"Actor: Peter V"

• Planet Ustinov - Travels With Sir Peter Ustinov | DVD | (20/04/2009) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Famed raconteur and wit Sir Peter Ustinov is tempted out of retirement in his Swiss Vineyard for one last grand journey around the world. Following in the footsteps of Mark Twain, Sir Peter travels first to Fiji and the Kiribati Islands, before heading for Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii, India and finally South Africa. Along the way, he meets and mingles with taxi drivers and presidents, exiles and evangelists, the descendants of kings and cannibals - and living gods and dying colonials. It is an unforgettable journey, full of incident and character, all observed with Sir Peter's typical insightful and thought-provoking wit and culminating in a meeting with Nelson Mandela himself aboard the QE2. A true cosmopolitan, Sir Peter reveals the struggles by people around the world to rediscover and reclaim their lost heritage and to find for themselves an enduring sense of belonging in a rapidly-changing world. All four episodes of this sophisticated, intelligent and challenging series are included here on DVD for the very first time.

• Big Trouble | DVD | (08/12/2003) from £8.07   |  Saving you £4.92 (37.90%)   |  RRP £12.99

  The last film directed by John Cassavetes, Big Trouble reteamed some of the creators of the much funnier The In-laws. But despite another script by Andrew Bergman, and a cast that reunited Alan Arkin and Peter Falk, this comedy doesn't live up to its predecessor. A spoof of Double Indemnity, the film casts Arkin as a nervous insurance agent faced with huge college tuition bills for a trio of sons headed for Yale. To make extra money, he gets involved in a scheme with a woman (Beverly D'Angelo) trying to kill her husband (Falk). That the whole thing turns out to be an adventure in insurance fraud shouldn't come as a surprise. Despite an inconsistent script, the chemistry between Arkin and Falk can still produce the occasional laugh. --Marshall Fine

• Carry On Emmannuelle | DVD | (18/03/2002) from £8.99   |  Saving you £1.00 (11.12%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Made in 1978, Carry On Emmannuelle was really the last gasp of the most fondly regarded series of British comedy films. In most respects, it hardly does justice to the many truly funny and brilliantly played previous scripts. But it does feature a curiously vulnerable, even touching, performance from Kenneth Williams as a French diplomat with a wife of insatiable physical appetites. In theory, of course, it aims to be a pastiche of the hugely popular Emmanuelle, which had marked the transition of soft-core erotic cinema into the art house. But it's too crudely scripted and lacking in the belly laugh inducing innuendo of the best Carry On films to succeed on that level. "Are you hungry, Loins?" Emmannuelle asks the chauffeur. "I think I could manage a little nibble," he replies. You get the idea. In the title role, Suzanne Danielle, who would go on to be the best of the Princess Diana impersonators, isn't a good enough comic actress to raise such lines above the ordinary. And the few stalwarts who returned for this outing--Joan Sims, Kenneth Connor and Peter Butterworth--just about emerge with their dignity intact. This was a Carry On too far. But fans will want it for their collection because it shows Kenneth Williams at his most professionally committed--his diaries reveal his real thoughts on the matter--and to remind themselves of the high quality of so much of the work which had gone before.On the DVD: presented in 4:3 format and with a standard mono soundtrack, this release of Carry On Emmannuelle starts off with a print of such ropey quality that you seem to be watching through a dust storm. The sound quality is little better, although on both counts things improve as the film progresses. The lack of extras is disappointing, adding to the rather sad, low-budget feel of the film itself. --Piers Ford

• Mission: Impossible - Series 3 | DVD | (29/10/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £44.99

  Season 3, should you decide to accept it (and you definitely should), was Mission's most accomplished. It garnered six Emmy nominations, and an Emmy for Barbara Bain, her third consecutive win, probably for "The Exchange," one of her finest hours, in which, breaking series format, her character is captured and psychologically tortured to discover for whom she works. As always, the first five minutes of any Mission: Impossible episode are the coolest: the lit fuse signaling Lalo Schifrin's indelible theme song, the opening-credits montage teasing the action in the upcoming episode, and Jim Phelps (Peter Graves), in some nondescript location, receiving his covert mission (usually to some nonexistent, but real-sounding country as Povia or Costa Mateo), on that self-destructing tape. It always seemed a waste of time for Phelps to go through the dossiers of possible Impossible Missions Force agents for each mission (and he does that less this season) as he invariably chose the same ones: model beauty Cinnamon (Bain), master of disguise Rollin Hand (Martin Landau), electricians expert Barney Collier (Greg Morris), and strongman Willie Armitage (Peter Lupus). Mission: Impossible didn't delve into the team members' private lives: it was all about the mission, and together, the IMF foils any number of domestic and international villains. Some missions (foil a coup, rescue a dissident) have more at stake than others (restore boxing's good name), but there's that great moment in almost every episode when the team's target discovers that he or she has been royally IMF'd. "Don't you see?" the warden of a so-called escape-proof automated prison protests in "The Glass Cage," "they thought of everything!" He's not kidding. Not even "Q" on his best day would have come up with that faux briefcase that secretly dispenses exact replicas of the prison's towels. Mission: Impossible today does seem a little low-tech, especially when compared to the special effects-laden feature films. And for anyone who has seen Airplane, it may be difficult initially to keep a straight face whenever Peter "Do you like gladiator movies?" Graves is onscreen. But with its clever and complex stories, impeccable ensemble, and fun-to-spot guest stars (that's John "Dean Wormer" Vernon torturing Cinnamon in "The Exchange"), Mission is impossible to resist. --Donald Liebenson

• The Prisoner - 35th Anniversary Companion | DVD | (30/09/2002) from £19.89   |  Saving you £0.10 (0.50%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Primarily aimed at fanatic completists, The Prisoner 35th Anniversary Companion gives us an alternative version of the opening episode "Arrival" recently rediscovered from Canadian archival material, along with the broadcast version for comparison. The collection also has text files on associative material like the score for the music, the novelisations and the Dinky model of the mini-moke, clips of the interval bumpers, alternative clips of the opening credits and a sequence in which the opening credits shot of a filing cabinet labelled "Resignations" is reshot in a variety of languages for foreign markets. The episode included reminds us, in both its versions, what an innovative and sinister show The Prisoner was--George Baker in particular is an impressive foil to Patrick McGoohan. There are also text files on the careers of McGoohan and his collaborator George Markstein, as well as an extended interview with Bernard Williams in which he talks frankly about the difficulties of producing a show whose scripts were being written by the star as it was being shot, and tells us of the last-minute improvisation of the sinister balloon, Rover. There is also a short documentary about the show, its fans and the memorabilia shop at Portmeirion, plus a Prisoner parody Renault ad. On the DVD: The Prisoner 35th Anniversary Companion is presented in standard 4:3 television visual ratio; the mono sound has not worn well, especially in the alternative version of "Arrival" where it is at times painfully scratchy. The interface is user-confusing; if you don't already know the shape of The Village it is not immediately obvious that the menu continues on two screens. The packaging includes a lavish booklet that includes a facsimile of the production notes for the show. --Roz Kaveney

• Inspector Morse - The Dead Of Jericho / Mystery Of Morse | DVD | (14/09/1998) from £5.47   |  Saving you £14.52 (265.45%)   |  RRP £19.99

  John Thaw created one of Britain's most-loved TV detectives in this pilot episode that started the long-running Inspector Morse series, based on the novels by Colin Dexter. The brilliant, somewhat elitist police inspector who loves crosswords, classical music and the more-than-occasional pint of ale clumsily romances a woman (Gemma Jones) from his choir. When he finds her hanged in her apartment on the eve of their big recital, he suspects murder and muscles his way in on the investigation. The assigned investigators are convinced it's suicide except for the eager Sergeant Lewis (Kevin Whately), and they reluctantly team up to sort out a mystery tangled in blackmail, adultery, peeping neighbours (former Doctor Who Patrick Troughton) and mistaken identities. With his snooty temperament and lone-wolf lifestyle, the white-haired, Oxford-educated bachelor is a wonderful mismatch with the younger Lewis, a married man with a family and a rather less classical background (Whatley is a Geordie, though Lewis was a Brummie in the book). There's a quiet undercurrent of affection and respect almost from their first meeting that builds with each continuing Inspector Morse mystery, as well as an air of melancholia and loneliness beautifully developed in the script by future Oscar-winning writer/director Anthony Minghella (The English Patient). Morse's initial theories may be washouts (a series hallmark), but his relentless sleuthing, eye for clues and mind for puzzles dredges up the answer in the end, even as he loses the girl. --Sean Axmaker, Amazon.com

• Housesitter | DVD | (25/06/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  A slick, smart vehicle for Steve Martin and Goldie Hawn, Housesitter offers an acceptably daffy premise and enough inventive business to sustain it through to the, not unexpected, happy ending. Architect Martin builds a dream home for his childhood sweetheart (Dana Delaney) only to be rejected when he proposes marriage. After a one-night stand, Hawn--a daffy waitress with a gift for making up improbable but convincing lies--moves into Martin's house and tells his parents (Donald Moffatt, Julie Harris) and the whole community that she is his surprise new wife. When he sees how this impresses Delaney, Martin goes along with the charade, encouraging wilder and wilder fictions and doing his best to join in so that he can rush through to a divorce and move on to the woman he has always wanted. Hawn has to recruit a couple of winos to pose as her parents and impress Martin's boss into giving him a promotion, but we glimpse her real misery at his eventual intention to toss her out of the make-believe world she has created because her own real background is so grim. Its sit-com hi-jinx are manic enough not to be strangled by an inevitable dip in to sentiment towards the end, and Hawn, who always has to work hard, is better matched against the apparently effortless Martin than in their subsequent pairing in Out-of-Towners. Martin, often wasted in comparatively straight roles, has a few wild and crazy scenes as Hawn prompts him into joining her improvised fantasies. Director Frank Oz, a frequent Martin collaborator (Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Little Shop of Horrors, Bowfinger), is the model of a proper, competent, professional craftsman when he sets out to put a comedy together--but the film misses streaks of lunacy or cruelty that might have made it funnier and more affecting. On the DVD: The disc offers a pristine widescreen non-anamorphic transfer, letterboxed to 1.85:1. There are no extra features to speak of, just text-based production notes, cast and director bios, plus a trailer and an assortment of language and subtitle options. --Kim Newman

• The Vampire Lovers | Blu Ray | (30/04/2013) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• I Shouldn't Be Alive - Series 1 | DVD | (27/04/2009) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Ten extraordinary true stories of human survival from around the world which focus on one of our most basic human instincts and leave the audience asking - Would I have survived in the same circumstances? Each film narrates a unique and exceptional feat of survival. We focus on the moral dilemmas crucial moments chance events and life-or-death decisions of our survivors. Some stories come from the world of the professional adventurer and extreme sports the men and women who deliberately push the envelope of danger. Compelling first person testimony is brought to life with the highest quality dramatic reconstructions filmed in extreme locations across the globe.

• Run For The Sun | DVD | (14/07/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Boulting Brothers Collection: Run For The Sun

• Body Shot | DVD | (06/10/2003) from £11.25   |  Saving you £-5.26 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  A photographer finds himself framed when his photographs develop into evidence against him.

• My Name Is Hmmm... | DVD | (06/04/2015) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £22.99

  Running away 12-years-old Céline hides in a red truck. She meets Peter a Scottish truck driver in his forties. Along the roads the stops and the encounters Céline experiences her first true moments of childhood with lightness and trust. She wants to see it all to discover it all. Peter becomes the friend of her dreams. He offers this wounded child a chance to finally have a normal life.

• Shotgun | DVD | (12/04/2005) from £7.99   |  Saving you £-2.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Detective Jones was told to play by the rules.... But playing by the rules can get you killed....

• I, Monster | DVD | (18/10/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  As Dr Marlowe dabbles in drugs to dispel the inhibitions of its users the monstrous Mr. Blake is born and so begins his dastardly reign...

• Airplane!/Top Secret! | DVD | (16/10/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Airplane (Dir. Jerry Zucker David Zucker & Jill Abrahams 1980): Voted ""one of the ten funniest movies ever made"" by the American Film Institute Airplane! is a masterpiece of off-the-wall comedy. Featuring Robert Hays as an ex-fighter pilot forced to take over the controls of an airliner when the flight crew succumbs to food poisoning; Julie Hagerty as his girlfriend/ stewardess/ co-pilot; and a cast of all-stars including Robert Stack Lloyd Bridges Peter Graves Leslie Nielsen Kareem Abdul-Jabbar...and more! Their hilarious high jinks spook airplane disaster flicks religious zealots television commercials romantic love...the list whirls by in rapid succession. And the story races from one moment of zany fun to the next! Top Secret (Dir. Jerry Zucker David Zucker & Jill Abrahams 1984): 'Top Secret!' pits American rock star Nick Rivers (Val Kilmer) against the dreaded East German High Command. It's a race against time as Nick teams up with Hillary Flammond (Lucy Gutteridge) to find her father before he can create the ultimate super weapon - the Polaris Mine. Along the way 'Top Secret!' manages to do for war epics and Elvis films what 'Airplane!' did to disaster movies!

• Saturday Morning Pictures - The Best Of The Children's Film Foundation - Vol. 2 | DVD | (30/09/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Cup Fever Barton United's hopes of winning the Manchester junior football league receive a setback when their ground is taken over and used as a car park forcing the boys into action... Hide & Seek Keith absconds from school in the hope that his father will take him to Canada yet Keith's father seems more interested in robbing a bank...

• Naked Kiss, The / Shock Corridor | DVD | (17/11/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

• The Riddlers - Mossop The Hero And Other Stories | DVD | (22/07/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  The Riddlers are enchanting characters who live in a well in the garden of a cottage owned by Miss Marjorie Dawe. With a twitch of their nose they can magically disappear only to reappear in another part of the garden. They sing songs and tell riddles to help them concentrate and their conversations are delightful. Here they are in four exciting stories. Epiode titles: Stones From The Sky Lights Out The Treasure Of Riddleton End Mossop The Hero.

• Kitten With a Whip | Blu Ray | (07/01/2022) from £34.90   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Jody Drew (Ann-Margret) is a sweet, sexy, psycho-babe on the run from the law. She's escaped from a detention centre, stabbed a guard and burned the place to the ground. David Patton (John Forsythe) doesn't know all this. He's just a Senatorial candidate trying to do all the right things. However, Jody makes sure that all the wrong things happen.

• Fuzz: The Sound That Changed the World | DVD | (11/11/2016) from £12.05   |  Saving you £1.94 (16.10%)   |  RRP £13.99

  Fuzz. the sound that changed the world. The fuzz box: that tiny little box between the electric guitar and the amp. what on earth does it do? Clif Taylor explores this insane industry of noise making, from the geeky backyard 'boutique' engineers buildi