"Actor: Roger Cook"

• The Cook, The Thief, His Wife And Her Lover | DVD | (10/11/2003) from £13.55   |  Saving you £2.44 (18.01%)   |  RRP £15.99

  The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover is both adored and detested for its combination of sumptuous beauty and revolting decadence. Few directors polarise audiences in the same way as Peter Greenaway, a filmmaker as influenced by Jacobean revenge tragedy and 17th-century painting as by the French New Wave. A vile, gluttonous thief (Michael Gambon) spews hate and abuse at a restaurant run by a stoic French cook (Richard Bohringer), but under the thief's nose his wife (the ever-sensuous Helen Mirren) conducts an affair with a bookish lover (Alan Howard). Clothing (by avant-garde designer Jean-Paul Gaultier) changes colour as the characters move from room to room. Nudity, torture, rotting meat, and Tim Roth at his sleaziest all contribute the atmosphere of decay and excess. Not for everyone, but for some, essential. --Bret Fetzer

• Magnum PI - Series 1 | DVD | (13/09/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £34.99

  A ratings hit for eight seasons on CBS, the action-mystery series Magnum, P.I. makes its DVD boxed set debut in an impressive five-disc package that offers not only the entire first season, but some rarely seen episodes. Positioned in the old Hawaii Five-O time slot (Thursdays at 9) in December of 1980, Magnum quickly became a hit, thanks to the combination of smart and witty scripting, gorgeous locations, and the considerable charm of lead Tom Selleck as former Naval Intelligence officer Thomas Magnum, who gives up his position to become a private investigator on Oahu with the help of fellow Vietnam vets T.C. (Roger E. Mosley) and Rick (Larry Manetti). Magnum also provided security for the lavish estate of wealthy (and never-seen) mystery writer Robin Masters, which gave him access to the author's expensive vehicles (including a prized Ferrari), much to the disapproval of Masters's manservant Higgins (Jonathan Hillerman). A rare series that skillfully blended action, humor, drama, and suspense, Magnum, P.I.'s first season gets the boxed set treatment its fans have been hoping for, with all 18 first-season episodes (including the two-part pilot, "Don't Eat the Snow in Hawaii") included on four discs. The fifth disc contains four rarely shown bonus episodes, including season 3's "Ki'ls Don't Lie," which featured a crossover plot with Simon and Simon, as well as its conclusion ("Emeralds Are Not a Girl's Best Friend"), which kicked off S&S's second season; the latter episode has never been aired as part of Magnum's syndicated package, which is another reason for fans to pick up and enjoy this long-awaited set. --Paul Gaita

• Victoria Wood - All The Trimmings | DVD | (25/11/2001) from £8.99   |  Saving you £7.00 (77.86%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Victoria Wood with All the Trimmings contains exactly what it says on the box. Harking back to the classic BBC Christmas comedy specials of yesteryear, the show features a star-studded cast: Alan Rickman, Richard E Grant, Michael Parkinson, Bob Monkhouse, Hugh Laurie, Angela Rippon, Roger Moore, Caroline Aherne, the list goes on. The show takes a typically idiosyncratic canter through a dream set of telly programmes for Christmas Day. Thus we get expertly played skits of A Christmas Carol (with Delia Smith as the cook); Brassed Off (in which Tony Blair solves the North/South divide by declaring everything The South); Brief Encounter (Parky as the station master, with a side order of drugs and lesbianism); a regency romantic drama (with the line "could you not stick your hand in your muff?") and lots more. What makes the production a true cut above, however, is the linking theme that takes a blatant pot shot at the modern BBC--or as Wood sees it--BBC Upmarket, BBC Downmarket, BBC Newmarket (for racing), BBC Makeover, BBC Takeover, etc. This is funny, cutting and achingly on the ball about the state of modern television.--Ian Watson

• Falling Up | DVD | (22/03/2010) from £5.38   |  Saving you £7.61 (141.45%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Herny O'Shea is a young nursing student who is forced to take on the burden of his family's mounting debts. He quits nursing school and goes to work as a doorman at an upscale 5th Avenue apartment building. His mum finds work at an adult video store and sister Cate has picked up extra shifts dog-walking. At the apartment building Henry meets Scarlett Dowling a beautiful young woman who lives with her wealthy parents in the top-floor penthouse and despite his boss' stern warnings about not fraternising with the tenants Henry repeatedly finds himself in situations with Scarlett that leaves his boss less than impressed.

• The Garden | DVD | (28/02/2005) from £10.78   |  Saving you £9.21 (85.44%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Filmed in the stark environs of Derek Jarman's coastal home in the shadow of Dungeness power station 'The Garden' is a powerful and moving series of allegorical dreamscapes. The narrative unfolds to find Jarman asleep at his desk surrounded by Christian imagery. His dreams transpose New Testament events into a contemporary context examining repressive attitudes towards homosexuality the AIDS crisis and Jarman's own feeling towards the Church.

• Legacy Of Evil | DVD | (03/03/2003) from £6.98   |  Saving you £-0.99 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Based on a true story. A man becomes plagued by nightmares and trances. He finds himself possessed by a demon which is trying to destroy his family...