"Actor: Samantha Seager"

• Johnny And The Bomb | DVD | (04/09/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Based on the book by Terry Pratchett Johnny And The Bomb is a time-slip adventure that takes Johnny Maxwell and his pals back into the Second World War. Johnny just happens to be on hand when time-travelling Mrs Tachyon is blown quite literally from 1941 to 2005 landing in a heap almost at Johnny's feet. While poor Mrs T is in hospital Johnny inherits her shopping trolley and its unusual cargo - the Bags of Time. Everything revolves around the 21 May 1941 when the small Pennine town of Blackbury suffered its only air raid of the Second World War. Along with Mrs Tachyon Johnny's Gran and Grandad were there - of course they were only teenagers at the time - but they fell in love when Grandad Tom Maxwell made his epic bike ride to raise the alarm and saved the residents of Paradise Street (including his future bride the pretty young Rose Bushell) from the horrors of the Blitz. Tom and Rose survived to get married and the rest is history - at least it was until young Johnny started messing with the Bags of Time! Johnny and his friends slip back to the Second World War and with the best of intentions start 'bumping into things'. And this is where Terry Pratchett asks the big question - if you could go back in time would your actions make any difference or is history already written? In the world of Pratchett everything makes a difference... maybe not a big difference but a difference. This edition blend all 3 episodes together to create one full-length movie.

• The Lakes | DVD | (06/10/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  The Lakes brought writer Jimmy McGovern and actor John Simm a great deal of critical praise in 1997. Following a particularly dry period for British TV drama, the show's realistic characterisations and their painfully honest decisions hit audiences hard. Simm is a twentysomething trapped in a life of compulsive gambling, theft and being on the dole in Liverpool. On a whim he heads north to the Lake District. He expects to find the countryside quietude where his hidden poetical leanings might find a home, but instead gets caught up in a community like any other. Lies, temptation and tragedy beset every household just as much as the big city. The focus of Series 1 is Danny's relationship with Emma (Emma Cunniffe) and the consequences of having a child. As time races by, his link to the Lakes becomes an exercise in torment when the eyes of blame fall easily upon him after the accidental deaths of four schoolgirls. Stoking the flames of a series of secondary explosions in waiting are a pair of affairs, one adulterous, the other complicated by religion. On the DVD: The Lakes Series 1 comes with two separate commentary tracks for the very first episode. In interviews, John Simm fondly recalls how cold the lake water was and director David Blair recalls putting him in it. It's a shame the two weren't recorded together. It's also a shame that's all there is in this package. Even a few cast biographies would have been welcome. Picture is 4:3 and stereo sound is as you'd expect from 1990s UK TV. --Paul Tonks