"Actor: Gretchen Franklin"

• 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

• I Didn't Know You Cared - The Complete Second Series | DVD | (22/05/2006) from £26.00   |  Saving you £-6.01 (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  From the books of Peter Tinniswood comes one of television's greatest comedy families The Brandons. There's miserable pessimist Uncle Mort his sharp-tongued sister Annie who is constantly arguing with husband Les their laid-back son Carter and his not so laid-back fianc Pat and finally old Uncle Stavely who carries his friend's ashes around his neck in a box and only enters the constant bickering with a cry of 'I 'eard that! Pardon?' Pat is desperately trying to turn reluctant C

• I Didn't Know You Cared - Third Series | DVD | (28/08/2006) from £8.74   |  Saving you £11.25 (56.30%)   |  RRP £19.99

  From the books of Peter Tinniswood comes one of television's greatest comedy families The Brandons. There's miserable pessimist Uncle Mort his sharp-tongued sister Annie who is constantly arguing with husband Les their laid-back son Carter and his not so laid-back fianc Pat and finally old Uncle Stavely who carries his friend's ashes around his neck in a box and only enters the constant bickering with a cry of ""I 'eard that! Pardon?"" Episodes comprise: 1. Men At Work 2. A Grave Decision 3. Party Games 4. A Bleak Day 5. Stout Deeds 6. Paradise Lost 7. The Last Tram

• George And Mildred - Series 1 | DVD | (04/06/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  George and Mildred was a spin-off from Johnny Mortimer and Brian Cookes successful 1970s sitcom Man About the House, and ran from 1976 to 1980. This release features the first six episodes. Starring the late, great Yootha Joyce as Mildred Roper, a sex-starved cockney housewife with pretensions to the middle classes, and Brian Murphy as George, her hopeless and incorrigible husband, this series sees them make the upward move to posh Middlesex suburbia, despite George being on supplementary benefit--mortgage conditions were evidently easier in 70s sitcomland. Their neighbours are snooty estate agent Jeffrey Fourmile, his wife Ann and son Tristram. Jeffrey is perturbed that the Ropers arrival will lower the tone of the neighbourhood ("Tristram will get nits!") as they stink up the street with their three-wheel car and cheap wartime furniture. Much mildly amusing comedy at the expense of the working/middle class divide ensues, with no double-entendre left unturned and some period gags to match the Ropers interior decor. Situations involving a local MP, Mildreds even snobbier sister and an unsightly caravan brought out the best in Joyce and Murphys excellent characters, while Nicholas Owen as Tristram was among the least annoying of child sitcom stars. --David Stubbs

• I Didn't Know You Cared - The Complete Fourth Series | DVD | (25/09/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  From the books of Peter Tinniswood comes one of television's greatest comedy families The Brandons. There's miserable pessimist Uncle Mort his sharp-tongued sister Annie who is constantly arguing with husband Les their laid-back son Carter and his not so laid-back fianc Pat and finally old Uncle Stavely who carries his friend's ashes around his neck in a box and only enters the constant bickering with a cry of ""I 'eard that! Pardon?"" Episodes comprise: 1. The Love Match 2. Love Is A Many Splendoured Thing 3. A Tip Top Day 4. Don't Answer That 5. The Great Escape 6. What's In A Name? 7. The Great Day

• 3 Classic British Sitcoms - Rising Damp / George And Mildred / Bless This House | DVD | (20/10/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Rising Damp - A genuine British comedy classic the popularity of 'Rising Damp' remains unparalleled some 25 years after the first transmission. 'Rising Damp' detailed the day-to-day events at Rigsby's dingy boarding-house in Eric Chappell's hilarious sitcom. The landlord from hell Rupert Rigsby prowled around his dilapidated eyrie poking his nose into his lodgers' affairs. In this feature length movie Rigsby (Leonard Rossiter) is still intending to make Miss Jones (Frances De La Tour) his wife but she's far more interested in the intellectual and athletic Philip (Don Warrington)... George And Mildred - George and Mildred are the ultimate odd couple the popular landlord and landlady from Man About The House who became a household name with Thames Television in the 1970's and 80's. Mildred is vain snobbish and domineering; George is shy timid frigid and henpecked. Together they make a great partnership! In this feature length movie Mildred is still trying to steer him towards romance; George still doesn't know what she's driving at... Bless This House - The movie of the successful TV series in which two arguing families discover that their respective offsprings have been having a secret affair and plan to marry...