"Actor: Norman"

• Roustabout | DVD | (18/03/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  The Elvis formula was well in place by the time of 1964's Roustabout, a concoction of undistinguished songs (anyone remember "Poison Ivy League"?), pretty girls, tight pants, a colourful setting and a little bit of karate to prove that Elvis really had been studying his martial arts. With that understood, Roustabout is a better-than-average work-out for the King--not as peppy as Viva Las Vegas, but a good deal livelier than the sleepwalking It Happened at the World's Fair. Elvis plays a bad-boy singer roaming the highways on his Japanese motorcycle; laid up after an accident, he joins a carnival owned by the feisty Barbara Stanwyck. ("This is not a circus, it's a carnival. There's a big difference.") The cast goes from high to low: both giant-sized future James Bond villain Richard Kiel and tiny Billy Barty are carny regulars, and Raquel Welch has a small role in the opening scene. Teri Garr is one of the carnival dancers behind Elvis. The legendary costume designer Edith Head puts Elvis in a series of snappy windbreakers, but thank goodness he's also in black leather a lot. As if that weren't enough to recommend it, the movie has a sequence involving Elvis riding a cycle inside the "Wall of Death", a huge wooden cylinder with high walls. This bit actually inspired an entire Irish film in 1986, Eat the Peach, in which friends build a similar contraption after they watch Roustabout on tape. --Robert Horton

• Hale & Pace - The Complete Series 4 | DVD | (20/05/2013) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Turning Hale and Pace into household names this phenomenally successful series presented a rapidly paced occasionally notorious blend of stand-up and sketches that stayed just the right side of Broadcasting Standards won a Silver Rose at Montreux and made the two former PE teachers one of the most mimicked comedy acts in television history.

• Submarine X-1 | DVD | (08/09/2014) from £7.29   |  Saving you £5.70 (78.19%)   |  RRP £12.99

  A special group of navy divers is created when a disabled Nazi warship is discovered in a fjord in Norway. Commander Bolton (James Caan) is the Canadian expert designated to train the new unit. Their mission is to plant a bomb on the warship as it undergoes repairs. The hard-driving Bolton encounters resentment from the British soldiers he trains but he ultimately earns their respect as a leader. Their intense training operation is interrupted by an attack of Nazi paratroopers just before the unit leaves for Norway. Spectacular underwater photography is seen in this World War II adventure story based on an actual mission.

• Last Shop Standing: The Rise, Fall And Rebirth Of The Independent Record Shop | DVD | (10/09/2012) from £9.89   |  Saving you £3.10 (31.34%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Netherlands released, PAL/Region 0 DVD: LANGUAGES: English ( Dolby Surround ), WIDESCREEN (1.78:1), SPECIAL FEATURES: Interactive Menu, Scene Access, SYNOPSIS: Last Shop Standing, inspired by the book of the same name by Graham Jones, takes you behind the counter to discover why nearly 2,000 record shops have already disappeared across the UK. The film charts the rapid rise of record shops in the 60,70 and 80's, the influence of the chart, the underhand deals, the demise of vinyl and rise of the CD as well as new technologies. Graham meets the characters behind the counter, and in front of the counter the likes of Paul Weller, Johnny Marr, Norman Cook, Billy Bragg, Nerina Pallot, Richard Hawley and Clint Boon tell us how the shops became part of their own musical education, and why they might just have a brighter future. ...Last Shop Standing ( Last Shop Standing: The Rise, Fall and Rebirth of the Independent Record Shop )

• Worzel Gummidge - Series 3 | DVD | (29/07/2002) from £13.57   |  Saving you £1.42 (10.46%)   |  RRP £14.99

  All the episodes from the third series. Episodes nclude: Moving On / Dolly Clothes-Peg / A Fair Old Pullover / Worzel the Brave / Worzel's Wager / The Return of Dafthead / Captain Worzel / Choir Practice.

• The Mighty Quinn | DVD | (19/05/2003) from £9.43   |  Saving you £3.56 (37.75%)   |  RRP £12.99

  A highly enjoyable sleeper, The Mighty Quinn is a variation on one of those 1930s studio pictures about two boyhood friends who grow up on different sides of the law. But it's 1989, and things are a bit different. Denzel Washington, smooth as Jamaican rum, plays the police chief of a Caribbean island, a place where crime isn't exactly a pressing concern. Thus the chief is put out when the clues in a murder case point to his old buddy, a dreadlocked ne'er-do-well played by a mischievous Robert Townsend. Director Carl Schenkel is much more interested in friendships and great island atmosphere than in the actual unlocking of the case, and that's just fine. Add in a bouncy soundtrack of reggae music, and The Mighty Quinn becomes one of those hard-to-resist vacation movies. --Robert Horton

• Out - The Complete Series (Two Discs) | DVD | (02/06/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  For his part in a failed bank robbery Frank Ross has served years in prison. Now he's out and looking for the cuplrit responsible for his incarceration...

• Ex-Drummer | DVD | (25/02/2008) from £6.95   |  Saving you £13.04 (187.63%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Three drug-addled punk rock misfits are looking for a drummer. They approach Dries a well known writer. His problem is that he can't play the drums which appeals to the band's punk sensibility. Fascinated by these dysfunctional characters Dries joins the group but his arrival awakens the personal disputes and the family feuds latent in the band. A shocking hardcore blood-splattered depiction of small time rock musicians losing the plot rather than living the dream.

• Messengers 2 - The Scarecrow | DVD | (21/09/2009) from £5.38   |  Saving you £10.61 (197.21%)   |  RRP £15.99

  This prequel goes back to the farm from the first film to finally learn the story of John Rollins - the simple North Dakota farmer struggling to save his farm and hold his family together. When he places a mysterious scarecrow in his field his luck changes for the better... but it may be at the cost of his sanity.

• Young Soul Rebels | DVD | (26/10/2009) from £18.05   |  Saving you £1.94 (10.75%)   |  RRP £19.99

  From the acclaimed artist and filmmaker Issac Julien comes this powerful drama set on an East London housing estate in the summer of 1977. Focussing on Chris and Caz a pair of pirate radio DJs living amongst punks and skinheads Julien's film explores the social and sexual tensions that arise in a community following the murder of a local black gay man.

• NIGHT MAIL | DVD | (26/11/2007) from £12.07   |  Saving you £5.68 (55.09%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Night Mail (1936) remains one of the most popular and instantly recognised films in British film history and was one of the most critically acclaimed films to be produced with the British documentary film movement. Night Mail is an account of the operation of the Royal mail train delivery service and shows the various stages and procedures of that operation. The film begins with a voiceover commentary describing how the mail is collected for transit. Then as the train proceeds along the course of its journey we are shown the various regional railway stations at which it collects and deposits mail. Inside the train the process of sorting takes place. As the train nears its destination there is a sequence - the best known in the film - in which Auden's spoken verse and Britten's music are combined over montage images of racing train wheels. Night Mail has been re-mastered and digitally restored and beautifully packaged in a clamshell box. Music by Benjamin Britten. Poetry by WH Auden.

• World in Action - Volume 4 | DVD | (11/11/2013) from £13.21   |  Saving you £16.78 (127.02%)   |  RRP £29.99

  World in Action was, undoubtedly, ITV's flagship current-affairs series. Over four decades this multiple BAFTA winner was fearless, trailblazing and hard-hitting in its coverage of subjects that other programmes would not dare to touch - earning the ire of ITV regulators and, at times, the Government, with the team often investigating stories at their own personal risk. This volume comprises 23 programmes covering major stories from the '60s to the '90s; these include the 1967 Arab-Is...

• Shadows - The Complete Second Series | DVD | (27/06/2011) from £11.98   |  Saving you £3.00 (30.03%)   |  RRP £12.99

  An orphaned girl fights her real-life enemies by believing they are figures from her history book. A young girl suddenly finds herself in the miniature world of a Victorian doll's house. A downtrodden teenage boy relives the ancient legend of a youth who shared his plight - in reality, or in his imagination? Atmospheric, superbly scripted and filled with the unexpected, this anthology series offered spine-tingling psychological and supernatural tales for younger viewers. With characters typically finding themselves plunged into strange alternative realities, or encountering ghostly figures from the past, the young protagonists' otherworldly experiences often play upon common teenage fears and preoccupations. Award-winning authors Penelope Lively, Rosemary Harris, Joan Aiken and Susan Cooper are among the writers for this complete second series.

• Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em - The Best Of | DVD | (25/10/2004) from £17.23   |  Saving you £-1.24 (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  A classic collection of 5 episodes from one of the BBC's great sitcoms. Includes legendary moments such as Frank hanging from his car over the edge of a cliff and rollerskating behind a bus. Episodes comprise: Cliffhanger / The RAF Reunion / Father's Clinic / Moving House / King Of The Road

• The Walking Dead: The Complete Series 1-11 Boxset | Blu Ray | (03/07/2023) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Just My Luck | DVD | (12/11/2001) from £6.94   |  Saving you £3.05 (43.95%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Just My Luck was an important step in the career of Norman Wisdom for several reasons. It's principally notable for the introduction of actor Edward Chapman, whom many would come to know as series regular Mr Grimsdale. Here he's the stuffy foil to Norman's romantic plans regarding his jewel-making job, where he'll do anything to possess some of the wealth about him. The chance comes in the form of an accumulator bet at Goodwood races thanks to a slimy Leslie Phillips. Another star cameo of note was a second appearance by Margaret Rutherford (after Trouble in Store) as an eccentric animal owner. But the real advance with the Wisdom formula was that--after a reasonably serious plot line--Norman finally gets the girl. On the DVD: This is a straight transfer from video. So although the mono sound and 4:3 ratio don't improve on anything previously available, at least it won't deteriorate further.--Paul Tonks

• Gazette - The Complete Series | DVD | (01/07/2013) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £39.99

  Gerald Harper (Adam Adamant Lives!) stars as James Hadleigh, proprietor of the Westdale Gazette, a Yorkshire newspaper owned by his father. Created by Robert Barr and originally screened in 1968, Gazette introduced the charming, privileged but conscientious protagonist whose continuing mixed fortunes would be chronicled in Hadleigh, Yorkshire Television's immensely popular and long-running series aired between 1969 and 1976.

• Square Peg, The / Follow A Star | DVD | (12/05/2003) from £4.31   |  Saving you £8.68 (201.39%)   |  RRP £12.99

  In The Square Peg Norman Wisdom plays one of a pair of council workmen who, while repairing the road outside an army base, come to illustrate the oxymoronic nature of the phrase "military intelligence". Finding themselves drafted, the workmen are sent to repair the roads ahead of the Allied advance through war-torn Europe by the sergeant they previously embarrassed. Norman finds himself behind the German lines, joins up with French Resistance, gets captured then sets out to rescue British prisoners from a German military HQ by impersonating General Schreiber. Of course Wisdom plays Schreiber too. The Square Peg is the film that introduced Norman Wisdom's famous catch-phrase, "Mr. Grimsdale!". Also here Hattie Jacques gets to sing a remarkable duet with Wisdom, and a pre-Goldfinger Honor Blackman provides the love interest. Following his rising star was just what Norman Wisdom's audience had been doing all through the 1950s and, by 1959, and after six films with director John Paddy Carstairs, it was time for a change. Hence Robert Asher made his directorial debut with Follow a Star. The plot is a comedy version of A Star is Born (1954), with Norman yet again playing a dreaming shop worker, this time aspiring to singing stardom. Vernon Carew (played by Wisdom regular Jerry Desmonde) is the fading singer who schemes to use Wisdom's talent to sustain his own rapidly failing career, while the girl is overlooked starlette June Laverick. Norman is surrounded by a particularly strong supporting cast, with Hattie Jacques returning from The Square Peg (1958), Richard Wattis, John Le Mesurier, Fenella Fielding, Ron Moody and, uncredited, future Bond villain Charles Grey. --Gary S Dalkin

• Abraham Lincoln vs Zombies | Blu Ray | (16/07/2012) from £7.94   |  Saving you £8.05 (50.30%)   |  RRP £15.99

  While the Civil War rages on, President Abraham Lincoln must undertake an even more daunting task: Destroying the Confederate Undead.

• Muhammad Ali - the Greatest | DVD | (12/04/2005) from £10.35   |  Saving you £-0.36 (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Charting the life and times of Muhammad Ali this documentary begins in Louisville Kentucky the birthplace of the future World Heavyweight Champion and follows his career from his first amateur fight against Ronnie O'Keefe (for which he was paid the princely sum of $4.00) to the most infamous fights of his life: ""The Rumble in the Jungle"" and ""The Thrilla in Manila"". Featuring classic footage from legendary fights as well as interviews with his trainer Angelo Dundee and contribu