"Actor: Timothy Spall"

• Secrets & Lies | DVD | (23/02/2015) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  If a film fan had never heard of director Mike Leigh, one might explain him as a British Woody Allen. Not that Leigh's films are whimsical or neurotic; they are tough-love examinations of British life--funny, outlandish and biting. His films share a real immediacy with Allen's work: they feel as if they are happening now. Leigh works with actors--real actors--on ideas and language. There is no script at the start (and sometimes not at the end). Secrets and Lies involves Hortense (Marianne Jean-Baptiste), an elegant black woman wanting to learn her birth mother's identity. She will find it's Cynthia (Brenda Blethyn), who is one of the saddest creatures we've seen in film. She's also one of the most real and, ultimately, one of the most loveable. Timothy Spall is Cynthia's brother, a giant man full of love who is being slowly defeated by his fastidious wife (Phyllis Logan). There is a great exuberance of life in Secrets & Lies, winner of the Palme D'Or and best actress (Blethyn) at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival--not Zorba-type life but the little battles fought and won every day. Leigh's honest interpretation of daily life is usually found only on the stage. Secrets & Lies is more realistic than a stage production, however, especially when Leigh shows us uninterrupted scenes. Critic David Denby states that Leigh has "made an Ingmar Bergman film without an instant of heaviness or pretension." If that sounds like your cup of tea, see Secrets & Lies. --Doug Thomas

• Enchanted | Blu Ray | (07/04/2008) from £5.48   |  Saving you £18.51 (337.77%)   |  RRP £23.99

  A classic Disney fairytale collides with modern-day New York City in a story about a fairytale princess thrust into the cynical Big Apple by an evil queen.

• Perfect Strangers | DVD | (09/02/2004) from £11.10   |  Saving you £8.89 (80.09%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Perfect Strangers, Stephen Poliakoff's TV drama, depicts an upper-class English family where distrust, dysfunction and despair are guests at the party. "As you know, in all families, things happen", says the cool Lindsay Duncan. That's the premise: things happen, some of them nasty. The family, once "mini-Rothchilds" and still "drowning in money", are gathered together in an opulent hotel for a grand reunion; the only thing wrong with the idea is that many of them are perfect strangers and the event begins to look more like a conference than an event with heart. Into the blend of well-heeled guests comes the Hillingdon contingent led by Raymond (Michael Gambon), the black ram of the family. His son, Daniel, is a surveyor and true to his profession sets about assessing the fault lines running through the family. Underlying it all is a sense of unease so that even pleasantries come across as deeply unpleasant. Raymond warns us that: "Everybody always lies". Drama arises from the emergence of truth and buried bits of the past, as old photographs are screened to family members provoking curiosity about what lies behind the images. Scratch a surface and everywhere there's pain and mystery. Filmed in lavish London settings where everything is clean and sleek, Perfect Strangers makes for slick visual entertainment. Although the dialogue is stilted and at times surreal, the music by Adrian Johnston cannot be faulted. --Joan Byrne

• The Enfield Haunting | DVD | (19/10/2015) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  In August 1977, in a seemingly normal house in Enfield, North London a series of disturbing paranormal events have begun to take place. Reports of an unworldly presence making repeated attempts on the life of 11-year-old Janet Hodgson soon attracts the attention of paranormal investigator Maurice Grosse (Timothy Spall) who is convinced that the house is plagued by a poltergeist. With the attacks growing increasingly violent by the day Maurice will stop at nothing to protect Janet from these strange and dark forces.

• Mr. Turner | DVD | (02/03/2015) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Still Crazy | DVD | (11/10/1999) from £12.12   |  Saving you £2.13 (19.61%)   |  RRP £12.99

  This gently satirical British comedy chronicles the quixotic reunion of a late, arguably not-so-great and unlamented 70s rock band, Strange Fruit, with a winning mix of humour and poignancy. The "Fruits", as the survivors call themselves without irony, had disbanded after the tragic loss of one member, the mysterious disappearance of another and the aftershocks of internal rivalries, but 20 years later they warily reassemble for a Dutch club tour, a warm-up for a proposed festival appearance. Between that seemingly hare-brained proposal and the fateful festival, director Brian Gibson, working from a sharp script by Dick Clement and Ian LaFrenais, captures the absurdities of middle-aged rockers trying to recapture that lost cockiness.Breathing life into the band is a terrific cast, including Stephen Rea, Jimmy Nail, Timothy Spall and Bill Nighy, each managing to juggle deft archetype with believable character traits: Spall's cheerfully crass, flatulent drummer and Nighy's preening, slow-witted lead singer exemplify the approach, grabbing chuckles yet making you actually care about them. Equally impressive is Billy Connolly as the wily roadie, Hughie, at once pragmatic and devoted to his charges. All are well-served by production details and script points that get the group's lost world of late 60s and early 70s rock exactly right, from costuming and stage moves to the long-forgotten bands they name-check--Blodwyn Pig, anybody?The band's music likewise benefits from inspired insiders, cowriters Mick Jones (Spooky Tooth, Foreigner) and Chris Difford (Squeeze), who hit a nifty combination of bombast (for the silly scenes) and earnestness. When Gibson and his cast risk the story's amiable glow on a darker, more dramatic final act, the music rises to the challenge and the whole project, like its fictional subject, achieves an unexpectedly touching victory. --Sam Sutherland

• COI Collection Vol 6: Worth the Risk? | DVD | (07/11/2011) from £18.75   |  Saving you £1.24 (6.61%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Health, safety and welfare messages are at the heart of the sixth volume in the COI Collection. Crossing the road; sensible drinking; playing with matches; the welfare state; combating terrorism; decrimalisation; crime prevention; surviving nuclear attack...and much, much more, are all tackled here with the usual mix of horror, humour, shock tactics and gentle persuasion. Highlights include: Skateboard Safety (1978), the pioneering animation Charley's March of Time (1948), Say No to Strangers (1981) starring Timothy Spall, and the unnerving Cold War era film Hole in the Ground (1962) in which warning and defence measures against nuclear attack are depicted.

• Epics | DVD | (18/09/2006) from £12.64   |  Saving you £5.35 (42.33%)   |  RRP £17.99

  The Last Samurai: Decorated Civil War veteran Nathan Algren (Cruise) is sent to Japan to train and lead the Emperor's troops in modern Western gunpowder intensive warfare to eliminate the country's remaining rebelling samurai. Captured and imprisoned by the outlawed warriors Algren is slowly swayed by their strict adherence to the honourable code of Bushido and when the Emperor's forces mass once again Algren offers to join his former captors in an effort to preserve their way of life... Alexander: The Director's Cut: Oliver Stone's Alexander is based on the true story of one of history's most luminous and influential leaders Alexander the Great (Colin Farrell) - a man who had conquered 90% of the known world by the age of 27. Alexander led his virtually invincible Greek and Macedonian armies through 22 000 miles of sieges and conquests in just eight years and by the time of his death at the age of 32 had forged an empire unlike any the world had ever seen. The film chronicles Alexander's path to becoming a living legend from a youth fueled by dreams of myth glory and adventure to his lonely death as a ruler of a vast Empire. Alexander is the incredible story of a life that united the known world and proved if nothing else fortune favours the bold. This release of Oliver Stone's Alexander features his director's cut (167 mins); which re-imagines and re-shapes the original theatrical film with virtually hundreds of edits and re-configurations of sequences. Troy: In 1193B.C. the dandy Trojan prince Paris (Bloom) irresponsibly spirits away the unhappy wife of Menelaus (Gleeson) the Spartan king. Demanding the return of Helen the Greeks launch a thousand ships and lay siege to Troy. Under the command of Agamemnon (Cox) revered warrior Achilles (Pitt) leads the Greek forces against the Trojan defenders commanded by Hector (Bana) who carries the fate of his nation on his shoulders...

• Gothic | Blu Ray | (18/09/2023) from £14.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Directed by cult favourite Ken Russell (The Devils) and starring Gabriel Byrne (The Usual Suspects), Julian Sands (A Room with a View), Natasha Richardson (The Comfort of Strangers) and Timothy Spall (Secrets & Lies), Gothic delves into the erotic and terrifying night that ultimately birthed Mary Shelley's classic horror story Frankenstein. When a wild storm rages over Lord Byron's literary house party, he suggests to his guests that they concoct a ghost story. However, upon deciding to hold a séance they soon conjure up their deepest fears. Plunged into a surreal horror, they wonder if it's merely the power of their own intense lust and vivid imaginations that is tormenting them, or if they have in fact raised the dead!

• Topsy-Turvy | DVD | (11/09/2000) from £18.37   |  Saving you £-5.38 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  1880's London. The popular comic operas of Gilbert (words) and Sullivan (music) have never failed, but their latest, 'Princess Ida' receives a lukewarm press.

• Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban (Single Disc Edition) | DVD | (24/10/2005) from £4.85   |  Saving you £5.14 (105.98%)   |  RRP £9.99

  In this third instalment in the blockbusting series a notorious prisoner escapes from the prison for wizards, and young wizard Harry Potter is believed to be his target for death.

• Wake Wood | DVD | (28/03/2011) from £6.39   |  Saving you £6.60 (103.29%)   |  RRP £12.99

  The parents of a girl who was killed by a savage dog are granted the opportunity to spend three days with their deceased daughter.

• Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire | DVD | (20/03/2006) from £5.00   |  Saving you £20.99 (419.80%)   |  RRP £25.99

  Harry must compete in the prestigious Triwizard Tournament in this fantasy smash.

• Wicked Little Letters | Blu Ray | (13/05/2024) from £7.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  A 1920s English seaside town bears witness to a farcical and occasionally sinister scandal in this riotous mystery comedy. Based on a stranger than fiction true story, WICKED LITTLE LETTERS follows two neighbours: deeply conservative local Edith Swan (Olivia Colman) and rowdy Irish migrant Rose Gooding (Jessie Buckley). When Edith and fellow residents begin to receive wicked letters full of unintentionally hilarious profanities, foul-mouthed Rose is charged with the crime. The anonymous letters prompt a national uproar, and a trial ensues. However, as the town's women - led by Police Officer Gladys Moss (Anjana Vasan) - begin to investigate the crime themselves, they suspect that something is amiss, and Rose may not be the culprit after all.

• Pierrepoint | Blu Ray | (07/12/2009) from £7.99   |  Saving you £8.00 (100.13%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Following in the footsteps of his father, Albert joins the 'family business'... being a master craftsman hangman.

• The Fattest Man In Britain | DVD | (28/12/2009) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Fattest Man In Britain

• The Syndicate | DVD | (07/05/2012) from £13.93   |  Saving you £6.06 (43.50%)   |  RRP £19.99

  The Syndicate is a brand new five-part drama for BBC One which follows five workers at a cut-price supermarket in Leeds whose lives are turned upside down after they jointly win the lottery, going from facing redundancy and battling the present economic downturn to having more money than they ever dreamt of.Timothy Spall plays supermarket manager Bob, whose newfound wealth cannot mask his persistent health problems. Joanna Page plays single mother Leanne, who although welcomes her financial freedom, is worried about the consequences that the win will bring.They are joined by their supermarket colleagues - dog-loving Denise, played by Lorraine Bruce (Dalziel And Pascoe, Benidorm), and brothers Stuart, played by Matthew McNulty (Five Days, Lark Rise To Candleford, Single Handed), and Jamie played by Matthew Lewis (Harry Potter).The Syndicate is written by Kay Mellor, whose previous critically acclaimed dramas include: Band Of Gold, Playing The Field, Fat Friends, The Chase and A Passionate Woman.

• Outside Edge-Series 2 | DVD | (19/06/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Brenda Blethyn (Pride and Prejudice Belonging) and Robert Daws (The Royal Jeeves and Wooster) return as the prim and precise Miriam and Roger Dervish with Josie Lawrence (Marple Holby City) and Timothy Spall (Auf Wiedersehen Pet The Street) as their bright and bohemian friends Maggie and Kevin Costello. This ratings-winning complete second series reunites the Costellos and Dervishes - as different as chalk and cheese but thrust together through the men

• The Last Samurai (Two Disc Edition) | DVD | (07/05/2004) from £4.50   |  Saving you £11.49 (255.33%)   |  RRP £15.99

  When an American military officer is hired by the Emperor of Japan to train the country's first army in the 1870s, he is unexpectedly impressed by the Imperial Samurai warriors and their way of life.

• Lemony Snicket: Series Of Unfortunate | DVD | (27/05/2005) from £4.94   |  Saving you £15.05 (304.66%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Jim Carrey stars as a dastardly Count who won't stop at anything to snatch the huge inheritance from three orphaned kids.