"Actor: John Simon"

• Operation Mincemeat | DVD | (04/07/2022) from £6.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  It's 1943.¯The Allies are determined to break Hitler's grip on occupied Europe, and plan to launch an all-out assault on Sicily; but they face an impossible challenge - how to protect the invasion force from potential annihilation. It falls to two remarkable intelligence officers, Ewen Montagu (Colin Firth) and Charles Cholmondeley (Matthew Macfadyen) to dream the most inspired and improbable disinformation strategy of the war - centred on the most unlikely of secret agents: a dead man. Operation Mincemeat is the extraordinary and true story of an idea that hoped to turn the tide for the Allies - taking impossibly high risks, defying logic, and testing the nerves of its creators to breaking point.

• The Big Bang Theory - Season 10 | DVD | (11/09/2017) from £4.98   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Leonard and Sheldon are brilliant physicists - geniuses in the laboratory, but socially challenged everywhere else. Enter beautiful, street-smart neighbor, Penny, who aims to teach them a thing or two about life. Despite their on-again, off-again relationship in the past, Leonard and Penny have finally gotten married. Even Sheldon has found a female companion, entering into a Relationship Agreement with neurobiologist Amy Farrah Fowler. In their free time, Leonard and Sheldon enjoy fantasy role-playing games with their ever-expanding universe of friends, including fellow scientists Raj, Howard and Howard's adorable microbiologist wife, Bernadette, who recently learned that they will soon be parents.

• The Big Bang Theory Season 12 | DVD | (11/11/2019) from £11.89   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Leonard and Sheldon are brilliant physicists geniuses in the laboratory, but socially challenged everywhere else. Enter beautiful, street-smart neighbor, Penny, who aims to teach them a thing or two about life. Despite their on-again, off-again relationship in the past, Leonard and Penny have finally gotten married. Even Sheldon has found a female companion entering into a Relationship Agreement with neurobiologist Amy Farrah Fowler, and he recently took their relationship to the next level by marrying her after a long courtship. In their free time, Leonard and Sheldon enjoy fantasy role-playing games with their ever-expanding universe of friends, including fellow scientists Raj and Howard, and Howard's adorable microbiologist wife, Bernadette, who is adjusting to life with their two children.

• Big Bang Theory: Season 11 | DVD | (24/09/2018) from £9.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  A woman who moves into an apartment across the hall from two brilliant but socially awkward physicists shows them how little they know about life outside of the laboratory.

• Watership Down | Blu Ray | (25/11/2024) from £26.19   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  An apocalyptic vision pushes a group of rabbits to abandon their warren in search of a new home, in this landmark British animation. Richard Adams' timeless novel is brought brilliantly to life as Hazel, Fiver and Bigwig tackle the brutal realities of the rural world - and mankind's devastating impact on it - as they lead their colony to the utopian Watership Down. Featuring an acclaimed voice cast (including John Hurt and Denholm Elliott), a powerful score by composer Angela Morley and the hit single ˜Bright Eyes' by Art Garfunkel, Watership Down is a thrilling tale of adventure, courage and resilience that continues to enthral new and old audiences alike. Newly restored in 4K by the BFI and Silver Salt Restoration, using the original 35mm negative and stereo audio tracks, this landmark animation is presented in Ultra High Definition for the very first time. Newly restored and presented in High Definition Newly recorded audio commentary by film and animation experts Catherine Lester and Sam Summers Defining a Style (2005): short featurette about the film's aesthetic A Conversation with the Filmmakers (2005, 17 mins): Archive featurette in which director Martin Rosen and editor Terry Rawlings discuss the production history of the film Storyboard comparison (2005, 15 mins): a look at four sequences from the film Super 8 version of the film (20 mins) Humberstone Super 8 footage (3 mins): Footage shot by Arthur Humberstone, one of the senior animators on Watership Down Designing Watership Down (2024, 5 mins): a gallery containing some of the materials related to Watership Down courtesy of The Arthur Humberstone Animation Archive Trailers, teasers & TV spots Once We Were Four (1942, 9 mins): a bunny quartet face an onslaught of badgers, bombs and birds of prey in this black comedy masquerading as a nature film, directed by Mary Field Rabbits or Profits? (1969, 15 mins): public information film providing a potted history of rabbits in the UK Bolly in A Space Adventure (1968, 5 mins): a short Halas & Batchelor animation about the adventures of Bolly and his friends on imaginary planets, featuring animation by Tony Guy, animation director on Watership Down Make Believe (1948, 17 mins): Anson Dyer tells 'The Tale of Ronnie Rabbit' in this documentary showing the various stages of making a cartoon bunny Newly created optional English descriptive subtitles Newly created audio description track for the blind and visually impaired Double-sided poster featuring the original UK quad and the 2024 rerelease artwork A set of four postcards featuring iconic scenes from the film Perfect-bound book featuring writing by Jez Stewart, Catherine Lester, Nigel and Clive Humberstone, Angela Morley, Charlie Brigden, Lillian Crawford, Vic Pratt, Tony Dykes and Michael Brooke

• Quatermass | Blu Ray | (27/07/2015) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £29.99

  John Mills brings a stoic intensity to the role of Professor Bernard Quatermass in this key piece of British dystopian fiction from visionary writer Nigel Kneale. Unsettling in its vision of a crumbling society coming under alien attack, Quatermass is directed with characteristic style by BAFTA winner Piers Haggard and features the high production values associated with Euston Films. Shot on 35mm, the original negatives have been used for this stunning, brand-new High Definition restoration a new 5.1 mix from original triple-track audio elements is also presented here alongside the original mono soundtrack.Bernard Quatermass, former head of the British Rocket Group, lives in seclusion in western Scotland, watching in appalled silence as Britain slowly turns into a vision of violence, gang rule and governmental collapse. A desperate search for his missing granddaughter plunges him into a terrifying situation when he comes to realise that the mass disappearance of thousands of youths is nothing less than the culling of the human species by an unknown alien intelligence...Special Features: Brand-new 5.1 mix for episodic versionBrand-new HD restoration of The Quatermass Conclusion in its original theatrical aspect ratioMusic-only tracks for all four episodesEpisode recapsTextless titles Image GalleryBooklet by archive TV historian Andrew Pixley

• Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs | DVD | (23/11/2009) from £6.95   |  Saving you £16.03 (404.80%)   |  RRP £19.99

  The most unlikeliest herd are back and this time they're having to face up to some pretty terrifying interlopers!

• The Big Bang Theory - Season 6 | DVD | (02/09/2013) from £4.98   |  Saving you £20.01 (401.81%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Whether on or above Earth hilarity is outrageously universal in TV's most popular comedy featuring four forward-thinking but socially backward geniuses. Fun discoveries multiply: Leonard learns jealousy is bad for a relationship (with Penny) but science is good for seduction (of Penny). Howard finds life in the International Space Station life is no escape from terrestrial turmoil between his mom and his new wife Bernadette. Raj meets someone special who may be a good match if he can keep her from fleeing mid-date. And then there's Sheldon. He learns what not to say after facing harassment charges or competing for tenure at work and how Dungeons and Dragons can be the icebreaker his relationship with Amy needs. For those who need laughter with scientific regularity this 24-episode Season Six set of The Big Bang Theory will rock your cosmos.

• The Lord of the Rings (Animated Version) | DVD | (26/11/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £13.99

  Ralph Bakshi's 1978 animated adaptation of The Lord of the Rings is a bold, colourful, ambitious failure. Severely truncated, this two-hour version tackles only about half the story, climaxing with the battle of Helm's Deep and leaving poor Frodo and Sam still stuck on the borders of Mordor with Gollum. Allegedly, the director ran out of money and was unable to complete the project. As far as the film does go, however, it is a generally successful attempt at rendering Tolkien's landscapes of the imagination. Bakshi's animation uses a blend of conventional drawing and rotoscoped (traced) animated movements from live-action footage. The latter is at least in part a money-saving device, but it does succeed in lending some depth and a sense of otherworldly menace to the Black Riders and hordes of Orcs: Frodo's encounter at the ford of Rivendell, for example, is one of the movie's best scenes thanks to this mixture of animation techniques. Backdrops are detailed and well-conceived, and all the main characters are strongly drawn. Among a good cast, John Hurt (Aragorn) and C3PO himself, Anthony Daniels (Legolas), provide sterling voice characterisation, while Peter Woodthorpe gives what is surely the definitive Gollum (he revived his portrayal a couple of years later for BBC Radio's exhaustive 13-hour dramatisation). The film's other outstanding virtue is avant-garde composer Leonard Rosenman's magnificent score in which chaotic musical fragments gradually coalesce to produce the triumphant march theme that closes the picture. None of which makes up for the incompleteness of the movie, nor the severe abridging of the story actually filmed. Add to that some oddities--such as intermittently referring to Saruman as "Aruman"--and the final verdict must be that this is a brave yet ultimately unsatisfying work, noteworthy as the first attempt at transferring Tolkien to the big screen but one whose virtues are overshadowed by incompleteness. --Mark Walker

• Watership Down (UHD + Blu-ray) | Blu Ray | (25/11/2024) from £29.65   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  !An apocalyptic vision pushes a group of rabbits to abandon their warren in search of a new home, in this landmark British animation.Richard Adams' timeless novel is brought brilliantly to life as Hazel, Fiver and Bigwig tackle the brutal realities of the rural world - and mankind's devastating impact on it - as they lead their colony to the utopian Watership Down.Newly restored in 4K by the BFI and Silver Salt Restoration, using the original 35mm negative and stereo audio tracks, this landmark animation is presented in Ultra High Definition for the very first time.Featuring an acclaimed voice cast (including John Hurt and Denholm Elliott), a powerful score by composer Angela Morley and the hit single 'Bright Eyes' by Art Garfunkel, Watership Down is a thrilling tale of adventure, courage and resilience that continues to enthral new and old audiences alike.ExtrasDefining a Style (2005): short featurette about the film's aestheticA Conversation with the filmmakers (2005)Storyboard comparisonSuper 8 version of the filmTrailerTV SpotsNewly created optional English subtitles for the Deaf and partial hearingNewly created audio description trackDouble-sided poster featuring the original UK quad and the 2022 re-release artworkA set of four postcards featuring iconic scenes from the filmPerfect-bound book featuring new writing on the film by Jez Stewart and Catherine LesterNewly commissioned sleeve art by Andrew Bannister**All extras are TBC and subject to change**

• The Big Bang Theory - Season 8 | DVD | (17/04/2019) from £9.99   |  Saving you £15.00 (150.15%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Please note this is a region 2 DVD and will require a region 2 or region free DVD player in order to play.  Leonard and Sheldon are brilliant physicists--geniuses in the laboratory, but socially challenged everywhere else. Enter their beautiful, street-smart neighbor, Penny, who aims to teach them a thing or two about life. Despite their on-again, off-again relationship in the past, Leonard believes he's found true love with Penny and they have finally gotten engaged. Even Sheldon has found a female companion, entering into a "Relationship Agreement" with neurobiologist Amy Farrah Fowler. In their free time, Leonard and Sheldon continue to enjoy frequent trips to the comic book store and fantasy role-playing games with their ever-expanding universe of friends, including fellow scientists Koothrappali, Wolowitz and Wolowitz's adorable microbiologist wife, Bernadette.

• Operation Mincemeat | Blu Ray | (04/07/2022) from £11.89   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  It's 1943.¯The Allies are determined to break Hitler's grip on occupied Europe, and plan to launch an all-out assault on Sicily; but they face an impossible challenge - how to protect the invasion force from potential annihilation. It falls to two remarkable intelligence officers, Ewen Montagu (Colin Firth) and Charles Cholmondeley (Matthew Macfadyen) to dream the most inspired and improbable disinformation strategy of the war - centred on the most unlikely of secret agents: a dead man. Operation Mincemeat is the extraordinary and true story of an idea that hoped to turn the tide for the Allies - taking impossibly high risks, defying logic, and testing the nerves of its creators to breaking point.

• Inspector Morse - Series 2 | DVD | (21/02/2005) from £19.96   |  Saving you £5.03 (25.20%)   |  RRP £24.99

  This box set features the entire second series of the classic British Television drama Inspector Morse. Episodes comprise: 1. The Wolvercote Tongue: Morse is called to investigate the suspicious death of a wealthy American tourist Laura Poindexter. She was on a cultural tour of Britain with her husband and their visit to Oxford had a special significance for them. Laura had inherited a precious jewel known as 'The Wolvercote Tongue' and had announced her intention t

• The Big Bang Theory - Complete Season 1-5 | DVD | (03/09/2012) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £59.99

  Leonard and Sheldon are brilliant physicists, the kind of beautiful minds that understand how the universe works. But none of that genius helps them interact with people, especially women. All this begins to change when a free-spirited beauty named Penny moves in next door. Sheldon, Leonard's roommate, is quite content spending his nights playing Klingon Boggle with their socially dysfunctional friends, fellow Caltech scientists Wolowitz and Koothrappali. However, Leonard sees in Penny a whole new universe of possibilities... including love.

• The Big Bang Theory S1-12 | Blu Ray | (16/12/2019) from £57.39   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Leonard and Sheldon are brilliant physicists, the kind of beautiful minds that understand how the universe works. But none of that genius helps them interact with people, especially women. All this begins to change when a free-spirited beauty named Penny moves in next door. Sheldon, Leonard's roommate, is quite content spending his nights playing Klingon Boggle with their socially dysfunctional friends, fellow Caltech scientists Wolowitz and Koothrappali. However, Leonard sees in Penny a whole new universe of possibilities ... including love.

• Edward And Mrs Simpson | DVD | (17/04/2019) from £7.99   |  Saving you £12.00 (150.19%)   |  RRP £19.99

  He abandoned crown and country for the woman he loved. Everything that is known about Edward VIII is almost totally eclipsed by the world-shattering act which brought his short reign to a close in 1936. To many it seemed a selfish and irresponsible abandonment of duty. To others it was the supreme sacrifice of a man who put love above all things. Based on the definitive biography by Frances Donaldson Edward and Mrs Simpson focuses on the riveting truth behind the sensational headline

• The Incredible Hulk 1996 Complete Season 2 | DVD | (06/09/2010) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £6.99

  The Incredible Hulk tells the story of scientist Bruce Banner and his raging alter ego - the Incredible Hulk! Bombarded by gamma rays from an ill fated reactor test Banner must now search for a cure for the creature within him whilst on the run from General Ross and battling the Abomination Gargoyle Ogress and an alien demon that turns him into the awesome dark Hulk. The series also features an appearance by She-Hulk! Episodes Comprise: 1. A Hulk of A Different Colour 2. Down Memory Lane 3. Mind Over Anti-Matter 4. They Call me Mr Fixit 5. Fashion Warriors 6. Hollywood Rocks 7. The Lost Village 8. Mission:Incredible

• Persuasion | DVD | (01/11/1999) from £14.29   |  Saving you £5.70 (39.89%)   |  RRP £19.99

  After a slow beginning, in which the complex tangle of relationships is initially confusing, this BBC adaptation of Jane Austen's last novel, Persuasion, develops into an elegant romantic comedy. Austin combines a subtle dissection of the folly of class with a slow-burning, intensely passionate love story. Anne Elliot (Amanda Root) has loved Captain Wentworth (Ciaran Hinds) ever since she was persuaded to reject him years before. Now he has returned from the Napoleonic wars, but will love be allowed to blossom? Especially when Anne is surrounded by the selfish, petty-minded Mary, misguided by Lady Russell, and burdened by a father obsessed with fairness of countenance above all other considerations. Excepting a basic booklet, on-screen character biographies and a Dolby Digital soundtrack, there is nothing to distinguish this DVD from the video version. The picture is very good, but showing some grain, not exceptional, so unless you have a large television there is little advantage over tape. In any format, what makes this adaptation work is the sharp screenplay by Nick Dear and the naturalistic style of director Roger Mitchell (who joined the A-list with Notting Hill, 1999), together eliciting fine performances from the ensemble cast. Less flamboyant than Pride and Prejudice (1995), this is a civilised treat. --Gary S Dalkin

• The Rutles - All You Need Is Cash | DVD | (25/04/2005) from £16.92   |  Saving you £-10.93 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  First screened on BBC2 in 1978, at a time when the standing of The Beatles was at its lowest, The Rutles--All You Need is Cash is the original and (pace This is Spinal Tap) best "rockumentary" spoof. Codirector Eric Idle was then enjoying success with Rutland Weekend Television, while his script displays the same feeling for the inane non-sequitur evident in his Monty Python work. The band's progress from "penniless, untalented nobodies" to "rich, untalented somebodies" is vividly brought to life--with dialogue adapted from actual Beatles interviews and newsreels, and a roster of songs sounding uncannily close to Beatles originals thanks to "Nasty" Neil Innes' genius for pastiche. Interviews with a suitably primed Mick Jagger and Paul Simon give added realism, as do cameos from George Harrison (one-time Beach Boy Rikki Fataar plays his Rutles double Stig) and Stones guitarist Ron Wood. Dan Ackroyd and John Belushi make characterful, pre-Blues Brothers appearances. On the DVD: The Rutles--All You Need is Cash has come up well in this DVD transfer. The fullscreen 4:3 ratio picture and mono sound wear their age well, enhanced by the extra scenes included. There's further interview material with Jagger and Simon, and a specially recorded, though wholly unfunny, DVD introduction from Idle, who also contributes a running commentary. All in all, this is an ideal way to get to know, or renew acquaintance with, a film that brings the swinging 60s back down to earth. --Richard Whitehouse

• 24 Hour Party People - Single Disc Edition | DVD | (19/07/2004) from £5.68   |  Saving you £7.31 (128.70%)   |  RRP £12.99

  The story of the Manchester music scene from 70s punk through to the early nineties, as seen from the perspective of Tony Wilson, musical entrepenuer who signed countless bands from Joy Division to the Happy Mondays to his legendary Factory Records label.