"Actor: Joan Sydney"

• Donizetti: Lucia di Lammermoor | DVD | (15/10/2001) from £33.73   |  Saving you £-8.74 (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  In the annuals of music history Joan Sutherland's name will always be inextricably linked with the tragic heroine of Donizetti's dark romantic opera. It was the role which catapulted her to international stardom in 1959 and remained the perfect showcase for her remarkable vocal agility and acting ability throughout her career.

• Carry On Cowboy | DVD | (27/08/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £13.99

  Made in the "classic" period of the series, 1966's Carry On Cowboy is a spoof Western set in Stodge City, about to suffer the arrival of black-hatted outlaw The Rumpo Kid, played by the less-than-youthful Sid James. Kenneth Williams is the aptly named Judge Burke, who appeals to Washington for help to combat this gunslinger and his henchmen. Assistance arrives in the form of Jim Dale's Marshall P Knutt, a drainage, sanitation and garbage expert from England, with a reference from Lady Pushing for doing a "good job on her main sludge channel", whose Christian name provokes a predictable misunderstanding. Fortunately, he's accompanied by Annie Oakley. As ever, much fun is to be had cheering/groaning along to double-entendres about "big ones", but never mind the script, feel the characters. Joan Sims does a good Mae West impression; Syd James "Ha hwa-ha-ha!"s his way through his part with his usual aplomb; the underrated Peter Butterworth is excellent as an inept Doctor; while Bernard Bresslaw adds to his impressively multi-ethnic CV, playing a Native American, with Charles Hawtrey as his incorrigible firewater-loving Chief. On the DVD: No extras, sadly, other than scene selection but Alan Hume's splendidly authentic colour lensing is suitably refurbished here. --David Stubbs

• Verdi: Il Trovatore -- Opera Australia | DVD | (05/06/2002) from £22.89   |  Saving you £2.10 (9.17%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Il Trovatore, Verdi's 1853 maelstrom of passion, infanticide, double-crossing and revenge, would be a mightily gamy affair if it didn't contain some of his finest arias, a cracker of a tenor's role and one of opera's most powerfully-written characters in the old gypsy woman, Azucena. Although Joan Sutherland, who plays the self-sacrificing lady-in-waiting Leonora in this 1983 Australia Opera production at Sydney Opera House, is the headline star, in truth the supreme assets of this recording are mezzo-soprano Lauris Elms' Azucena, a beautifully sung performance of haunted, wild-eyed sadness; and Sydney Nolan's wonderfully infernal sets, all purple and burnt ochre with suggestions of distorted faces. Sutherland came late to a part which allowed her to sing up a storm without taxing her rather stolid acting style. Her husband and musical director Richard Bonynge gives her the space to unleash some of Verdi's most fluidly opulent melodies--"D'amor sull'ali rosee" is a case in point--whose beauty is often at odds with the underlying horrors of the tale, based on a rather dodgy Spanish melodrama by Gutierrez. Sutherland has strong support from tenor Kenneth Collins as the doomed Manrico and Jonathan Summers as the vengeful Count. On the DVD: Il Trovatore on disc offers the inevitable shortcomings of a filmed for television performance: to the detriment of Nolan's designs (and the hard-pressed make-up team), the lighting doesn't translate well to video. Presented in 4:3 picture format, the quality is frequently murky. The PCM Stereo soundtrack also has its flat and fuzzy moments, particularly during chorus scenes ("Vedi! Le fosche notturne spoglie") when the orchestra drowns out the singing. But on the whole Sutherland et al sound great.--Piers Ford

• Carry On Regardless | DVD | (27/08/2001) from £6.66   |  Saving you £-0.67 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  It's non stop romps as the Carry On team deliver the goods in one of the rudest and funniest of the Carry On films. The cast are all on top form as a bunch of no-hoppers who join an agency in the search for a job. The anarchy mounts as they do a series of odd jobs including a chimps tea party trying to stay sober at a wine tasting and demolishing a house.

• Flamingo Road | DVD | (03/03/2017) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Sutherland / Pavarotti / Bonynge Gala Concert | DVD | (02/05/2006) from £28.60   |  Saving you £-13.61 (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Live From Sydney Opera House (Joan Sutherland / Luciano Pavarotti)

• Sea Wife | DVD | (03/09/2012) from £20.00   |  Saving you £-5.01 (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  A British cargo ship carrying hundreds of refugees fleeing from Singapore is torpedoed by a Japanese submarine and sunk. Four survivors find themselves adrift on the high seas sharing a flimsy dinghy - a colonial businessman (Basil Sydney), an officer (Richard Burton), the ship's purser (Cy Grant) and a beautiful but mysterious young woman (Joan Collins).As the survivors fight to stay alive, the tensions - and attractions - between them grow stronger until they can't be contained any longer. Two of them share a fateful secret, which can never be revealed. The result is murder - and the start of a long, desperate search for true love...

• A Country Practice - Collection 6 ( Episodes 667 to 792 ) | DVD | (01/10/2021) from £89.90   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• A Gala Concert With Joan Sutherland And Marilyn Horne | DVD | (06/08/2001) from £16.17   |  Saving you £6.81 (51.67%)   |  RRP £19.99

  In 1986 one of opera's legendary partnerships was celebrated in A Gala Concert with Joan Sutherland and Marilyn Horne at Sydney Opera House. Under the musical direction of Sutherland's husband and long term conductor Richard Bonynge, the great soprano and mezzo soprano treated their audience to an epic evening of solos and duets from works with which they had long since become indelibly linked. The concert was preserved and transmitted as an Esso-sponsored night at the opera by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Each diva is given ample room to shine individually. Here in all their glory are Sutherland's "Les Oiseaux dans la Charmille", the mechanical doll's aria from Offenbach's Tales of Hoffmann and Horne's "Iris, Hence Away" from Handel's Semele. Magical duets include "Serbami Ognor si Fido" (Rossini's Semiramide), "Viens Mallika, les Lianes en Fleurs" (Delibes' Lakme, much-used in their advertisements by British Airways) and of course the "Barcarolle" from Hoffmann. The overwhelming effect is of their passion for the music and the great professional respect and friendship which Sutherland and Horne clearly feel for each other as two of the greatest champions of the bel canto repertoire in living memory. Essential viewing for anyone remotely interested in operatic history. On the DVD: Digitally restored and remastered from the original tape, this disc at least offers the benefit of crystalline PCM stereo sound quality. In all other respects, it is a television production which inevitably shows its age. The curtain calls and long waits between every item, while Horne and Sutherland are fetched singly or together by Bonynge, are interminable and should have been cut. The 4:3 picture format is sharp enough and reveals the cumbersome dullness of the staging in all its glory. But none of this detracts from the wonder of two appealing prima donnas near their vocal peak. --Piers Ford

• Van Der Valk - Series 1 - Part 1 Of 4 | DVD | (03/03/2003) from £13.45   |  Saving you £2.54 (18.88%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Van der Valk - Series 1 (Part 1)

• Van Der Valk - Series 1 - Part 2 Of 4 | DVD | (03/03/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Van der Valk - Series 1 (Part 2)

• Adriana Lecouvreur - Cilea | DVD | (27/02/2006) from £31.16   |  Saving you £-14.91 (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Francesco Cilea's most popular work is based on the 1849 play by Eugene Scribe and Ernest Legouve. Adriana Lecouvreur is a star of the stage who could seemingly have any man she desires but when she falls hopelessly in love with the Count of Saxony she discovers he's already been promised to the Princess of Bouillon leading to a battle of wills between them.Filmed at Sydney Opera House Australia.

• Van Der Valk - Series 1 Boxset | DVD | (08/07/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £49.99

  Complete series one of the famous Dutch Detective Van der Valk.

• La Regina Delle Piramidi | DVD | (18/03/2014) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Berserk! | Blu Ray | (18/03/2022) from £31.98   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Joan Crawford (What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?) stars as Monica Rivers, the owner of a traveling circus plagued by a series of mysterious deaths. When a high-wire performer becomes the first victim, he is replaced by Frank Hawkins (Ty Hardin, Battle of the Bulge), an even more daring aerialist. But Frank's attentions to Monica make her business manager, Dorando (Michael Gough, Batman), jealous.After Dorando becomes the brutal killer's next victim, Police Superintendent Brooks (Robert Hardy) arrives at the scene, but the mystery is not so easy to unravel with a cast of suspects with motives including jealousy and revenge. This campy horror flick with a surprising climax also features Judy Geeson (To Sir, With Love) and Diana Dors (There's a Girl In My Soup).