"Director: Stephen Whittaker"

• Portrait Of A Marriage | DVD | (30/06/2008) from £9.15   |  Saving you £6.84 (74.75%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Set in 1918 Vita and Harold are a golden couple who socialised in high society literary circles and who friends included Virginia Woolf and TS Elliot. Starring Janet McTeer (Songcather The Govenor) David Haig (Keeping mum Campion) and Cathryn Harrison (Original Sin Wuthering Heights) This adaptation of 'Portrait of a Marriage' won 3 Bafta Awards.

• Poirot - Agatha Christie's Poirot - Death In The Clouds | DVD | (14/07/2003) from £8.98   |  Saving you £4.00 (66.78%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Poirot is at the French Open Tennis Championship when he witnesses an inebriated Lady Hornbury telling Mme Giselle that she has no more money. On the flight back from Paris Mme Giselle is killed with a poisoned dart. What seems like a straightforward case becomes complicated by the presence of Daniel Clancy a detective writer with a knowledge of blow pipes and by the sudden appearance of Mme Giselle's illegitimate daughter who arrives to claim her inheritance...

• The Rocket Post | DVD | (17/09/2007) from £5.99   |  Saving you £10.00 (166.95%)   |  RRP £15.99

  The remote Scottish island of Scarp is disrupted when A German rocket scientist arrives.

• The Life And Adventures Of Nicholas Nickleby | DVD | (13/05/2002) from £39.99   |  Saving you £-20.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  This 2000 television adaptation confirms Nicholas Nickleby's place among television dramatists' favourite Dickens novels. It has all the vital ingredients: a sensitive, intelligent young hero cast by circumstances in the role of everyman whose fortitude is tested at every turn; romance; danger; one of Dickens' richest braces of characters; and a sense of humanity that is, at times, overwhelming. Condensing all this into three hours is no mean achievement. Martyn Edward Hesford's screenplay maintains an impressive balance between dramatic tension and allowing the characters the space they need to reveal their essential qualities. Only in the last 30 minutes does it become something of a gallop to the finishing post. True, the horrors of the boarding school could be more horrific; the grime of Victorian London and its toothless inhabitants could be grimier and less cosmetic. But as always with a superior production of a Dickens novel, the richness and depth of the drama outweigh such minor quibbles. As for the cast, James D'Arcy's Nicholas is pitch-perfect: part cipher for the injustices and despair he encounters, part emblem for the triumph of goodness, an innocent whose eyes are quickly forced open to the darker realities of life. These darker realities are congealed in Charles Dance's relentlessly chilling, heartless Ralph Nickleby. This is a deceptively complex performance; even as we cheer the gathering forces which finally extinguish his increasingly desperate power, the awful tragedy of his end still elicits a discomforting ounce of sympathy. Gregor Fisher as the one-eyed Squeers and Pam Ferris as his fearsomely lascivious wife are outstanding in an ensemble of fine character actors. And Lee Ingleby's Smike gives our tear ducts a good workout while steering just the right side of sentimentality. On the DVD: Nicholas Nickleby is presented in widescreen format with Dolby Digital soundtrack, and has all the technical qualities you might expect from the DVD release of a modern television production. Extras include cast filmographies, a Dickens biography and a list of his work, all of which add to the disc's merits as a literary educational tool. --Piers Ford

• Inspector Morse - Series 7 | DVD | (21/02/2005) from £14.99   |  Saving you £10.00 (66.71%)   |  RRP £24.99

  This box set features the entire seventh series of the classic British Television drama Inspector Morse. Episodes comprise: 1. Deadly Slumber: Avril Steppings was left with permanent brain damage after an operation went wrong. Morse is called in when the doctor who runs the clinic where the operation was performed is found murdered... 2. Day Of The Devil: Morse is involved in a man hunt when a dangerous mental patient escapes from a high security hospital...

• Sons And Lovers | DVD | (14/01/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  This television adaptation of D H Lawrence's 'Sons and Lovers' stars Sarah Lancashire as Gertrude Morel who is trapped in an unhappy marriage to Walter (Hugo Speer) a heavy-drinking brutish uneducated miner. As Gertrude becomes estranged from Walter she channels her love and life expectations into her sons- particularly Paul (Rupert Evans). As Paul matures tension develops in his relationship with Gertrude and his love for two other women causes a fatal battle of strangulating po

• Inspector Morse - Disc 27 And 28 - Day Of The Devil / Twilight Of The Gods | DVD | (09/09/2002) from £9.99   |  Saving you £5.00 (50.05%)   |  RRP £14.99

  When Inspector Morse first appeared on television in 1987, nobody could have predicted that it would run into the next century, maintaining throughout a quality of scripts and storylines that raised the genre of the detective series to a new level. Much of its success can be attributed to John Thaw's total immersion in the role. Morse is a prickly character and not obviously easy to like. As a detective in Oxford with unfulfilled academic propensities, he is permanently excluded from a world of which he would dearly love to be a part. He is at odds with that world--and with his colleagues in the police force--most of the time. Passionate about opera and "proper beer", he is a cultural snob for whom vulgarity causes almost physical pain. As a result, he lives from one disillusionment to another. And he is scarred--more deeply than he would ever admit--by past relationships. But he also has a naïve streak and, deep down, sensitivity, which makes him a fascinating challenge for women. At the heart of Morse's professional life is his awkward partnership with Detective Sergeant Lewis, the resolutely ordinary, worldly sidekick who manages to keep his boss in an almost permanent state of exasperation while retaining his grudging respect. It's a testament to Kevin Whately's consistently excellent performance that from such unpromising material, Lewis becomes as indispensable to the series as Barrington Pheloung's hypnotic, classic theme music. Morse's investigations do occasionally take him abroad to more exotic locations, but throughout 14 successful years of often gruesome murders, the city of Oxford itself became a central character in these brooding two-hour dramas: creator Colin Dexter said he finally had to kill Morse off because he was giving Oxford a bad reputation as a dangerous place! --Piers Ford

• A Life For A Life | DVD | (07/01/2008) from £22.93   |  Saving you £-5.94 (N/A%)   |  RRP £16.99

  On the 12th November 2007 Ronald Castree was jailed for the murder of 11 year old Leslie Molseed in 1976. A Life For A Life is based on events surrounding the trial and conviction of Stefan Kiszko falsely accused of the murder. One of the most tragic miscarriages of justice in recent years. Kiszko is a compelling story of human tragedy. Stefan Kiszko was an awkward uncommunicative figure from a sheltered background who confessed to the murder only after being told he could return home to his mother if he did so. In truth his confession was the only evidence against him.