"Actor: John Drew"

• Some Kind Of Wonderful / Pretty In Pink / Planes, Trains And Automobiles | DVD | (18/10/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Ferris Bueller's Day Off: Ferris Bueller. Larger than life. Blessed with a magical sense of serendipity. He's a model for all those who take themselves too seriously. A guy who knows the value of a day off. Ferris Bueller's Day Off chronicles the events in the day of a rather magical young man Ferris (Matthew Broderick). One spring day toward the end of his senior year Ferris gives in to an overwhelming urge to cut school and head for downtown Chicago with his girl (Mia Sa

• El Cid | DVD | (30/10/2000) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Sumptuous in every way, visually magnificent, with grandiose sets, panoramic Spanish vistas and intricately detailed costumes, possessor of one of cinema's greatest music scores, boasting vast and astonishingly kinetic battles, and breathing heroic virtue in every scene, El Cid is the very epitome of epic. For this reworking of the medieval legend of the Cid (Arabic for "Lord") who united warring factions and saved 11th-century Spain from invasion, producer Samuel Bronston and director Anthony Mann insisted every set had to be created from scratch, every costume specially made for this movie alone; they also shot entirely on location in La Mancha and along the Mediterranean coast of Spain to enhance the film's authenticity. The cinematography is saturated with the burnished hues of the Spanish landscape, as are the palatial sets and rich costumes; Miklos Rozsa's resplendent score is also the result of painstaking research into medieval Spanish sources. The screenplay is imbued with knightly gravitas and more than a little salvation imagery, from the opening scene of the young Rodrigo rescuing a cross from a burning church, to the movie's indelible finale as The Cid rides "out of the gates of history into legend".Charlton Heston is at his most indomitable as Rodrigo, "The Cid", a natural leader of men and the embodiment of every manly virtue (note that he fathers twins--a sure token of his virility); Sophie Loren is ravishing as Chimene, the woman whose love for Rodrigo conflicts with her filial instincts after he kills her father, the king's champion, over a point of honour. Their scenes together create a humane warmth at the heart of this vast movie: the moment when Chimene finally declares her love (beneath a shrine of three crosses--more symbolism) to the exiled Rodrigo forms a pivotal and very intimate centrepiece. Shortly thereafter he must rise from their rural marriage bed to lead his followers into battle, and the tension between his public and private lives adds a piquancy to the film's stunning battle sequences. The international supporting cast sometimes look like makeweights, especially when chewing on the occasionally stilted dialogue, but any such faults are easily forgiven as the scale and spectacle of El Cid carries the viewer away on a tide of chivalry.On the DVD: This disc is a sadly missed opportunity to present a classic epic in its original form. Although formatted for 16:9 widescreen TVs, which initially gives hope that this might be an anamorphic widescreen presentation, only the opening and closing titles appear in the correct cinematic ratio. Otherwise this is essentially the same picture as the pan & scan VHS version with the same poor print quality. Since a restored 35mm print of El Cid has been shown at cinemas and on TV in recent years there seems to be no excuse for this cut-down presentation. Add some decidedly minimal extras and the result is a disappointing disc. --Mark Walker

• Life On Mars - Series 1 - Complete | Blu Ray | (27/10/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £22.99

  John Simm stars as Sam Tyler a driven and ambitious young detective determined to keep the streets of 21st Century Manchester safe. But after a near fatal car accident he wakes up dazed and confused in 1973. Has he gone back in time? Is he in a coma? Or has he simply gone insane? What follows is Sam's 21st century account of 1970s life where he feels like a fish out of water. He must come to terms with an unfamiliar environment and an archaic CID unit. There using his modern know-how he becomes integral to the unit. But he must adapt to their old-fashioned technologies and etiquettes. Sam works on some of the hardest cases he's ever been involved with. It's a world where witnesses are regularly intimidated it takes two weeks to process forensics and his colleagues will nail their suspect whether they have the evidence or not... Created and written by Mathew Graham Tony Jordan and Ashley Pharoah (who all worked on Hustle) directed by Bharat Nalluri (Spooks Hustle) John McKay (Canterbury Tales) John Alexander (Cutting It) and SJ Clarkson (Footballers' Wives).

• Blame It On The Bellboy | DVD | (22/03/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  In the wildly entertaining spirit of A Fish Called Wanda BLAME IT ON THE BELLBOY delivers the year's craziest laughs! Featuring an all-star cast the hilarity kicks off when a daffy bellboy (Bronson Pinchot) accidentally switches the itinerary envelopes for three guests (Dudley Moore Bryan Brown and Richard Griffiths). His actions cause a hilarious case of mistaken identities sending the trio down a road of comic non-stop adventures! Check in today for a zany time where mix-ups

• Life On Mars - Series 2 - Complete | Blu Ray | (27/10/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £22.99

  John Simm continues into a second thrilling series as Sam Tyler a driven and ambitious young detective determined to keep the streets of 21st Century Manchester safe. But after a near fatal car accident he has waken up dazed and confused in 1973. Has he gone back in time? Is he in a coma? Or has he simply gone insane? In an archaic CID unit he still must adapt to their old-fashioned technologies and etiquettes while working on some of the hardest cases in which he's ever been involved...

• Men Behaving Badly - Series 6 | DVD | (08/05/2000) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  The ultimate small-screen representation of Loaded-era lad culture--albeit a culture constantly being undermined by its usually sharper female counterpart--there seems little argument that Men Behaving Badly was one of 1990s' definitive sitcoms. Certainly the booze-oriented, birds-obsessed antics of Martin Clunes' Gary and Neil Morrissey's Tony have become every bit as connected to Britain's collective funny bone as Basil Fawlty's inept hostelry or Ernie Wise's short, hairy legs. Yet, the series could easily have been cancelled when ITV viewers failed to respond to the original version, which featured Clunes sharing his flat with someone named Dermot, played by Harry Enfield. Indeed, it was only when the third series moved to the BBC and was then broadcast in a post-watershed slot--allowing writer Simon Nye greater freedom to explore his characters' saucier ruminations--that the show began to gain a significant audience. By then, of course, Morrissey had become firmly ensconced on the collective pizza-stained sofa, while more screen time was allocated to the boys' respective foils, Caroline Quentin and Leslie Ash. Often glibly dismissed as a lame-brained succession of gags about sex and flatulence, the later series not only featured great performances and sharp-as-nails writing but also sported a contemporary attitude that dared to go where angels, and certainly most other sitcoms, feared to tread. Or, as Gary was once moved to comment about soft-porn lesbian epic Love in a Women's Prison: "It's a serious study of repressed sexuality in a pressure-cooker environment." Series 6 includes: "Stag Night" in which Gary agrees with Dorothy's suggestion they get married ("We've tried everything else.") provoking potentially disastrous stag-night shenanigans; "Wedding" in which Gary and Dorothy's wedding day fails to run smoothly. ("I don't want to get married--I haven't slept with enough women," he complains. "Do you want to squeeze one in?"); "Jealousy" in which the quartet make the grave error of going away for a weekend in the country; "Watching TV" concerns a quiet night in with Captain Kirk & Co ("On the Starship Enterprise, when no one's looking, do you think they all swivel round in their chairs really fast?"); "Ten" in which the communal boat is rocked by the simultaneous arrival of Dorothy's nephew and Deborah's mother; and "Sofa" in which Tony buys a snake. --Clark Collis The DVD version also features a quiz.

• Life On Mars - Series 2 - Complete | DVD | (28/02/2011) from £16.95   |  Saving you £23.04 (135.93%)   |  RRP £39.99

  John Simm continues into a second thrilling series as Sam Tyler a driven and ambitious young detective determined to keep the streets of 21st Century Manchester safe. But after a near fatal car accident he has waken up dazed and confused in 1973. Has he gone back in time? Is he in a coma? Or has he simply gone insane? In an archaic CID unit he still must adapt to their old-fashioned technologies and etiquettes while working on some of the hardest cases in which he's ever been involved...

• Life On Mars - Series 1 - Complete | DVD | (28/02/2011) from £16.18   |  Saving you £23.81 (59.50%)   |  RRP £39.99

  John Simm stars as Sam Tyler a driven and ambitious young detective determined to keep the streets of 21st Century Manchester safe. But after a near fatal car accident he wakes up dazed and confused in 1973. Has he gone back in time? Is he in a coma? Or has he simply gone insane? What follows is Sam's 21st century account of 1970s life where he feels like a fish out of water. He must come to terms with an unfamiliar environment and an archaic CID unit. There using his modern know-how he becomes integral to the unit. But he must adapt to their old-fashioned technologies and etiquettes. Sam works on some of the hardest cases he's ever been involved with. It's a world where witnesses are regularly intimidated it takes two weeks to process forensics and his colleagues will nail their suspect whether they have the evidence or not... Created and written by Mathew Graham Tony Jordan and Ashley Pharoah (who all worked on Hustle) directed by Bharat Nalluri (Spooks Hustle) John McKay (Canterbury Tales) John Alexander (Cutting It) and SJ Clarkson (Footballers' Wives).

• Mystics | DVD | (27/09/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Dave (Kelly) and Locky (O'Shea) are a couple of old-timers who have found the perfect scam offering solace and peace to the bereaved and an injection of cash to their pockets. Posing as a medium in touch with the other side Dave acts as the front man whilst his partner relays messages from 'beyond the grave'. All is going swimmingly until Larry the kingpin from the local mob gets killed and his wife wants to know where he's hidden his last haul. Unable to refuse a request from

• Men Behaving Badly: Series One | DVD | (01/05/2000) from £6.98   |  Saving you £-0.99 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  The pageant of boorishness and slobbery known as Men Behaving Badly launched itself upon an unsuspecting audience in 1992. Over the course of six episodes, Gary (Martin Clunes), the disgruntled manager of a security alarm company, struggles to break up with his long-suffering girlfriend Dorothy (Caroline Quentin) while competing with his aimless flatmate Dermot (Harry Enfield) for the attentions of their fetching new upstairs neighbour Deborah (Leslie Ash). The plots are built on contrivances like a chess match over opera tickets or an attempt at seduction via a synthesized flamenco guitar, but the humor always springs from the petty, careless, and generally inane behavior of Dermot and Gary. Gary persuades Dorothy to accept an open relationship, then becomes consumed with jealousy when she sees another man; Dermot tries to persuade Deborah to relieve their basic needs while her boyfriend is in Singapore. It could be tiresome squalor--and according to reviews, the American remake of the show (featuring Rob Schneider and Ron Eldard) was just that--but Clunes and Enfield invest this pair of clods with enough humanity to make their mishaps both excruciating and funny. Enfield left after this first sextet of episodes; Clunes and Enfield's replacement Neil Morrissey took the show to five more series, but Enfield's charming dimness makes this first series worth a look. --Bret Fetzer

• 2 Point 4 Children - Series 1 To 3 | DVD | (22/09/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £29.99

  On the surface the Porters are a normal family - indeed even the series' title 2 Point 4 Children the fabled average family size alludes to their normality (as well as the fact that the husband/father is still a bit of a child himself). Yet though the individual members - central-heating engineer Ben; his wife catering worker Bill; and their teenage children David and Jenny - are unexceptional the situations in which the family find themselves are anything but. Bad luck strang

• Agatha Christie's Seven Dials Mystery | DVD | (03/03/2008) from £14.83   |  Saving you £2.16 (14.57%)   |  RRP £16.99

  This drama is based on the best-selling novel by Agatha Christie and starring Sir John Gielgud (Summer's Lease) Rula Lenska (Footballers Wives TV) Terence Alexander (Bergerac) Cheryl Campbell (William and Mary) and Christopher Scoular (A Dorothy L Sayers Mystery: Strong Poison). This stylish thriller is set in the midst of a high society weekend party. All appears to be going swimmingly until one of the guests fails to appear for breakfast and is later found dead. Broadcast at peak time on ITV in 1981 this is available for the first time on DVD in the UK.

• The Complete War Collection (12 Discs) | DVD | (06/11/2006) from £59.99   |  Saving you £20.00 (33.34%)   |  RRP £79.99

  A complete collection of the best of British war movies! Films comprise: 1. The Colditz Story (Dir. Guy Hamilton 1955) 2. The Cruel Sea (Dir. Charles Frend 1953) 3. The Dam Busters (Dir. Michael Anderson 1954) 4. I Was Monty's Double (Dir. John Guillermin 1958) 5. Ice Cold In Alex (Dir. J. Lee Thompson 1958) 6. Went The Day Well? (Dir. Alberto Cavalcanti 1942) 7. The Wooden Horse (Dir. Jack Lee 1950) 8. They Who Dare (Dir. Lewis Milestone 1954) 9. Cross Of Iron (Dir. Sam Peckinpah 1977) 10. The Way Ahead (Dir. Carol Reed 1944) 11. In Which We Serve (Dir. Noel Coward/David Lean 1942) 12. The Battle Of The River Plate (Dir. Michael Powell/Emeric Pressburger 1956)

• High School Confidential! (Dual Format) | Blu Ray | (06/05/2019) from £8.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Jack Arnold's High School Confidential stars Russ Tamblyn as Tony, a troubled street kid sent to live with his hot-to-trot aunt (Mamie Van Doren). After enrolling in school, he quickly becomes wrapped up in the local drug scene, culminating in a surprise ending.

• Are You Being Served? - The Movie | DVD | (22/04/2002) from £14.84   |  Saving you £-0.85 (N/A%)   |  RRP £13.99

  Writers Jeremy Lloyd and David Croft managed something quite clever with this, the film version of the 1970s sitcom Are You Being Served?. The idea of this cheery collection of comedy stereotypes--the pompous one, the vulgar one, the camp one, the shifty one and so on--being confined within a department store was a master stroke, as it allowed any kind of situation to arise without the plot having to exceed the restrictions imposed by the set. How, then, to keep the same theme for the big screen without just offering the television series writ large? Simple: send the whole cast on holiday together but make sure they can't leave their hotel, a state of affairs contrived easily enough by throwing a guerilla uprising into the plot. So it is, then, that the staff of Grace Bros. descend on the Costa Plonka while the store is closed for refurbishment. There are all the usual jokes involving knickers, boobs, toilets and gay sex (sometimes all at once), adding up to a good slice of nostalgic fun for anyone who was there when lapels really were that wide. Incidentally, this item is worth having just for the wonderful Frank Langford caricatures on the cover. On the DVD: Are You Being Served? comes to the digital format with just one extra item, a trailer.--Roger Thomas

• Men Behaving Badly - Series 2 | DVD | (05/06/2000) from £4.99   |  Saving you £15.00 (300.60%)   |  RRP £19.99

  The ultimate small-screen representation of Loaded-era lad culture--albeit a culture constantly being undermined by its usually sharper female counterpart--there seems little argument that Men Behaving Badly was one of 1990s' definitive sitcoms. Certainly the booze-oriented, birds-obsessed antics of Martin Clunes' Gary and Neil Morrissey' Tony have become every bit as connected to Britain's collective funny bone as Basil Fawlty's inept hostelry or Ernie Wise's short, hairy legs. Yet, the series could easily have been cancelled when ITV viewers failed to respond to the original version, which featured Clunes sharing his flat with someone named Dermot, played by Harry Enfield. Indeed, it was only when the third series moved to the BBC and was then broadcast in a post-watershed slot--allowing writer Simon Nye greater freedom to explore his characters' saucier ruminations--that the show began to gain a significant audience. By then, of course, Morrissey had become firmly ensconced on the collective pizza-stained sofa, while more screen time was allocated to the boys' respective foils, Caroline Quentin and Leslie Ash. Often glibly dismissed as a lame-brained succession of gags about sex and flatulence, the later series not only featured great performances and sharp-as-nails writing but also sported a contemporary attitude that dared to go where angels, and certainly most other sitcoms, feared to tread. Or, as Gary was once moved to comment about soft-porn lesbian epic Love in a Women's Prison: "It's a serious study of repressed sexuality in a pressure-cooker environment." Series 2 includes: "Gary and Tony", in which Tony moves into the Gary's flat and makes his first disastrous attempt to woo upstairs-neighbour Deborah; "Rent Boy" in which Gary thinks Tony is gay; "How to Bump Your Girlfriend" in which no sooner has Tony got back together with his old girlfriend and filled her in about Gary ("nice bloke, ears like the FA Cup") than he decides to give her the shove; "Troublesome Twelve Inch" in which Gary tries to sell a rare record belonging to Dorothy without her knowing; "Going Nowhere" in which Tony buys a van to impress Deborah who in turn gets stuck in a lift with Gary; and "People Behaving Irritatingly" in which Tony's brother and missus visit the flat much to Gary's annoyance ("It's not enough that they were at it all last night, now they're trying to set up a national sperm bank in my bath.) --Clark Collis

• Miss Marple - The Body In The Library | DVD | (24/03/2000) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  The suspense of Miss Marple: The Body in the Library isn't the edge-of-your-seat variety; it's simply a perplexing puzzle that keeps niggling at the back of your mind. Just as one piece of the puzzle falls into place, another gap opens up, thanks to one of Agatha Christie's most intricate plots. Considering what a long film this is (150 minutes, lengthier than most Christie adaptations), it's impressive how tightly the mystery grips the viewer's attention. And not a second of Joan Hickson's marvellous performance as Miss Marple should be missed (the other performances, alas, fall short, except for Gwen Watford as Dolly Bantry, in whose library the body is found). To people meeting her for the first time, Jane Marple appears to be a sweet old dear, whose comments on the murder investigation are more likely to involve an obscure recollection of a frog jumping out of someone's coat than to have any direct bearing on the case. But as Christie fans know, beneath that dithery exterior lies one of the shrewdest minds in England. Hickson's understated portrayal reveals the humour in her character without ever making a mockery of Miss Marple and the results are delightful to watch. --Larisa Lomacky Moore, Amazon.com

• Lion Of The Desert | DVD | (05/09/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Destined to remain a dubious footnote in books of movie trivia, Lion of the Desert--an occasionally impressive epic from 1981--was financed with a budget of $35 million by Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi, who previously attempted the role of movie producer with the critically roasted Mohammad: Messenger of God. This effort didn't fare much better (it grossed approximately $1 million worldwide), and although some of its wartime action sequences are intelligently filmed, it's not likely to gain much more of a reputation on home video. Under a shaggy Muslim beard, Anthony Quinn stars as Omar Mukhtar, the Arab hero and guerrilla fighter who defended Libya against Benito Mussolini and Italy's attempted conquests during World War II. As straightforward biography, the movie's got an admirable epic sweep, but a cliché-ridden script and uniformly bad performances (from a cast that includes John Gielgud, Oliver Reed and Rod Steiger) make this little more than a curiosity for those wanting to learn more about Libyan history. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com

• Monty Python's The Meaning of Life | DVD | (04/09/2000) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Returning to the sketch-show format of their earlier days, Monty Python' s The Meaning of Life was always going to feel less ambitious and less coherent than their cinematic masterpiece, The Life of Brian. And inevitably given the format, some sketches are better than others. But, for a movie that has been much-maligned, The Meaning of Life actually features some of the Pythons' most memorable set-pieces: the exploding Mr Creosote has to be the most wonderfully grotesque creation of a team whose speciality was the grotesque; while the sublime "Sperm Song" mixes satire and lavish visual humour in a musical skit of breathtaking audacity. Elsewhere, Eric Idle produces another musical gem with "The Universe Song" ("Pray that there's intelligent life somewhere out in space / 'Cause there's bugger all down here on earth!"), while the Grim Reaper's appearance at an achingly tedious dinner party is the Pythons doing what they do best: mocking their own middle-class origins. Best of all, perhaps, is Terry Gilliam's modest introductory feature, "The Crimson Permanent Assurance", a 20-minute epic tale of the little men rebelling against the corporate system, a theme and a visual style that foreshadows his own masterwork, Brazil. Admittedly too many sketches sacrifice subtlety for shock tactics (the organ donation scene in particular requires a strong stomach), but when this film works it's nothing less than vintage Python. --Mark Walker

• Alan Bleasdale Presents - Self-Catering - Ch4 | DVD | (04/06/2018) from £5.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Based on the play by Jim Morris. Blood on the Dole follows the lives of four teenagers, two boys and two girls, struggling to cope after being thrust into the real world for the first time after leaving school. Living in deprived Merseyside, the four youths' bright-eyed optimism for their futures and new-found freedom is soon crushed by the realities of unemployment, poverty, and the brutal reality of living and trying to find work in a city in decline. They all soon find themselves in the hopeless situation of facing complete dependence on state handouts, the dole . The four teenagers instead find themselves turning to each other to find the strength to survive. An impressively fresh social commentary and portrayal of teenage love set within a disturbingly authentic account of disenfranchised youth. With austerity still very much a part of our political climate, and recent films such as I, Daniel Blake continuing to challenge such government policy, Blood on the Dole is still a hugely relevant watch today. Produced by BAFTA-winner Alan Bleasdale as a part of the Alan Bleasdale Presents series, a Channel 4 anthology showcasing and given a platform to new, up-and-coming talent young writers. After his successes in landmark dramas including Boys from the Black Stuff, The Monocled Mutineer and GBH, in 1994 Channel 4 gave Alan Bleasdale the opportunity to find and mentor new TV writers. Four big-budget, standalone films were made as a result, with top casts and experimental storylines.