"Actor: David Nicholls"

• The Omen | DVD | (20/06/2006) from £6.97   |  Saving you £6.02 (86.37%)   |  RRP £12.99

  In 1976 The Omen was a hit among critics and audiences hungry for more after The Exorcist with its mixture of Gothic horror and mystery and its plot about a young boy suspected of being the personification of the Antichrist. Directed by Richard Donner (best known later for his Superman and Lethal Weapon films), The Omen gained a lot of credibility from the casting of Gregory Peck and Lee Remick as a distinguished American couple living in England, whose young son Damien bears "the mark of the beast". At a time when graphic gore had yet to dominate the horror genre, this film used its violence discreetly and to great effect, and the mood of dread and potential death is masterfully maintained. It's all a bit contrived, with a lot of biblical portent and sensational fury, but few would deny it's highly entertaining. Jerry Goldsmith's Oscar-winning score works wonders to enhance the movie's creepy atmosphere. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com On the DVD: The all-new 45-minute documentary, "666: The Omen Revealed", has contributions from all the major behind-the-scenes players, including director, editor, screenwriter (who confesses the movie was only set in England because he wanted a free trip to London), producer and composer. The latter, Jerry Goldsmith, has his Oscar-winning contribution to the movie recognised with a separate feature in which he talks through four key musical scenes in the score. There's also a thought-provoking short called "Curse or Coincidence?" in which the many bizarre accidents that happened during shooting are related, including the terrible story of what happened to the girlfriend of the man responsible for designing the decapitation scene--spooky. Director Richard Donner and editor Stuart Baird provide a chatty audio commentary to the film, and the DVD package is completed by the original theatrical trailer. --Mark Walker

• The Missionary | DVD | (29/07/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Fallen women? Does it mean they've hurt their knees? After a decade of soul-saving in Africa Charles Fortescue is asked to minister to the ladies of the night in 1906 London. So Fortescue feeds them shelters them and not infrequently provides them a bed: his! A naive man of the cloth becomes a man of the sheets in this playfully naughty yet always tasteful comedy that stars Monty Python's Michael Palin (who also wrote the script) as Fortescue and features a colourful array of cockeyed characters: a blissful airhead (Phoebe Nicholls) a lusty mission sponsor (Maggie Smith) a bewildered butler (Michael Hordern) an earthy bishop (Denholm Elliott) a cantankerous John Bull (Trevor Howard) and more. Jolly good fun!

• Rita, Sue And Bob Too | DVD | (22/09/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  British films about sex are fairly rare, and mostly embarrassing: from the painfully anxious (Brief Encounter) to the hopelessly naff (the Carry On films). What a treat then is Rita, Sue and Bob Too, Alan Clarke's filming of a stage play by young Andrea Dunbar. It's an unsentimental, gleefully lewd comedy about shagging. Tagged for its cinema release in 1987 as "Thatcher's Britain with its knickers down", it even provoked a minor moral hullabaloo in the newspapers. Rita (Siobhan Finneran) and Sue (Michelle Holmes) are two giggly Bradford lasses stuck on a ramshackle housing estate. They keep themselves in fags by occasional baby-sitting for nouveau riche couple Bob (George Costigan) and Michelle (Lesley Sharp). Bob fancies himself rotten, but Michelle has ruled that sex is off the menu. So one night, driving Rita and Sue home, Bob detours to the Yorkshire moors and offers the girls a little something extra in his front seat. Rita and Sue decide to grab it while they can. Alan Clarke's cult following is founded on his bleak, brilliant films about violent young men (Scum, The Firm, Made in Britain). But Rita, Sue is a tribute to Clarkey's ribald sense of humour. It even sports a cameo from novelty pop-act Black Lace, performing their non-hit "Gang-Bang". Teenage debutantes Holmes and Finneran are terrific--just watch them dancing lustily around Bob's red leather sofa to Bananarama. In support, Clarke wisely cast skilled northern comedians like Patti Nicholls and Willie Ross, as Sue's foul-mouthed mum and dad. Amid the laughs, Clarke as usual doesn't stint from showing us the harsh, unlovely side of life. He shot the film on location at Bradford's Buttershaw estate, where Andrea Dunbar grew up and where, tragically, she died of a brain haemorrhage only a few years after the film's release. --Richard Kelly

• Shackleton | DVD | (14/04/2003) from £6.99   |  Saving you £3.00 (42.92%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Shackleton is not a biopic of the great Anglo-Irish explorer but a dramatisation of the failed trans-Antarctic expedition of 1914-16. As written and directed by Charles (Longtitude) Sturridge the production, filmed on real ice floes in Greenland, stays remarkably close to the facts, capturing the look of the surviving expedition photos of Frank Hurley (collected in the book South With Endurance) with great fidelity. Kenneth Branagh makes no attempt at an authentic accent but otherwise gives a powerful impression of a most commanding personality. When the expedition ship Endurance became locked in the Antarctic ice Shackleton vowed to bring every man home alive, and against virtually impossible odds, including a 700-mile journey in an open boat through some of the worst seas in the world, he did just that. This superlative mini-series realises the story with production values and cinematography which would not disgrace a big-budget feature (Hurley's own 1919 documentary film can be seen on video in South). Intense physical drama, strong performances and Adrian Johnston's fine score combine here to deeply moving effect, marred only a little by a rushed conclusion. With Roland Huntford, author of the definitive Shackleton biography, as production advisor, this easily stands as the benchmark for all future comparable films. --Gary S Dalkin

• Up the Elephant and Round the Castle: The Complete Series | DVD | (03/10/2016) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Comedian Jim Davidson consolidated his phenomenal rise to fame with this hit early-eighties sitcom, starring as a happy-go-lucky Cockney who inherits a house but finds owning his own 'castle' brings its own set of problems. With guest stars including Linda Robson and The Bill's Christopher Ellison, Tony Scannell and Kevin Lloyd, this set contains all three series. Jim London is jobless, and he doesn't have much luck with the ladies, either. But he gets his first real break when his Auntie Min bequeaths him her house in South London's Elephant and Castle. 17 Railway Terrace might be small, but bachelor Jim's thrilled to have his own place at last. Sadly, he also inherits a cantankerous, unseen but oft-heard lodger, nosy neighbours and unwanted admirers and an army of dodgy visitors in need of Jim's help and/or a bed for the night...

• Slap Shot | DVD | (03/10/2002) from £16.16   |  Saving you £-6.17 (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Paul Newman and his Butch Cassidy director, George Roy Hill, made a very original comedy in this 1977 story of an over-the-hill player/coach (Newman) for a lousy hockey team who gets results when he teaches his players to get dirty. One of the most hilariously profane movies ever to come out of Hollywood, this is the kind of film that makes its own rules as it goes along. Newman is very good, and while Hill goes for the gusto in terms of capturing the violence of this world, his instinct for comedy has never been sharper. Great support from Strother Martin, Paul Dooley, and the rest. --Tom Keogh, Amazon.com

• Up The Elephant And Round The Castle - Series 1-3 - Complete | DVD | (05/05/2008) from £16.98   |  Saving you £3.01 (15.10%)   |  RRP £19.99

  The complete series of the classic television show Up the Elephant and Round the Castle.

• The Omen | DVD | (23/10/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

  He was born at 6am on the 6th day of the 6th month. The coming of Armageddon the site of the final confrontation between the forces of good and evil as foretold in the Book of Revelations will begin with the birth of the son of Satan - in human form. Unable to tell his wife Katherine the tragic news of their still-born son American diplomat Robert Thorn accepts a new-born orphan as his son. Details of the child's birth remain a secret but as the boy Damien grows older it becom

• The Governor - Series 1 | DVD | (11/07/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  The Governor was written by Lynda La Plante and tells the story of a female governor who is put in charge of a high-security male prison. Facing various problems including hostage situations and escape attempts the new Governor is challenged not only to overcome the difficulties with in the prison but also the attitude of her fellow male prison guards. Is she up to the task? Features all 6 episodes of Series 1.

• Horror Triple | DVD | (20/10/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £30.99

  A box set of three spine tingling horror tales: Masque Of The Red Death: As a deadly plague ravages Europe sadistic Prince Prospero hosts a lavish banquet for noble devil-worshippers in the sanctuary of his castle. But in the midst of their cruelly wanton revelry there is an uninvited masked guest; Death! Night Of The Eagle: Norman Taylor is hated by other university lecturers when rumours of a major promotion circulate. Hated so much in fact that someone pervades his life with sinister occult spells... Zoltan Hound Of Dracula: In the event of a bizarre find a group of Russian soldiers bring back to life the Dog of Dracula. The evil hound then travels to Los Angeles where the last descendants of the deadly clan still survive...