"Actor: Jaffrey"

• Gandhi | DVD | (04/07/2011) from £5.25   |  Saving you £0.74 (14.10%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Gandhi is a great subject, but is Gandhi a great film? Undoubtedly it is, not least because it is one of the last old-school epics ever made, a glorious visual treat featuring tens of thousands of extras (real people, not digital effects) and sumptuous Panavision cinematography. But a true epic is about more than just widescreen photography, it concerns itself with noble subjects too, and the life story of Mahatma Gandhi is one of the noblest of all. Both the man and the film have profound things to say about the meaning of freedom and racial harmony, as well as how to achieve them. Ben Kingsley, in his first major screen role, bears the heavy responsibility of the central performance and carries it off magnificently; without his magnetic and utterly convincing portrayal the film would founder in the very first scene. Sir Richard Attenborough surrounds his main character with a cast of distinguished thespians (Trevor Howard, John Mills, John Gielgud and Martin Sheen, to name but four), none of whom do anything but provide the most sympathetic support. John Briley's literate screenplay achieves the almost impossible task of distilling the bewildering complexities of Anglo-Indian politics. Attenborough's treatment is openly reverential, but, given the saint-like character of his subject, it's hard to see how it could have been anything else. He doesn't flinch from the implication that the Mahatma was naïve to expect a unified India, for example, but instead lets Gandhi's actions speak for themselves. The outstanding achievement of this labour of love is that it tells the story of an avowed pacifist who never raised a hand in anger, of a man who never held high office, of a man who shied away from publicity, and turns it into three hours of utterly mesmerising cinema.On the DVD: The anamorphic (16:9) picture of the original 2.35:1 image has a certain softness to it that may reflect the age of the print, but somehow seems entirely in keeping with the subject . Sound is Dolby 5.1. The extras are fairly brief, but worthwhile: original newsreel footage of Gandhi includes an astonishingly patronising British news account of his visit to England; in a recent interview, Ben Kinglsey chats enthusiastically about the film and the difficulties he experienced bringing the character to life. The dull "making-of" feature is simply a montage of stills. --Mark Walker

• The Jewel In The Crown - Complete Series - 25th Anniversary Edition | DVD | (24/08/2009) from £13.22   |  Saving you £16.77 (126.85%)   |  RRP £29.99

  A lavish 25th Anniversary edition of the seminal Jewel In The Crown'TV miniseries adapted from Paul Scott's Booker-winning 'Raj Quartet' novels. The British Raj: though their position outwardly seems secure the perceptive among the English nationals in India know that with impending moves towards independence their time in the sub-continent is coming to an end...

• The Man Who Would Be King | DVD | (17/05/2010) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £8.99

  A grandly entertaining, old-fashioned adventure based on the Rudyard Kipling short story, The Man Who Would Be King is the kind of rousing epic about which people said, even in 1975, "Wow! They don't make 'em like that anymore". When director John Huston first started trying to make the film, with Gable and Bogart, the project was derailed by the latter's death. It was a few decades before Huston was finally able to realise his dream movie--and with an unimprovable cast. Sean Connery and Michael Caine are, respectively, Daniel Dravot and Peachy Carnahan, a pair of lovably roguish British soldiers who set out to make their fortunes by conning the priests of remote Kafiristan into making them kings. It's a rollicking tale, an epic satire of imperialism, and the good-natured repartee shared by Caine and Connery is pure gold. Huston lets the humour emerge naturally from the characters, for whom we wind up caring more deeply than we ever expected. --Jim Emerson

• Red Sparrow | 4K UHD | (09/07/2018) from £34.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Jennifer Lawrence is Dominika, a former ballerina forced to enter Sparrow School, a secret government program that trains young recruits to manipulate, seduce and kill. She emerges as a dangerous agent, but is trapped in a world she desperately wants to escape. With the lives of her loved ones at risk, Dominika must find a way to take back control and serve justice to those who betrayed her.

• My Beautiful Laundrette | DVD | (17/03/2008) from £4.98   |  Saving you £13.00 (434.78%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Set within the Asian community in London My Beautiful Launderette is an unusual love story concerned with identity and entrepreneurial spirit during the Thatcher years. Omar (Gordon Warnecke) takes over the running of his wheeler-dealer uncle's launderette with the intention of turning it into a glittering place of commercial success. When he employs childhood friend and ex-National Front member Johnny (Daniel Day-Lewis) they become lovers as well as working partners. However complications soon ensue as the anger of Johnny's deserted gang begins to build and Omar is forced to face increasingly difficult family issues.

• Sharpe's Peril | DVD | (10/11/2008) from £19.75   |  Saving you £0.24 (1.22%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Only one man can save them all The award-winning series Sharpe starring Sean Bean returns for another action-packed adventure. It's India 1818 and Lt Col Richard Sharpe and Sergeant Major Patrick Harper are travelling across India escorting the beautiful Marie-Angelique Bonnet to meet her fianc''e. While in bandit-plagued badlands they come across the very dregs of the Crown's troops; an ill disciplined rag-tag unit led by boy soldier Beauclare. As Sharpe and company sit down to have dinner with their hosts the camp comes under attack by the notorious bandit Chitu. As the dust settles it becomes apparent there have been many casualties and Sharpe realises that he is the only person now capable of getting this wagon train to the safety of the next army garrison. Little does Sharpe know that the adventure has only just begun and that he has inadvertently stumbled across a massive opium trafficking ring...

• Gandhi | DVD | (12/02/2007) from £13.00   |  Saving you £2.99 (23.00%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Richard Attenborough's award-winning epic recounts the life and times of Mahatma Gandhi. In South Africa a young Indian lawyer is booted off a train for refusing to ride second-class. Upon his return to his native India and fed up with the unjust political system he joins the Indian Congress Party which encourages social change through passive resistance. When his ""subversive"" activities land him in jail masses of low-skilled workers strike to support his non-violent yet revolutionary position. Back in India Gandhi renounces the Western way of life and struggles to organize Indian labor against British colonialism. A strike costs many British soldiers their lives so the crown responds by slaughtering 1 500 Indians. Enraged the ascetic spiritual leader continues to preach pacifism until he has lead India out from under the tyranny of British imperialism.

• House of Cards - Season 5 | DVD | (02/10/2017) from £4.95   |  Saving you £10.04 (202.83%)   |  RRP £14.99

  In the midst of the presidential election, tensions mount in the White House as Frank (Golden Globe® winner Kevin Spacey) and Claire (Golden Globe® winner Robin Wright) continue to navigate their political careers and redefine their relationships particularly with each other. Season Five of the Emmy® Awardwinning® political drama is marked by violent power plays, new alliances, stunning betrayals and, as always, a desire to win at any cost and not just from Frank Underwood.

• My Beautiful Laundrette (DVD + Blu-ray) | Blu Ray | (21/08/2017) from £8.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  In case you'd forgotten, My Beautiful Laundrette will remind you of those mid-80s days when Thatcherism ruled the earth (or so it seemed) and money was king. Stephen Frears' low-budget realisation of Hanif Kureishi's subversively critical play captures the contradictions of that time in a way that's as fresh today as when it was new. Omar's wheeler-dealer uncle, Nasser (Saeed Jaffrey), sums it up when he says, "In this damn country, which we hate and love, you can get anything you want". He sets up Omar (Gordon Warnecke) with a rundown laundrette and the instruction to make it a success, which Omar temporarily does, with the help of his childhood friend Johnny (Daniel Day-Lewis). When the film first came out, it was the gay content that dominated the column inches, whereas now it seems a sensitive and multi-faceted summation of its decade, exploring social, ethnic and sexual issues and contradictions. Bringing together two such different characters as Omar--Asian, ambitious, for whom success is defined by wealth--and former childhood friend Johnny--white trash, ex-National Front--was inspired. Watching their friendship develop into love, and the ensuing bitterness and misunderstanding that they suffer from friends and family is very poignant. All the lead roles are well taken, the contradictory character of Nasser in particular. By turns, funny, touching and anger-inducing, this is a movie that wears its age lightly and its era proudly. On the DVD: the picture is in 4:3 ratio with a Dolby Digital soundtrack. There's an original trailer and filmographies of the four main characters, with an additional biography for Day-Lewis. --Harriet Smith

• Autobiography of a Princess (Merchant Ivory Collection) | DVD | (12/02/2007) from £12.45   |  Saving you £-2.46 (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  A thoughtful character study and fascinating look at a nearly obselete Indian lifestyle.

• Red Sparrow | DVD | (09/07/2018) from £7.01   |  Saving you £-0.02 (N/A%)   |  RRP £6.99

  Dominika Egorova (Jennifer Lawrence) is drafted against her will to become a "sparrow," a trained seductress in the Russian security service.

• A Passage To India | DVD | (31/03/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  A Passage to India, David Lean's adaptation of EM Forster's mysterious tale of racism in colonial India, turned out to be the master director's final film. Subtle and grand at the same time, Lean's adaptation is faithful to the book, rendering its blend of the mystical and the all-too human with exquisite precision. Judy Davis plays a young British woman travelling in India with her fiancé's mother. While visiting a tourist attraction, she has a frightening moment in a cave--one that she eventually spins from an instant of mental meltdown into a tale of a physical attack that ruins several lives. Lean captures Forster's sense of awe at the kind of ageless wisdom and inexplicable phenomena to be encountered in India, as well as the British tendency to dismiss it all as savage, rather than simply different. --Marshall Fine

• Spooks: Complete BBC Series 6 | DVD | (06/10/2008) from £11.98   |  Saving you £28.01 (233.81%)   |  RRP £39.99

  The stakes are higher than ever for Adam Harry and the team as growing mistrust between the British American and Iranian Governments culminates in a series of high-risk operations at home pushing the Section to its very limits. As Iran's race to become a nuclear power impacts on British and American security the distinction between friend and foe becomes ever more blurred.

• The Far Pavilions | DVD | (17/04/2019) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Ash (Ben Cross) and Anjuli (Amy Irving) are two star-crossed lovers caught up in this passionate and haunting love story. Based on the best selling novel by M. M. Kaye The Far Pavilions is set in the India of the British Raj at the end of the 19th Century against the spectacular and epic sweep of battle treachery and intrigue. An all star cast including Omar Sharif Sir John Gielgud Christopher Lee Rossano Brazzi Robert Hardy Saeed Jaffery and Rupert Everett feature in

• Spooks - Complete Series 5 | DVD | (10/09/2007) from £10.34   |  Saving you £29.65 (286.75%)   |  RRP £39.99

  Featuring all 10 episodes from series 5 of the hit BBC drama.

• The Rhythm Section (Blu-ray) | Blu Ray | (08/06/2020) from £8.95   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Blake Lively stars as Stephanie Patrick, an ordinary woman on a path of self-destruction after her family is tragically killed in a plane crash. When Stephanie discovers that the crash was not an accident, she enters a dark, complex world to seek revenge on those responsible and find her own redemption. Based on the novel by Mark Burnell, from director Reed Morano (The Handmaid's Tale) and the producers of the James Bond film series, The Rhythm Section also stars Jude Law and Sterling K. Brown. Bonus Features Deleted And Extended Scenes Stephanie's Journey Fight Or Flight Never Leave Second Gear One Shot Explosion Designing The Rhythm Section

• Red Sparrow | Blu Ray | (09/07/2018) from £7.99   |  Saving you £2.00 (25.03%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Jennifer Lawrence is Dominika, a former ballerina forced to enter Sparrow School, a secret government program that trains young recruits to manipulate, seduce and kill. She emerges as a dangerous agent, but is trapped in a world she desperately wants to escape. With the lives of her loved ones at risk, Dominika must find a way to take back control and serve justice to those who betrayed her.

• Raising Helen | DVD | (27/12/2004) from £5.32   |  Saving you £10.67 (200.56%)   |  RRP £15.99

  When her sister and brother-in-law die in a car accident, Kate Hudson's young modeling agency assistant takes on the role as guardian of their three children.

• Gangsters - The Complete Series | DVD | (24/04/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £29.99

  Emerging from the Play for Today anthology series in 1975 Philip Martin's near two-hour-length play Gangsters proved so popular that a series was commissioned and followed eighteen months later. Following the lead of such gritty cop dramas as The Sweeney Gangsters revealed a world of racial segregation and ghettos in the style of American television; and it didn't hold back on the violence or bad language either. Former SAS officer John Kline (Maurice C

• A Passage to India | DVD | (06/05/2013) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

  From the acclaimed director of Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago and The Bridge on the River Kwai, A Passage To India was Sir David Lean's last ever feature film and a winner of two Oscars®.