of his young cast: the moment when Ralph realises that even if he blows the conch for a meeting people might not come is an excruciating one. Well acted and faithfully executed, Lord of the Flies is as compelling today as when first released. --Ali Davis

• Jam | DVD | (28/04/2003) from £24.99   |  Saving you £-5.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  With Jam, the TV follow-up to his Radio 1 series Blue Jam, Chris Morris focuses more on unease more than the satire of Brass Eye. Indeed, it's a moot point whether Jam can actually be categorised as comedy at all. Each sketch is steeped in a heavy brine of dark, ambient music (including Bark Psychosis, David Sylvian and Brian Eno), grainy imagery, fast-cut editing and slo-motion. Its mirthless, Kafka-esque scenarios feel like an attempt to morph into some new species of post-comedy that is more like the stuff of nightmares. The credits, in which Morris stalks the moving camera, uttering Lear-esque words of foreboding immediately announce that this "sketch show" is a galaxy apart from The Two Ronnies. The appalled look on actor Kevin Eldon's face in the opening sketch of the series, as a young couple invite him to endure being buggered by a mutual acquaintance ("I need a break"), sets the tone. Rape, chemotherapy, wanton urination--as a naked "Robert Kilroy-Silk" goes insane in a sketch full of detestation for the oleaginous TV presenter--and recurring sketches involving callously authoritarian NHS doctors, all go to make up these annals of the bizarre and perverse. Ultimately, Jam doesn't quite work, not on TV anyway. The repetition of the same, small cast over and over, broken up too briefly by Morris' own appearances (as a "country gentleman" living outside his house, for instance), coupled with the gruelling treatment of the sketch material makes for a psyche-probing, jaw-dropping experience--but in parts also a nullifying and strangely predictable one. Morris's "failures" are far more interesting than most people's successes. --David Stubbs

• Upstart Crow - Series 2 | DVD | (23/10/2017) from £8.98   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Ben Elton's Shakepearean sitcom returns to see talented but low-born baldy-boots Will Shakespeare (David Mitchell) continue his quest to make his name as a playwright in Tudor London, a city where unfortunately being posh and well-connected turns out to be more important than being a genius. Meanwhile Will also has a bit of a problem with his work life balance and it's one hell of a commute back and forth to Stratford-upon-Avon to spend time with his loving but loud family. This series reveals some of the surprising stories behind Will's plays, including a brush with an African general with a bit of a jealous streak; a shrewish teenage daughter who may or may not need some taming; the early draft of Twelfth Night, working title Eighth Night; the little known story of how Shakespeare invented musical theatre with the help of a madrigal-writing rocker (Noel Fielding); the original inspiration for Falstaff; a very merry Shakespearean Christmas featuring Emma Thompson in a regal guest role; and of course a great deal of wit, ale, pies and women dressing as men

• Botched | DVD | (08/09/2008) from £3.84   |  Saving you £13.91 (668.75%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Stephen Dorff stars as an opportunistic thief in this gore/comedy hybrid. What can go wrong does go wrong and in a horrible way.