"Actor: Peter V"

• Star Wars Trilogy (Episodes IV-VI) | DVD | (20/09/2004) from £15.85   |  Saving you £29.14 (183.85%)   |  RRP £44.99

  Four-disc set includes: Episode IV, A New Hope (Special Edition)--with commentary by George Lucas, Ben Burtt, Dennis Muren and Carrie Fisher; Easter egg: credit roll (2 min) Episode V, The Empire Strikes Back (Special Edition)--with commentary by George Lucas, Irvin Kershner, Lawrence Kasdan, Ben Burtt, Dennis Muren and Carrie Fisher; Easter egg: credit roll (2 min) Episode VI, Return of the Jedi (Special Edition)--commentary by George Lucas, Lawrence Kasdan, Ben Burtt, Dennis Muren and Carrie Fisher; Easter egg: credit roll (2 min) Bonus disc: all-new bonus features, including the most comprehensive feature-length documentary ever produced on the Star Wars saga, and never-before-seen footage from the making of all three filmsSubitles (all material across all four discs): English, Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish Click here to see detailed information on the special features included on the bonus disc. Amazon.co.uk Review George Lucas's original Star Wars trilogy is a clever synthesis of pop-cultural and mythological references, taking classic fairy-tale themes, adding more than a dash of Arthurian legend, and providing cinematic high adventure inspired as much by Kurosawa's Samurai epics as by Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers. As a result, audiences of all ages can find something to identify with in Luke Skywalker's journey from disaffected teenager dreaming of adventure to Jedi Knight and saviour of the galaxy. He not only rescues a Princess, but discovers she's a close relative. And if there's a lesson to be gleaned from the Skywalker clan, it's that no matter how bad things get in the average dysfunctional family, it's never too late for reconciliation. Originally released in 1977, Star Wars, the first film, was made as a standalone. Perhaps that's why Obi-Wan Kenobi seems a tad inconsistent in his attitude towards his old pupil Anakin Skywalker, and perhaps also why Luke is allowed to develop a guilt-free crush on Princess Leia. Lucas's story, told from the point of view of the two bickering droids (a device taken from Kurosawa's Hidden Fortress), also borrows freely from Errol Flynn's Robin Hood, as does John Williams's seminal Korngold-inspired music score. Thanks in equal part to Leigh Brackett's screenplay and Irvin Kershner's direction The Empire Strikes Back (1980) is the most grown-up instalment in the series. The basic fairy-tale is developed and expanded, with the principal characters experiencing emotional turmoil--blossoming romance, mixed feelings and confused loyalties--amid a very real threat of annihilation as Darth Vader's motivations become chillingly personal. Luke's quasi-Arthurian destiny is complicated still further by the half-truths of his wizardly mentors; and swashbuckler Han Solo finds the past catching up with him, quite literally in the form of bounty hunter Boba Fett. The film is graced by more fabulous landscapes (ice, forest, clouds), more unforgettable new characters (Yoda), more groundbreaking special effects (the asteroid chase), and John Williams's finest score. The difficult third film, 1983's Return of the Jedi, seems schizophrenic in its intentions, hoping to please both the kiddies who bought all the toys and an older audience who appreciated the narrative's epic and mythological strands. The result is a film that splits awkwardly into two. One thread, which might be subtitled "The Redemption of Anakin Skywalker", pursues the story of the Skywalker family to a cathartic conclusion. The other thread, which might be described as "The Care Bears Go to War", attempts to say something profound about primitivism versus technological sophistication, but just gets silly as furry midgets doing Tarzan whoops defeat the Emperor's crack legions. In 1997 Lucas re-released the three original films in digitally remastered "Special Edition" versions, in which many scenes have been restored and enhanced (some would say "unnecessarily tinkered with"). Despite loud and continued criticisms from fans, these Special Editions are now considered definitive, if only by Lucasfilm. --Mark Walker

• You Only Live Twice | DVD | (03/11/2003) from £4.96   |  Saving you £7.03 (141.73%)   |  RRP £11.99

  The film boasts the best of the Bond title songs (this one sung on a dreamy track by Nancy Sinatra), but the movie itself is one of the weaker ones of the Sean Connery phase of the 007 franchise. The story concerns an effort by the evil organisation SPECTRE to start a world war, but the not-so-super villain behind the plot is the awfully civilised Donald Pleasence. The thin script is by Roald Dahl (shouldn't we have expected a better Bond nemesis from the creator of mad genius Willy Wonka?), and direction is by British veteran Lewis Gilbert (Alfie). But the movie can't hold a candle to Dr. No, From Russia with Love, or Goldfinger. --Tom Keogh, Amazon.comOn the DVD: This was another troubled production according to the insightful "making of" documentary: director and producers luckily avoided boarding a plane out of Tokyo that crashed and killed everyone on board; the Japanese actresses couldn't speak English and one threatened suicide if she was dropped from the part; and the aerial cameraman filming the helicopter fight had his leg sliced off by a rotor blade. Maurice Binder's evocative main title designs are the subject of the second documentary, "Silhouettes", in which his colleagues voiceboth their admiration of his art and frustration at his chaotic working practices. The commentary is another edited selection of interviews with principal cast and crew. An animated storyboard sequence, trailers, radio spots and a handsome booklet add up to another winning entry in this series. --Mark Walker

• Nick Of Time | DVD | (22/04/2002) from £5.36   |  Saving you £7.63 (142.35%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Ninety Minutes. Six Bullets. No Choice. The clock is ticking for Johnny Depp in Nick Of Time a twist-filled race-against-time thriller directed by John Badham. And indeed it is a race filmed in ""real time"" so that onscreen events unfold minute by nail-biting minute as they would in real life. No sooner does accountant arrive at L.A.'s Union Station with his six-year-old daughter than he's plunged into a nightmare. Two shadowy strangers separate Watson from his little girl sl

• Red Heat (1988) | DVD | (20/05/2002) from £4.16   |  Saving you £15.09 (520.34%)   |  RRP £17.99

  After scoring a hit with the Eddie Murphy-Nick Nolte cop thriller 48 Hours, director Walter Hill returned to the buddy formula with this half-ridiculous, half-invigorating action flick about humourless Russian cop Ivan Danko (Arnold Schwarzenegger). He follows a drug dealer from Moscow to Chicago, where he's matched up with city cop Art Ridzik (James Belushi), whose work ethic is considerably more relaxed. Most of the humour revolves around Danko's grumpy reaction to good ol' American capitalism, while Ridzik urges him to chill out. Red Heat is not bad as action comedies go, but only if you get into the absurd spirit of this predictable fare, in which the unlikely buddies get to wisecrack and act casually while mayhem erupts everywhere they go. Incidentally, Red Heat was the first American film allowed to shoot in Moscow's Red Square. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com

• Magician: The Astonishing Life & Work of Orson Welles (DVD) | DVD | (24/08/2015) from £18.98   |  Saving you £3.00 (17.66%)   |  RRP £19.99

  2015 marks the centenary year of the remarkable Orson Welles, and this insightful documentary explores the enigma and polymath that was Welles. Jean-Luc Godard once said of this exceptional actor, writer and director: All of us will always owe him everything. Directed by critically-acclaimed documentary maker, Chuck Workman, Magician divides Welles' life into four chapters, with Workman portraying him as an artist who never stopped working throughout his career, but whose unconventional approach ensured he was much misunderstood by Hollywood. Magician is a montage, featuring scenes from almost every existing Welles film - from Hearts of Age to rarely-seen clips from his final unfinished films such as Don Quixote - as well as his television and commercial work. This is an essential film not just for fans of the great Orson Welles, but anyone interested in the magic of cinema.

• Black Sheep | DVD | (31/03/2008) from £5.86   |  Saving you £10.13 (172.87%)   |  RRP £15.99

  A genetic mutation sees a flock of New Zealand sheep develop a taste for humans in this hilarious splatterfest.

• Bitter Moon | DVD | (09/02/2009) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  From acclaimed director Roman Polanski comes this erotically-charged drama starring Hugh Grant and Kristin Scott Thomas as a respectable married couple. While on a trip to Istanbul they come across Oscar and his young Parisian wife Mimi who take it upon themselves to tell the story of their passionate relationship from its sexual beginnings to its current abusive and spiteful stage.

• Thunderbirds Are Go - The Movie | DVD | (17/04/2019) from £8.58   |  Saving you £7.41 (86.36%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Thunderbirds Are Go followed the remarkable success of the Thunderbirds television series, bringing the three-dimensional puppet animation adventures of International Rescue to the big screen. Set in the 21st century, there is no attempt to explain the background story: as in the TV show International Rescue is a private family organisation who use hi-tech craft to rescue anyone in peril. Here it is the first manned flight to Mars which is in danger, as International Rescue foils a sabotage attempt at the launch, then race to avert disaster when the spaceship returns to earth. What could have made a 50-minute TV episode is expanded to feature length with Martian "rock monsters" and a surreal dream-sequence involving Alan Tracy, Lady Penelope and "Cliff Richard Jnr" & the Shadows, with a new song performed by the real Cliff and the Shadows. In the cinemas this was competing against another British children's TV SF spin-off, the equally colourful Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150AD, and would be followed by Thunderbird 6 (1968). Yet apart from more complex model work, a bigger orchestra and even bigger explosions, on TV this plays like a widescreen double-length episode. On the DVD: The mono sound is powerful, with Barry Gray's stirring music suffering intermittent distortion. Presented in anamorphic widescreen the picture is very good, with strong colours and only minimal grain, though the print does show occasional damage. Unfortunately the original extremely wide 2.74:1 Techniscope image is cropped to more conventional 2.35:1, to the extent that the careful compositions are noticeably damaged, which director David Lane refers to in his joint commentary with producer Sylvia Anderson (who also played Lady Penelope). 35 years after the event their commentary is packed with details of the filming process and full of information about the many problems of and solutions to making an animated feature. Both Anderson fans and budding animators will find this a real education. The original, rather battered, trailer is included, as are galleries of behind the scenes photos, promotional artwork and posters. Altogether it's rather FABulous. --Gary S Dalkin

• The Rag Trade Boxset - Series 1&2 | DVD | (23/10/2017) from £30.79   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Featuring a fantastic all-star cast, including the series' workforce being made up of Barbara Windsor (EastEnders), BAFTA-nominee Sheila Hancock (The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas), Carry-On staple Esma Cannon, Miriam Karlin (A Clockwork Orange), Reg Varney (On the Buses), and the shop run by Peter Jones (Mr. Digby Darling). Penny-pinching Harold Fenner (Peter Jones) runs Fenner Fashions, a small garment factory in London that makes high quality clothing. Things rarely run smoothly as militant shop steward Paddy Fleming (Miriam Karlin), who leads the female workforce, constantly disrupts the daily routine. She's always on the lookout for any excuse to take Fenner on and lead the women out on strike, ordering Everybody out!. The exasperated workforce includes Carole (Sheila Hancock), Little Lil (Esma Cannon), Shirley (Wanda Ventham) and Gloria (Barbara Windsor). Stuck in the middle of the regular disputes is poor downtrodden foreman Reg (Reg Varney). He tries to keep the peace between his boss and his colleagues and fails miserably!

• The Snowman | DVD | (03/11/2008) from £4.96   |  Saving you £2.84 (57.26%)   |  RRP £7.80

  Two Raymond Briggs' animated classics, The Snowman and Father Christmas are here sensibly paired for maximum yuletide delight. Based on Briggs's classic children's book and crafted in a coloured-pencils-on-paper look, like fluffy, hand-drawn illustrations, The Snowman is a gentle fable of friendship and the power of imagination. It's the story of a small boy whose lovingly constructed snowman comes to life and takes him flying over the white-blanketed landscapes, in a beautiful rotoscoped (traced) sequence based on live-action flying footage. Part of the charm of the film is the gentle, everyday quality of its fantasy adventures: the snowman is invited in to try on clothes and play with the Christmas decorations, then plays host to the boy at a party in the woods, at which his snowy relatives do country dances. --David Chute In Father Christmas, an irreverent Santa breaks from tradition in many ways. He has no Mrs, owns only four reindeer and decides to convert his sleigh into an airborne motor home for a pre-Christmas holiday. He finds France too snooty, Scotland too cold and Las Vegas just right. Tanned and rested, he returns to the North Pole in time to sort through the mail, pack up the toys and hit the skies. He also narrates his own story (splendidly voiced by Los Angeles stage actor William Dennis Hunt), but fans of the 1973 book will find the animated version far less cranky than the original. Although the book was aimed at children between the ages of 4-8, this may have a wider appeal, depending on how you feel about the children seeing Santa gambling at the casino tables, dreaming of bikini-clad babes and suffering a bout of diarrhoea. --Kimberly Heinrichs

• Joan Of Arc | DVD | (24/02/2003) from £11.91   |  Saving you £-5.92 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  The extraordinary story tells of a quest that took as illiterate French peasant girl and transformed her into one of the most revered leaders of all time.

• Spartacus 4K 60th Anniversary | Blu Ray | (17/08/2020) from £17.19   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Relive the story of Spartacus, a genre-defining epic in 4K Ultra HD with HDR. Newly-remastered, this 60th Anniversary edition includes an extended version of the film and 4K Ultra HD bonus features. Spartacus from director Stanley Kubrick, is the legendary tale of a bold gladiator (Kirk Douglas) who led a triumphant Roman slave revolt. Restored from large format 35mm original film elements, this action-packed spectacle won four Academy Awards® including 'Best Cinematography' and 'Best Art Direction'. Featuring a cast of screen legends such as Laurence Olivier, Charles Laughton, Peter Ustinov, Jean Simmons, John Gavin and Tony Curtis, this uncut and fully restored masterpiece is an inspirational true account of man's eternal struggle for freedom. Bonus Features: Extended Version with 12 additional minutes I am Spartacus: A Conversation with Kirk Douglas Restoring Spartacus Deleted Scenes Archival Interviews Behind The Scenes Footage Vintage Newsreels And More! (4k Disc Includes All Bonus Features In 4k Resolution!)

• Station Agent | DVD | (02/05/2011) from £12.98   |  Saving you £7.01 (54.01%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Fin McBride (Dinklage) a loner with a passion for trains inherits an abandoned train station in the middle of nowhere - a place that suits him just fine because all he wants is to be alone. Soon after moving in he discovers his isolated depot is more like Grand Central Station! There's Olivia (Clarkson) a distracted and troubled artist and Joe (Cannavale) a friendly Cuban with an insatiable hunger for conversation. With absolutely nothing in common they find their isolated lives coming together in a friendship none of them could foresee... Winner of three awards at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival 'The Station Agent' also scooped a BAFTA for Best Original Screenplay.

• Millennium - Season 1 | DVD | (12/07/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £39.99

  Millennium marked the second major television series created by Chris Carter, who'd already made his name as the brains behind The X-Files. And, like its predecessor, it shares a lot of the same themes--it's a crime thriller that gradually unfolds into a grand conspiracy involving the government and the fate of the entire world. Agent Frank Black (Lance Henriksen) is a former FBI agent who has transplanted his family from Washington DC to Seattle, after suffering something of a breakdown. He's an expert criminal profiler--arguably the best, thanks to his ability to "see" into the minds of killers--and he fears for the safety of his wife and young daughter. In Seattle, he joins the mysterious Millennium Group, an agency of freelance crime-busters who investigate particularly brutal crimes. As a result, Millennium is downright bleak viewing, as Black jumps from horrific slaying to horrific slaying. Moreover, there's a growing sense of unease about the workings of the Millennium Group, so that in typical Chris Carter fashion, you don't know who to trust. With its pre-Y2K angst and overwhelming darkness, as well as its general humourlessness, Millennium hasn't dated as well as The X-Files. Still, thanks to Carter's vision and Henriksen's compelling take on the tortured Black, it's difficult not to get hooked. --Ted Kord

• Peter Sellers Collection | DVD | (16/10/2006) from £17.97   |  Saving you £12.02 (66.89%)   |  RRP £29.99

  Featuring a collection of Peter Sellers' best films. Includes: 1. Heavens Above! (Dir. John Boulting & Roy Boulting 1963) 2. I'm Alright Jack (Dir. John Boulting 1959) 3. Only Two Can Play (Dir. Sidney Gilliat 1962) 4. Very Best Of Peter Sellers

• Carry On Don't Lose Your Head | DVD | (17/02/2003) from £6.35   |  Saving you £6.64 (104.57%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Carry On Don't Lose Your Head parodies the adventures of the Scarlet Pimpernel, with crinkly cackling Sid James as master of disguise the Black Fingernail and Jim Dale as his assistant Lord Darcy. He must rescue preposterously effete aristocrat Charles Hawtrey from the clutches of Kenneth Williams' fiendish Citizen Camembert and his sidekick Citizen Bidet (Peter Butterworth). The Black Fingernail is assisted in his efforts to thwart the birth of the burgeoning republic by the almost supernatural stupidity of his opponents, who fail to recognise the frankly undisguisable Sid James even when dressed as a flirty young woman. What with an executioner who is tricked into beheading himself in order to prove the efficacy of his own guillotine, it's all a little too easy. As usual, no groan-worthy pun is left unturned, or unheralded by the soundtrack strains of a long whistle or wah-wah trumpet. This is pretty silly stuff even by Carry On standards, with most of the cast barely required to come out of first gear and an overlong climactic swordfight sequence hardly raising the dramatic stakes. Most of the humour here resides neither in the script nor the characterisation but in the endlessly watchable Williams' whooping, nasal delivery (occasionally lapsing into broad Cockney) and the jowl movements of the always-underrated Butterworth. --David Stubbs

• Daleks - Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. | Blu Ray | (27/05/2013) from £59.99   |  Saving you £-40.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Daleks Invasion Earth 2150 directed by Gordon Flemyng now fully restored and starring Peter Cushing in his return to the big screen as British TV's most iconic sci-fi hero Doctor Who. The earth of 2150 AD is a desolate and hostile ruin of a planet crumbling at the edge of civilisation slowly disappearing into the darkness of space. For the future of planet earth now belongs The Daleks a destructive army of alien invaders who have turned the human race into cowering slaves. Meanwhile deep within the London Underground a group of resistance freedom fighters are planning an attack. But there's only one man who could possibly help them succeed in destroying their extra terrestrial enemies and take back control of planet earth. A man of mystery a man of time and space a man known only as... The Doctor. Special Features: Restoring Daleks Invasion Earth: 2150 AD Interview with Actor Bernard Cribbins Interview with Author Gareth Owen Stills Gallery Trailer

• Strike: The Silkworm | DVD | (19/02/2018) from £7.37   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  The Silkworm is the two-part drama adapted from the second novel in JK Rowling's critically acclaimed Cormoran Strike series, published under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith. The story follows on from the events in the first drama of the series which received rave reviews, Strike: The Cuckoo's Calling. They successfully solved the murder of model Lula Landry now Cormoran Tom Burke) and his partner Robin Ellacott (Holliday Grainger) are hired to solve their next case.

• Circles of Deceit | DVD | (23/04/2018) from £9.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  This series of 4 made for TV feature length thrillers stars Dennis Waterman (The Sweeney, New Tricks) as John Neil, a Falklands War hero whose family were murdered in an IRA terrorist attack. Neil has withdrawn from society and lives an isolated existence, until MI5 come calling. Former special-forces operative John Neil is a lone agent for hire for Britain's security services. Whether taking on Irish terrorists, tracking down professional assassins, or pitting his wits against ruthless drug dealers, the ex-SAS man harbours no illusions about the work he's doing, or the people he serves. Knowing he is expendable to the security services Neil must face down deadly adversaries relying on his instincts and his SAS training in a world of betrayal, danger, and deceit. These 4 films were made for broadcast on Yorkshire TV between 1993 and 1996.

• Evil Under The Sun | DVD | (23/10/2017) from £10.35   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  A star-studded cast heads this Agatha Christie story of one man's efforts to fathom the mysterious death at a resort hotel in the Mediterranean. Peter Ustinov as Hercule Poirot. Also stars Jane Birkin, Diana Rigg and Maggie Smith. EXTRAS: Making Of Interview with costume designer Anthony Powell Interview with writer Barry Sandler Interview with producer Richard Goodwin Behind the scenes stills gallery Costume designs stills gallery