"Director: John Goldschmidt"

• Jack Rosenthal at the BBC Collection | DVD | (04/04/2011) from £39.93   |  Saving you £-3.94 (N/A%)   |  RRP £35.99

  Jack Rosenthal's name stands high in the list of television's greatest dramatists. With a career that started on early episodes of Coronation Street he was well-advised to launch into writing plays and began by drawing on his own experiences in The Evacuees directed by a young Alan Parker. Jack Rosenthal brought to his writing knowledge of and love for the everyman; the man or woman in the street the worker labourer taxi driver parent and child. Witty insightful rich in irony and human observation even his villains reveal a human side he couldn't resist exploring. These five plays capture a playwright at his zenith in a range of work that speaks both to his experience and his empathy. Featuring Maureen Lipman Maria Charles Adrienne Posta Jonathan Lynn John Duttine Tom Wilkinson Anna Carteret and Laura Howard they are sure to be treasured by anyone who appreciates fine drama - or anyone who simply enjoys life.

• She'll Be Wearing Pink Pyjamas | DVD | (17/09/2007) from £7.87   |  Saving you £8.12 (103.18%)   |  RRP £15.99

  A humourous and revealing tale of a group of eight women from verying walks of life who have volunteered for a fugged survival course at a tough mountain school in the English lakes. Perhaps the most complex is wise cracking Fran (Julie Waters) a single girl of about thirty whose incessant cheerfulness often hides a sad loneliness. For a week thrown together in dormitory living they march climb swim and canoe. Often wet cold tired and hungry despondent too. And sometimes ver

• She'll Be Wearing Pink Pyjamas | DVD | (07/06/2004) from £12.15   |  Saving you £-6.16 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  She'll be Wearing Pink Pyjamas (1984) epitomises the early work of the FilmFour brand: solid productions, usually awash with issues, a strong dose of prickly humour and a reliable ensemble of British character actors. This tale of female bonding concerns a miscellaneous group of women thrown together on an Outward Bound course. They've all come for their own reasons--men (the lack of, or to escape from), midlife crisis, feelings of now-or-never--and as the course escalates, these are discovered and shared. Even the rather tiresome and bossy course leader has a moment of revelation. Think Steel Magnolias in a tent. Will they make it? The bonding scenes are sufficiently well counterpointed by the wet and muddy action to keep you guessing. There are plenty of laughs to keep the clichés at bay, although John Goldschmidt's direction could have been tighter. The performances, led by Julie Walters at her most attention-seeking, are good and often touching. All in all this is a brittle but warm-hearted little comedy about optimism and survival. On the DVD: She'll be Wearing Pink Pyjamas is presented in 4:3 picture format with a dull mono soundtrack, which betrays its made-for-television origins. There are no subtitles and, apart from a scene index, no extras. --Piers Ford