"Actor: John Ley"

• Dawson's Creek: Season 3 | DVD | (23/08/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £44.99

  Jen is a cheerleader and Jack's on the football team. I got sane and everyone else went crazy?" That's how Andie (Meredith Monroe) sums up the topsy-turvy beginning to the third season of Dawson's Creek, in which nothing seems to be as it should and the series takes a major turn. It's junior year at Capeside High, and Jack (Kerr Smith), the town's resident gay teen, is indeed on the football team, and Jen (Michelle Williams) finds herself the object of unexpected and unwelcome popularity among her fellow students, especially the freshman quarterback (Michael Pitt). Pacey (Joshua Jackson) finds that his relationship with Andie can't be restored, and Dawson (James Van Der Beek) and Joey (Katie Holmes), after the events of last year, both think it's for the best that they're no longer together--they just never think it at the same time. Significant events include the friends starting to date outside their circle, Dawson's giving up some of his aspirations, a ! crisis for the school's new principal, a college tour, and the openings of the Potter Bed & Breakfast and Leery Fresh Fish. But the Dawson-Joey relationship is still the heart of the Creek, and it comes to a head in one of the series' most memorable episodes, "The Longest Day," and then the season finale. Even in its first season without series creator Kevin Williamson, Dawson's Creek still had plenty of punch. On the DVDs, executive producer Paul Stupin does his usual commentary track for two episodes, and he's joined by Kerr Smith. They discuss the series itself, Smith's character, and Smith's subsequent career more than the events of the episodes. The second-season DVD set disappointed many fans by replacing a large portion of the music, and that trend continues in the third season, most surprisingly in the loss of Paula Cole's theme song. Instead, the opening credits feature Jann Arden's "Run Like Mad," which was used briefly in the international broadcast. Stupin explains the switch as an attempt to do something different and creative, but then admits there was also "a bit of an economic reality." Fortunately, the DVDs do have John Lennon's "Imagine" and Mary Beth Maziarz's "Daydream Believers"--songs that in dramatic context simply could not have been replaced--and it could be argued that a veteran viewer might skip the opening credits anyway. Still, for many fans, the music made Dawson's Creek what it was, and without all of it--especially the theme song--the DVDs seem like a compromise rather than a permanent keepsake. --David Horiuchi

• Stephen King's The Shining | DVD | (10/02/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £13.99

  Stephen King's The Shining is a new adaptation from the author himself, made for American television, that bears very little resemblance to the 1980 Stanley Kubrick version. Which is not surprising since Kubrick practically threw out most of King's novel and presented his own version of the story. Here King redresses the balance in a mini-series that follows his original almost to the letter, and manages to be effectively creepy despite the budget and censorship limitations of the TV format. Stephen Weber takes over the role of Jack Torrance, the caretaker who slowly descends into madness in the haunted Overlook Hotel. His performance is as far from Jack Nicholson as you could get, with his insanity building slowly and menacingly rather than being virtually mad from the get-go. Rebecca de Mornay is superb as Wendy Torrance, struggling to hold her fragile family together amid the spooky goings on. Young Courtlan Mead plays Danny, whose unique gifts give the story its title, as one of those infuriating TV brats who overacts left right and centre. Fortunately, there are enough creepy moments and a fair few frights to hold the whole thing together: the woman in the bathtub scene being a stand out shocker. Sure, there is nothing quite like Nicholson's "Here's Johnny!" moment, but this is the story King wanted to tell and it still shines brighter than most of the other recent screen adaptations of his work. On the DVD: Stephen King's The Shining is a nicely packaged set, with the film spread over two discs complete with a commentary featuring Stephen King himself, instantly making this set a must-have for his fans. There are also several deleted scenes which add some interest to parts of the movie. The transfer is good, considering its TV origins, and the crisp sound captures every spooky moment on this well-thought-out and presented set. --Jonathan Weir

• When The Boat Comes In - Series 2 | DVD | (19/04/2004) from £24.98   |  Saving you £37.00 (160.94%)   |  RRP £59.99

  James Bolam stars as the lovable rogue Jack Ford in this classic series set in Tyneside at the end of the First World War.

• Oliver Twist / Great Expectations | DVD | (17/03/2008) from £17.53   |  Saving you £-4.54 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  An astonishingly good David Lean double-bill featuring his two Dickensian adaptations, Great Expectations (1946) and Oliver Twist (1948), this is a reminder that cinema does not necessarily have to debase its literary sources, sometimes it can enhance them. Lean's painterly eye for evocative locations--be they windswept marshes or bustling London streets--provides the backdrop, but his focus on smaller details--the ominous tree in the graveyard with its almost human face, the reaction of Bill Sikes' dog to Nancy's murder--adds the vital ingredient that brings both place and character to life. Starring a youthful John Mills as Pip, Lean's Great Expectations is an unadulterated delight, a serendipitous gelling of screenplay, direction, cinematography and acting that produces an almost perfect film. The cast is exemplary, with Alec Guinness in his first (official) role as Pip's loyal pal Herbert Pocket; Martita Hunt is a cadaverous Miss Havisham; Finlay Currie transforms himself from truly threatening to entirely sympathetic as Magwitch; while the young Jean Simmons makes more of an impact as the girl Estella than Valerie Hobson does as the older incarnation. Perhaps best of all, though, is Francis Sullivan as the pragmatic but kindly attorney Jaggers. The cinematography alone (courtesy of Guy Green) would qualify Oliver Twist as a classic: the opening sequence of a lone woman struggling through the storm is an indelible cinematic image. Fortunately, Lean's film has many more aces up its sleeve thereafter, notably Alec Guinness' grotesque Fagin--a caricature certainly, but a three-dimensional one--and Robert Newton's utterly pitiless Bill Sikes. The skewed angles and unsettling chiaroscuro lighting transform London itself into another threatening character. --Mark Walker

• Merlin - Vol. 1 | DVD | (24/11/2008) from £5.99   |  Saving you £14.00 (233.72%)   |  RRP £19.99

  The legend of Merlin is given a modern re-telling in this fantasy which follows the friendship of young Merlin and King Arthur.

• In Harm's Way | DVD | (07/06/2004) from £8.48   |  Saving you £4.51 (53.18%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Otto Preminger's sprawling Second World War drama, In Harm's Way, packs a lot in its 165 minutes, beginning with the attack on Pearl Harbor (which Preminger re-creates in amazing detail) and ending a couple of years later with America's return to the South Pacific in force. John Wayne and Kirk Douglas star as a career naval captain and his self-pitying commander in the peacetime navy who are thrust into battle when Pearl Harbour is bombed while they are on manoeuvres. Minutes into World War II, they are already scapegoated and demoted by the embarrassed military brass. Wayne romances a WAVE nurse (Patricia Neal) and attempts a reconciliation with his estranged, spoiled son (Brandon de Wilde) while Douglas sinks into the bottle after the death of his cheating wife until the American fleet rebuilds and calls upon Wayne to lead one of the initial invasion forces. Henry Fonda makes a brief but commanding appearance as the fleet admiral. Burgess Meredith is a former writer turned witty commander, Dana Andrews a showy but indecisive admiral, and Stanley Holloway a genial Australian scout working with the American invasion forces. Tom Tryon and Paula Prentiss play newlyweds torn apart by the war, and also appearing are Franchot Tone, Carroll O'Conner, Slim Pickens, George Kennedy, Bruce Cabot, and Larry Hagman, among many, many more. Loyal Griggs's handsome black-and-white photography is topped only by Saul Bass's impressive closing credits sequence, a rising cascade of crashing waves and rough surf reportedly paced to mirror the dramatic rhythm of the film. --Sean Axmaker

• 3 Classic Bela Lugosi Films Of The Silver Screen - Invisible Ghost / Scared To Death / White Zombie | DVD | (10/01/2005) from £12.87   |  Saving you £-7.88 (N/A%)   |  RRP £4.99

  Invisible Ghost: Actor Bela Lugosi born in Lugas Hungary on October 20 1882 was the screens most notorious personification of evil - at the peak of his career in the early 30's he helped usher in an era of new popularity for the horror genre. In this film a man carries out a series of grisly stranglings whilst under hypnosis by his insane and domineering wife... Scared To Death: The pieces of a puzzling murder are revealed to us one by one in this frightening story

• WWE: Christmas Collection | DVD | (09/11/2015) from £5.79   |  Saving you £4.20 (42.00%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Celebrate the festive season with “The Hardcore Legend” Mick Foley and his daughter Noelle as they go on a quest to find Santa Claus. Join the Foley Clan in their search as they reminisce about classic WWE moments and matches from Christmas past featuring The Miracle on 34th Street Fight between Dean Ambrose and Bray Wyatt, The All I Want for Christmas Battle Royal, Good Santa (Mark Henry) vs. Bad Santa (Damien Sandow) in the Battle For Christmas, John Cena and Trish Stratus vs. Santino Marella and Beth Phoenix, and more! So grab some eggnog, make some cookies, and ring in the holiday with WWE!

• Nip/Tuck - Series 4 | DVD | (13/08/2007) from £8.22   |  Saving you £41.77 (83.60%)   |  RRP £49.99

  Dylan Walsh and Julian McMahon return for a sensational Season 4 filled with eroticism suspense and considerable medical challenges. Episodes Comprise: 1. Cindy Plumb 2. Blu Mondae 3. Monica Wilder 4. Shari Noble 5. Dawn Budge 6. Faith Wolper PhD 7. Burt Landau 8. Conor McNamara 9. Liz Cruz 10. Merrill Bobolit 11. Conor McNamara 2026 12. Diana Lubey 13. Reefer 14. Willy Ward 15. Gala Gallardo

• Revenge Of Frankenstein | DVD | (19/08/2002) from £34.99   |  Saving you £-22.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  The Revenge of Frankenstein was an inevitability after Hammer Films had made an international star of Peter Cushing in The Curse of this sequel-rich franchise. The plot here is a braver twist on the story than the many follow-ups would take. The Creature doesn't make its presence known until the final reel, up to which point the only sense of lurking menace comes from Cushing's deliciously mannered performance as a disguised Dr Stein. A new name and a new town is a gamble sure to fail, and circumstances almost immediately conspire against the deceit. Also rattling around the brilliantly lit studio sets are Eunice Gayson and Francis Matthews, while Michael Gwynn gives everything he's got in stiff competition to predecessor Christopher Lee in the Creature role. It's subtle and simply screams out for enfranchisement--so of course Hammer dutifully made another five in the series. On the DVD: The Revenge of Frankenstein comes with mono sound (all you're going to get from Hammer and 1958), but the 1.66:1 ratio is a treat. You also get a trailer (and a surprise additional movie trailer) plus 10 photos. --Paul Tonks

• Festive Film Collection | DVD | (03/11/2014) from £5.36   |  Saving you £9.63 (179.66%)   |  RRP £14.99

  12 Dogs of Christmas - It's Christmas time and it looks to be a dismal season for motherless 12-year-old Emma O'Connor who has been sent to her unwelcoming Aunt Delores. On her arrival Emma is caught in the middle of a town war over the 'No Dogs allowed' law. With the help of her schoolmates, an unlikely band of grown-ups and a diverse canine corps of over 60 dogs, Emma attempts to win over the citizens of Doverville by staging a holiday pageant, 'The 12 Dogs of Christmas', and in doing so, may save not only the dogs but herself. 12 Dogs of Christmas 2 - The dogs of Doverville are in trouble again... but Emma is back to save them in a song-filled, seasonal extravaganza. Mean-spirited mogul Finneas plots to shut down the local puppy orphanage, unless Emma can come up with the money to save it. With the help of some friends, she races against time to put together a musical holiday event that just might save the day

• The West Wing - Season 1 Part 1 | DVD | (08/04/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £35.99

  Aaron Sorkin's American political drama The West Wing, set in the White House, has won innumerable awards--and rightly so. Its depiction of a well-meaning Democrat administration has warmed the hearts of countless Americans. However, The West Wing is more than mere feel-good viewing for sentimental patriots. It is among the best-written, sharpest, funny and moving American TV series of all time. In its first series, The West Wing established the cast of characters who comprise the White House staff. There's Chief of Staff Leo McGarry (John Spencer), a recovering alcoholic whose efforts to be the cornerstone of the administration contribute to the break-up of his marriage. CJ (Alison Janney) is the formidable Press Spokeswoman embroiled in a tentative on-off relationship with Timothy (Thirtysomething) Busfield's reporter. Brilliant but grumpy communications deputy Toby Ziegler, Rob Lowe's brilliant but faintly nerdy Sam Seaborn and brilliant but smart-alecky Josh Lyman make up the rest of the inner circle. Initially, the series' creators had intended to keep the President off-screen. Wisely, however, they went with Martin Sheen's Jed Bartlet, whose eccentric volatility, caution, humour and strength in a crisis make for such an impressively plausible fictional President that polls once expressed a preference for Bartlet over the genuine incumbent. The issues broached in the first series have striking, often prescient contemporary relevance. We see the President having to be talked down from a "disproportionate response" when terrorists shoot down a plane carrying his personal doctor, or acting as broker in a dangerous stand-off between India and Pakistan. Gun control laws, gays in the military, Fundamentalist pressure groups are all addressed--the latter in a most satisfying manner ("Get your fat asses out of the White House!")--while the episode "Take This Sabbath Day" is a superb dramatic meditation on Capital punishment. Handled incorrectly, The West Wing could have been turgid, didactic propaganda for The American Way. However, the writers are careful to show that, decent as this administration is, its achievements, though hard-won, are minimal. Moreover, the brisk, staccato-like, almost musical exchanges of dialogue, between Josh and his PA Donna, for instance, as they pace purposefully up and down the corridors are the show's abiding joy. This is wonderful and addictive viewing.--David Stubbs

• The Belko Experiment | Blu Ray | (21/08/2017) from £7.79   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  THE BELKO EXPERIMENT explores a twisted social experiment, in which a group of 80 Americans are locked in their high-rise corporate office in Bogata, Colombia and ordered by an unknown voice coming from the company's intercom system to participate in a deadly game of kill or be killed.

• Nip/Tuck - Season 2 | DVD | (30/05/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £50.99

  The turbulent lives of two handsome and high-priced Miami plastic surgeons may be one of the more unusual premises for a television series, but the FX Channel's Nip/Tuck combines sudsy sex and biting wit with the emotional quandaries involved in body modification in a way that makes for an engrossing--and occasionally gross--hourlong drama. The show benefits greatly from its two leads--Dylan Walsh as the troubled "good" surgeon and Julian McMahon as his predatory (but equally troubled) "bad" partner--as well as Joely Richardson as Walsh's wife and Roma Maffia as the surgeons' nurse. If Nip/Tuck does have a stumbling point, it's in its occasionally glib dialogue (series creator Ryan Murphy was a writer for the verbally flashy high school series Popular), which can clash with an episode's more dramatic and poignant moments. The show also doesn't shy away from showing the more gruesome aspects of plastic surgery, but viewers can often see more stomach-churning images on the top-rated CSI. But the strength of the performances and the originality of the premise make these rough spots manageable for viewers looking for an interesting spin on the usual "doctor show." --Paul Gaita

• The Greatest | DVD | (11/02/2002) from £3.00   |  Saving you £16.99 (566.33%)   |  RRP £19.99

  The story of a legend that took the world by storm. The incredible career of perhaps the greatest boxer of all time Muhammad Ali is dramatized in this exciting film starring Ali himself. Fresh from his gold medal victory at the Olympic Games 18-year-old Cassius Clay is ready to seek the heavyweight championship. Under the masterful guidance of trainer Angelo Dundee (Ernest Borgnine). Clay snatches the title from Sonny Liston. Soon afterward Clay converts to the Islam religion a

• Return Of The Living Dead | DVD | (21/10/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  A sudden storm brings a shower of polluted rain and in a downtown cemetery something stirs six feet under the earth. The bad news is the living dead are back. The worse news is that they haven't had a decent meal in years... and as anybody will tell you there's nothing as greedy as a ghoul with a taste for human brains. 'Return Of The Living Dead' is a special effects masterpiece and has its rotting tongue firmly in its ghoulish green cheek.

• Die Unendliche Geschichte (4K Ultra HD) (+ Blu-ray 2D) | Blu Ray | (01/07/2021) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• The Grapes Of Wrath | DVD | (18/04/2005) from £7.53   |  Saving you £5.46 (72.51%)   |  RRP £12.99

  John Ford's memorable screen version of John Steinbeck's epic novel of the Great Depression--often regarded as the director's best film--stars Henry Fonda as Tom Joad. After having served a brief prison sentence for manslaughter Joad arrives at his family's Oklahoma farm only to find it abandoned. Muley (John Qualen) a neighbor now nearly mad with grief tells Tom of the drought that has transformed the farmland of Oklahoma into a desert and of the preying land agents who have plowe

• The West Wing - Complete Seasons 1 and 2 | DVD | (17/11/2003) from £79.99   |  Saving you £2.00 (2.50%)   |  RRP £81.99

  Aaron Sorkin's American political drama The West Wing is more than mere feel-good viewing for sentimental US patriots. It is among the best-written, sharpest, funny and moving American TV series of all time. In its first series, The West Wing established the cast of characters who comprise the White House staff. There's Chief of Staff Leo McGarry (John Spencer), a recovering alcoholic whose efforts to be the cornerstone of the administration contribute to the break-up of his marriage. CJ (Alison Janney) is the formidable Press Spokeswoman embroiled in a tentative on-off relationship with Timothy (Thirtysomething) Busfield's reporter. Brilliant but grumpy communications deputy Toby Ziegler, Rob Lowe's brilliant but faintly nerdy Sam Seaborn and brilliant but smart-alecky Josh Lyman makes up the rest of the inner circle. Initially, the series' creators had intended to keep the President off-screen. Wisely, however, they went with Martin Sheen's Jed Bartlet, whose eccentric volatility, caution, humour and strength in a crisis make for such an impressively plausible fictional President that polls once expressed a preference for Bartlet over the genuine incumbent. The second series of The West Wing takes up where the first one left off and, a few moments of slightly toe-curling patriotic sentimentalism apart, maintains the series' astonishingly high standards in depicting the everyday life of the White House staff of a Democratic administration. With Aaron Sorkin's dialogue ranging as ever from dry, staccato mirth to almost biblical gravitas, an ensemble of overworked (and curiously undersexed) characters and an overall depiction of the workings of government that's both gratifyingly idealised yet chasteningly realistic, The West Wing is one of the all-time great American TV dramas. --David Stubbs

• A Christmas Romance | DVD | (14/11/2011) from £4.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £4.99

  It is Christmas and Julia Stonecypher (Olivia Newton-John) has just lost her husband. Life is bleak for her and her two daughters and it looks like getting worse when the bank manager (Gregory Harrison) turns up saying that her house will be repossessed, making them homeless. When he leaves, he crashes his car during a snowstorm and his only refuge is the single mother's house. The four of them are now trapped by the storm and the hostility begins to thaw.