"Actor: Peter Ho"

• Verdi - Falstaff / Graham Vick, Bernard Haitink, Royal Opera House | DVD | (10/10/2001) from £29.66   |  Saving you £-4.67 (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  The Graham Vicks production of Falstaff opened the new Covent Garden Royal Opera House, and was not to everybody's taste; the garish primary colours of the costumes, especially Falstaff's unusually hideous get-ups, go several steps beyond the Breughelian effect Vicks intended. The staging is effective--the complicated counterpoint of the ensembles is reflected in unobtrusive blocking that keeps the vocal lines clear and separate, especially in the final fugue. Bryn Terfel's Falstaff is a memorable creation, self-mocking and self-aggrandising at the same time--so much so, in fact, that he almost does not need the vast prosthetic body he has to wear for the part. Desiree Rancatore is an admirably sweet-toned Nanetta; Bernadette Manca di Nissa an appropriately sardonic Mistress Quickly; Roberto Frontali as Ford, in his Act 2 scena, perfectly distils and parodies every jealousy aria ever written, including Verdi's own. Haitink's conducting is exemplary in the lyrical passages, gets almost everything out of the fast and furious comic sections. --Roz Kaveney On the DVD: The Dolby Digital 5.1 sound is powerful and filled with detail, capturing the excitement of the performance and the atmosphere of the Royal Opera House superbly. The anamorphically enhanced 1.77:1 widesceen image is very clear, and while given the source inevitably not up to the highest feature film standards, is among the best live classical titles yet released on DVD. The bold colours are particularly well realised, though the red lighting of the Garter Inn scenes causes the image to falter a little. There are optional subtitles in English, French and German. These are presented directly over the picture and would be easier to read had they been a little larger, or outlined in some way. The special features consist of a brief synopsis by James Naughtie, taken directly from the original television broadcast, a minute-long "comment" by conductor Bernard Haitink and short but interesting interviews with Bryn Terfel and director Graham Vick. Finally there is a nine-minute episode from the series of short BBC films, Covent Garden Tales on the 1999 modernisation of the Royal Opera House. --Gary S Dalkin

• Inspector Morse - Disc 11 And 12 - The Secret Of Bay 5B / Infernal Serpent | DVD | (24/06/2002) from £3.99   |  Saving you £11.00 (275.69%)   |  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

• Stephen King's Children Of The Corn | DVD | (25/10/2004) from £11.95   |  Saving you £3.04 (25.44%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Traveling through Nebraska Burt (Peter Horton) and Vicky (Linda Hamilton) stop in a small town to report the death of a child on the highway. There they discover something strange about the community: all the grownups are gone and the children seem to belong to a strange cult. What's worse it's a cult that sacrifices adults to the dreadful 'he who walks behind the rows'... Based on a Stephen King short story.

• Wagner - Das Rheingold | DVD | (04/02/2008) from £13.28   |  Saving you £0.71 (5.35%)   |  RRP £13.99

  This film is the one existing record of Karajan's Salzburg Ring on video. Made in 1978, with imagination extra film sequences to complement the original stage production for the Easter Festival, it brings to life the epic grandeur of Karajan's concept, with the fallible gods, headed by Thomas Stewart's nobly-sung Wotan, depicted in all their mythic majesty.

• Ticks | DVD | (26/06/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  From the director of Hellraiser 2 and the special effects wizard of Terminator Gremlins and Total Recall comes the creepiest crawliest nightmare you will ever experience! Mutated blood-sucking insects are on the hunt for human flesh to host their eggs and feed their young. Starring Seth Green and Ami Dolenz this movie is guaranteed to make your skin crawl.

• Doctor Who : Earthshock | DVD | (02/07/2007) from £7.69   |  Saving you £2.30 (29.91%)   |  RRP £9.99

  The TARDIS arrives in the 26th Century in a cave system containing numerous dinosaur fossils. The ""So we meet again Doctor..."" Doctor's Party comes under suspicion from a military force led by Lieutenant Scott who are investigating the disappearance of a group of palaeontologists and geologists. They are all then attacked by androids - the true culprits - under the control of the Cybermen. The Doctor manages to deactivate a bomb intended by the Cybermen to destroy an imminent

• YOU ARE NOT ALONE - MOVIE | DVD | (26/09/2014) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• From A Bird's Eye View - The Complete Series | DVD | (03/09/2012) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  The sky's the limit! Actress and comedienne Millicent Martin and American actress Patte Finley star as high-spirited air stewardesses facing one dizzy dilemma after another in this rarely seen ITC series made in 1969. The complete series is presented on this 3 disc set for the very first time in any format. Special features: Image gallery & promo material PDF

• Up The Creek | DVD | (12/07/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  The forgotten H.M.S. Berkley has been without a commanding officer for two years in which time the skeleton crew has gone into the racketeering business with the landlord of a coastal village. When the Navy appoint Humphrey Fairweather as a long overdue replacement his unhealthy obsession with missile construction and the landlord's beautiful niece threatens to upset the balance of business.

• Bone Daddy | DVD | (07/06/2004) from £6.29   |  Saving you £-0.30 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Former chief medical examiner for the city of Chicago Dr William Palmer (Rutgar Hauer) is now a best-selling writer. 'Bone Daddy' his latest thriller is based on a series of grisly murders the pathologist once investigated. Re-told in graphic detail the horrific story has one added twist. In the book the murderer is tracked down and brought to justice... in truth the serial killer was never caught. When the author's agent fails to show at the book's press launch Palmer pays a visit to his hotel room and is stunned when all he finds is a severed finger - a calling card that tells him the psychopath who eluded him years before is back and ready to strike again.

• Sword Of Honour | DVD | (14/04/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Award-winning novelist and screenwriter William Boyd brings Evelyn Waugh's classic trilogy of the Second World War vividly to life in this epic two-part drama starring Daniel Craig Megan Dodds Leslie Phillips Julian Rhind-Tutt Robert Pugh and Katrina Cartlidge. At the heart of the story is one man's heroic quest: Guy Crouchback (Daniel Craig) returns from his self-imposed exile in Italy in 1939 and joins the army to fight for a deep moral cause and reclaim his self-respect following a shattering divorce from society beauty Virginia Troy (Megan Dodds). But as his encounters with the absurd reality of life in the armed forces in his training at Southend-on-Sea and the Isle of Mugg and in his postings to Dakar Alexandria and Crete prove to be more of a challenge than facing the enemy itself. Virginia has also returned to London from America at the start of the war having parted with husband number three. As Britain's fortunes dwindle so do Virginia's until Guy appears to be her only hope. On his return to London she tracks him down. In strong contrast to the darkly comic nature of his military experience his renewed and passionate acquaintance with his dangerously beautiful ex-wife provokes a personal and moral crisis that tests - to the limits - both his love for Virginia and his profound sense of duty. Sword of Honour is both a war story and a love story - as well as a biting satire on the emergence of the world we live in today.

• Fury At Smuggler's Bay | DVD | (01/09/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  A small coastal village is the setting for smuggling and ship wrecking. Only the Squire's son is prepared to speak out against the man responsible...

• The Champions - Vol. 1 - Episodes 1 And 2 - The Beginning / The Invisible Man | DVD | (10/07/2000) from £31.06   |  Saving you £-21.07 (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  By the end of the 1960s, British television had done adventurers and sleuths to death. If Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) was the supernatural spin on the mystery format, The Champions was the science-fiction version, mixing comic-book superheroics into the globe-trotting do-gooders formula. In the pilot, square-jawed Craig Sterling (Stuart Damon), model-gorgeous Sharron Macready (Alexandra Bastedo) and ironic Brit Richard Barrett (William Gaunt)--agents of an international good-guy organisation called Nemesis--find themselves in a Shangri-La-style forgotten Tibetan civilisation, where they undergo training in extrasensory perception and superhuman strength. Back home, they use their powers to tackle a mixture of ordinary crime and more complicated nefarious plans that have a semi-science fiction feel. The good-looking Damon and Bastedo seem to have had their personalities erased in the mountains, leaving Gaunt to shoulder all the acting weight. Nevertheless, it has a kind of creaky, straight-faced charm, like some lost British take on Marvel Comics' superhero teams. Volume One covers: "The Beginning", the pilot story, with Felix Aylmer as a Tibetan lama; and "The Invisible Man", which features cranial implants and bank robbery, with Peter Wyngarde (who played the title role in Jason King) as the baddie. --Kim Newman

• Mozart: La Clemenza di Tito -- Glyndebourne | DVD | (29/04/2002) from £8.69   |  Saving you £17.56 (236.34%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Mozart's Clemenza di Tito ("The Clemency of Titus") makes for riveting viewing in this Glyndebourne performance directed by Nicholas Hytner and conducted by Andrew Davis staged in the composer's bicentenary in 1991. Mozart's last opera, Clemenza was for some time considered below par by his own exalted standards. He composed it in a rush, the recitatives are by a pupil and it had to be on an appropriate theme to please the new Hapsburg monarch, for whose enthronement it was designed. There's little character development and the musical style harks back to operatic conventions Mozart had done so much to overthrow. Watching this production one would scarcely credit that such reservations once held sway. Hytner and his team have put a contemporary angle on a story set in Rome AD 78 in which sets, props and the stage itself are constructed to different dimensions offering alternate perspectives on a static tale. A slanting pillar and a sloping corridor allude to the unhinged mind of the scheming Vitellia, the central character, who puts her confidant Sesto on an emotional roller coaster ride as she ensnares him to plot the downfall of Titus. The principals use their eyes to communicate to one another as well as the audience and in the imaginatively staged entrances and exits of the ensembles one senses Hytner's choreographic instincts coming to the fore. The superb cast sing magnificently and look stunning. Philip Langridge is an eloquent Titus, Diana Monatgue a sincere Sesto and Ashley Putnam brings a touch of Alexis Colby to her portrayal of Vitellia. The London Philharmonic are all fired up under conductor Andrew Davis' fervent direction. The performance (the "Overture" accompanied by a visual montage of artefacts of Ancient Rome) is played on modern instruments yet articulated and reproduced with the clarity and definition associated with period ones. On the DVD: La Clemenza di Tito has no special features save for the obligatory subtitles. The picture quality is outstanding with the imaginative and colourful production design caught, like the music, with exceptional fidelity. The high drama at the conclusion of Act 1 justifies running on without a break into Act 2. This is a must for all lovers of opera. --Adrian Edwards

• The Vengeance Of Fu Manchu | DVD | (27/10/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  In his remote Asian hideaway the evil Fu Manchu plots the death and discredit of his arch rival Inspector Nayland Smith of Scotland Yard as the first step in his plan to become leader of the world's most terrible criminals...

• Jurassic Park - Trilogy Pack | DVD | (02/10/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Jurassic Park (Dir. Steven Spielberg 1993): Director Steven Spielberg presents a masterpiece of imagination suspense science and cinematic magic that quickly became one the most successful film in worldwide box-office history. On a remote island a wealthy entrepreneur (Richard Attenborough) secretly creates a theme park featuring live dinosaurs drawn from prehistoric D.N.A. Before opening it to the public he invites a top palaeontologist (Sam Neill) and his paleobotanist girl friend (Laura Dern) a renowned mathematician (Jeff Goldblum) and his two eager grandchildren to experience the park - and help calm anxious investors. But their visit is anything but tranquil as the prehistoric predators break out and begin stalking the island's human inhabitants. Based on Michael Crichton's best-selling novel Jurassic Park is a breathtaking adventure you'll want to experience again and again... The Lost World (Dir. Steven Spielberg 1997): Director Steven Spielberg takes us back to the scene of Jurassic Park in The Lost World the blockbuster sequel with even more dinosaurs more action and more breathtaking visual effects than its record-breaking predecessor. This DVD edition contains exclusive interviews and rare behind-the-scenes footage. The Lost World remains among the most successful films of all time and features an all-star cast including Jeff Goldblum Julianne Moore and Pete Postlethwaite. It has been four years since the disaster at Jurassic Park and two groups are in a race against time that will determine the fate of the remote island's prehistoric inhabitants. Jurassic Park 3 (Dir. Joe Johnston 2001): Adventure runs wild when renowned palaeontologist Dr. Alan Grant (Sam Neill) agrees to accompany a wealthy adventurer (William H. Macy) and his wife (Tea Leoni) on an aerial tour of Isla Sorna InGen's former breeding ground for prehistoric creatures. But when they're terrifyingly stranded Dr. Grant discovers that his hosts are not what they seem and the island's native inhabitants are smarter faster and fiercer than he ever imagined in this heart-stomping thriller.

• Edward The Seventh | DVD | (01/09/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £39.99

  The life and times of Edward VII dramatised for the television. The BAFTA award winning 1975 drama comes to DVD for the first time! Episode titles: The Boy Experiment In Education The New World Alix A Hundred Thousand Welcomes The Invisible Queen Dearest Prince The Royal Quadrille Scandal The Years of Waiting King At Last The Peacemaker Good Old Teddy!

• The Offence | DVD | (04/10/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Detective Sergeant Johnson (CONNERY) has been with the British police force for 20 years. In that time the countless murders rapes and other serious crimes he has had to investigate has left a terrible mark on him. His anger and aggression that had been suppressed for years finally surfaces when interviewing a suspect Baxter whom Johnson is convinced is the man that has been carrying out a series of brutal attacks on young girls. An amazing look at the human psyche THE OFFENCE

• Kath And Kim - Series 1 - Complete | DVD | (07/12/2009) from £10.16   |  Saving you £9.83 (96.75%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Join Kath & Kim as they open their mock-colonial front door to the cameras in this fly-on-the-wall-slice-of-life eight part series! Kath is a fortysomething empty-nester who is very proud of her home and how she looks. Kim is her spoiled twentysomething daughter whose glass of Diet Coke is always half empty never half full. They have an opinion on all the important issues... politics homosexuality Mariah Carey's breakdown... This volume includes the ritziest fairy tale wedding you'll ever see in a suburban yard. With Kath's new fianc''e Kel Kim's estranged husband Brett and her second best friend Sharon they love to make mountains out of molehills and sows ears out of silk purses. Episodes Comprise: 1. Sex 2. Gay 3. Sport 4. Fat 5. Old 6. Money 7. Party 8. The Wedding

• 21 Jump Street - The Complete Fourth Season | DVD | (10/04/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Johnny Depp ruled as TV's hottest young actor in this third season of the hit show that shot him to stardom. Depp stars as undercover cop Tom Hanson who along with fellow officers Harry Loki (Dustin Nguyen) Judy Hoffs (Holly Robinson Peete) and Doug Penhall (Peter DeLuise) tackles tough cases of teen pregnancy drug dealers child molestation army desertion racism homelessness murder and more! This third season includes the exciting introduction of Dennis Booker (former heart-t