"Actor: Neil McDermott"

• The Middle - Season 1 | DVD | (17/04/2019) from £18.91   |  Saving you £6.08 (32.15%)   |  RRP £24.99

  The Middle is the most honest--and, for that reason, the funniest--sitcom about middle class family life since Roseanne. Frankie Heck (Patricia Heaton, Everybody Loves Raymond) wearily runs a cluttered, chaotic household with her husband Mike (Neil Flynn, Scrubs) and three unruly kids: sullen teen jock Axl (Charlie McDermott), hopeless klutz Sue (Eden Sher), and smart but socially awkward Brick (Atticus Shaffer). The plots revolve around the kind of mild crises that make domestic life so difficult: Frankie and Mike can't find time to be alone together; debts force difficult choices; the kids spend more time watching television than talking to each other. Again and again, Frankie longs to teach her kids good values but realizes she isn't living up to those values herself--and her reluctant efforts to muster virtue within herself can be achingly funny. Frankie is superbly well realized, a perfect match of writing and performer. Heaton portrays her contradictory impulses (virtue vs. convenience, open-heartedness vs. a hunger for just a little time alone) with wonderful subtlety; the wary look in her eyes flickers between sincerity and cynicism. The supporting cast is every bit as strong. These kids actually look and act like kids, in all their obnoxious, oblivious, naive glory, not like glossy supermodels in training. Flynn pulls his own deft balancing act, making husband Mike blunt and a little insensitive without seeming like a jerk or a caricature. The show is still working out some kinks--Chris Kattan (Saturday Night Live) plays a hapless coworker of Frankie's; the character has possibilities and Kattan seems game for anything, but the writers don't quite know what to do with him yet. A host of guest stars--including Brooke Shields as a white trash neighbor and Betty White as an imperious librarian--fit nicely into the show's world, rather than sticking out like stunt casting. The Middle treats middle America with compassion, intelligence, and genuine appreciation. --Bret Fetzer

• The Middle - Season 2 | DVD | (17/04/2019) from £79.99   |  Saving you £-55.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Work. Kids. Bills. Comedy. It's how the middle half lives. The Heck family returns for Season Two bringing with them 24 episodes of offbeat fun with one foot in reality and the other on a greasy wrapper from Burgerworld. Patricia Heaton and Neil Flynn star as Frankie and Mike Heck frazzled parents trying to stretch their patience and paychecks around three brilliantly true-to-life kids: their oldest Axl is a teen jock slacker whose wardrobe of choice is boxer shorts and an attitude; Sue who's thrilled to come in eighth (out of eight) in Square Dancing with the Stars; and Brick the only kid who has his birthday party at the public library.

• The Railway Children (1968) | DVD | (31/10/2016) from £11.10   |  Saving you £8.89 (80.09%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Complete 7-part BBC adaptation starring Jenny Agutter. The big screen version of The Railway Children was still two years in the future when Jenny Agutter starred in this handsome production that serves as a companion piece to a film classic. The comfortable lives of three Edwardian children are shattered when their father is arrested on suspicion of betraying state secrets. The children and their mother are forced to move to a modest cottage in the Yorkshire countryside, where their new lives centre around the local steam railway line.

• The Railway Children | DVD | (07/10/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  E. Nesbit's famous adventure story comes to life in this moving and exciting BBC television series for all the family. The happy comfortable lives of the well-to-do Faraday children are suddenly shattered when their father (Frederick Treves) is arrested on spying charges and imprisoned. Confused heartbroken and plunged into poverty young Bobbie (Jenny Agutter) Peter (Neil MacDermott) and Phyllis (Gillian Bailey) go to live in a rough country cottage with their sick mother (Ann Castle). Exploring the countryside they make friends with the staff at nearby Meadowvale Station - bumbling porter Mr. Perks and the station master and become involved in all sorts of adventures along the railway line. Filmed on the famous Keighley & Worth Valley Railway The Railway Children is BBC family drama at its very best. All seven episodes are included on this DVD to enjoy again and again.