"Actor: Tim Woodward"

• Winston Churchill - The Wilderness Years - Vol. 2: In High Places / A Menace In The House | DVD | (26/11/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  It’s easy to forget that before fronting the British war effort through most of World War II, Winston Churchill had spent the previous decade isolated in Parliament and in internal opposition to the Conservative party. Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years dramatises this period in which the growing menace of Nazism in Germany was met with indifference, even fear by governments of the day who were more concerned with their survival than in serving those who had elected them. Churchill is perceptively played by Robert Hardy, confirming the image without falling into caricature. Visionary and obstinate by turns, he galvanises his supporters and enrages his enemies with a passion borne of conviction. A seasoned British cast includes Peter Barkworth as the amiable but ineffectual Stanley Baldwin, Eric Porter as the truly "out of time" Neville Chamberlain, Edward Woodward as the scheming Samuel Hoare and Nigel Havers as the tragically flawed Randolph Churchill. Martin Gilbert has done a persuasive job transforming his novel into a TV script, the scenes in the House of Commons having a gritty reality that makes compulsive viewing. On the DVD: it’s a pity that the Southern Pictures production, first screened in 1981, has emerged so dimly in this incarnation. Has the master tape eroded so badly, or was it simply not available? However, it’s worth putting up with the technical defects to enjoy this historically informed and grippingly dramatic serial. --Richard Whitehouse

• Winston Churchill - The Wilderness Years - Vol. 3: The Flying Peril / His Own Funeral | DVD | (26/11/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  It’s easy to forget that before fronting the British war effort through most of World War II, Winston Churchill had spent the previous decade isolated in Parliament and in internal opposition to the Conservative party. Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years dramatises this period in which the growing menace of Nazism in Germany was met with indifference, even fear by governments of the day who were more concerned with their survival than in serving those who had elected them. Churchill is perceptively played by Robert Hardy, confirming the image without falling into caricature. Visionary and obstinate by turns, he galvanises his supporters and enrages his enemies with a passion borne of conviction. A seasoned British cast includes Peter Barkworth as the amiable but ineffectual Stanley Baldwin, Eric Porter as the truly "out of time" Neville Chamberlain, Edward Woodward as the scheming Samuel Hoare and Nigel Havers as the tragically flawed Randolph Churchill. Martin Gilbert has done a persuasive job transforming his novel into a TV script, the scenes in the House of Commons having a gritty reality that makes compulsive viewing. On the DVD: it’s a pity that the Southern Pictures production, first screened in 1981, has emerged so dimly in this incarnation. Has the master tape eroded so badly, or was it simply not available? However, it’s worth putting up with the technical defects to enjoy this historically informed and grippingly dramatic serial. --Richard Whitehouse

• The Killing Of A Chinese Bookie | DVD | (23/10/2006) from £16.20   |  Saving you £-0.21 (-1.30%)   |  RRP £15.99

  A small-time Los Angeles night club owner falls for a lavish invitation to gamble at a private club. After losing high stakes on extended credit he is pressured by a gangster to erase his debt by killing a rival underworld power referred to only as 'The Chinese Bookie'...

• Winston Churchill - The Wilderness Years | DVD | (03/12/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £34.99

  It's easy to forget that, though fronting the British war effort through most of World War Two, Winston Churchill had spent the previous decade isolated in Parliament and in an internal opposition to the Conservative party. Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years dramatises this period, in which the growing menace of Nazism in Germany was met with indifference, even fear by governments of the day who were more concerned with their survival than in serving those who had elected them. Churchill is perceptively played by Robert Hardy who confirms the image without falling into caricature. Visionary and obstinate by turns, he galvanises his supporters and enrages his enemies with a passion borne of conviction. A seasoned British cast includes Peter Barkworth as the amiable but ineffectual Stanley Baldwin, Eric Porter as the truly "out of time" Neville Chamberlain, Edward Woodward as the scheming Samuel Hoare, and Nigel Havers as the tragically flawed Randolph Churchill. Martin Gilbert has done a persuasive job transforming his novel into a TV script, the scenes in the House of Commons having a gritty reality that makes compulsive viewing. On the DVD: It's a pity that the Southern Pictures production first screened in 1981 has emerged so dimly in this incarnation. Has the master tape eroded so badly, or was it simply not available? However, it's worth putting up with the technical defects to enjoy this historically informed and grippingly dramatic serial. --Richard Whitehouse

• 3 Classic Cult Comedies - Wilt / Leon The Pig Farmer / Personal Services | DVD | (20/10/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Wilt - Henry Wilt is a teacher of liberal studies to students on day-release from the nearby pie factory. His night-time fantasies are full of ways in which to murder his bossy wife Eva. When she goes missing Police Inspector Russell Flint attempts to charge Wilt for the 'crime'... Leon The Pig Farmer - A young Jewish estate agent in London suffers an identity crisis when he discovers that his real father is a Yorkshire pig farmer... Personal Services - Julie Walters gives a sterling performance in this riotous comedy which takes a look behind the scenes at the sex-life of the British inspired by the life the notorious Madam Cynthia Payne...

• Prime Suspect 4 - Scent Of Darkness | DVD | (12/05/2003) from £12.62   |  Saving you £-2.63 (-26.30%)   |  RRP £9.99

  A series of brutal sex murders disturbingly similar to the pattern of Tennison's first major case leads to the awful suggestion that she may have caught the wrong man...