"Actor: Wally Patch"

• The Terry Thomas Movie Collection | DVD | (27/05/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £10.89

  The three films in this Terry Thomas Collection--The Naked Truth, Too Many Crooks and Make Mine Mink--are each an unalloyed delight from beginning to end. Though produced on slim budgets they possess witty scripts by Michael Pertwee, deft direction in two instances by Mario Zampi, inventive music scores and marvellous casts featuring two generations of British actors, from Athene Seyler to a young Kenneth Williams. Individually and as an ensemble these players are a pleasure to watch. But of course Terry Thomas, the catalyst of the collection, runs the gamut with a plethora of facial expressions, body language and verbal repartee that contribute so much to the unbuttoned joy of each film. In the earliest of them, The Naked Truth (1957), TT plays a dodgy peer of the realm being blackmailed in the company of Peter Sellers, Peggy Mount and Shirley Eaton by a gutter press journalist, Dennis Price ("Don't try to appeal to my better nature, because I haven't one"). The moments of slapstick are brought off to a tee as when the larger-than-life Peggy Mount attempts a suicide drop from her window to be saved by an awning on a shop front. Too Many Crooks (1959) has TT being blackmailed once again, this time for the hoards he's stashed away as a renowned tax dodger. Look out for the very funny court scene, where TT makes three appearances on separate charges, before a bemused magistrate, John Le Mesurier. Make Mine Mink (1960), the odd one out in this collection, was adapted from a West End stage farce, Breath of Spring. TT leads a gang of middle-aged biddies who decide to brighten up "the dullness of the tea time of life", by staging a series of robberies on furriers, then donating the proceeds to charitable concerns. The splendid cast includes Hattie Jacques and Kenneth Williams. On the DVD: The Terry Thomas Collection comes in an attractive box containing the three discs. All are 4:3 ratio and with mono sound. The only extras are a trailer for each film which, in the instance of Make Mine Mink, is introduced by Terry Thomas himself, who presents us to his gang of fur thieves as the voice on the soundtrack announces him as "fur, fur funnier than you've seen him before". --Adrian Edwards

• Ken Loach at the BBC | DVD | (05/09/2011) from £19.99   |  Saving you £-0.99 (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.00

  1965 saw Ken Loach working as one of the in house directors of the groundbreaking The Wednesday Play series at The BBC which included Three Clear Sundays Up the Junction and The End of Arthur's Marriage. Of these plays Up The Junction had the most impact telling the story of three young women factory workers in their work and home lives focusing on Rube as she meets her first boyfriend and chronicles the significant life changing events that follow including an illegal abortion. Not only controversial at the time Loach's inter-cutting of real life interviews mixed in with drama became a signpost for his future directing style striving for naturalism and realism. 1966 saw Ken Loach's breakthrough piece Cathy Come Home. The play follows the lives of young sweethearts Cathy (Carol White fresh from Up The Junction) and Reg (Ray Brooks) starting out as a newly married couple moving into a new place and having children. Reg then suffers an accident which means he is unable to work and they end up being evicted and separated. With Cathy homeless but still looking after the children she faces having her children taken away from her by Social Services. This is perhaps the play that has had more impact than any other on television highlighting the very real problem of homelessness. Even some forty years later the power of Cathy Come Home remains undiminished. In Two Minds charts the turbulent life of a young woman who endures a difficult family life and after throwing a kitchen knife at her mother is diagnosed as a schizophrenic. Much like Cathy Come Home the realistic documentary style helps provide veracity to the story. Written by Jim Allen The Big Flame is a story of striking Liverpool dock workers who decide that to safeguard their futures they must control the port themselves. This was the first of several Ken Loach / Jim Allen collaborations - many of which would be starkly political. The BAFTA nominated Days of Hope was Jim Allen's tale of a working-class family in the period from 1916 to 1926 taking in the First World War events in Ireland and the General Strike of 1926. Running to well over six hours the series tells an epic story particularly in the light of the parlous state of the economy and labour relations in Britain at the time. A radical series in every sense Jim Allen was able create real parallels in Days of Hope that resonated with the working class of the mid 1970's and the political climate at that time. Loach returned to the BBC with The Price of Coal (written by Kes author Barry Hines) a film which depicted the lives of those living in a coalfield community. The first part subtitled Meet The People is a comic tale surrounding the story of a colliery community in preparation for a visit by Prince Charles and the efforts being put on by the management to make the pit fit for a future king involving grassing over an unsightly coal slag heap and whitewashing everything in site. The second part Back To Reality is completely different in tone when the colliery suffers a sudden underground explosion trapping killing and injuring the miners and as the rescue team work frantically to rescue those trapped those above ground argue about who is to blame. The Rank and File which completes the collection again written by Jim Allen is a story based around the strike by the Pilkington Glass workers. This beautifully packaged collection displays some of Loach's very best work and gives a real insight into working class life in the 60's and 70's. The collection also features an interview with Ken Loach a documentary entitled Housing Problems and a commentary track for Cathy Come Home.

• The Naked Truth | DVD | (27/05/2002) from £6.73   |  Saving you £3.26 (48.44%)   |  RRP £9.99

  In 1957's The Naked Truth Terry Thomas plays a dodgy peer of the realm being blackmailed in the company of Peter Sellers, Peggy Mount and Shirley Eaton by a gutter press journalist, Dennis Price ("Don't try to appeal to my better nature, because I haven't one"). One fascinating element in this picture is the portrayal of those relationships that could be only suggested in a period of tighter censorship, such as Peter Sellers' TV personality and Kenneth Griffith as his dresser, whose gay relationship is only faintly etched in here. More overt is the characterisation of a masculine looking authoress, known only by her initials, but sporting Agatha Christie's hairdo. The moments of slapstick are brought off to a tee, as when the larger-than-life Peggy Mount attempts a suicide drop from her window to be saved by an awning on a shop front. On the DVD: The Naked Truth comes to DVD in 4:3 ratio and with a mono soundtrack. The only extra feature is a trailer. More TT tomfoolery can be found in the three-disc Terry Thomas Collection. --Adrian Edwards

• Excuse My Glove | DVD | (27/04/2015) from £7.98   |  Saving you £4.00 (66.78%)   |  RRP £9.99

  This light-hearted story of romantic heroism and sporting glory features British boxing legend Len Harvey as a young man who steps into the limelight by accident... then decides it's worth fighting to stay there! Also starring Cockney comedy star Ronald Shiner and a line-up of the cream of 1930s boxing talent Excuse My Glove is featured here in a brand-new transfer from original film elements in its as-exhibited theatrical aspect ratio. Don Carter who is more interested in stained glass than fisticuffs unwittingly accepts a challenge to fight in a boxing-booth at a fair. Recognising a potential money-spinner when he sees one the booth's proprietor appoints himself Don's manager and Don quickly finds out that the spirit of the Marquess of Queensberry does not always prevail – on either side of the ropes! Bonus Features: Image gallery

• Cathy Come Home | DVD | (30/06/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Cathy Come Home is probably the most famous British television play ever - watched by a quarter of the population both on its first broadcast in 1966 and on its repeat in 1967. Its impact was enormous provoking questions in the Houses of Parliament and helping launch the new housing charity 'Shelter'. Ken Loach and producer Tony Garnett also ushered in a new style of television drama taking the cameras onto the streets and fusing documentary and drama styles to give the story an extra sense of reality and a devastating emotional impact.

• A Date With A Dream | DVD | (28/08/2006) from £21.02   |  Saving you £-8.03 (-61.80%)   |  RRP £12.99

  A period piece comedy from the post-war British cinema. Four war-time concert party performers have a reunion and decide they are good enough to form a successful nightclub act. But will their audiences think the same? As well as a young Terry Thomas the film also stars Norman Wisdom Wally Patch and Jeanie Carson.

• George in Civvy Street | DVD | (24/10/2011) from £2.89   |  Saving you £7.10 (245.68%)   |  RRP £9.99

  George Formby leaves us laughing in this, his final feature film now available on DVD for the very first time. A packed troopship pulls into port. George Harper (George Formby) is back in Blighty and just itching to get on with his life. After being de-mobbed, he and his dodgy pal Fingers (Ronald Shiner) head for George's family pub, The Unicorn, in the idyllic country Village of Tumbleford. The Unicorn has seen better days. The other pub in the village, The Lion, has stolen all the trade and now an unscrupulous banker and his crony are out to get George to sell up - by far means or foul. Worse still, The Lion's landlord wants to force George out too - because he's got designs on George's childhood sweetheart Mary (Rosalyn Boulter). Can George save his beloved pub... and will it 'all turn out nice again' one last time? A firm favourite with Formby fans and featuring the legendary Alice In Wonderland dream sequence.

• Best Of British Comedy | DVD | (23/10/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £21.99

  A Box Set featuring 3 fabulous Comedy films from the Golden Age of British Cinema

• Chaliapin - the Adventures of Don Quixote (1933) | DVD | (03/07/2006) from £20.02   |  Saving you £2.97 (14.84%)   |  RRP £22.99

  Chaliapin - The Adventures Of Don Quixote (1933)