"Actor: Jonathan Daly"

• Breaking Glass | DVD | (22/10/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  An old, old story as told circa 1980, Breaking Glass, written and directed by Brian Gibson, follows the path of Stardust not to mention A Star is Born and most other films about showbusiness, by following the rise of a talented young hopeful who learns that success comes with strings. Kate Crowley (Hazel O'Connor) begins as a bleached New Wave ranter, fly-posting on the tube and yelling songs about dehumanisation over fascist chants in rowdy pubs, but ends up a stoned glam zombie dressed as a robot, packaging her anger for the benefit of corporate music biz baddies and retreating to a sanatorium. The plot may be familiar, but the film still works, thanks to persuasive central performances from O'Connor, who wrote her own songs and shows real acting muscle that sadly didn't lead to anything like a film career, and Phil Daniels as her hustling manager/boyfriend/conscience. The fine supporting cast includes Jon Finch and Jonathan Pryce as a Bond villain-style record producer and a deaf junkie sax player, with glimpses of later perennials such as Jim Broadbent and Richard Griffiths. Made and set at the start of the 1980s, it catches its times exactly: a "Rock Against 1984" outdoor gig that turns into a riot, a routine police harrassment of a band rehearsal, a power cut that transforms a concert into a before-its-time "unplugged" session. Credits trivia: the executive producer was Dodi al Fayed. On the DVD: A nice letterboxed transfer looks a bit soft and grainy--but that's the way it's supposed to be. The only extras are cribbed-from-the-IMDB filmographies, a trailer with a wonderfully unconvincing narration and an image gallery (posters, ads and stills). --Kim Newman

• Rascal | DVD | (06/07/2004) from £12.31   |  Saving you £2.68 (21.77%)   |  RRP £14.99

  If man's best friend is a dog get ready to meet man's funniest friend: he's 4lbs of sheer delight and one of the best scene stealers to ever upstage an actor! Rascal tells a story of a boy (Bill Mumy) and his rescued pet raccoon an animal whose talent for causing loads of mischief is equalled only by his power to trigger tons of laughter!

• The Shaggy D.A. | DVD | (24/07/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Tim Allen transforms from family dad to family dog and back again in this fresh update of the Disney comedy classic The Shaggy Dog. It all begins when workaholic D.A. Dave Douglas (Allen) takes on a case involving an animal laboratory - one that will take him away yet again from his wife (Davis) and kids who already yearn for his all too distracted attention. But when Dave is accidentally infected with a top secret genetic-mutation serum everything he thought he knew about being himself and his family changes. Yet with his newly perked up ears and his front row seat on the household carpet Dave is able to gain a whole new perspective into his family's secrets and dreams. Now he wants nothing more than to stop fetching and return to fathering - only first he'll have to stop the evil forces behind the serum...in an adventure that will bring the whole family together.