"Actor: Peter Kerrigan"

• Boys from the Blackstuff | DVD | (26/05/2003) from £7.99   |  Saving you £-0.99 (N/A%)   |  RRP £7.00

  Alan Bleasdale's Boys from the Blackstuff gripped television audiences in 1982 with its bleak, fiercely funny exploration of the effect of the UK's economic depression on a group of Merseyside characters, originally introduced in his 1978 play, The Blackstuff. Bleasdale's writing is unsparing in both its pain and its unconditional affection for characters being pushed to the very limit of civilisation. Yosser Hughes (the outstanding Bernard Hill) is still, and rightly, recognised as one of the great creations of modern television drama: a man on the brink of madness, unlikeable, ostracised, digging a deeper hole with every desperate act, but ultimately a human being deserving our sympathy. The performances are wonderful throughout: particularly Peter Kerrigan as Malone, the once giant union leader reduced to a shadow but still with the spark that commands love and respect; Michael Angelis as Chrissie and, in a typically sharp cameo, Julie Walters as his wife. "My dreams still give me hope and faith in my class. I can't believe there's no hope," says Chrissie towards the end. And it's testament to Bleasdale's skill and the resilience of his characters that somehow, that flicker of hope remains unextinguished. The blackstuff--the tarmac--of the title becomes increasingly ironic. There is none. The boys have no work. The dole office scenes have a grimly nostalgic, documentary quality. Each second drips another droplet of disillusionment on people whose expectations are crushed by every effort to haul themselves up. Thatcher's Britain was a cruel place for many people. The unspoken question that hangs in the air after watching Bleasdale's poetic dissection of ruined lives is, have things really changed that much? Television drama doesn't come any more powerful or honest than this. On the DVD: Boys from the Blackstuff is presented in standard 4:3 TV format with a mono soundtrack that often suffers from a muffled quality. There's only one additional feature, but it's a treasure: The Blackstuff, Alan Bleasdale's original 90-minute play, is presented as a prelude to the series with the bonus of an insightful commentary from the author and the director, Jim Goddard. --Piers Ford

• 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea | DVD | (29/03/2004) from £5.85   |  Saving you £9.14 (156.24%)   |  RRP £14.99

  The swashbuckler genre bumped into science fiction in 1954 for one of Hollywood's great entertainments, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. The Jules Verne story of adventure under the sea was Walt Disney's magnificent debut into live-action films. A professor (Paul Lukas) seeks the truth about a legendary sea monster in the years just after the Civil War. When his ship is sunk, he, his aide (Peter Lorre), and a harpoon master (Kirk Douglas) survive to discover that the monster is actually a metal submarine run by Captain Nemo (James Mason). Along with the rollicking adventure, it's fun to see the future technology that Verne dreamed up in his novel, including diving equipment and sea farming. The film's physical prowess is anchored by the Nautilus, an impressive full-scale gothic submarine complete with red carpet and pipe organ. In the era of big sets, 20,000 Leagues set a precedent for films shot on the water and deservedly won Oscars for art direction and special effects. Lost in the inventiveness of the film and great set pieces including a giant squid attack are two great performances. Mason is the perfect Nemo, taut and private, clothed in dark fabric that counters the Technicolor dreamboat that is the beaming red-and-white-stripe-shirted Kirk Douglas as the heroic Ned Land. The film works as peerless family adventure nearly half a century later. --Doug Thomas

• The Crow Road | DVD | (25/10/2004) from £20.00   |  Saving you £-0.01 (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Seven years ago Rory McHoan set out to visit his brother Kenneth. He never got there. And despite exhaustive police investigation it was as if he had vanished from the face of the earth. Rory's nephew Prentice takes on the task of uncovering the truth about his missing uncle's disappearance. But with only Rory's inaccessible computer disks and a ghost at his shoulder there are discoveries to be made about himself before he can exhume the dark secrets that lie buried in his family

• Boys From the Blackstuff - Parts 1 And 2 | DVD | (03/04/2000) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  1. Jobs For The BoysChrissie assembles an unofficial building gang but their moonlighting is being watched by the Department of Employment's investigators. A raid by the fraud squad leads to tragedy2. MoonlighterDixie father of four and once the proud foreman is working illicitly on the docks when he discovers happenings that he'd rather not see. Meanwhile after threats from the Department of Employment his wife Freda is too scared to open the door.3. Shop Thy NeighbourChrissie's dole money has been stopped pending the enquiry into the 'moonlighting' affair. With no food in the cupboard the scene is set for a showdown with his wife Angie - this after all was going to be her time4. Yosser's StoryOnce Yosser dreamt of making it big. Now his manic search for work alternates with fruitless efforts to avoid eviction and keep his three children from being taken into care.5. George's Last RideA lifetime of adversity has left George's beliefs unbroken. When the end comes Chrissie discovers a legacy and finds that something must be said.

• Supernova | DVD | (26/12/2000) from £3.59   |  Saving you £12.40 (77.50%)   |  RRP £15.99

  The makers of Supernova are apparently counting on the fact that generational turnover renders old formulas fresh again for new audiences. This is the only explanation for a sci-fi thriller that could charitably be called a "homage" to Ridley Scott's trend setting Alien. A medical rescue ship responds to a distress call from a mining colony and finds only one survivor: a strange young man (Peter Facinelli), who comes aboard carrying an even stranger alien artefact. But the plot of this film, which was directed and then disowned by Walter Hill, grows confused as it tries to explain the sinister force that will lead to a star transforming to supernova status, causing a universe-shattering explosion. Some nice sexual tension between James Spader (as the recovering drug-addict co-pilot) and Angela Bassett (as the ship's doctor). Notable mostly, however, for the eerie resemblance, both physical and vocal, between Facinelli and Tom Cruise. --Marshall Fine, Amazon.com

• Noddy In Toyland - Noddy And Friends | DVD | (29/10/1999) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Traditionalists were of course scandalised enough when the stop-motion animated Noddy TV series featured regional accents and (gasp) positive black characters. God only knows what they'll make of this. Try to keep up: what you have here is an Anglo-American co-production in which stories from the stop-motion series are sandwiched between frantic scenarios featuring live-action children and adult characters and puppets--a kind of Sesame Street in total overdrive. This, of course, seems hopelessly incongruous to everyone except the show's intended audience, which simply takes the whole thing in its stride. Individually, the two elements are commendable anyway; the first live-action episode--involving a parrot and an unstoppable vacuum cleaner--is a particularly fine piece of slapstick, while the original stop-motion stories are as gently rewarding as ever. This DVD is guaranteed to meet with approval from the jingly-hatted one's many young fans. --Roger Thomas