"Actor: Simon Chandler"

• The Lord of the Rings (Animated Version) | DVD | (26/11/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £13.99

  Ralph Bakshi's 1978 animated adaptation of The Lord of the Rings is a bold, colourful, ambitious failure. Severely truncated, this two-hour version tackles only about half the story, climaxing with the battle of Helm's Deep and leaving poor Frodo and Sam still stuck on the borders of Mordor with Gollum. Allegedly, the director ran out of money and was unable to complete the project. As far as the film does go, however, it is a generally successful attempt at rendering Tolkien's landscapes of the imagination. Bakshi's animation uses a blend of conventional drawing and rotoscoped (traced) animated movements from live-action footage. The latter is at least in part a money-saving device, but it does succeed in lending some depth and a sense of otherworldly menace to the Black Riders and hordes of Orcs: Frodo's encounter at the ford of Rivendell, for example, is one of the movie's best scenes thanks to this mixture of animation techniques. Backdrops are detailed and well-conceived, and all the main characters are strongly drawn. Among a good cast, John Hurt (Aragorn) and C3PO himself, Anthony Daniels (Legolas), provide sterling voice characterisation, while Peter Woodthorpe gives what is surely the definitive Gollum (he revived his portrayal a couple of years later for BBC Radio's exhaustive 13-hour dramatisation). The film's other outstanding virtue is avant-garde composer Leonard Rosenman's magnificent score in which chaotic musical fragments gradually coalesce to produce the triumphant march theme that closes the picture. None of which makes up for the incompleteness of the movie, nor the severe abridging of the story actually filmed. Add to that some oddities--such as intermittently referring to Saruman as "Aruman"--and the final verdict must be that this is a brave yet ultimately unsatisfying work, noteworthy as the first attempt at transferring Tolkien to the big screen but one whose virtues are overshadowed by incompleteness. --Mark Walker

• Judge John Deed - Complete BBC Series 3 & 4 | DVD | (14/01/2008) from £10.99   |  Saving you £19.00 (172.88%)   |  RRP £29.99

  The Bafta Award-winning courtroom drama is back with the hard hitting Judge John Deed.

• PD James: The Adam Dalgliesh Chronicles | DVD | (28/09/2009) from £149.99   |  Saving you £-50.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £99.99

  A collection of PD James' crime mysteries, featuring Scotland Yard's Adam Dalgleish (Roy Marsden). 16 disc drama set made between 1983 and 1998. This collection is a must for all fans of high quality police drama

• Judge John Deed - Series 2 | DVD | (12/02/2007) from £6.12   |  Saving you £13.87 (226.63%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Deed is a high-court judge who's made it to the top through sheer determination and character without the help of the old boys network. Hating all things archaic and bureaucratic his passion for justice and his maverick approach attract as many supporters as they do detractors. His humanity and success in and out of court make him a hero figure to some but an enemy to others... Episodes Comprise: 1. Rough Justice 2. Duty Of Care 3. Appropriate Response 4. Hidden Agenda

• Murder Rooms - The Patient's Eyes | DVD | (11/03/2002) from £17.98   |  Saving you £-2.99 (-19.90%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Doyle now a newly qualified doctor is troubled by a beautiful young patient claiming to be the victim of a stalker - a shadowy figure who follows her into town on a bicycle. As Doyle himself discovers her fears appear to be more than mere fancy and soon the incomparable Dr. Bell is on the case. As the two investigate further events take a gradually more sinister turn with corpses starting to appear an old house with a gruesome past and the worrying disappearance of Doyle's y

• The Bletchley Circle | DVD | (05/11/2012) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

  In World War II they were code-breakers at Bletchley Park; brilliant, invaluable members of an elite team whose task was to crack German intelligence. Their success was their downfall. Seven years after helping to win the war they are housewives, mothers, girlfriends, shadows. Bound to the Official Secrets Act, their part in the Allied victory cannot be told; their finest abilities covered in dust sheets of security never to be seen again – unless... Susan has been reading newspapers, listening to the radio, following news of a serial killer targeting young women. She believes she can flesh out the pattern that will reveal his identity, but she can't do it alone. Calling on her companions from Bletchley, she persuades them to join her. But can yesterday's code breakers become today's detectives? All it will take is following the trail, breaking the code - and possibly risking their lives. Special Features: Behind the Scenes Cast Filmographies Picture Gallery Subtitles

• The Bounty | DVD | (04/03/2002) from £11.98   |  Saving you £-3.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  The Bounty is the third screen version of one of the best-known stories in naval history, here with Anthony Hopkins as Lieutenant William Bligh and Mel Gibson as Fletcher Christian heading an extraordinary cast including Laurence Olivier, Edward Fox, Daniel Day-Lewis, Liam Neeson, Bernard Hill and Dexter Fletcher. HMS Bounty's voyage to Tahiti of 1787-9 and its infamous consequences are recounted with far greater historical accuracy than in the 1935 or 1962 Mutiny on the Bounty. The movie is gorgeously shot on location in Tahiti, England and New Zealand as well as on a full-size recreation of the original Bounty. Roger Donaldson's film benefits from a literate screenplay by Robert Bolt, who here as in Lawrence of Arabia (1962), brings real insight into the English institutional mind in conflict. Hopkins is at his complex best and Gibson offers more depth than his usual two-dimensional hero persona; here Bligh and Christian emerge as complex men gripped by circumstances beyond their control. The haunting score by Vangelis contributes immensely to a very underrated film which deserves to be considered a modern classic. On the DVD: There is an excellent 52-minute "making of" documentary that mixes historical information with on-location interviews. A 12-minute overview of previous screen versions of the story is narrated by the film's historical consultant, Stephen Walters, who also provides a somewhat stilted but nevertheless informative audio commentary. The second audio commentary is from director Roger Donaldson, Producer Bernie Williams and Production Designer John Graysmark, who genuinely appear to enjoy reminiscing and have real enthusiasm for the movie. Also included is a fascinating 28-page booklet. This is the stuff Special Editions should always be made of, and this would be one of the finest DVDs on the market were it not for the transfer of the film itself, which appears to be a reprocessed version of the same NTSC anamorphic 2.35:1 transfer found on the bare-bones Region 1 DVD, with no sign of PAL speed-up. The picture not only shows considerable grain in some scenes, but also demonstrates marked compression artefacting and enhancement shimmer on all horizontal lines, making some scenes extremely ugly. For such a beautiful film it is a most disappointing transition to the digital format. Most unusually for a UK release, the disc is region free.--Gary S Dalkin

• The Commissioner | DVD | (17/02/2003) from £3.99   |  Saving you £2.00 (50.13%)   |  RRP £5.99

  A member of the British government is sent to Brussels to become British Commissioner to the European Community where he uncovers political and industrial corruption...

• PD James' Adam Dagliesh Chronicles | DVD | (19/02/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £99.99

  A collection of the many cases of Detective Adam Dalgliesh.

• Murder Rooms - The Photographer's Chair | DVD | (11/03/2002) from £11.34   |  Saving you £3.65 (32.19%)   |  RRP £14.99

  1882: London is in the grip of spirtualists and seances. Arthur Conan Doyle joins Dr Joseph Bell in a labyrinthine task of investigating a number of corpses found mutilated floating in the River Thames. Their quest to uncover the architect behind the gruesome murders leads them through London's underground world of soothsayers and mediums. As the two sleuths probe deeper they find themselves dangerously caught up in a 'spiritualism' darker and more terrifying than either man coul

• Sword Of Honour | DVD | (14/04/2003) from £22.08   |  Saving you £-12.09 (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Award-winning novelist and screenwriter William Boyd brings Evelyn Waugh's classic trilogy of the Second World War vividly to life in this epic two-part drama starring Daniel Craig Megan Dodds Leslie Phillips Julian Rhind-Tutt Robert Pugh and Katrina Cartlidge. At the heart of the story is one man's heroic quest: Guy Crouchback (Daniel Craig) returns from his self-imposed exile in Italy in 1939 and joins the army to fight for a deep moral cause and reclaim his self-respect following a shattering divorce from society beauty Virginia Troy (Megan Dodds). But as his encounters with the absurd reality of life in the armed forces in his training at Southend-on-Sea and the Isle of Mugg and in his postings to Dakar Alexandria and Crete prove to be more of a challenge than facing the enemy itself. Virginia has also returned to London from America at the start of the war having parted with husband number three. As Britain's fortunes dwindle so do Virginia's until Guy appears to be her only hope. On his return to London she tracks him down. In strong contrast to the darkly comic nature of his military experience his renewed and passionate acquaintance with his dangerously beautiful ex-wife provokes a personal and moral crisis that tests - to the limits - both his love for Virginia and his profound sense of duty. Sword of Honour is both a war story and a love story - as well as a biting satire on the emergence of the world we live in today.

• Spice World - the Movie | DVD | (01/10/1999) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  One of the reasons that the Spice Girls remain so much fun is that in the great British tradition, they don't take themselves too seriously. Like The Beatles before them, the girls are more than happy to take pot-shots at their own manufactured image, something that Spiceworld: The Movie revels in. It doesn't hurt, of course, that plenty of others are along for the ride: Richard E. Grant chews scenery as the road manager; Meat Loaf is the kindly, ever-reliable bus driver; Elvis Costello (!) makes a tongue-in-cheek cameo; and Roger Moore is... well, bizarre. The plot, as such, is merely a convenience, somehow tying together the girls' first-ever live concert, a pregnant friend, a documentary film crew, a non-Spice love story, and something or other about a tabloid photographer. But that's not the point--what matters here is a surprisingly deft touch by director Bob Spiers and a script that refuses to take anything too seriously; the result is a gentle self-parody that knows just how far to take the joke. --Randy Silver

• The Lord of the Rings -- Limited Edition Box Set | DVD | (26/11/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Ralph Bakshi's 1978 animated adaptation of The Lord of the Rings is a bold, colourful, ambitious failure. Severely truncated, this two-hour version tackles only about half the story, climaxing with the battle of Helm's Deep and leaving poor Frodo and Sam still stuck on the borders of Mordor with Gollum. Allegedly, the director ran out of money and was unable to complete the project. As far as the film does go, however, it is a generally successful attempt at rendering Tolkien's landscapes of the imagination. Bakshi's animation uses a blend of conventional drawing and rotoscoped (traced) animated movements from live-action footage. The latter is at least in part a money-saving device, but it does succeed in lending some depth and a sense of otherworldly menace to the Black Riders and hordes of Orcs: Frodo's encounter at the ford of Rivendell, for example, is one of the film's best scenes thanks to this mixture of animation techniques. Backdrops are detailed and well conceived, and all the main characters are strongly drawn. Among a good cast, John Hurt (Aragorn) and C3PO himself, Anthony Daniels (Legolas), provide sterling voice characterisation, while Peter Woodthorpe gives what is surely the definitive Gollum (he revived his portrayal a couple of years later for BBC Radio's exhaustive 13-hour dramatisation). The film's other outstanding virtue is avant-garde composer Leonard Rosenman's magnificent score in which chaotic musical fragments gradually coalesce to produce the triumphant march theme that closes the picture. None of which makes up for the incompleteness of the movie, nor the severe abridging of the story actually filmed. Add to that some oddities--such as intermittently referring to Saruman as "Aruman"--and the final verdict must be that this is a brave yet ultimately unsatisfying work, noteworthy as the first attempt at transferring Tolkien to the big screen but one whose virtues are overshadowed by incompleteness. --Mark Walker

• The Bounty | UMD | (01/01/1980) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99