"Actor: Richard Wattis"

• Sykes: The Complete Series | DVD | (26/06/2017) from £11.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Comedy genius Eric Sykes stars alongside Hattie Jacques, Richard Wattis and Derryck Guyler in the complete run of this classic comedy series. Showcasing Eric's whimsical, slightly anarchic sense of humour, Sykes saw Eric basically playing himself just one step removed from normality! Sharing a house with his twin sister, Hat, Eric has to suffer the slings and arrows of everyday life something he invariably does with bad grace and obstinacy. With snobbish next door neighbour Mr Brown and nosey local PC Corky Turnbull always on hand to help turn a drama into a crisis, it's no wonder Eric spends half his time fantasising and the other half coping with catastrophe! This set contains all seven series 68 episodes of this classic BBC comedy.

• Very Important Person | DVD | (13/02/2017) from £10.46   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Comedy set in World War Two, starring James Robertson-Justice and Leslie Phillips. Sir Ernest Pease (Robertson-Justice) is a self-important scientist who is sent undercover on a bombing mission to monitor the effectiveness of his latest invention, a new-fangled radar. When the plane is attacked, he parachutes to safety - only to be sent to a POW camp, where he takes on the alias of Lieutenant Farrow. There, the somewhat happy-go-lucky bunch of Brits suspect their acerbic new fellow prisoner of being a spy, and all sorts of culture clashes and misunderstandings ensue.

• The Man Who Knew Too Much | DVD | (17/04/2019) from £6.22   |  Saving you £3.77 (60.61%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Alfred Hitchcock's 1956 remake of his own 1934 spy thriller is an exciting event in its own right, with several justifiably famous sequences. James Stewart and Doris Day play American tourists who discover more than they wanted to know about an assassination plot. When their son is kidnapped to keep them quiet, they are caught between concern for him and the terrible secret they hold. When asked about the difference between this version of the story and the one he made 22 years earlier, Hitchcock always said the first was the work of a talented amateur while the second was the act of a seasoned professional. Indeed, several extraordinary moments in this update represent consummate film-making, particularly a relentlessly exciting Albert Hall scene, with a blaring symphony, an assassin's gun, and Doris Day's scream. Along with Hitchcock's other films from the mid-1950s to 1960 (including Vertigo, Rear Window, and Psycho), The Man Who Knew Too Much is the work of a master in his prime. --Tom Keogh, Amazon.com

• The Green Man | DVD | (30/10/2006) from £10.87   |  Saving you £2.12 (19.50%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Hawkins (Sim) is a timid clockmaker with a part time job; International Assassination Expert. He hasn't been getting too many assignments recently but his latest mission will put him back on the top of his profession. However he stalks the wrong target blowing up a boring politician instead and now he must pay the price for his breezy bungling in this murderously funny black comedy!

• Danger Man - Vol. 1 - Episodes 1,2,3 And 4 | DVD | (10/07/2000) from £20.00   |  Saving you £-10.01 (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  In 1960, television-executive Lew Grade's ITC company inaugurated a tradition of escapist adventure/mystery shows with Danger Man, a pocket-sized take on the spy stuff strutted in fiction by Ian Fleming's as-yet-unfilmed James Bond books. The versatile Patrick McGoohan took the lead role of John Drake, a daring spy for the NATO powers. This first, half-hour incarnation of the show (that would be known in the US as Secret Agent) concentrated on tight little plots executed at a rapid pace. McGoohan proved as adept in the numerous fight scenes and he was at spitting out the hardboiled dialogue which counterpointed Edwin Astley's memorable music. Although Drake is a deliberately colourless leading man, the format of the show allowed McGoohan to go undercover each week as a different, often strange character. Later, the series came back as an hour-long programme that segued wildly into McGoohan's masterpiece, The Prisoner. Volume One includes the following episodes: "View from the Villa" (with Barbara Shelley); "Time to Kill" (with Derren Nesbitt); "Josetta"; and "The Blue Veil" (with Ferdy Mayne). --Kim Newman

• Up Jumped a Swagman | DVD | (30/06/2014) from £11.98   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  This marvellously entertaining, tongue-in-cheek musical romp stars Frank Ifield as a talented young Australian singer who moves to London in search of his big break, tries to woo a top model while seemingly overlooking the beautiful publican s daughter who truly loves him and gets tangled up with a gang of thieves! Featuring Coventry-born Ifield s only feature-film appearance and made at the height of his international fame in 1965, Up Jumped a Swagman was inspired by the phenomenal success.

• The Colditz Story | DVD | (18/04/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  During the Second World War the Germans put many of the Allied prisoners-of-war (POWs) who had proved consistent escapees together in a maximum security fortress, the very name of which became a legend. Based on the book by Colditz escapee Major Pat Reid, The Colditz Story (1957) documents the further, sometimes successful, escape attempts of these extraordinarily brave, resourceful and indomitable men. Starring John Mills, Eric Portman, Bryan Forbes and Anton Diffring, and co-written and directed by Guy Hamilton, who later made The Battle of Britain (1969), this is a sober, even-handed account, that is gripping and informative, yet not without humour. Sterling performances from the cast of stalwart actors adds up to a British cinema classic. Such is the fascination of Colditz that in 1972-3 the BBC made a very successful drama series staring Jack Hedley, Bernard Hempton, Robert Wagner and David McCallum, while in 2000 Channel 4 offered a superb three-part documentary, Escape from Colditz. In contrast to the semi-documentary feel of The Colditz Story David Lean's classic The Bridge on the River Kwai, from the same year, is an epic and powerful account of POW life in barbaric Japanese prison camps. --Gary S. Dalkin

• Appointment With Venus | DVD | (23/03/2020) from £6.49   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Based on a true story, Appointment With Venus is a fine example of the indominable British spirit during World War 2 in the face of Nazi tyranny. The Nazis occupied the Channel Islands in 1940 and amongst the population on the tiny island of Amorel is Venus, a pedigree cow, whose ability to produce high quality milk is legendary. So well-known is Venus that she has even come to the attention of Hitler who wants to send her to Germany to breed with the Teutonic herds he claims are the best in the world. To deny Hitler and boost morale at home, British Special Forces, led by Major Moreland (David Niven) and ably assisted by Nicola Fallaize (Glynnis Johns) and the Islanders, mount a dangerous operation to rescue Venus and return her to England. A superb ensemble cast includes Kenneth More, Bernard Lee and Richard Wattis.

• Play it Cool | Blu Ray | (20/01/2020) from £20.98   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Featuring the big-screen debut of Liverpudlian pop idol Billy Fury 'Britain's Elvis Presley' this charming, pre-Beatles-era musical feature was among Michael Winner's earliest films. A 1962 box-office hit spawning a Top-Ten single and EP, Play It Cool features cameos from some of the most recognisable stars of the Sixties, with Bobby Vee, Helen Shapiro and Shane Fenton (aka Alvin Stardust) among the artistes encountered by Fury and his fictional band. The film is presented here as a brand-new High Definition restoration from original film elements.Billy Universe and the Satellites, a happy-go-lucky rhythm and twist group, are en route to Brussels to compete in a song contest; on the same flight is Ann Bryant, who's being sent abroad by her wealthy father to try to curb her infatuation with disreputable popster Larry Granger. When fog forces the plane to return to the airport, Billy and friends persuade Ann to join them in the West End, where they will search for Larry. What follows is a whirlwind musical tour of London's nightclubs!

• The Importance Of Being Earnest | DVD | (30/04/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  The timeless 1952 version of Oscar Wilde's comedy of errors in a Special Collectors' Edition.

• Sykes - The First Colour Series | DVD | (02/02/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  All 16 episodes from Eric Sykes' first colour series from the BBC from 1972. This 3 disc set features completely uncut versons of the rarely seen episodes and includes a black and white episode from the end of the run which has not been seen since originally broadcast. The first colour series of Eric Sykes' show features an episodes with special guest star Peter Sellers.

• Anastasia/Inn of the Sixth Happiness double pack | DVD | (02/06/2003) from £9.43   |  Saving you £5.56 (58.96%)   |  RRP £14.99

  An Ingrid Bergman double-bill comes to DVD with the classy pairing of Anastasia (1956) and The Inn of the Sixth Happiness (1958). In Anastasia Bergman gives one of her memorable, haunting and haunted performances as an amnesiac chosen by a White Russian general (Yul Brynner) in 1928 to play the part of the long-rumoured but missing survivor of the Bolsheviks' murderous attack on the Czar's family. The twist is that Bergman's mystery woman seems to know more about the lost Anastasia than she is told. Based on the play by Marcelle Maurette and Guy Bolton, this film--directed by Anatole Litvak (Out of the Fog)--really does get under one's skin, not least of all because of its intriguing story but more so as a result of the strong chemistry between Bergman and Brynner. --Tom Keogh The Inn of the Sixth Happiness is an epic and extraordinary true story--or, at least, an extraordinary story based on a novel (Alan Burgess's The Small Woman) based on a true story. Gladys Aylward (an improbably mesmerising Ingrid Bergman) is a British would-be missionary with an obsession about China. As she has no experience, the Missionary Society won't let her go, but she goes anyway, alone, to a remote northern province. She is hated, then loved; finally she becomes both a significant political figure and the heroine of a miraculous escape in which she shepherds 100 children to safety across the mountains just ahead of a Japanese invasion. Curt Jurgens is suitably stony as Lin Nan, the half-Dutch, half-Chinese military officer who falls in love with her, and a visibly ailing Robert Donat (who died before this, his final film, was released) is the wily local mandarin who sees and makes use of her extraordinary abilities. Directed by Mark Robson, The Inn of the Sixth Happiness is a sweeping, stirring tear-jerker, a big tale told in a big landscape with acres of orchestrated strings by Malcolm Arnold. It's a beautiful and beautifully made film that's a classic of the "everyone said I couldn't but I did it anyway" genre.--Richard Farr

• The Prince And The Showgirl | DVD | (07/05/2001) from £6.33   |  Saving you £7.66 (121.01%)   |  RRP £13.99

  The Prince and the Showgirl (1957) was Marilyn Monroe's only British-made film and scores highly for curiosity value. There's something rather outrageous about this iconic American star playing a second-rate hoofer living in a theatrical boarding house in Brixton. Monroe herself is predictably good and touching as Elsie Marina, plucked from the chorus to entertain the Regent of Carpathia for the evening and ultimately smoothing his rough edges. There is, however, a rather uphill feeling all the way. The making of the movie was by all accounts a troubled experience for everybody concerned. Monroe, increasingly unreliable and exasperating, had an unsympathetic director in Laurence Olivier, also playing the Regent Charles, who hardly had the patience for a star of her mercurial talents with her own ideas of professional behaviour. His own performance as the Balkan royal is hammy and mannered and there isn't even a damp squib of sexual chemistry between them. Terence Rattigan's script, based on his successful play, is far too wordy and stage-bound. But somehow Monroe effervesces through all this adversity, aided considerably by British character actor Richard Wattis and the great Sybil Thorndyke, who became her ally during the difficult filming. Not vintage Marilyn but fascinating all the same, and she looks fantastic. On the DVD: The Prince and the Showgirl is presented in 4:3 with an occasionally muffled, apparently mono, soundtrack, giving this DVD a rather dusty quality which is in keeping with the vintage British 1950s production values. Extras include a cast list, original trailer and newsreel footage of the announcement that Marilyn was to make the film with Olivier, referred to at that stage as The Sleeping Prince. --Piers Ford

• The Importance Of Being Earnest | DVD | (15/06/2009) from £13.50   |  Saving you £-0.51 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  The timeless 1952 version of Oscar Wilde's comedy of errors in a Special Collectors' Edition.

• Inn Of The Sixth Happiness | DVD | (18/04/2005) from £6.89   |  Saving you £6.10 (88.53%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Inspired by her dream to be a missionary an English parlour maid journeys to China and opens an inn for tired hungry mule drivers crossing desolate mountain trails. Gradually overcoming the natives hostility she wins the heart of an Eurasian colonel and converts a powerful Mandarin to Christianity. But her greatest feat is achieved during the Japanese invasion of China when she leads one hundred homeless children to safety across enemy-held terrain. Based on the life story of G

• The Happiest Days Of Your Life | DVD | (04/05/2009) from £17.53   |  Saving you £-1.54 (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  From acclaimed director Frank Launder The Happiest Days Of Your Life is a precursor to the hugely successful St. Trinian's series. Nutbourn College the most established and respectable of boys' schools is run by unyielding Headmaster Wetherby Pond [Alastair Sim.] When a military mistake billets a girls' school to share the college's premises due to wartime restrictions he is outraged. However he soon discovers he has met his match when he encounters the Headmistress of the girls' school in question the formidable Muriel Whitchurch [Margaret Rutherford]. Initially the two are hostile to one another but with a staff of dazed eccentric teachers and a student body whose mischief knows no bounds they are forced to pull together. Then just when they thought the situation couldn't get any more complicated they discover they are faced with two troublesome visits on the same day; one from a group of parents who must believe the school is only for girls and one from the Ministry who must be presented with an all boys establishment! Unmissable and hilarious this is classic British comedy at its best.

• The Final Test | DVD | (06/08/2007) from £12.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Sam Palmer is a cricket player who is playing his last matches of his career. His son Jackson is a poet who disappoints Sam by not attending his next-to-last game. Then Jackson is suddenly invited to the home of Alexander Whitehead. Jackson fears he will miss Sam's last game - but it turns out that Alexander is a cricket fan.

• The Importance Of Being Earnest | DVD | (08/10/1999) from £17.77   |  Saving you £-7.78 (-77.90%)   |  RRP £9.99

  The timeless 1952 version of Oscar Wilde's comedy of errors in a Special Collectors' Edition.

• Hobson's Choice / The Sound Barrier | DVD | (14/04/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £16.99

  Hobson's Choice (1953) and The Sound Barrier (1952) is a double bill of cleverly juxtaposed films from David Lean's early canon, demonstrating that even without the landmark epics to come, British cinema would have been an infinitely poorer place without his tremendous contribution. Both films reflect his endlessly penetrating view of human behaviour and its perseverance through obstacles great and small. And both are effectively prisms that reflect all the aspects of that view, keeping the audience's sympathies constantly on the move. Hobson's Choice, based on Harold Brighouse's eternally popular 1916 comedy, boasts fine turns from Charles Laughton--at his brilliant, physical best--as the boot-shop owner with three troublesome daughters, and John Mills as the lowly boot maker, elevated and improved by the eldest daughter Maggie in a neat inversion of the Pygmalion fable. But both are kept in their place by Brenda de Banzie's portrayal of Maggie, a performance that glows with intelligence, truth and increasing warmth. The Sound Barrier is a drama about the race for a supersonic aeroplane. Superficially, its setting is quintessential post-World War II Britain: stiff upper lips, twin beds and clipped Rattigan dialogue. But it's prescient stuff. Ralph Richardson's aircraft manufacturer, sinister in his obsession, is an ominously skilful film performance. And Lean's take on the unthinkable cost of human achievement, interwoven with some spectacular cinematography, absorbs and unsettles. It's especially poignant now that the supersonic age has been summarily ended by Concorde's retirement. On the DVD: Hobson's Choice and The Sound Barrier are both black-and-white films presented in 4:3 picture format, from reasonable prints, and with a mono soundtrack of suitably robust quality for Malcolm Arnold's inventive scores. There are no extras, apart from scene indexes. --Piers Ford

• Small Town Story | DVD | (03/08/2015) from £11.98   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  This excellent British thriller thought lost for decades stars Donald Houston Alan Wheatley and Susan Shaw (cast against type here in a 'bad-girl' role) in a gripping story of love and deception in the world of British association football. Featured here in a brand-new transfer from the original film elements Small Town Story includes appearances from football and cricketing legend Denis Compton along with players from Millwall Arsenal and Hayes football clubs and boasts the only screen acting credit of future World of Sport commentator Kent Walton. Though there is noticeable film damage in the first reel this is the only copy known to exist. Canadian ex-serviceman Bob Regan returns to Oldchester the English town where he was posted during the war. Meeting up with his friend Mike now manager of the local football club he discovers that Oldchester are desperate for promotion as they stand to inherit £25 000 from recently deceased supporter Wallace Hammond if they make the Third Division – a situation that Hammond's devious nephew finds intolerable... Features: Image gallery