"Actor: Wallace Langham"

• Combat Academy | DVD | (04/03/2002) from £4.87   |  Saving you £-0.88 (N/A%)   |  RRP £3.99

  A wise-cracking hipster and a nerd are sent to a military academy to be straightened out. But the two manage to turn the academy inside out with their comic capers and war games.

• CSI: Crime Scene Investigation - Season 3 Part 1 | DVD | (05/04/2004) from £4.62   |  Saving you £35.37 (765.58%)   |  RRP £39.99

  Now firmly established as the top-rated US drama, by its third year CSI: Crime Scene Investigation is a show positively glowing with confidence. Even when individual cases seem either too contrived or too easily resolved, the indefatigable night shift at the Las Vegas PD crime lab always look the part, solving conundrums and discovering microscopic damning evidence while, apparently, never shedding their own loose hair or skin cells all over the supposedly quarantined crime scenes. In reality, Catherine Willows' flowing blonde locks would contaminate any evidence she collected, but in the world of CSI only the bad guys leave body parts behind--the CSIs themselves are so good they're positively pristine. The first 12 episodes of season 3 on this three-disc set present more deliciously bizarre situations for the problem-solving sleuths: cannibalism, snuff movies, dwarfs, death while drag racing, bodies falling from the sky, and various dismemberments all tax the team's acumen. These are all double or multiple-case episodes, though in a characteristic trick of the writing sometimes apparently unrelated murders turn out to be connected (or vice versa, as in "Blood Lust", where a road accident victim is not what he seems, and the death of the driver at the hands of an angry mob is made all the more tragic.) The mix of genuine forensic science with the glossiest Jerry Bruckheimer production values, plus the virtues of a good ensemble cast headed by William Peterson's modern-day Sherlock Holmes, remains as compelling as ever. --Mark Walker

• CSI: Crime Scene Investigation - Season 3 Part 2 | DVD | (05/07/2004) from £7.99   |  Saving you £32.00 (400.50%)   |  RRP £39.99

  The second half of CSI's third season serves up generous amounts of the bizarre and depraved for our voyeuristic viewing pleasure: a man driving with a wooden spike in his head, ultra-violent Robot Wars, decomposing bodies in toxic waste drums and violent death during foam-soaked debauchery all add up to a typical night's work for the Las Vegas crime lab. Standout episodes include the 90-minute special, "Lady Heather's Box", in which Grissom renews his acquaintance with the sultry bordello madam and her world of S&M. But is the delightful dominatrix the murderer? In "Night at the Movies" the plot hinges on a reworking of a Hitchcock classic and in "Play with Fire" an explosion in the lab has disastrous consequences for the team. Personal concerns come to the fore in these 12 episodes more prominently than ever before (a contrast to the show's original single-minded focus on the cases). Here, Sara Sidle's paramedic boyfriend unwittingly reveals a guilty secret when he is involved in a devastating car accident ("Crash & Burn"); Warwick witnesses his boyhood mentor falling apart when the older man's daughter is killed in a drive-by shooting ("Random Acts of Violence"); Catherine Willows' daughter and ex-husband are caught up in more violence and mayhem; and Grissom finally has to admit that his hearing problem can no longer be ignored. A welcome development is the expansion of the CSI unit and the introduction of some new, albeit secondary, team members. Guest stars include Elizabeth Berkely ("Lady Heather's Box") and Bobcat Goldthwait ("Last Laugh"). The show remains unrivalled for slick, fast-paced entertainment. On the DVD: CSI, Series 3 Part 2 is a three-disc set with a handful of minor extra features. It has two frankly rather uninspiring episode commentaries featuring the directors, scriptwriters and other crew. Better are the two small featurettes--"Making It Real" and "The Writer's Room"--that shed more light on the making of the show. --Mark Walker

• CSI: Crime Scene Investigation - Season 2 Part 2 | DVD | (06/10/2003) from £16.62   |  Saving you £23.37 (140.61%)   |  RRP £39.99

  Thanks to its focus on more single-case episodes, the second half of CSI's second series is an even more highly concentrated dose of forensic puzzle-solving from the Vegas science sleuths. With the whole team working together on one puzzle crime (or series of crime puzzles), the group dynamic is elaborated and the audience drawn deeper into each investigation. The first three episodes are all single cases: "Identity Crisis" sees the return of Grissom's nemesis, serial killer Paul Millander; in "The Finger", Catherine is caught up in an elaborate kidnap plot; while in "Burden of Proof", a stray body in a "body farm" leads to a difficult case of child abuse. After a brief return to the two-investigation-per-episode format, the team unite once more for one of their most intriguing cases, "Chasing the Bus", in which they must unravel the mystery of a bus crash in the desert. "Stalker" is possibly the show's most terrifying episode to date, with a woman found murdered behind the safely locked doors of her apartment. The season concludes with "Cross Jurisdictions", a rather unsubtle way of introducing the spin-off show CSI: Miami and, finally, "The Hunger Artist", a somewhat strained attempt to comment on our society's obsession with glamour and self-image, which is most notable for Grissom's devastating discovery that his hearing problems are not only congenital, but irreversible. --Mark Walker

• The Larry Sanders Show - Complete | DVD | (28/03/2011) from £43.29   |  Saving you £56.70 (130.98%)   |  RRP £99.99

  In The Larry Sanders Show Garry Shandling is Larry Sanders, host of a fictitious chat show. But the real The Larry Sanders Show (1992-98), was alongside Sienfeld, one of the great cult successes of 1990's American TV. Nominally a sitcom, the naturalistic acting, uncensored strong language and absence of canned laughter lend the show a distinctive pseudo-documentary feel, as every week some of the top names in US entertainment appear as themselves. The viewer can't help but wonder just how much these celebrities are for real, and how much they are having us on when, for example, Billy Crystal seems so mercenary about using the episode "The Talk Show" to plug his movie, Mr Saturday Night. Other guests on the seven episodes of this DVD include Dana Carvey ("The Guest Host"), Alex Baldwin ("The List"), Robin Williams ("Montana"), Henry Winkler ("Hank's Sex Tape"), Courtney Cox ("Larry's Big Idea") and Brett Butler ("I Was a Teenage Lesbian"--a bonus episode exclusive to DVD). Clever and caustic, rather than laugh-out-loud funny, this release offers good value at 167 minutes, though the only DVD extra is a trailer. The picture on the first five episodes is soft and grainy. That matters improve considerably for the last two episodes suggests this is because of poor original tapes rather than a bad transfer. --Gary S. Dalkin

• The Larry Sanders Show: Complete Season One | DVD | (27/09/2010) from £12.70   |  Saving you £17.29 (136.14%)   |  RRP £29.99

  Undeniably the hippest show to air on HBO in the 1990s The Larry Sanders Show takes you backstage at a fictional late-night talk show with real-life guests from movies music and television.

• CSI: Crime Scene Investigation - Season 1 Part 1 | DVD | (01/07/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £39.99

  The latest in a long line of successful US police dramas, the forensic cop show Crime Scene Investigation varies the formula by focusing on a team of civilian scientists who work the night shift in Las Vegas, poring over crime scenes for fingerprints, blood spatters, DNA-laced mucus and (especially) maggots. Star William Petersen plays a variation of his role from Manhunter, the cool puzzle-solving genius who can rattle off mystifying speeches with aplomb, while his contrasting partner is Marg Helgenberger, cast as a single mother/ex-stripper who is as concerned with the emotional as well as the physical mess left by crime. While most US cop shows (witness NYPD Blue) tend towards soap, neglecting the cases in favour of personal crises, CSI gives its regulars enough life to make them human but is essentially puzzle-based, with individual episodes following two or three cases à la Homicide: Life on the Street. The occasional special focuses on a major job with the team investigating the slaughter of a whole family ("Blood Drops") or a death in first class on a plane over Vegas ("Unfriendly Skies"). A few continuing threads are laid down, with a recurrent villain who gets away, but will inevitably return, but on the whole these shows play pretty well as one-offs. Very high-tech in style, with lots of zooms into microscopic examinations of hair follicles or stomach contents and distinctive visualisations of the different stories told by witnesses and evidence, this is one of the best shows currently airing. On the DVD: CSI's first DVD box set contains the show's first 12 episodes: the pilot followed by "Cool Change", "Crate & Burial", "Pledging Mr Johnson"; "Friends and Lovers", "Who Are You?", "Blood Drops"; "Anonymous", "Unfriendly Skies", "Sex Lies and Larvae"; "The I-15 Murders" and "Fahrenheit 932". In addition to inventive menus, the three-disc set offers character profiles, a trailer, some B-roll on-set footage, a subtitle option, and snippet-like interviews with the cast and creatives. --Kim Newman

• C.S.I. - Series 4 Part 1 | DVD | (09/05/2005) from £7.99   |  Saving you £32.00 (400.50%)   |  RRP £39.99

  C.S.I. is an acclaimed edgy fast-paced drama series about a passionate team of forensic investigators (among them William Petersen and Marg Helgenberger) who work the graveyard shift at the Las Vegas Criminalistics Bureau. Their job - to find the missing pieces at the scene that will help to solve the crime and vindicate those who often cannot speak for themselves - the victims. Between the hidden clues and the buried motives lies the trail to the truth because people lie... but t

• CSI: Crime Scene Investigation - Season 1 Part 2 | DVD | (07/10/2002) from £5.34   |  Saving you £34.65 (648.88%)   |  RRP £39.99

  The second half of CSI's first year takes Grissom and his untiring team down some darker paths than before. Nick finally gives in to his urges and sleeps with the hooker who has a crush on him in "Boom"--with predictably disastrous consequences. Sarah is badly affected by the rape and attempted murder of an unknown woman in "Too Tough to Die"; and even Grissom is shaken when dealing with the sudden death of an infant in "Gentle, Gentle". The final episode of the year, "Strip Strangler", is a real shocker, as the team track a brutal serial killer. Elsewhere, the morbid business of investigating corpses and crime scenes is enlivened with flashes of welcome humour: when a horse is found dead with packets of uncut diamonds concealed in its uterus, Grissom deadpans "This horse is a mule". Throughout, the show remains focused on its scientific remit, only revealing enough of the characters' private lives to provide added piquancy to each investigation: Sarah's complete lack of a life outside her work; Warrick's old gambling habit; Catherine's attachment to her daughter and troubles with ex-husband Eddie; Nick's over-eagerness to please. Grissom, meanwhile, like the Dalai Lama, is the model of inscrutable wisdom. The show itself, like a millennial antidote to a decade of X-Files, is relentlessly empirical: everything that initially seems mysterious--from spontaneous human combustion to an apparent case of vampirism--is always explicable and explained by the team's scientific dedication. On the DVD: CSI, Series 1 Part 2 contains 11 episodes on three discs. Extra features consist of a brief promo featurette, production notes and a series of on-set interviews with the cast. Oddly for such a cutting-edge show, picture is old-fashioned 4:3 with basic Dolby stereo sound. --Mark Walker

• CSI: Crime Scene Investigation - Complete Season 1 | DVD | (08/12/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £58.99

  It's all here. All the cases. All the evidence. All the solutions. All 23 episodes of the Golden Globe nominated first season of CSI. Now available in this special edition DVD set. Episodes comprise: 1. Pilot 2. Cool Change 3. Crate 'n Burial 4. Pledging Mr. Johnson 5. Friends & Lovers 6. Who Are You? 7. Blood Drops 8. Anonymous 9. Unfriendly Skies 10. Sex Lies and Larvae 11. I-15 Murders 12. Fahrenheit 932 13. Boom 14. To Halve And To Hold 15. Table Stakes 16.

• CSI: Crime Scene Investigation - Season 2 Part 1 | DVD | (28/07/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £39.99

  These first 12 episodes from the second series of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation consolidate the show's well-deserved popular appeal, while beginning to explore (gently at first) beneath the slickly professional surface of the investigators themselves. Gradually we learn more about what makes Grissom and his astonishingly gifted forensics team tick, beyond merely that they're workaholics who seem to require no sleep at all. The show's trademark reveals of vital evidence--be it on the autopsy slab or under the microscope--add a fresh spin to what is, at heart, a good old-fashioned whodunit series. William Petersen brings the requisite air of antiquarianism to a character whose meticulous demeanour and love of order consciously inherits the mantle of Sherlock Holmes (whose vast collection of tobacco samples and bottles of chemicals are the ancestors of CSI's high-tech crime lab). This is a series in which scientific evidence-gathering is elevated to the status of a religion. "When a tree falls in the forest, even if no one is around to hear, it does make a sound", affirms Grissom with the calm assurance of a yogi on the path to Enlightenment. And just when CSI starts to seem a little too pat, just when the trail of clues seems too neat, the show always seems able to throw a surprise or two at us: perhaps there has been no crime after all; perhaps the evidence concerns a completely different crime altogether; or perhaps, as in one brave episode concerning brothers implicated in multiple murders, the evidence simply isn't good enough to convict the right man, even when Grissom knows which one really is guilty. As a result, every episode is simply compulsive viewing. On the DVD: CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Series 2 Part 1 comes in a three-disc set with several worthwhile extras. There are cast and crew interviews, an on-set tour, a peek at the workshop where all the bloody body parts are created, and, most informative, selected episode commentaries featuring writer-creator Anthony E Zuiker and director and producer Danny Cannnon among others. Picture and Dolby Digital sound are impeccable. --Mark Walker

• The Larry Sanders Show | DVD | (19/06/2000) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  In The Larry Sanders Show Garry Shandling is Larry Sanders, host of a fictitious chat show. But the real The Larry Sanders Show (1992-98), was alongside Sienfeld, one of the great cult successes of 1990's American TV. Nominally a sitcom, the naturalistic acting, uncensored strong language and absence of canned laughter lend the show a distinctive pseudo-documentary feel, as every week some of the top names in US entertainment appear as themselves. The viewer can't help but wonder just how much these celebrities are for real, and how much they are having us on when, for example, Billy Crystal seems so mercenary about using the episode "The Talk Show" to plug his movie, Mr Saturday Night. Other guests on the seven episodes of this DVD include Dana Carvey ("The Guest Host"), Alex Baldwin ("The List"), Robin Williams ("Montana"), Henry Winkler ("Hank's Sex Tape"), Courtney Cox ("Larry's Big Idea") and Brett Butler ("I Was a Teenage Lesbian"--a bonus episode exclusive to DVD). Clever and caustic, rather than laugh-out-loud funny, this release offers good value at 167 minutes, though the only DVD extra is a trailer. The picture on the first five episodes is soft and grainy. That matters improve considerably for the last two episodes suggests this is because of poor original tapes rather than a bad transfer. --Gary S. Dalkin

• CSI: Crime Scene Investigation Seasons 4 Box Set | DVD | (21/11/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £59.99

  C.S.I. is an acclaimed edgy fast-paced drama series about a passionate team of forensic investigators (among them William Petersen and Marg Helgenberger) who work the graveyard shift at the Las Vegas Criminalistics Bureau. Their job - to find the missing pieces at the scene that will help to solve the crime and vindicate those who often cannot speak for themselves - the victims. Between the hidden clues and the buried motives lies the trail to the truth because peopl

• CSI: Crime Scene Investigation - Complete Season 2 (Amazon.co.uk Exclusive) | DVD | (03/11/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £59.99

  Exclusively available at Amazon.co.uk, this box set contains the complete second series of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. The second series consolidates the show's well-deserved popular appeal, while beginning to explore (gently at first) beneath the slickly professional surface of the investigators themselves. Gradually we learn more about what makes Grissom and his astonishingly gifted forensics team tick, beyond merely that they are workaholics who seem to require no sleep at all. The show's trademark reveals of vital evidence--be it on the autopsy slab or under the microscope--add a fresh spin to what is, at heart, a good old-fashioned whodunit series. And just when CSI starts to seem a little too pat, just when the trail of clues seems too neat, the show always seems able to throw a surprise or two at us: perhaps there has been no crime after all; perhaps the evidence concerns a completely different crime altogether; or perhaps, as in one brave episode concerning brothers implicated in multiple murders, the evidence simply isn't good enough to convict the right man, even when Grissom knows which one really is guilty. Thanks to its focus on more single-case episodes, the latter episodes provide an even more highly concentrated dose of forensic puzzle-solving. With the whole team working together on one puzzle crime (or series of crime puzzles), the group dynamic is elaborated and the audience drawn deeper into each investigation. "Identity Crisis" sees the return of Grissom's nemesis, serial killer Paul Millander; in "The Finger", Catherine is caught up in an elaborate kidnap plot; in "Burden of Proof", a stray body in a "body farm" leads to a difficult case of child abuse; while "Chasing the Bus" brings the team together to unravel the mystery of a bus crash in the desert. "Stalker" is possibly the show's most terrifying episode to date, with a woman found murdered behind the safely locked doors of her apartment. The season concludes with "Cross Jurisdictions", a rather unsubtle way of introducing the spin-off show CSI: Miami and, finally, "The Hunger Artist", a somewhat strained attempt to comment on our society's obsession with glamour and self-image. --Mark Walker

• CSI: Crime Scene Investigation - Complete Season 3 - Amazon.co.uk Exclusive | DVD | (26/07/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £59.99

  Now firmly established as one of the top-rated television dramas, by its third year CSI: Crime Scene Investigation is a show positively glowing with confidence. Even when individual cases seem either too contrived or too easily resolved, the indefatigable night shift at the Las Vegas PD crime lab always look the part, solving conundrums and discovering microscopic damning evidence while, apparently, never shedding their own loose hair or skin cells all over the supposedly quarantined crime scenes. In reality, Catherine Willows' flowing blonde locks would contaminate any evidence she collected, but in the world of CSI only the bad guys leave body parts behind--the CSIs themselves are so good they're positively pristine. The 23 episodes of season 3 on this five-disc set present more deliciously bizarre situations for the problem-solving sleuths: cannibalism, snuff movies, dwarfs, death while drag racing, bodies falling from the sky, and various dismemberments all tax the team's acumen. These are all double or multiple-case episodes, though in a characteristic trick of the writing sometimes apparently unrelated murders turn out to be connected (or vice versa, as in "Blood Lust," in which a road-accident victim is not what he seems, and the death of the driver at the hands of an angry mob is made all the more tragic). The mix of genuine forensic science with the glossiest Jerry Bruckheimer production values, plus the virtues of a good ensemble cast headed by William Peterson's modern-day Sherlock Holmes, remains as compelling as ever. --Mark Walker

• Mission Hill: The Complete Series | DVD | (20/05/2016) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• CSI: Crime Scene Investigation - Complete Seasons 1-3 (Amazon.co.uk Exclusive) | DVD | (23/08/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £159.99

  Murder, and its tale-telling aftermath, is the compelling subject of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. Since its inauguration in late 2000 CSI has been a ratings triumph, spawned two spinoffs (CSI: Miami and CSI: New York and positioning itself for long-term success. Creator Anthony Zuiker's foolproof formula was established early on, bolstered by a fine ensemble cast and requiring minimal tweaking as the seasons progressed; its Las Vegas-based "criminalists" eventually became "CSIs" steeped in the scientific minutiae of forensic investigation, but the series arrived essentially intact, with an irresistible (and seemingly inexhaustible) supply of corpses and the mysteries that surround them. Influenced by the graphic precedent of movies like Seven and Kiss the Girls, CSI matches morbidity with dispassionate methodology; viewers are so fascinated by the investigative process that they're unfazed by intimate autopsies and internal (i.e., digitally animated) views of traumatized flesh, bone, and sinew. While keeping abreast of cutting-edge technologies, CSI combines the ingenuity (and fallibility) of villains with the appealing humanity of its heroes. CSI director and entomologist Gil Grissom (played by series co-producer William Petersen) is introverted but ethically intense; he's both mentor and moral compass for his night-shift team, including a former stripper-turned-CSI (Marg Helgenberger); a recovering gambler (Gary Dourdan); an eager ace (George Eads) with room for improvement; a workaholic (Jorja Fox) who can't always remain emotionally detached from her cases; and a chief detective (Paul Guilfoyle) who's a necessary link to police procedure. Like The X-Files, CSI supports its characters with feature-film production values, employing a Rashomon structure that turns murder into a progressively accurate study of cause and effect. Script quality is consistently high ("Blood Drops" and "Unfriendly Skies" are exceptional), direction is slick and sophisticated, and the mysteries are complex enough to invite multiple viewings. Despite a regrettable shortage of DVD features, CSI remains addictively worthy of its lofty reputation. --Jeff Shannon

• Family Favourites - 10 movies | DVD | (07/12/2009) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £7.99

  Box set features: The Boy From Wolf Mountain Young Aaron McGregor is orphaned and sent to live with an emotionally distant aunt and uncle who take him in while still wrestling with their own personal demons. To make matters worse he is picked on mercilessly by the school bully. When he discovers a wounded baby wolf cub he takes it in and begins secretly caring for it. As his new friend becomes increasingly more difficult to hide Aaron and the cub grow more and more dependent on each other for their emotional and physical survival. Tarzan In Manhattan Tarzan goes to New York to rescue the chimp Cheetah who has been captured by an evil animal experimenter. There he teams up with Jane a cab driver and daughter of an ex-cop private eye who help Tarzan free Cheetah and his friends. Arabian Nights Sherlock Bones Rin Tin Tin Lenny The Wonder Dog Zach has taken pity on Lenny a stray scruffy dog who looks even more fed up than he does. But this is no ordinary mutt! Zach thinks that he has gone barking mad when the dog starts talking to him. Lenny then explains that an eccentric scientist has zapped him with a microchip that gives him the ability to talk to humans. But a bunch of thugs are out to capture the magical mutt. Only Lenny the Wonder Dog can show them that actions speak louder than words and with a little help from thier friends Zach and Lenny embark on a mission to outwit their enemies... Invisible Mom Invisible Dad Invisible Kid Grover's mum can see right through him! Grover Dunn and his friend Milton McClane discover an invisibility powder whilst experimenting with Grover's deceased father's scientific notes. They know that the powder doesn't work on clothing so they have to be naked when using it - but what they don't know is that the effect wears off when you least expect it! Summer To Remember Silent since losing his hearing to meningitis young Toby Wyler takes a bitter stance against the world and his family refusing to accept his new stepfather. But when a highly trained orangutan named Casey is thrown from a truck near Toby's home the boy soon has a secret friend he can communicate with via sign language.