"Actor: Sergei Khrushchev"

• The Planets | DVD | (24/01/2000) from £6.05   |  Saving you £28.94 (478.35%)   |  RRP £34.99

  While watching The Planets, be prepared to fight your way past all kinds of computer animation which makes Walking with Dinosaurs seem like the last word in realism. It seems that no solar or planetary event which ever happened (or which may or may not have happened) is worthy of mention here without recourse to lovingly detailed shots of implausible-looking collisions and explosions. These come complete with sound effects, despite the fact that there is no sound in the vacuum of space, and are enhanced by a range of colours, some of which are visible only to bees. Somehow Patrick Moore's The Sky at Night manages to convey just as much excitement with little more than a couple of diagrams and the presenter's hyperactive enthusiasm. Fortunately, this two-DVD set is redeemed by both its subject matter and its sheer scope, offering all eight 50-minute episodes of the 1999 documentary series covering the history of the solar system and humanity's age-old desire to learn its secrets. Detailed indexing and scene access makes this a convenient reference source too, so amateur astronomers everywhere can finally bin those off-air VHS copies. --Roger Thomas

• The Life and Times of Fidel Castro | DVD | (23/08/2010) from £9.99   |  Saving you £3.00 (30.03%)   |  RRP £12.99

  This compelling account of Fidel Castro has never been heard - the account of Castro himself taken largely from private letters speeches and interviews - with exclusive footage of Castro's childhood home. Castro's many political battles are discussed by players in the confrontations: John F. Kennedy's speech writer Theodore Sorensen recalls the Cuban Missile crisis; Sergei Khrushchev speaks of his father's memories of Castro; and Jimmy Carter discusses the US embargo against Cuba.