"Actor: Kenneth Ha"

• Man at the Top - The Complete Second Series | DVD | (11/04/2011) from £38.53   |  Saving you £1.46 (3.79%)   |  RRP £39.99

  Man at the Top originally screened in the early '70s continues to chart the progress of Joe Lampton the aggressively ambitious anti-hero of John Braine's best-selling novel Room at the Top its award-winning film adaptation of 1958 and 1965 sequel Life at the Top. Kenneth Haigh's portrayal of Joe Lampton earned him a BAFTA nomination while accomplished film and stage actress Zena Walker is Joe's long-suffering wife Susan; a strong supporting cast includes Paul Eddington and Colin Welland with guest appearances by Stephanie Beacham and George Sewell. This release contains the complete second series available for the first time anywhere. Although Joe Lampton has returned to Susan several beautiful women are eagerly forming the 'other woman' queue. And Joe still believing the quickest way to a chairman is through the chairman's wife is as determined and manipulative as ever on his continuing climb to the top; overcoming adversity once again this series finds him seizing the opportunity to get the better of his father-in-law and finally setting his sights on a political career - bringing all his ruthless charm and tenacity to the fight for votes.

• Shiner | DVD | (14/10/2002) from £6.73   |  Saving you £13.26 (66.30%)   |  RRP £19.99

  The past catches up with a ruthlessly ambitious boxing promoter (Caine) when after stumping up everything he has in betting on his son's world title tilt the police begin investigating the death of a fighter in an underground unlicensed bout...

• Van Helsing / Bram Stoker's Dracula / Mary Shelley's Frankenstein | DVD | (03/10/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Van Helsing (Dir. Stephen Sommers 2004): Hunted as a murderer by those who do not understand his calling Van Helsing (Hugh Jackman) travels the globe as a fugitive. Accompanied only by Carl (David Wenham) a friar entrusted with providing Van Helsing's safety and a weapons arsenal to rival James Bond Van Helsing is despatched to the shadowy world of Transylvania. Home to the ravishing Anna Valerious (Kate Beckinsale) one of the last remaining descendents of a powerful royal family Van Helsing has been sent to terminate the evil and undefeatable Count Dracula (Richard Roxburgh) and his alluring bloodthirsty vampire brides. Herself a fearless hunter Anna joins forces with Van Helsing to confront her family's life long adversary and avenge the deaths of her predecessors. In a stunning showdown Van Helsing comes face to face with his mortal enemy but is also forced to confront his past... Bram Stoker's Dracula (Dir. Francis Ford Coppola 1992): Francis Ford Coppola returns to the original source of the Dracula to create a modern masterpiece. It follows the tortured journey of the devastatingly seductive Transylvanian Prince (Gary Oldman) as he moves from Eastern Europe to 19th century London in search of his long lost Elisabeta who is reincarnated as the beautiful Mina (Winona Ryder)... Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (Dir. Kenneth Branagh 1994): It is the late 18th Century. After the death of his beloved mother young Victor Frankenstein leaves his father and Elizabeth the adopted sister he passionately loves to attend university. Here he becomes obsessed with the teachings of Professor Walman who believes that living creatures can actually be created from dead matter. One electrifying night Frankenstein's efforts are rewarded as his Creature struggles to life. Alone despised and driven by a rage of emotional agony it sets off to find its maker. And so begins the nightmare that will engulf Victor Frankenstein...

• Randall And Hopkirk Deceased - Vol. 1 - Episodes 1 And 2 | DVD | (10/07/2000) from £12.98   |  Saving you £-2.99 (-29.90%)   |  RRP £9.99

  The twist of this private-eye show is that in the first episode, gumshoe Marty Hopkirk (Kenneth Cope) is killed off by the villains, subsequently popping up in an immaculate white suit as a ghost visible only to his hardboiled partner Jeff Randall (Mike Pratt). In theory, the supernatural streak--which meant a complex set of rules about Marty's appearances and effects on the physical world--should lead the show into wilder territory, but most episodes squander the team's unique abilities on ordinary cases about blackmail and murder-for-profit. A persistent subplot has the living Jeff getting cosy with the dead Marty's widow Jean (Annette Andre) to the discomfort of her late husband. The elementary effects and the nice underplaying of the leads have a certain period charm, and the show could afford a high calibre of special guest villains and dolly birds. A recent remake with Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer hasn't obliterated memories of the original. This disc contains episodes one and two: "My Late Lamented Friend and Partner" and "A Disturbing Case". --Kim Newman

• Carry On England | DVD | (27/08/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  By way of an experiment, a mixed-sex anti-aircraft battery is set up during World War II. The result is Carry On England, and the sex is indeed pretty mixed, although the drafting in of Patrick Mower and Judy Geeson rather demonstrates the need for at least some of the cast to be attractive in order to make this premise feasible. For the most part, of course, it's tits-out sex-comedy slapstick all the way, but there's a nicely ambivalent performance from Kenneth Connor, who portrays the wartime British officer class as being pretty much bonkers, a telling interpretation which Stephen Fry was to perfect years later in Blackadder Goes Forth. The location is of course typically Carry On cheap-and-cheerful, but its inevitable drabness, together with the indistinguishable khaki uniforms, tends to put a bit of a damper on the adult-panto atmosphere which the best Carry Ons deliver. The cast commendably manage to transcend this, though, so there's still plenty of fun to be had. On the DVD: The feature is presented in 1.77:1 aspect ratio, but the disc has no added features. --Roger Thomas

• Randall And Hopkirk Deceased - Vol. 7 - Episodes 23-26 | DVD | (09/09/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  More other-worldy adventures featuring Jeff Randall (Mike Pratt) and his deceased private detective partner Marty Hopkirk (Kenneth Cope)... Eps. 23: The Trouble With Women - Jeff gambles with his life while investigating the owner of a casino. Eps. 24: Vendetta To A Dead Man - A vengeance seeking excaped prisoner is looking to settle an old score. Eps. 25: You Can Always Find A Fall Guy - Jeff is double crossed by a nun. Eps. 26: - The Smile Behind The Veil - A simple funeral turns into a strange murder mystery.

• Great Composers - Bach / Mozart | DVD | (01/07/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

  The BBC TV series Great Composers, broadcast in 1997, takes an introductory look at key figures of European classical music. Bach (1685-1750) is a difficult composer to survey historically, partly because his life as a professional musician was restricted to several provincial German towns. Yet the vast body of music he produced is well covered, with a representative sample performed mainly on instruments of Bach's day. There's also consideration of his cultural importance as the effective progenitor of modern European music and enough anecdotal evidence to suggest a lively, combative personality in his own right. The life of Mozart (1756-1791) is easier to document, with his years as a child prodigy travelling the European cultural circuit, the difficult adolescent years in Salzburg and Paris and the rise and fall of his freelance career in Vienna all amply illustrated here. Again, a well-chosen selection of music, accompanied by thought-provoking comments from a range of musicians and historians, gently exploding the myth of the Amadeus film in the process. This is informal, informing, and worth acquiring. On the DVD: The disc offers crisp Dolby 2.0 stereo and 4:3 ratio, with generous and well-chosen access points--13 for Bach, 16 for Mozart. Subtitles are offered in five languages, and you'll need to select the English option so that the German and Italian speaking contributors come with translation. Those with DVD-ROM can additionally access up-to-date articles on these composers. --Richard Whitehouse

• Carry On Follow That Camel | DVD | (27/08/2001) from £5.60   |  Saving you £4.39 (78.39%)   |  RRP £9.99

  In Carry On Follow That Camel, Sergeant Bilko himself, Phil Silvers, lends lustre and trademark spectacles to this 1967 desert spectacle following the adventures of a group of foreign legionnaires who find themselves besieged by a bloodthirsty band of Bedouins. Silvers plays Sergeant Nocker, a rogue cast firmly in the Bilko mould, who takes a dislike to new recruit Jim Dale, a young upper class gent forced to join the legion following disgrace at a cricket match. He's accompanied, naturally, by his faithful manservant (Peter Butterworth), with the pair showing a fine disregard for the austere requirements of the Foreign Legion. However, once they reach an agreement with Sergeant Nocker, they can join forces to repel the Bedouins, led, not unpredictably, by Bernard Bresslaw. This is vintage Carry On, in spite of Sid James' absence. Kenneth Williams' performance is subdued by having to deliver the usual puns ("zere are a couple of points I still need to go over", he informs busty Joan Sims) in a mangled French accent but Silvers gets into the right mode of delivering broad comedy with subtle inflections. Peter Butterworth draws the short straw this time and must feature in the obligatory cross-dressing scene, while Charles Hawtrey is a splendidly unconvincing hardened legionnaire. As for Bresslaw, can any other British actor, with the exception of Sir Alec Guinness, have distinguished himself in such a variety of multi-ethnic roles? On the DVD: Sadly, there are no extra features except scene selection. The picture ratio is 4:3. --David Stubbs

• Children's Christmas Classics - Snow Queen/The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe/Box Of Delight | DVD | (30/10/2006) from £29.99   |  Saving you £-10.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  The Snow Queen: The dark and complex tale of Hans Christian Andersen's The Snow Queen is brought to life in this stunning and magical mix of music and song animation and 'live' drama. The tale of how innocence and love in the shape of the heroine Gerda can overcome the evil power of their nemesis The Snow Queen takes us on a journey through the Enchanted Flower Garden on a flight through the Northern Lights and into the palace of the Snow Queen herself - a figure powerful enough to 'tie all the winds of the world together'. We meet talking flowers the helpful raven and reindeer the Finland woman and the Lapland woman a band of robbers and a whole royal family. And finally Gerda's tears bring the hero Kay back to warmth and life and Spring returns to the countryside. And all the while we are reminded that splinters of an ancient broken enchanted looking glass are in the air around us waiting to fly into an unsuspecting eye like Kay's and turn a good heart to a lump of ice - and a good person into a gift for the Snow Queen. The Lion The Witch And The Wardrobe: The first published and arguably best loved tale in C.S. Lewis' acclaimed ""Chronicles of Narnia"" 'The Lion The Witch And The Wardrobe' is the adventure-filled tale of two brothers and two sisters who cross through an enchanted wardrobe into the magical world of Narnia land of talking animals and mythical creatures. They discover that Narnia is under the evil power of the White Witch who brings eternal winter to the land. It is up to the children to join the noble lion Aslan and bring Springtime and happiness back to Narnia! The Box Of Delights: Based on the classic children's novel by John Masefield this tale follows the adventures of Kay Harker a young boy who finds himself lured into a world of fantasy and danger after a chance encounter with an old Punch and Judy man. A magical mix of animation and live-action this spectacular production is guaranteed to thrill the fantasies of children and adults alike. Seldom is a story so sophisticated as to draw its audience spellbound into a series of such enchanting adventures as those we share with young Kay Harker. As he travels home on the train for the Christmas holidays Kay Harker has the strangest feeling something very mysterious is about to happen... there is snow on the wind and wild dogs are roaming the countryside. Then a chance meeting with an old Punch and Judy man Cole Hawlins the guardian of the elixir of life and a shabby box of powers pulls Kay into an array of fantastic worlds where he encounters ancient heroes wolves Romans rats flashing rings and flying ponies. This memorable production was first shown just before Christmas 1984. The enchanting adventures and magical atmosphere hold fond memories for many and are sure to delight a new generation of children. Now available for the first time on DVD with a myriad of special features you can enjoy this very special production for years to come.

• The Land Before Time 7 - The Stone Of Cold Fire | DVD | (10/04/2006) from £14.83   |  Saving you £1.16 (7.30%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Littlefoot Cera Spike Ducky and Petrie are back in an enchanting new feature-length adventure from the beloved The Land Before Time series! Littlefoot has witnessed an amazing sight: a 'stone of cold fire' that fell through the night sky and landed somewhere in the Smoking Mountains. But Littlefoot is the only one in the Great Valley who saw the stone and he can't find anyone who believes him. Petrie's long-lost uncle Pterano has his own reasons for wanting to find the

• Hazell - The Complete First Series | DVD | (29/04/2004) from £22.92   |  Saving you £17.07 (74.48%)   |  RRP £39.99

  In this gritty TV series co-written by former England football manager Terry Venables East Ender James Hazell (Nicholas Ball) struggles to make his mark as a detective... The ten episodes of Series 1 comprise: Hazell Plays Solomon Hazell Pays a Debt Hazell and the Walking Blur Hazell Settles the Accounts Hazell Meets the First Eleven Hazell and the Rubber-Heel Brigade Hazell Goes to the Dogs Hazell and the Weekend Man Hazell Works for Nothing Hazell and the Maltese Vultu

• Carry On Doctor | DVD | (04/05/2001) from £6.22   |  Saving you £3.77 (60.61%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Bedpan humour rules in Carry On Doctor, the vintage 1968 offering from the familiar gang, assisted by guest star Frankie Howerd as bogus faith healer Francis Bigger. Hospitals, of course, always provided the Carry On producers with plenty of material. Today, these comedies induce a twinge of serious nostalgia for the great days of the National Health Service when Matron (Hattie Jacques, naturally) ran the hospital as if it was a house of correction, medical professionals were idolised as if they were all Doctor Kildare and Accident and Emergency Departments were deserted oases of calm. But even if you aren't interested in a history lesson, Talbot Rothwell's script contains some immortal dialogue, particularly when Matron loosens her stays. "You may not realise it but I was once a weak man", says Kenneth Williams' terrified Doctor Tinkle to Hattie Jacques. "Once a week's enough for any man", she purrs back, undaunted. Other highlights include Joan Sims, excellent as Frankie Howerd's deaf, bespectacled sidekick, Charles Hawtrey suffering from a phantom pregnancy, 1960s singer Anita Harris in a rare film role, and Barbara Windsor at her most irrepressible as nurse Sandra May. This is one of the best. On the DVD: Presented in 1.77:1 format for a pseudo-widescreen effect, the picture quality is good and sharp, accompanied by a standard mono soundtrack. The same no-frills approach is taken with the packaging; a functional scene index and no extras. Yet again, a missed opportunity to use the DVD release to provide some context. At their best, the Carry On films are rightly seen as classic comedies of their type. They really deserve to be better celebrated. --Piers Ford

• Thing From Another World/The Thing | DVD | (07/05/2007) from £20.00   |  Saving you £-7.01 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  The Thing (Dir. John Carpenter 1982): Horror-meister John Carpenter teams Kurt Russell's outstanding performance with incredible visuals to build this chilling version of the classic 'The Thing'. In the winter of 1982 a twelve-man research team at a remote Antarctic research station discovers an alien buried in the snow for over 100 000 years. Soon unfrozen the shape-shifting alien wreaks havoc creates terror and becomes one of them... The Thinf From Another World (Dir. Christian Nyby 1951): Arctic researchers discover a huge frozen spaceling inside a crash-landed UFO then fight for their lives after the murderous being (a pre-Gunsmoke James Arness) emerges from icy captivity. Will other creatures soon follow? The famed final words of this film are both warning and answer: ""Keep watching the skies!""

• Carry On Again Doctor | DVD | (27/08/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  The title of Carry On Again Doctor (1969) says it all; almost the same cast playing similar characters to their previous year's outing in Carry On Doctor. This one rejoices in the alternative title "Bowels are Ringing". But the enduring popularity of these films owes almost everything to their basic formula and if this one occasionally seems a bit cobbled together, all the old favourites are still there, working away. This time, the setting moves from the National Health Service to the private sector and even stretches as far as the "Beatific Islands" when Jim Dale is exiled to a missionary clinic for his overzealous attention to the female patients, who include Barbara Windsor of course. There, orderly Sid James rules the roost of the clinic with his harem of local women. Trivia addicts can spot Mrs Michael Caine in a brief role as a token dusky maiden. The second half of the Talbot Rothwell script picks up nicely as the characters converge on the private hospital back in England where Dale rakes in the money with a bogus weight loss treatment. Hattie Jacques is in fine form as Matron, Kenneth Williams fascinates with his usual mass of mannerisms and Joan Sims is stately as the Lady Bountiful figure financing most of the shenanigans. It's a tribute to their professionalism that we can still lose ourselves in some of the creakiest old jokes around. On the DVD: Bog standard 4:3 picture format and mono soundtrack provide an adequate viewing experience, especially as today most people will be more familiar with these films from television transmissions than from their cinema release. However, the lack of extras is a shame. Apart from the scene index, there is nothing to distinguish the DVD from its video equivalent. At the very least, a cast list or star biographies would add a little value. --Piers Ford

• Carry On Vol.3 | DVD | (01/09/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  This Carry On collection includes the following films: Carry On Loving: Sid James and Hattie Jacques run The Wedding Bliss computer dating agency and guess what? Chaos follows! Carry On At Your Convenience: Kenneth Williams is WC Boggs the troubled owner of a small company trying to manufacture fine toiletware. Incompetent management and a bolshy union are just about the least of Bogg's problems as you'll soon discover in this hysterical comedy that tells you everything you always wanted to know about your home's most vital convenience. Carry On Matron: Carry On Matron finds the team in top form in Finisham Maternity Hospital. Sid James leads a team of less than professional crooks intent on stealing a huge hoard of birth control pills. If your funny bone is in need of tickling this is the prescription you need! Carry On Abroad: The Carry On team take a package holiday that starts disastrously and rapidly goes downhill. The paradise island of Elsbels is not all it's cracked up to be.... The hotel isn't finished the staff are abit thin on the ground - in fact Pepe (Peter Butterworth) is the staff - and the locals are far from friendly! It's the holiday of a laughtime as Sid James Barbara Windsor Charles Hawtrey Joan Sims and the gang go on the razzle in the Med!

• The Three Sisters | DVD | (28/06/2004) from £7.16   |  Saving you £6.83 (95.39%)   |  RRP £13.99

  In a remote little town in turn of the century Russia three sisters - Olga (Jeanne Watts) Irina (Louise Purnell) and Masha (Joan Plowight) - and their brother Andrei (Derek Jacobi) fantasise about their return to their former home in Moscow. For them Moscow is a city of dreams magnetism and inspiration - a far cry from their current life - an oppressive and overbearing existence devoid of hope. As they muddle through life they hold on to the memory of a place they once knew and

• Carry On - The Ultimate Carry On | DVD | (08/10/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £109.99

  Twelve classic titles in one box set

• Carry On Henry | DVD | (27/08/2001) from £13.97   |  Saving you £-3.98 (-39.80%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Shot in the bright postal colours of a seaside postcard, Carry on Henry applies the usual Carry On sniggering to the married life of Henry VIII. Talbot Rothwell's script is standard bedroom farce and full of jokes about choppers, while the threat of beheading and the actuality of torture are constantly present but only as the terrible things that happen to cartoon characters who will be back next time. Sid James turns in one of his better performances as the endlessly lecherous and fickle Henry, married to Joan Sims and lusting after Barbara Windsor. There is a genuine sexual chemistry between James and Windsor which at times almost breaks open the farce formula. The usual regulars--Kenneth Williams as Thomas Cromwell, Terry Scott as Cardinal Wolsey, Charles Hawtrey as Sir Roger--do their usual turns; Williams is more subdued than usual, while Hawtrey hugely enjoys playing the Queen's secret lover. This was not one of the high points of the series, but it has its own curious charm. On the DVD: The DVD has no extras whatever, but is a good clean print in 1.77:1 ratio with crisp mono sound. --Roz Kaveney

• Of Unknown Origin | Blu Ray | (22/05/2018) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Tale of A Vampire | DVD | (23/04/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  A cross-cultural oddity, Tale of a Vampire feels like a 1970s British horror movie retranslated from the Japanese and mounted as a vehicle for Julian Sands. Director-writer Shimako Sato takes a gloom-haunted approach to the undead, allegedly influenced by the necrophile romanticism of Edgar Allan Poe (it claims to be based on Poe's poem "Annabel Lee") but also draws on the popular blood-sucking posiness of Anne Rice's bestselling novels. Alex (Sands), is a style-conscious vampire whose white shirts are always immaculate although he spends most of his nights messily pouring gore over his face. Living in a spartan docklands pad, Alex haunts a library of long-forgotten lore where he sets his cap at a young woman (Suzanna Hamilton) who may be the reincarnation of his lost love. Unfortunately, a hat-wearing rival vampire (Kenneth Cranham) has been nurturing a grudge against Alex for lifetimes and sticks his oar in, complicating the relationship between vampire and willing victim, setting up for a big stake-shoving climax. For all its vampire feuds and dodgily S&M-flavoured blood-drinking scenes, this is somewhat staid and solemn, with few locations and a low budget abstraction reminiscent of those old episodes of The Avengers where they could only afford to build a corner of a set and there wasn't any money left to hire actors. While Sands, with aptly vampirish poise, and Cranham, with a sinister Southern accent, are interesting and poised antagonists, making the most of Sato's allusive dialogue, heroine Hamilton lets the side down with an awkward performance that hardly suggests anyone worth giving up immortality for. Cranham's character is supposed to be Poe himself, oddly transformed from his historical stature: he seems to have put on a bit of weight since his death in 1849, but Cranham's sly nasty way of ordering gruesome nouvelle cuisine and tormenting a harmless crackpot is aptly Poeish. The slow-paced film takes a long time to confirm what is obvious from the outset (even from the title) and then shudders to a halt with all the characters' fates left vague. However, it has a unique and disturbing atmosphere--the few familiar vampire images of a bloody Sands are outweighed by weirder moments like Cranham's presentation of a pale Hamilton, tied to a bed with red ribbons, as an offering to his nemesis--that makes it more insidiously memorable than many of its higher-budgeted, splashier cousins. On the DVD: A no-frills (no trailer, no cast notes, no nothing), full-screen presentation, which sometimes cramps Sato's careful compositions, this also has a mixed blessing transfer which lends a mouldy or rusty fuzz to some of the blacks in the many night scenes. There is, however, a nice animated menu. --Kim Newman