"Actor: Richard Ireson"

• Soldier and Me | DVD | (17/08/2015) from £13.98   |  Saving you £8.00 (66.72%)   |  RRP £19.99

  A memorable and much-sought-after drama series from the mid-1970s, this ruggedly authentic thriller chronicles the sinister events that happen to two boys in Britain following the 1968 Prague Spring uprising. Adapting David Line's bestseller Run for Your Life, Soldier and Me was directed by Carol Wilks, a former World in Action researcher/director. It won the BAFTA award for Children's Drama. Pavel Szolda is a young Czech refugee living in the north of England; a bespectacled outsider at a tough school, he is befriended by the more streetwise Jim, who nicknames him 'Soldier'. After overhearing some of his countrymen plotting murder, Soldier involves Jim in secretly observing the conspirators' movements. But when they are discovered, the teenagers are forced to flee for their lives relentlessly pursued across open country by seemingly ruthless gunmen... SPECIAL FEATURE: Booklet featuring Richard Willis' personal reminiscences of making the series

• Nuts In May | DVD | (27/03/2000) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  An early masterpiece from Mike Leigh, Nuts in May is a filmed-for-TV adaptation of an earlier stage play. The cast is small (only five characters who matter), but the acting is impeccable, and the mix of wicked humour and social observation make this one of Leigh's best works. Keith Pratt, a man who fully earns his surname due to his nit-picking obsessions with order and detail, takes his partner Candice-Marie, a well-meaning but irritating hippie, on a camping trip. There they meet Trevor, a shy teacher who finds their enforced friendship intrusive but is too polite to extricate himself, and a brash young couple of bikers, Honky and Finger, whose loud and chaotic personalities lead them into conflict with the repressed and dogmatic Keith. Plot isn't the issue here, since Leigh is far more interested in teasing out the subtleties of human behaviour, which he does with forensic skill in several unforgettable scenes. Funny and painful at the same time, like all Leigh's successes, Nuts in May is brilliantly acted by all concerned, though special mention must go to Roger Sloman, for bringing to life the appalling but ultimately pitiable Keith, and Alison Steadman, whose portrayal of fey, goofy and tragi-comic Candice-Marie is every bit as memorable and nuanced as her more famous turn as Beverley in Leigh's Abigail's Party. --Andy Medhurst

• Sharpe's Rifles | DVD | (01/01/1900) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Acclaimed actor Sean Bean stars in this action-packed feature-length movie set in the midst of the desperate missions and battles of the Napoleonic wars in 19th century Spain. Sharpe's Rifles begins with Richard Sharpe being promoted to Lieutenant after saving the life of Sir Arthur Wellesley. He is soon given a dangerous mission – to command a band of war hardened riflemen behind enemy lines. Their task is to escort Sharpe's lover the beautiful Spanish guerrilla leader Teresa and a nobleman soldier who are carrying a mysterious box across the country and are being hunted by the French cavalry. What does the box contain and why must Sharpe and his men risk their lives in battle to protect it?