"Actor: John Aler"

• The Secret Garden | DVD | (22/11/1999) from £4.99   |  Saving you £9.00 (180.36%)   |  RRP £13.99

  Filmed before (and quite nicely) in 1949, Frances Hodgson Burnett's classic children's story was remade for this admirable 1993 release, executive produced by Francis Ford Coppola and directed by acclaimed Polish filmmaker Agnieszka Holland. Splendidly adapted by Edward Scissorhands screenwriter Caroline Thompson, the film opens in India during the early 1900s, when young Mary Lennox (Kate Maberly) is orphaned and sent to England to live in Misselthwaite Manor, the gloomy estate of her brooding and melancholy uncle, Lord Craven (John Lynch). Because the uncle is almost always away on travels, struggling to forget the death of his beloved wife, Mary is left mostly alone to explore the estate. Eventually she befriends the young brother of a staff maid and Lord Craven's apparently crippled son, who has been needlessly bedridden for years. Together the three children restore a neglected garden on the estate grounds, and in doing so they set the stage for a moving reaffirmation of life and love. Filmed with graceful style and careful attention to the intelligence and cleverness of young children, The Secret Garden is that rarest breed of family film that transcends its own generic category, encouraging a sense of wonder and optimism to become a rewarding experience for viewers of any age. --Jeff Shannon

• Secret Garden, The / Black Beauty | DVD | (17/04/2019) from £6.49   |  Saving you £4.50 (69.34%)   |  RRP £10.99

  It's a special garden where friendships blossom illnesses fade away and sorrows flee. There troubled orphan Mary (Kate Maberly) her spoiled sickly cousin Colin (Heydon Prowse) and kindly country boy Dickon (Andrew Knott) discover that a world of caring can make a world of difference. Frances Hodgson Burnett's classic story blooms anew in this enchanting new version lovingly adapted by Caroline Thompson and directed by Agnieszka Holland also starring Maggie Smith and John Lynch.

• Great Expectations | DVD | (26/09/2008) from £5.80   |  Saving you £14.19 (244.66%)   |  RRP £19.99

  David Lean's masterpiece based on Charles Dickins' timeless novel about Pip, a blacksmith's apprentice who suddenly comes into great fortunes.

• Anne Of The Thousand Days | DVD | (06/03/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  He was King. She was barely 18. And in their thousand days they played out the most passionate and shocking love story in history! This lush perfectly cast 1969 drama concerns both a doomed royal love affair and a pivotal moment in British history. Based on Maxwell Anderson's 1948 play Anne of the Thousand Days concerns the mess that surrounded King Henry VIII's decision to rid himself of his first wife Catherine of Aragon (Irene Papas) and marry the young Anne Boleyn (G

• Kind Hearts And Coronets | DVD | (21/06/2004) from £7.18   |  Saving you £2.81 (39.14%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Set in Victorian England, Robert Hamer's 1949 masterpiece Kind Hearts and Coronets remains the most gracefully mordant of Ealing Comedies. Dennis Price plays Louis D'Ascoyne, the would-be Duke of Chalfont whose Mother was spurned by her noble family for marrying an Italian singer for love. Louis resolves to murder the several of his relatives ahead of him in line for the Dukedom, all of whom are played by Alec Guinness, in order to avenge his Mother--for, as Louis observes, " revenge is a dish which people of taste prefer to eat cold". He gets away with it, only to be arraigned for the one murder of which he is innocent. Guinness' virtuoso performances have been justly celebrated, ranging as they do from a youthful D'Ascoyne concealing his enthusiasm for public houses from his priggish wife ("she has views on such places") to a brace of doomed uncles and one aunt, ranging from the doddery to the peppery. Miles Malleson is a splendid doggerel-spouting hangman, while Valerie Hobson and Joan Greenwood take advantage of unusually strong female roles. But the great joy of Kind Hearts and Coronets is the way in which its appallingly black subject matter (considered beyond the pale by many critics at the time) is conveyed in such elegantly ironic turns of phrase by Dennis Price's narrator/anti-hero. Serial murder has never been conducted with such exquisite manners and discreet charm. --David Stubbs

• Great Expectations | Blu Ray | (23/06/2008) from £8.85   |  Saving you £11.14 (125.88%)   |  RRP £19.99

  David Lean's masterpiece based on Charles Dickins' timeless novel about Pip, a blacksmith's apprentice who suddenly comes into great fortunes.

• The Mikado | DVD | (22/08/2011) from £14.75   |  Saving you £2.24 (15.19%)   |  RRP £16.99

  Based on the stage production by Anthony Besch.

• Appointment With Death | DVD | (20/02/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Based on the novel by Agatha Christie a posh 1937 tour of the holy land turns murderous when a malicious malevolent matriarch (Piper Laurie) is mysteriously poisoned. Each of her fellow tourists had the means and the motive to kill her and any of them would have enjoyed plunging the lethal hypodermic syringe into Mrs. Boynton's fleshy arm. It's up to nimble-witted Belgian detective Poirot (Peter Ustinov) to discover whodunit.

• Great Expectations | DVD | (17/04/2019) from £5.99   |  Saving you £7.00 (116.86%)   |  RRP £12.99

  David Lean's masterpiece based on Charles Dickins' timeless novel about Pip, a blacksmith's apprentice who suddenly comes into great fortunes.

• The Life And Adventures Of Nicholas Nickleby | DVD | (13/05/2002) from £39.99   |  Saving you £-20.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  This 2000 television adaptation confirms Nicholas Nickleby's place among television dramatists' favourite Dickens novels. It has all the vital ingredients: a sensitive, intelligent young hero cast by circumstances in the role of everyman whose fortitude is tested at every turn; romance; danger; one of Dickens' richest braces of characters; and a sense of humanity that is, at times, overwhelming. Condensing all this into three hours is no mean achievement. Martyn Edward Hesford's screenplay maintains an impressive balance between dramatic tension and allowing the characters the space they need to reveal their essential qualities. Only in the last 30 minutes does it become something of a gallop to the finishing post. True, the horrors of the boarding school could be more horrific; the grime of Victorian London and its toothless inhabitants could be grimier and less cosmetic. But as always with a superior production of a Dickens novel, the richness and depth of the drama outweigh such minor quibbles. As for the cast, James D'Arcy's Nicholas is pitch-perfect: part cipher for the injustices and despair he encounters, part emblem for the triumph of goodness, an innocent whose eyes are quickly forced open to the darker realities of life. These darker realities are congealed in Charles Dance's relentlessly chilling, heartless Ralph Nickleby. This is a deceptively complex performance; even as we cheer the gathering forces which finally extinguish his increasingly desperate power, the awful tragedy of his end still elicits a discomforting ounce of sympathy. Gregor Fisher as the one-eyed Squeers and Pam Ferris as his fearsomely lascivious wife are outstanding in an ensemble of fine character actors. And Lee Ingleby's Smike gives our tear ducts a good workout while steering just the right side of sentimentality. On the DVD: Nicholas Nickleby is presented in widescreen format with Dolby Digital soundtrack, and has all the technical qualities you might expect from the DVD release of a modern television production. Extras include cast filmographies, a Dickens biography and a list of his work, all of which add to the disc's merits as a literary educational tool. --Piers Ford

• Rocking Horse Winner | DVD | (16/01/2012) from £6.66   |  Saving you £6.33 (95.05%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Rocking Horse Winner is a dark, atmospheric and complex psychological British drama, adapted from DH Lawrence's story about Paul, a young boy (a 10 year-old John Howard Davies) who receives a rocking horse for Christmas and soon learns that he is able to pick the winning horse at the races - to the delight of his spend thrift mother (Valerie Hobson) and his hopeless gambler of a father (Hugh Sinclair) Young Paul teams up with Bassett the servant (John Mills), with the two of them forming a profitable partnership - yet the house continually whispers to Paul that it needs more money, with this need exacting a high price.

• Repulsion | DVD | (25/08/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £16.99

  Carol a young girl living in Sixties' London is repelled yet fascinated by men. Her radiant beauty attracts the opposite sex but she shrinks from their advances. Her days are spent in an intensely feminine atmosphere: working in a beauty salon and clinging to her sister Helen for love. But as she incarcerates herself in her sinister shadowy flat men begin to invade her dreams night and day mixing her terror with delight as bizarre hallucinations take hold of her mind. The

• The Out Of Towners | DVD | (05/03/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  This remake of Neil Simon's l970 comedy finds Goldie Hawn and Steve Martin as Ohio yokels cast adrift in Mayor Rudy Giuliani's sanitised New York City. With their son recently departed for Britain, the empty-nesters travel to the Big Apple for a job interview and are beset with all kinds of bad luck, starting with their flight being rerouted to Boston. Things only go downhill from there, of course, as they're mugged by an Andrew Lloyd Webber imposter, the high-tech multilingual navigation system on their rented Cadillac goes haywire, and their hotel reservations fall through. Although marred by some out-of-place slapstick and mawkish romance scenes, this film's not without its funny moments. The couple stumbles into a sexual-addiction encounter group and has to try to back out gracefully (not succeeding very well, of course). John Cleese is howlingly funny as he reprises his Fawlty Towers role of a cross-dressing hotelier, and Martin has a great drug-delirium scene, in which he's slipped a hit of LSD in jail (thinking it's aspirin). Just try not to think in terms of comparisons to Neil Simon's original and this remake works fairly well. --Jerry Renshaw, Amazon.com

• Repulsion | Blu Ray | (24/03/2017) from £11.19   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Roman Polanski's psychological drama was his first English-language feature. A young Belgian woman (Catherine Deneuve) is left alone in a Kensington apartment when her sister goes away. She becomes increasingly unstable, experiencing hallucinations which have their roots in her fear of male sexuality. When two aggressive men turn up, her tortured nightmares spill into real life violence.

• Stand Up Nigel Barton / Vote, Vote, Vote For Nigel Barton | DVD | (26/09/2005) from £15.12   |  Saving you £4.87 (32.21%)   |  RRP £19.99

  A semi-autobiographical double-bill from the mind of playwright Dennis Potter; taken from the 'Wednesday Play' series of BBC films. Stand Up Nigel Barton: Nigel is very clever lad and desperately eager to succeed. He's aware of the fashionable potency of being both brilliant and working class. New glamorous experiences aren't enough maybe politics is the answer. Vote Vote Vote For Nigel Barton: After a successful Oxford education Nigel is a successful journalis

• The New Statesman - The Complete First Series | DVD | (23/04/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  The New Statesman is a multi-award winning masterpiece of political satire. Rik Mayall stars as the ruthless Alan B'Stard the egocentric MP who will stop at nothing to further his political career. Episodes comprise: Happiness Is A Warm Gun / Passport To Freedom / Sex Is Wrong / Waste Not Want Not / Friends Of St. James / Three Line Whipping / Baa Baa Black Sheep

• Berserker | DVD | (02/08/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £3.99

  Berserker' is based upon an old Nordic legend. A 'Berserker' was a bloodthirsty warrior who was kept in chains and used as the first line of assult in Viking raids. Now in the present day America the 'Berserker' has risen out of hell to stalk a mixed group of college students camping in the woods. When the blood feast begins the screaming suspense starts clawing at the nerves. Can anything human destroy the Berserker? Or will the carnage continue over the centuries....?

• Ealing Studios Boxset 1 | DVD | (16/10/2006) from £27.99   |  Saving you £2.00 (7.15%)   |  RRP £29.99

  Kind Hearts and Coronets (Dir. Robert Hamer 1949): Sir Alec Guinness became an international star with his extraordinary performance as eight different characters in this 1949 Ealing Studios classic. Dennis Price (I'm All Right Jack Private Progress) co-stars as Edwardian gentleman Louis Mazzini who plots to avenge his mother's death by seizing the dukedom of the aristocratic d'Ascoyne family. But to gain this inheritance Mazzini must first murder the line of eccentric relatives who stand between him and the title including General d'Ascoyne Admiral d'Ascoyne The Duke of Chalfont Lady Agatha d'Ascoyne and four more all brillantly portrayed by Guinness and leading to one of the most delicious final twists in comedy history. Passport To Pimlico (Dir. Henry Cornelius 1949): An ancient document reveals that London's Pimlico district really belongs to France. And the Pimlico community eager to abandon post-War constraints quickly establish their independence as a ration-free state with hilarious results. Nicholas Nickleby (Dir. Alberto Cavalcanti 1947): The classic Charles Dicken's tale of 'Nicholas Nickleby ' a man who is deprived of his inheritance and travels to seek his fortune with a group of gypsies. Went The Day Well? (Dir. Alberto Cavalcanti 1942): The residents of a British village during WWII welcome a platoon of soldiers only to discover that they're actually Germans!

• 3 Classic Charles Dickens Films - Great Expectations / A Tale Of Two Cities / Oliver Twist | DVD | (20/10/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Great Expectations (1946) - David Lean directed this stylish film presentation of Charles Dickens' heart warming story of a young man befriending an escaped convict who becomes his unknown benefactor and of the consequences for the young man as he establishes himself in the world. A Tale Of Two Cities - Dickens' epic tale set during the French Revolution follows the fortunes of a disillusioned English lawyer Sidney Carton (Dirk Bogarde) whose solace is drink and wh

• Kavanagh Q.C. - The Complete Series 3 - Episodes 1 To 6 | DVD | (14/06/2004) from £11.48   |  Saving you £8.51 (42.60%)   |  RRP £19.99

  From a northern working-class background James Kavanagh has climbed to the top of an elite profession through hard work and a love of the law. But his dedication to work the long hours and difficult cases have taken their toll on lfe at home with his wife and two teenage children. Episodes comprise: Mute Of Malice Blood Money Ancient History Diplomatic Baggage The Ties We Bind In God We Trust.