"Actor: Philip Quast"

• Les Miserables -- Two Disc Collector's Edition | DVD | (14/11/2005) from £11.99   |  Saving you £10.00 (100.10%)   |  RRP £19.99

  A performance of Les Miserables by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall, for a 10th Anniversary Concert celebration.

• Les Miserables | DVD | (30/10/2000) from £14.70   |  Saving you £5.29 (35.99%)   |  RRP £19.99

  The 10th-anniversary-concert video of the international musical sensation Les Misérables might be the best thing to appease fans until a full-fledged movie comes along. Or it might be even better, as feature films are often subject to extra musical casting considerations and this 1995 dream cast is superb. Reprising their roles from the original London company are Colm Wilkinson (Valjean), Michael Ball (Marius) and Alun Armstrong (Thenardier). From Broadway come Judy Kuhn (Cosette), Lea Salonga (Eponine) and Michael Maguire (Enjolras); from a later London production comes Ruthie Henshall (Fantine); and from Australia comes Philip Quast (Javert). Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg's score vividly captures the passion of Victor Hugo's epic tale of pre-Revolutionary France, combining tear-jerking ballads ("I Dreamed a Dream", "Bring Him Home") and rousing anthems ("Do You Hear the People Sing"). The format of this concert is closer to that of a dramatic cantata rather than a fully staged production; the singers stand at their microphones with an orchestra and chorus behind them, but they do wear costumes and participate in some movement. At certain points, such as the climax of the barricade scene, the video switches to action from a stage production. The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra sounds great, and it can be thrilling when 200 choristers (dressed in logo T-shirts) rise to their feet for a full-company number such as "One Day More". Also, subtitles provide date and scene information and help move the story along. This 147-minute version contains footage not seen before, most notably the encore in which a progression of 17 actors who have played Valjean around the world share "Do You Hear the People Sing?" Each sings a line in his native language, a testament to the enduring power of this show to audiences everywhere.--David Horiuchi, Amazon.com

• Ultraviolet The Complete Series | DVD | (22/04/2013) from £12.59   |  Saving you £7.40 (58.78%)   |  RRP £19.99

  All six episodes of the supernatural thriller. In 'Habeas Corpus', homicide cop Michael makes a shocking disovery when his partner, Jack, disappears on the eve of his wedding. 'In Nomine Patris' sees Michael, now a member of CIB, struggling to accept that vampires have for centuries existed alongside humans. In 'Sub Judice', a rape victim is saved by a vampire, but for what reason? In 'Mea Culpa', Michael investigates an attack on a school teacher by a 12-year-old boy; could the vampires be i...

• Ultraviolet | DVD | (05/02/2001) from £20.98   |  Saving you £4.01 (16.00%)   |  RRP £24.99

  In the six-part British "vampire-slaying" mini-series Ultraviolet we discover that UV light is used (both in surgery and via high-tech weaponry) to identify people who have been infected with a disease labelled "Code 5". It's transmitted via a bite to the neck, but at no point in the series is the word "vampire" used. Instead, in the second episode ("In Nomine Patris") the nickname "Leech" is introduced. We learn that it was this disease, these "Leeches", that were responsible for the Fire of London, and that one in 20 people are already infected. In the opening episode, policeman Michael Colefield (Jack Davenport) is recruited into the secretive CIB. He meets its introverted priest-chief Pearse (Philip Quast), the emotionally driven Dr Angela March (Susannah Harker) and the bullish heavyweight Vaughan (Idris Elba). Spinning around Mike's suddenly complicated life are his best friend's jilted fiancée Kirstie (Colette Brown) and old flame Frances (Fiona Dolman). In later hard-hitting episodes we see a 12-year-old boy stab his teacher priest to death ("Mea Culpa") and the capture of a "Leech" ("Persona Non Grata"). This intriguing series ends having tied together most of its threads, but dangles worrying implications at the viewer... not so much to suggest a sequel as to hammer home everything at stake. --Paul Tonks