"Actor: William Boyde"

• Orrible | DVD | (20/01/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

  The idea behind 'Orrible is easy to appreciate, even if the programme itself often wasn't. Take Johnny Vaughan--a supremely talented and likable broadcaster, one of very few ubiquitous television presences whose appearance does not drive the intelligent viewer to grim fantasies of revenge involving a baseball bat and a dark ally--and cast him as the lead in a sitcom. It was, at best, a partial success. The problem with 'Orrible is that Vaughan's forte is improvisation and association, not adhering to a script, not even one he cowrote. His character, a dimwitted, shell-suited West London minicab driver with Walter Mitty-ish fantasies of being an underworld player, has possibilities. But the potential is never fully realised, partly due to surprisingly leaden lines, but mostly due to Vaughan's limitations as an actor: he never quite manages to project anything other than a less-funny version of the screen persona audiences know and like. On the DVD: 'Orrible on disc has an episode selector, and a scene selector for each episode. Subtitles are available in English. There is also the option of listening to a running commentary by writers Ed Allen and Johnny Vaughan which, as it is isn't scripted, occasionally offers glimpses of the unrestrained, free-flowing Johnny Vaughan familiar from his other television work--as such, it's far funnier than anything in the actual programme. --Andrew Mueller

• Spoils of War - Series Three | DVD | (05/07/2010) from £20.00   |  Saving you £-0.01 (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Originally broadcast on ITV in 1980 The Spoils of War follows the fortunes of two north country families the Haywards and the Warringtons in post war Britain starring Alan Hunter (Dangerfield) James Bate (Auf Wiedersehen Pet) Ian Hastings (Prime Suspect) Malcolm Tierney (Dalziel and Pascoe) and Madeleine Newton (When the Boat Comes In).