"Actor: Richard Beckinsale"

• A Family At War - Series 3 | DVD | (11/07/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £79.99

  A Family At War is the classic ITV series chronicling the fortunes of the Ashton family living in Liverpool during the Second World War. This eight disc box set features the entire third series.

• London's Burning - The Complete Third Series | DVD | (10/07/2006) from £16.18   |  Saving you £3.81 (23.55%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Jack Rosenthal's prime-time firefighting drama series returns to DVD.

• Rising Damp - The Best Of | DVD | (16/09/2002) from £5.82   |  Saving you £4.17 (71.65%)   |  RRP £9.99

  First broadcast in 1974, the ITV bedsitland sitcom Rising Damp was an instant and enduring success. It starred Leonard Rossiter as the miserly and lovelorn landlord Rigsby who is constantly needling young lodger Alan (Richard Beckinsale), a science student whose long hair and earrings are symptomatic to Rigsby of the parlous effeminacy of the modern age. He's also in love with Frances De La Tour's dowdy spinster Miss Jones, though his tentative advances are forever rebuffed. She in turn carries a torch for Philip (Don Warrington), the elegant son of an African chief who also resides at Rigsby Towers. Some aspects of Rising Damp have not aged well, principally Rigsby's stream of racist jibes at Philip. Although these were doubtless well-meant and supposed to illustrate Rigsby's foolish bigotry, you suspect that that was a convenient cover for audiences in the 1970s to enjoy racist humour. However, Rossiter's Rigsby--stuttering, stammering, bent perpetually over backwards--remains a great comic creation, embodying all the festering prejudices, small-mindedness and self-delusion of the lower middle class Little Englander. --David Stubbs

• Family At War A - Series 2 - Part 3 | DVD | (07/03/2005) from £13.20   |  Saving you £6.79 (51.44%)   |  RRP £19.99

  After everyone thought he was 'missing presumed dead' John Porter is found alive albeit disorientated and distant. Margaret has to contend with his unpleasant mother and make an agonising decision.

• Rising Damp / Porridge / George And Mildred / Bless This House | DVD | (18/10/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £29.99

  This fantastic TV Classic Comedy Box Set will provide a feast of laughter with movie versions of some of the most popular sitcoms ever made. The set comprises movie versions of Rising Damp Porridge George and Mildred Bless This House and Please Sir.

• A Family At War - Complete Boxed Set | DVD | (07/08/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £149.99

  A Family At War is a powerful wartime story which follows the dramatic events in the life of the Ashtons a middle class Liverpudlian family during the turbulent period of the Second World War. The epic series dramatises the hardship pain and tragedy that was often inflicted on ordinary families as sons were sent abroad to fight children were evacuated and those who remained at home lived in constant fear of being bombed. Written by the highly acclaimed writer John Finch (Coronation Street Spoils Of War and Sam) the series was originally broadcast on ITV on 1970. It ran for a total of 50 hour long episodes throughout the early 1970's and we are proud to present every episode on this monolith of a boxed set. 1. The Facts of Life 2. To Die For Spain 3. Lines of Battle 4. The Summer Before the War 5. The Gate of the Year 6. The Breach in the Dyke 7. The War Office Regrets 8. For Strategic Reasons 9. The Night They Hit No. 8 10. One of Ours 11. Brothers in War 12. If It's Got Your Number On It 13. The End of the Beginning 14. The Other Side of the Hill 15. I Can Be Happy Can't I? 16. A Lesson in War 17. Is Your Journey Really Necessary? 18. 48 Hour Pass 19. Hope Against Hope 20. A Time To Be Born 21. A Heros' Welcome 22. We Could Be a Lot Worse Off 23. Lend Your Loving Arms 24. Hazard 25. Giving and Taking 26. Believed Killed 27. Into the Dark 28. The Straight and Narrow 29. Clash By Night 30. Salute the Happy Morn 31. I Wanted to be with You 32. A Seperate Peace 33. The Lucky Ones 34. For the Duration 35. Happy Duration 36. The Things You Never Told Me 37. You Can Choose Your Friends 38. Flesh and Blood 39. Spread a Little Happiness 40. Take It On Trust 41. This Year Next Year 42. The Fundamental Things Apply 43. Thicker Than Water 44. Breaking Point 45. The Lost Ones 46. The Sensible Thing 47. Under New Management 48. Coming Home 49. A Faint Refrain 50. Two Fathers 51. The Old Order Changeth 52. Yielding Place to New

• The Blu-ray Horror Collection (5 titles - Hostel/Hostel 2/Vacancy/Dracula/The Covenant) | Blu Ray | (10/12/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £99.99

  Hostel The hallowed tradition of the post-college European backpacking trip turns into an unimaginable nightmare for two unsuspecting American 20-somethings in Eli Roth's (Cabin Fever) sensational second outing. Paxton (Jay Hernandez) and Josh (Derek Richardson) have embarked upon a hedonistic tour of the continent, and somewhere along the way pick up travelling companion Oli (Eythor Gudjonsson). In Amsterdam the trio partakes of the pastimes most dear to frat boys everywhere: weed, prostitutes, and nightclubs. But when a fellow traveller tells these thrill-seekers about the decadent scene that awaits them in Bratislava, they find themselves unable to resist its lures. Enticed by the promise of a hostel full of beautiful girls who love Americans, they set out for the remote areas of Eastern Europe. There, the sex farce to which the film's first half is devoted slowly turns ominous, as the boys hook up immediately with the gorgeous Natalya (Barbara Nedeljakova) and Svetlana (Jana Kaderabkova), whose eagerness masks more sinister intentions. Soon, the disagreeable backpackers find themselves on the other side of the flesh trade, sold by the girls into an exclusive human trafficking operation that gives its customers the opportunity to torture and kill a helpless victim. Much of what follows consists of the squirm-inducing surgical horrors that characterise precursors such as Saw, with the implications regarding the capitalist system and the human soul becoming ever darker. Produced by Quentin Tarantino, the film amps up the gore factor as much as it can get away with, and, in the tradition of the best horror films, offers a satirical socially conscious commentary. Hostel Part II The inevitable sequel to one of the decade's most intriguing and well-made horror films, Hostel Part II, as the title implies, picks up pretty much where the last film left off. And it doesn't take too long for the sequel to find the same groove that earned its predecessor so much attention. The setting is once again an underground club, where people bid for the right to torture residents at the hostel of the title. Hostel Part II, however, lets us see events from the other perspective too, as we meet the wealthy businessmen who are availing themselves of the club's services. It's a logical dynamic for the movie, and it does bring a fresh perspective to a film that does eventually settle down to a cavalcade of gore and shock. As a director, Eli Roth has clearly improved since last time around, even if this time he too often succumbs to the temptation to show rather than imply, and Hostel Part II as a result feels a little less fresh and more uncomfortable than its predecessor. Yet it's most certainly an unsettling piece of cinema, and one likely to find favour with Roth's increasing fanbase. A word of warning, though: Hostel Part II isn't shy about pulling its punches, and it very much justifies its 18 certificate. It's also a cut above many of its modern day contemporaries in the genre, even though it fails to measure up to part one. --Jon Foster Vacancy A confined setting is a useful tool for thriller-makers, and Vacancy is definitely boxed in: a run-down motel way, way off the Interstate, the kind of place where unsuspecting movie characters go to get stabbed to death in the shower. If Vacancy doesn't quite live up to its Hitchcockian forebears, at least it provides 80 minutes of well-designed mayhem. You know somebody's paying attention just from the opening credits, a clever vortex with pounding music by Paul Haslinger. Then we meet unhappy couple Luke Wilson and Kate Beckinsale, driving along in the dark and forced to stay at the Pinewood Motel after a car breakdown. There's a night man (Frank Whaley, World Trade Center) in the tradition of Dennis Weaver's Touch of Evil gargoyle, but the real mess of trouble is waiting in room number four. Director Nimrod Antal, who scored a stylish international hit with the Hungarian thriller Kontroll, squeezes maximum juice out of the Route 66 atmosphere of the motel, although the movie doesn't get under your skin the way Kontroll did. Wilson and Beckinsale are a little too marquee-namish for this kind of heavy-breathing work, and the script doesn't give them much to play with. But hey, it's not that kind of movie. Where it really belongs is on the top half of a drive-in double bill, or maybe as a nightmare-scenario TV movie from the Seventies. Either way, it works. --Robert Horton, Amazon.com Bram Stoker's Dracula Francis Ford Coppola's take on the Dracula myth is visually stunning and overflows with passionate seduction and Gothic romance. In Bram Stoker's Dracula, Coppola draws from the original source of the Dracula story to create a modern masterpiece. Gary Oldman's metamorphosis as Dracula, who grows from old to young, from man to beast, is breathtaking. Winona Ryder brings as much intensity to the character of the beautiful young woman who becomes the object of Dracula's devastating desire. Anthony Hopkins co-stars as the famed doctor who dares to believe in Dracula and then dares to confront him. Opulent and irresistible, Bram Stoker's Dracula is an unforgettable film. The Covenant Renny Harlin (Die Hard 2, Deep Blue Sea) directs this supernatural thriller about descendants of powerful New England families. The sons of Ipswich are legendary at Spenser Academy, the local boarding school. Handsome and popular, these four teenage friends can trace their roots to the founding families of the Ipswich Colony, settled in the late 1600s. For years these Massachusetts families have harboured the secret that they possess supernatural powers. Their descendants--Caleb (Steven Strait), Reid (Toby Hemingway), Tyler (Chace Crawford), and Pogue (Taylor Kitsch)--have inherited magical powers that first manifested themselves when the boys turned 13 years old. In a nutshell, they can do anything. As they approach their 18th birthdays, they are preparing to 'ascend', which means their powers will grow stronger. The downside? The magic is seductive and addictive, and causes premature aging with each use. Ringleader Caleb tries to keep his friends from using magic recklessly, but as the school year begins, strange events and a strong gut instinct convince Caleb that someone is using very powerful magic. Meanwhile, Caleb is exploring his newfound affection for transfer student Sarah (Laura Ramsey). To Caleb''s dismay, Sarah becomes a pawn in a power struggle with a descendant of the fifth founding family of Ipswich, a line thought to be lost during Salem''s witch trials. Is Caleb strong enough to maintain his power and keep his family and friends safe, or will he yield to this new threat and sacrifice himself? The film draws interesting parallels between the luring, addictive power of magic and the addictions real teenagers face. The sufficiently creepy setting echoes New England and sets the stage for supernatural phenomena. The Covenant also stars Sebastian Stan as Chase Collins, a wealthy newcomer to Spenser, and Jessica Lucas as Kate, Sarah's roommate and Pogue's girlfriend.