"Actor: Norman"

• Inspector Morse - Disc 29 And 30 - The Way Through The Woods / The Daughters Of Cain | DVD | (30/09/2002) from £11.98   |  Saving you £5.00 (50.05%)   |  RRP £14.99

  When Inspector Morse first appeared on television in 1987, nobody could have predicted that it would run into the next century, maintaining throughout a quality of scripts and storylines that raised the genre of the detective series to a new level. Much of its success can be attributed to John Thaw's total immersion in the role. Morse is a prickly character and not obviously easy to like. As a detective in Oxford with unfulfilled academic propensities, he is permanently excluded from a world of which he would dearly love to be a part. He is at odds with that world--and with his colleagues in the police force--most of the time. Passionate about opera and "proper beer", he is a cultural snob for whom vulgarity causes almost physical pain. As a result, he lives from one disillusionment to another. And he is scarred--more deeply than he would ever admit--by past relationships. But he also has a naïve streak and, deep down, sensitivity, which makes him a fascinating challenge for women. At the heart of Morse's professional life is his awkward partnership with Detective Sergeant Lewis, the resolutely ordinary, worldly sidekick who manages to keep his boss in an almost permanent state of exasperation while retaining his grudging respect. It's a testament to Kevin Whately's consistently excellent performance that from such unpromising material, Lewis becomes as indispensable to the series as Barrington Pheloung's hypnotic, classic theme music. Morse's investigations do occasionally take him abroad to more exotic locations, but throughout 14 successful years of often gruesome murders, the city of Oxford itself became a central character in these brooding two-hour dramas: creator Colin Dexter said he finally had to kill Morse off because he was giving Oxford a bad reputation as a dangerous place! --Piers Ford

• Norman Wisdom - Press for Time | DVD | (30/09/2010) from £8.53   |  Saving you £-3.54 (N/A%)   |  RRP £4.99

  Norman Wisdom - Press For Time

• Lorna Doone | DVD | (07/07/2008) from £26.98   |  Saving you £-6.99 (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Set in the late 17th Century Exmoor the Doones a family of outlaws begin to plague the land. This is the romantic story of John Ridd who falls in love with Lorna Doone and must rescue her from her cruel family. Starring Emily Richard (The Strauss Dynasty) John Sommerville (Great Expectations) and Rhoda Lewis (The Bretts) Lorna Doone is based on the best-selling novel by R D Blackmore.

• Wonder Woman - Vol. 1 | DVD | (09/06/2003) from £5.45   |  Saving you £8.54 (156.70%)   |  RRP £13.99

  Taken from a long-running DC Comics strip, Wonder Woman was made into a popular television series between 1978 and 1981, starring former Miss America Lynda Carter. Capturing the hearts of TV audiences with her sexy outfit as much as her superheroine abilities, Wonder Woman quickly became a kitsch icon, battling the forces of evil with the unforgettably camp "garb of justice", including bullet-proof bangles, a golden lasso and the belt of strength built into her corset. She had an invisible plane, too. Originally Princess Diana of Paradise Island (an uncharted land of Amazon women in the Bermuda Triangle), Wonder Woman is sent as an emissary to the outside world to protect the human race from the forces of evil. And so she becomes Diana Prince, the geeky, bespectacled assistant to Steve Trevor of the Inter Agency Defense Command in Washington, whose father she assisted against the Nazis in the 1940s. In the 70-minute pilot, "The Return of Wonder Woman", our gal is sent in to prevent the nefarious Dr Solano from capturing a nuclear generating plant the Americans are flying into Latin America as a new source of energy. In "Anschluss 77", Steve and Diana are sent to investigate a former Gestapo agent now living in Latin America and have to battle a Nazi force that includes a cloned Adolf Hitler. Finally, in "The Man Who Could Move the World", Wonder Woman's adversary is a Japanese ex-intern from World War II who has developed telekinetic powers. Carter plays the role commendably straight, but just one listen to the theme tune ("in your satin tights, fighting for our rights") makes it clear this isn't meant to be taken seriously. Who else could save us from evil so stylishly? On the DVD: Wonder Woman, Volume 1 includes a gallery of memorabilia, a pretty extensive biography of Lynda Carter and the rest of the cast, and finally a short photo gallery for all you die-hard Wonder Woman fetishists. --Laura Bushell

• Safe | DVD | (14/02/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  A typically bored affluent Californian housewife's world of domestic oblivion careers off its axis when she develops a mystery illness that puts her at odds with every aspect of the world around her - cars dry cleaners hair perms and even the new couch! Gradually she develops nosebleeds vomiting and breathing problems and finally collapses. In a desperate search for what is 'safe' she opts for virtual isolation in a porcelain igloo in the Texas desert where the inhabitants drag round oxygen cylinders and the therapists act like evangelical preachers. Injected with horror comic touches and psychological suspense Safe is a visionary tale of the future. Has Carol brought her sickness upon herself or is she made vulnerable by a world that is more dangerous than we or she understands?

• Black Joy | DVD | (08/08/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Black Joy is a lightly ironic British culture-clash comedy. Trevor Thomas heads the cast as a Guyanan youth who is under the delusion that life will be easier for him in London. No sooner does Thomas set foot in England than he gets tangled up in one disaster after another. The catalyst for most of Our Hero's travails is ""assimilated"" Caribbean Dave Beaton who delivers an antic performance as a streetwise con artist. Black Joy was adapted from Dar

• Bloodsport | DVD | (24/02/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  A well-oiled Jean-Claude Van Damme makes his starring debut in what may be one of the few kickboxing films to be based on a true story. The Muscles from Brussels plays Frank Dux, the first Westerner ever to win the extreme "whupfest" known as the Kumatai (a long-running, no-holds-barred fighting tournament in Hong Kong). While a bit deficient in the script department (to say the least), this undeniably exciting flick succeeds by letting Van Damme play to his strengths: namely, minimal acting and a lot of impossibly acrobatic splits while kicking people in the head. Bloodsport is a guilty-pleasure testosterone blast of the highest order, with a memorable villain (the massive Bolo Yeung from Enter the Dragon) and a multitude of well-choreographed fight scenes. An embarrassed-looking Forest Whitaker cameos as a hapless (and non-kickboxing) cop. --Andrew Wright

• Young Soul Rebels | DVD | (02/02/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Summer 1977 the week of the Queen's Silver Jubilee. Passion is in the air of the dark blue London sky. TJ is out cruising the park for love and is murdered. A beatbox lying in the bushes is the only clue... Soul mates since childhood Chris and Caz are two young black disc jockeys who run the coolest pirate radio station in town Soul Patrol. The skins on Chris's housing estate mock him and Caz; they envy their black soul boy style. However Chris has ambitions beyond the pirat

• Night Falls On Manhattan | DVD | (04/06/2001) from £13.93   |  Saving you £6.06 (43.50%)   |  RRP £19.99

  The dominant themes of director Sidney Lumet's distinguished career are in full force in Night Falls on Manhattan, a moral melodrama involving a young district attorney (Andy Garcia) who takes on a career-making case only to uncover his father's possible involvement in pervasive police corruption. Balancing personal ethics and political compromise in a high-wire act of power and its abuse, Lumet relies on dialogue and superb performances (including those by Ron Leibman, Richard Dreyfuss and Lena Olin) to achieve a devastating impact. The script (based on the novel Tainted Evidence by Robert Daley) is too smart and Lumet's direction too sure-footed to fall back on the black-and-white exploits of conventional criminals and their crimes. The movie's moral framework (like that of Lumet's earlier film Q&A) is more realistic, dealing in the grey areas between right and wrong where misdeeds can arise from the best intentions. At the centre of Garcia's dilemma is his father, a seasoned New York cop played so convincingly by Ian Holm that you'd never guess the actor was British. Although it received mixed reviews when released in 1997, Night Falls on Manhattan ranks among Lumet's finest films. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com

• The Night They Raided Minsky's | DVD | (20/10/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Sometimes Being A Nice Girl Is Too Much To Bare! Britt Ekland portrays Rachel a beautiful young Amish woman who leaves her Pennsylvania home and comes to New York City in hopes of becoming a dancer and ends up doing something quite different: inventing the striptease! Jason Robards gives a wonderful performance as Raymond Paine the somewhat sleazy star of Minsky's burlesque show who takes on interest in Rachel's many charms. But his admiration is challenged by Chick Williams (Norman Wisdom) Raymond's comedy partner for the past ten years. And when Rachel's dress is torn accidentally she plays it up and finds herself the object of even more affection - from the very appreciative audience! The leader of an anti-vice group has everyone arrested but not before Rachel becomes the toast of the town in this hilarious - and scandalous - hit!

• A Walk In The Sun: The Definitive Restoration (2 Disc Collector's Set) | Blu Ray | (21/01/2022) from £17.22   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• The Europeans | DVD | (17/07/2006) from £4.47   |  Saving you £5.52 (123.49%)   |  RRP £9.99

  In 1850 a few miles outside Boston the household of the dour Mr. Wentworth receives two unannounced visitors from Europe Eugenia and Felix the daughter and son of his half sister. Gertrude one of Wentworth's two daughters is instantly infatuated with her cousins and trouble brews...

• Inspector Morse - Disc 23 And 24 - The Death Of The Self / Absolute Conviction | DVD | (12/08/2002) from £7.46   |  Saving you £7.53 (100.94%)   |  RRP £14.99

  When Inspector Morse first appeared on television in 1987, nobody could have predicted that it would run into the next century, maintaining throughout a quality of scripts and story lines that raised the genre of the detective series to a new level. Much of its success can be attributed to John Thaw's total immersion in the role. Morse is a prickly character and not obviously easy to like. As a detective in Oxford with unfulfilled academic propensities, he is permanently excluded from a world of which he would dearly love to be a part. He is at odds with that world--and with his colleagues in the police force--most of the time. Passionate about opera and "proper beer", he is a cultural snob for whom vulgarity causes almost physical pain. As a result, he lives from one disillusionment to another. And he is scarred--more deeply than he would ever admit--by past relationships. But he also has a naïve streak and, deep-down sensitivity, which makes him a fascinating challenge for women. At the heart of Morse's professional life is his awkward partnership with Detective Sergeant Lewis, the resolutely ordinary, worldly sidekick who manages to keep his boss in an almost permanent state of exasperation while retaining his grudging respect. It's a testament to Kevin Whateley's consistently excellent performance that from such unpromising material, Lewis becomes as indispensable to the series as Barrington Pheloung's hypnotic, classic theme music. Morse's investigations do occasionally take him abroad to more exotic locations, but throughout 14 successful years of often gruesome murders, the city of Oxford itself became a central character in these brooding two-hour dramas: creator Colin Dexter stating he finally had to kill Morse off because he was giving Oxford a bad reputation as a dangerous place! --Piers Ford

• Gold | DVD | (06/08/2001) from £9.77   |  Saving you £-3.78 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Featuring a score by Elmer Bernstein unique opening credits by Bond optical effects veteran Maurice Binder and gritty performances by Roger Moore and Ray Milland 'Gold' is a superb adaptation of Wilbur Smith's acclaimed novel concerning a group of greed-driven businessmen conspiring to flood a South African gold mine... ....spectacular underground sequences and a rousing finale - Halliwell's Film And Video Guide 1999.

• Early Bird, The / Press For Time | DVD | (12/05/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Norman Wisdom reprises his best-loved character, the comically inept Pitkin, in 1965's The Early Bird, ably supported once again by Edward Chapman in his final appearance as Mr Grimsdale. This time around Wisdom is the only milkman working for Grimsdale's Dairy, a small business threatened by a menacing large corporation in the shape of Consolidated Dairies and their electric milk floats. Grimsdale and Pitkin must evoke the Dunkirk spirit to save their family firm from the grasp of the faceless giant. Of course, the wafer-thin plot is the merest excuse for a series of calamitous set pieces in which Wisdom wreaks havoc in his trademark bumbling manner. The best bits involve a disastrous game of golf, the usual shenanigans with a fire hose and a virtuoso tour de force opening sequence as the household struggles to wake up in the morning, all set to Ron Goodwin's tongue-in-cheek music score. --Mark Walker In Press for Time Norman Wisdom offered his version of the crusading reporter movie, though by 1966 time was running out for Norman's style of big-screen comedy. Perhaps a sign of his growing frustration with the formulaic nature of his pictures was that he stretched himself to play not just his usual underdog hero, but also his own mother and his grandfather, the Prime Minister. Wisdom also cowrote the movie in which, as a reporter in a small seaside town, he causes chaos for the council, organises a beauty parade and dresses as a suffragette. Though now nearing the end of his years as a movie star, Wisdom shows himself to still be as polished as ever at his own brand of good-natured slapstick. --Gary S Dalkin

• Masters Of Horror - Cigarette Burns / Dreams In The Witch House | DVD | (13/03/2006) from £14.27   |  Saving you £5.72 (40.08%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Anchor Bay presents two of the films from Showtime's much-anticipated Masters of Horror series; John Carpenter's Cigarette Burns and Stuart Gordon's Dreams In The Witch House. Cigarette Burns: Kirby Sweetman knows how to find rare film prints. However nothing could prepare him for the daunting search for 'Le Fin Absolue du Monde' a film allegedly shown only once and rumoured to have driven its audience into a muderous frenzy before the cinema mysteriously erupted in flames. Working for a shadowy patron Jimmy's increasingly obsessive investigation becomes nightmarish and deadly. Finally he discovers 'Le Fin Absolue du Monde' is well deserved. This supernatural 'Chinatown' is a chilling look at the power of cinema and the lengths to which we will got to satiate our own private demons. Dreams In The Witch House: This is Stuart Gordon's fifth adaptation of a H.P. Lovecraft story and mighty frightening it is too! Walter Gilman (Ezra Godden) a college student studying interdimensional string theory rents a garret in a run-down building in the old New England town of Arkham. He is haunted by terrifying nightmares in which he is visited by a 17th-century witch and her familiar a rat with a human face. He begins to realize that these are not dreams at all and that diabolical forces are gathering to sacrifice his neighbour's infant. As Walter struggles to prevent this it becomes less clear if he will save the child or become its unwitting murderer himself.

• Les Troyens - Berlioz/The Met/James Levine | DVD | (16/07/2007) from £14.31   |  Saving you £1.94 (14.87%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Filmed at the Metropolitan Opera in 1983 Berlioz's masterpiece Les Troyens is a tragic tale of love and fate based on Virgil's Aeneid. Under the baton of James Levine Jessye Norman is stunning in the part of Cassandra and Pl''cido Domingo makes for a strong compelling Aeneas. This benchmark performance was hailed by both critics and audiences and performed to greatest critical acclaim. Norman's role debut as Cassandra emerged as one her most significant and compelling performances and this DVD is also a stand-out release among Domingo's extensive filmography.

• Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em - The Complete First Series | DVD | (21/10/2002) from £9.35   |  Saving you £6.64 (71.02%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Although Britain has changed almost beyond recognition since Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em was first broadcast in the early 1970s, the show's simple slapstick humour has an ageless quality that makes it enduringly hilarious. Michael Crawford found fame as Frank Spencer, still probably television's most accident-prone man, and still Britain's most mimicked sitcom character, having inspired thousands of wannabe entertainers to don black berets and Humphrey Bogart-style rain coats and feebly exclaim "Mmm, Betty!". Crawford's great insight was to portray Frank as both a figure of fun and an endearingly sympathetic character: we laugh at him but never cease liking him, and we always admire his plucky never-say-die spirit. Most of the episodes share the common theme of Frank attempting to find a job (ranging from a holiday camp entertainer to an RAF cadet), but because of his clumsy demeanour and lack of common sense, losing the positions within a matter of hours. Pitted against a variety of middle-aged, male professionals (his GP, a psychiatrist and a public relations consultant for example), Spencer's stupidity reduces these "experts" to nervous wrecks. His long-suffering, doting wife Betty (Michelle Dotrice) features throughout, but despite his wild behaviour and idiocy she appears only mildly flustered by her husband's actions. On the DVD: Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em was one of the first comedy series to be recorded by the BBC in colour, but the sound and vision of the episodes transfer perfectly satisfactorily to DVD format. At times the production values of some of the episodes are decidedly ropey (watch out for stray boom microphones and the skewed opening and closing credit). Apart from the episode and scene selection menus, which incorporate sound extracts from the show, no extras are included. --John Galilee

• World War II Classics 2 - We Dive At Dawn / Reach For The Sky | DVD | (12/11/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Two examples of British Second World War films, We Dive at Dawn (1943) and Reach for the Sky (1956), are here stylishly packaged as a World War II Classics pack. We Dive at Dawn tells of the encounter between a British submarine and a German warship in the Baltic Sea. John Mills gives a dependable performance as the submarine commander, with Eric Portman the pick of a strong supporting cast. Director Anthony Asquith finds the balance between action sequences and "in situ" dialogue, and there's an evocative score from Louis Levy. The movie was an underrated film that deserves reappraisal, whereas Reach for the Sky (1956) was a box-office hit and remains a fondly regarded classic. Kenneth More is ideally cast as Douglas Bader, the gifted pilot who loses both legs in a pre-war air crash, only to play a major role in the Battle of Britain, rise to the rank of Group Captain and become a war hero. Based on Paul Brickhill's biography, this is an "official" history maybe, but Lewis Gilbert's screenplay and direction are historically accurate and informed by that very British humour of which More was a natural. The film is graced by a decent supporting cast, and a typically "widescreen" score from John Addison. On the DVD: The black and white prints look and sound excellent. Whereas We Dive at Dawn has 4:3 video aspect ratio, 15 chapter points and no subtitles, the later Reach for the Sky has vivid 16:9 anamorphic reproduction, 20 chapter points, subtitles and detailed biographies of More, Gilbert and Barder. The original theatrical trailer is included, but it would also have made sense to include an interview or documentary footage of Bader himself. Even so, this is an excellent starting-point for investigating a key area of British cinema.--Richard Whitehouse

• Spandau Ballet The Film: Soul Boys Of The Western World | Blu Ray | (27/10/2014) from £10.35   |  Saving you £9.64 (93.14%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Set against the backdrop of the 80s music scene, this documentary charts the meteoric rise, fall and ultimate reunion of pop sensation, Spandau Ballett told by the band members themselves with unseen archive footage that will thrill the many fans and beyond.