"Actor: Mark Lambert"

• Cracker Complete Collection | DVD | (01/09/2008) from £17.12   |  Saving you £-4.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £13.12

  All 11 feature length Cracker adventures in one box set! Robbie Coltrane leads an all-star cast in Jimmy McGovern's groundbreaking gritty drama as the uncompromising idiosyncratic Fitz a man whose psychological insight extends to everyone but himself. Episodes Comprise: 1. The Mad Woman In The Attic 2. To Say I Love You 3. One Day A Lemming Will Fly 4. To Be A Somebody 5. The Big Crunch 6. Men Should Weep 7. Brotherly Love 8. Best Boys 9. True Romance 10. White Ghost 11. Cracker

• Veronica Guerin | DVD | (26/01/2004) from £6.79   |  Saving you £9.20 (135.49%)   |  RRP £15.99

  The true story of Irish journalist Veronica Guerin who took on the drug dealers of Dublin in the mid-1990s and paid the ultimate price.

• Jude | DVD | (01/01/2001) from £4.49   |  Saving you £5.50 (55.10%)   |  RRP £9.99

  This curiously dry adaptation of Thomas Hardy's last novel, Jude is a good example of Michael Winterbottom's inability to make a particularly good film until Welcome to Sarajevo. Christopher Eccleston plays Jude Fawley, a self-educated stonemason who holds the dream of attending university but identifies with the working class. Kate Winslet is enlisted to play his cousin Sue Bridehead, a young woman with suffragette leanings and a position as a teacher's assistant. When the two enter into an illicit union, they are condemned to the margins of society, ultimately resulting in a horrifying tragedy. Winterbottom takes an oddly lean approach to Hardy's deterministic story, which leaves a viewer feeling short on emotion just when one needs it for the from-bad-to-worse third act. Welcome to Sarajevo proved that Winterbottom needs a whole other level of personal involvement to make a film that inspires him. Jude isn't one of those lucky films. --Tom Keogh, Amazon.com

• Sharpe's Regiment / Sharpe's Siege | DVD | (12/08/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Based on the novels by Bernard Cornwell, Sharpe (1993-7) ran to 14 full-length television films that follow the adventures of the titular soldier through the later years of the Napoleonic Wars. The programmes are an outstanding achievement for the small screen, dominated by Sean Bean's central performance as the heroic, troubled outsider who turns out to be a resourceful and loyal leader. Bolstered by a strong supporting cast, particularly Daragh O'Malley as Harper and (in later episodes) Abigail Cruttenden as Jane, Sharpe is often visually striking, the action tense and gripping. Consistency is maintained by all 14 episodes being directed by Tom Clegg. On the DVD: Sharpe's sound is full-bodied stereo while the very "sharp" picture has been transferred slightly letterboxed at 14:9. Though looking much better than the original TV transmissions the occasionally cropped framing makes it apparent the films were shot in 16:9 widescreen, so it is regrettable they have not been transferred to DVD in that format. Otherwise these are first-rate releases. --Gary S Dalkin

• Tales Of The Unexpected - Vol. 1 | DVD | (29/03/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  A unique collection from the 1970's and 1980's cult tv series - the four classic episodes included are: The Vorpal Blade: A notorious duel to the death in Germany in the 1920's has scarred the lives of many who were involved - including elderly aristocrat Von Baden who recalls the deadly challenge and reveals a shocking secret. The Tribute: Three thrifty ex-colonial ladies are re-united when they learn of the death of a devoted servant who once served all their familie

• Jude | DVD | (14/03/2011) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  This curiously dry adaptation of Thomas Hardy's last novel, Jude is a good example of Michael Winterbottom's inability to make a particularly good film until Welcome to Sarajevo. Christopher Eccleston plays Jude Fawley, a self-educated stonemason who holds the dream of attending university but identifies with the working class. Kate Winslet is enlisted to play his cousin Sue Bridehead, a young woman with suffragette leanings and a position as a teacher's assistant. When the two enter into an illicit union, they are condemned to the margins of society, ultimately resulting in a horrifying tragedy. Winterbottom takes an oddly lean approach to Hardy's deterministic story, which leaves a viewer feeling short on emotion just when one needs it for the from-bad-to-worse third act. Welcome to Sarajevo proved that Winterbottom needs a whole other level of personal involvement to make a film that inspires him. Jude isn't one of those lucky films. --Tom Keogh, Amazon.com

• Babylon a.D. | Blu Ray | (29/12/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Vin Diesel stars as a mercenary hired to deliver a package from the ravages of post-apocalyptic Eastern Europe to a destination in the teeming megalopolis of New York City. The "package" is a mysterious young woman with a secret.

• Tales Of The Unexpected - Vol. 2 | DVD | (29/03/2004) from £4.99   |  Saving you £3.00 (60.12%)   |  RRP £7.99

  Featuring Episodes: The Wrong 'Un Have A Nice Death Hit And Run and The Reconciliation

• Cracker - Brotherly Love | DVD | (16/10/2006) from £10.98   |  Saving you £4.00 (44.49%)   |  RRP £12.99

  The police believe they have solved the brutal murder of a prostitute when they arrest father of four David Harvey on strong circumstantial evidence. However an identical murder while David is in custody means the team have to decide if they have the wrong man or whether they are dealing with a copycat killer. Meanwhile the death of Fitz's mother drives him into the arms of his wife while Jimmy Beck recently returned from sick leave finally breaks under the strain of work and his own guilt. When he takes the law to the limits he finds Penhaligon staring at him across an unbridgeable gap. Something has to give ...

• Seance On A Wet Afternoon | DVD | (26/01/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  An intensely claustrophobic nail-biter to rival prime Hitchcock, 1964's Séance on a Wet Afternoon is a classic British thriller written and directed by Bryan Forbes. Set largely in an imposing Gothic house in north London, the film stars Richard Attenborough as Bill Savage, a man struggling to maintain his marriage to his increasingly unbalanced wife, Myra, played in an Oscar-nominated performance by the little-known but brilliant Broadway actress Kim Stanley. Myra, who believes she is a medium, plans a scheme that will make her famous, involving kidnapping then "psychically" locating a little girl. Attenborough (who won a BAFTA) and Stanley are both superb in what is part riveting battle of wills, part nerve-wracking kidnap thriller with, just possibly, a touch of the supernatural. Gerry Turpin's precise b/w cinematography and John Barry's chilling score add significantly to the atmosphere of dread, and if the plot has one or two gaping holes, Forbes's direction covers them deftly. Forbes explored female delusion again in The Whispers (1967) and The Mad Woman of Chaillot (1969); the film also marked a major entry in his long-term collaboration with John Barry and with his wife, the actress Nanette Newman. Séance clearly had an influence on Attenborough's own directorial contribution to the genre, the highly unsettling Anthony Hopkins vehicle, Magic (1978). On the DVD: Séance on a Wet Afternoon is presented in an excellent 16:9 transfer, anamorphically enhanced for widescreen televisions, that effectively captures the brooding look of Gerry Tupin's BAFTA-nominated cinematography. Unfortunately the print used, though generally very good, does show some damage, including some instances that appear to run through the best part of a reel. Though noticeable and sometimes distracting, they barely mar this gripping film. The mono soundtrack is fine, though there is the very occasional touch of distortion. The disc comes with optional English subtitles, the excellent original trailer and a new and first-rate 33-minute interview with Bryan Forbes in which he engagingly explains every aspect of the making of the film. --Gary S Dalkin

• Rothko's Rooms | DVD | (22/09/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £18.99

  Filmed on both sides of the Atlantic this documentary chronicalling Rothko's life and charting the development of his work fills the screen with his softly defined rectangular clouds of colour. There are penetrating contributions from his children and comments from a wide range of friends artists art historians collectors and curators. The focus is on Rothko's demands for the perfect setting for the showing of his work typified by the story of his iconic Seagram murals nine of which now hang at the Tate Modern. One of the murals' commissioners Philip Jonson is among those who explain why Rothko refused to allow these works to hang in their intended venue the Four Seasons restaurant in New York.

• Cracker - Brotherly Love | DVD | (12/05/2003) from £6.54   |  Saving you £3.45 (34.50%)   |  RRP £9.99

  The police believe they have solved the brutal murder of a prostitute when they arrest father of four David Harvey on strong circumstantial evidence. However an identical murder while David is in custody means the team have to decide if they have the wrong man or whether they are dealing with a copycat killer. Meanwhile the death of Fitz's mother drives him into the arms of his wife while Jimmy Beck recently returned from sick leave finally breaks under the strain of work and his own guilt. When he takes the law to the limits he finds Penhaligon staring at him across an unbridgeable gap. Something has to give ...