Drama

• The Entertainer (Blu-ray) | Blu Ray | (26/11/2018) from £14.98   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Laurence Olivier plays Archie Rice, a mediocre music hall artist upholding a dying tradition in an English seaside town. Tony Richardson originally directed Laurence Olivier as Rice in the Royal Court's theatre production, and did so again in this, his second feature. The seedy world which Archie Rice occupies could be seen to represent the general malaise of post-war Britain, previously explored by writer John Osborne in his play Look Back in Anger, adapted for the screen by Nigel Kneale in 1959. Kneale subsequently went on to co-write The Entertainer with Osborne. Olivier is supported by a superb cast including a young Alan Bates as his son, Roger Livesey as his kindly, now retired, always more talented and popular father, and Joan Plowright as his daughter. The remarkable cast also features Daniel Massey, Shirley Anne Field, Thora Hird and Charles Gray. Olivier's portrayal of a man coming undone at the seams and revealing the emptiness inside, is a revelation. It changed the public's perception of him, introducing him to a new younger audience, and garnered him yet another Oscar® nomination. Special features: George Devine Memorial Play: The Entertainer - Sequences One and Two (1966, 6 mins, 5 mins) David Frost-produced film, directed by Peter Whitehead, capturing a stage performance in memory of the late Royal Court director, starring Laurence Olivier O Dreamland (1953, 13 mins): Lindsay Anderson's (If...., This Sporting Life) Free Cinema film shot at Margate's iconic amusement park Archive shorts from Topical Budget and Mitchell and Kenyon (1900-1929, total 15 mins): rare footage of turn-of-the century Morecambe, featuring scenes along the promenade and piers, as well as a visit to the 1929 Morecambe Carnival Lancashire Coast (1957, 15 mins): the charms of England's north-west, from Morecambe and Southport to the Pilling Marches Stills gallery Illustrated booklet with essays by Steven Hess and Vic Pratt, plus full film credits

• Cranford: Complete BBC Series | DVD | (11/02/2008) from £4.96   |  Saving you £15.03 (303.02%)   |  RRP £19.99

  This BBC dramatisation of three of Elizabeth Gaskell's novels captures the small absurdities and tragedies in the lives of the people of Cranford a small rural Cheshire town inhabited largely by women. This is a community that runs on cooperation and gossip at the very heart of which are the daughters of the former rector: Miss Deborah Jenkyns and her sister Miss Matty. But domestic peace is constantly threatened in the form of financial disaster imagined burglaries tragic accidents and the reapparance of long-lost relatives.

• True Blood Season 2 (HBO) | DVD | (17/05/2010) from £5.98   |  Saving you £35.27 (747.25%)   |  RRP £39.99

  Ready for seconds? The biggest TV phenomenon of last year is back with a bite! Welcome back to Bon Temps home to mystery Southern sensuality and dark secrets. For Sookie Stackhouse life is more dangerous than ever after she and Bill become more deeply involved. Meanwhile Tara finds herself under a lover's spell; Sam puts his trust in an unlikely ally; Jason becomes involved with an anti-vampire sect; Eric becomes interested in Sookie after he recruits her to investigate the disappearance of his 2 000-year-old maker; and Maryann is revealed to possess a power that can control almost everyone in town. Then after making a shocking discovery Sookie Bill and Sam must form the last line of defence against a diabolical plan that raises this award-winning series to bloody new heights. Clothes fall to the floor almost as often as blood spatters the walls in this show that blends supernatural horror sex and mystery with just a little bit of social commentary thrown in for good measure. If you want to sink your fangs into more vampire TV and movies then check out some of these blood-sucking beauties: True Blood: Season 1: The first season of HBO's Charlaine Harris-adapated Sookie Stackhouse vampire series is a deliciously sexy and sensational TV debut. True Blood: Seasons 1 & 2 Box Set: It's a case of two times the Sookie on this two-fanged HBO box set collecting all the episodes from Season's 1 and 2. The Vampire Diaries Season 1: Developed by Dawson's Creek/Scream creator Kevin Williamson superb supernatural horror meets teen drama. Cirque Du Freak: Based on the popular books by Darren Shaw this fang-tastic fantasy film is a rollicking good adventure with a dark twist. New Moon: Adapated from Stephenie Meyer's sequel book this one howls quality with great performances from Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson.

• Father Brown Series 11 | Blu Ray | (11/03/2024) from £32.85   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• La Bamba (Dual Format) | Blu Ray | (09/01/2017) from £29.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Eureka Entertainment to release LA BAMBA, the All-American rock to riches story of rock and roll legend Ritchie Valens starring Lou Diamond Phillips, on Blu-ray for the first time in the UK in a 30th Anniversary Digitally Restored Dual Format (Blu-ray & DVD) edition on 9 January 2017. The life of rock & roll legend Ritchie Valens bursts across the screen in the highly celebrated music-filled biopic La Bamba, starring Lou Diamond Phillips (Young Guns, Che) as the teenage sensation whose rise to fame was tragically cut short at the age of 17. Phillips gives an electrifying performance as Valens, who has to contend with racial prejudice, a jealous brother (a stunningly intense Esai Morales, NYPD Blue, Caprica) and an overbearing mother, before his unique style of Latino-influenced rock & roll rockets him to fame, but sets him on the path for an unavoidable date with destiny. Featuring music from Grammy Award winning rock band Los Lobos, and also starring Elizabeth Peña (Jacob's Ladder, Down and Out in Beverly Hills), director Luis Valdez's La Bamba is an irresistibly toe-tapping depiction of the early days of American rock music, and the indelible influence one young man had upon it. Eureka Entertainment is proud to present the film on Blu-ray for the first time in the UK in a 30th Anniversary Digitally Restored Dual Format Edition. SPECIAL FEATURES: High-definition presentation English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing Remembering Ritchie a featurette on the late musician La Bamba music video by Los Lobos Lonely Teardrops music video by Howard Huntsberry Original theatrical trailer

• Carve Her Name With Pride | DVD | (16/06/2003) from £20.00   |  Saving you £-10.01 (-100.20%)   |  RRP £9.99

  The moving and dramatic story of Violette Szabo (McKenna) a courageous WW2 secret agent who was captured in northern France... Carve Her Name With Pride is the inspiring true life story of Violette Szabo. During World War II Violette (Virgina McKenna) volunteers to parachute into France as a secret agent to aid a Resistance group. Her mission successful she joins the Resistance where she stays until captured by the Germans. Tortured by the Gestapo for information she refuses to betray her comrades... Directed by Lewis Gilbert Carve Her Name With Pride is a moving tale about the endurance of the human spirit in even the most adverse circumstances.

• Inspector George Gently Series Two | DVD | (04/10/2010) from £23.24   |  Saving you £6.75 (29.04%)   |  RRP £29.99

  Inspector George Gently: Series 2 (4 Discs)

• Harry Palmer: The Ipcress File | DVD | (18/04/2022) from £13.35   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  As the Cold War rages, ex-smuggler turned reluctant spy Harry Palmer finds himself at the centre of a dangerous undercover mission, on which he must use his links to find a missing British nuclear scientist.

• Charlie Bubbles (Standard Edition) | Blu Ray | (27/06/2022) from £9.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  After achieving international renown as one of the finest actors of his generation in films such as Saturday Night and Sunday Morning and Tom Jones, Albert Finney turned director for this surreal comic twist on the 'kitchen sink' dramas in which he'd made his name. Finney plays Charlie Bubbles, a successful writer suffering a mid-life crisis, who attempts to re-connect with his northern working-class roots and estranged family. Based on a screenplay by Shelagh Delaney (A Taste of Honey), the script clearly references both her and Finney's personal experience of their shared working class origins (both were Salford natives), and the consequences of achieving great success. Product Features High Definition remaster Original mono audio Audio commentary with film historians Thirza Wakefield and Melanie Williams A Very Personal Film (2018, 3 mins): a new interview with producer Michael Medwin Down to Earth (2018, 9 mins): director of photography Peter Suschitzky recalls working with actor-director Albert Finney Off the Cuff (2018, 9 mins): first assistant director Terence A Clegg discusses his time working on the film Finney and Football (2018, 17 mins): actor Timothy Garland remembers his role as Charlie Bubbles' son Motorway Café Society (2018, 9 mins): a new interview with actor Susan Engel Entirely Harmonised (2018, 15 mins): composer Misha Donat reflects upon his distinctive score for the film To Shape the Country (2018, 5 mins): a short appreciation by film critic Danny Leigh Another World (2018, 22 mins): John Harding, author of Sweetly Sings Delaney: A Study of Shelagh Delaney's Work 195868, discusses the author and playwright's career and her work with Finney CCTV Test Footage (1966, 3 mins, mute): previously unseen camera tests supervised by Stephen Frears, Finney's personal assistant on the film Original theatrical trailer Image gallery: promotional photography and publicity material New and improved English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing

• Tommy's Honour | DVD | (30/10/2017) from £5.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Based on the powerfully moving true story of the challenging relationship between old tom and young tommy morris, tommy's honour recounts the life of the dynamic father-son team who ushered in the modern game of golf. as their fame grew, tom and tommy, considered by many to be scotland's golf royalty, were touched by drama and personal tragedy. at first matching his father's success, tommy's talent and fame grew to outshine his father's accomplishments and respect as founder of the open championship in 1860 with a series of his own triumphs. but in contrast to tommy's public persona, his personal turmoil ultimately led him to rebel against both the aristocracy who gave him opportunity, and the parents who shunned his passionate relationship with his wife. directed by jason connery, and starring peter mullan (war horse), jack lowden ('71), ophelia lovibond (guardians of the galaxy) and sam neill (jurassic park), this poignant drama serves as both a deeply affecting tribute to a true sporting pioneer, and a testament to the unique bond between father and son.

• Chicago Med S3 | DVD | (17/09/2018) from £5.46   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  This season, Dr. Will Halstead (Nick Gehlfuss) has to balance the stress as the ER's supervising Attending Physician while exploring a budding romance with Dr. Natalie Manning (Torrey DeVitto), emergency pediatrics resident. Rising star heart surgeon Dr. Connor Rhodes' (Colin Donnell) skills are put to the test with the arrival of a new, highly competitive Cardiothoracic Fellow.

• Wives And Daughters | DVD | (20/08/2001) from £16.95   |  Saving you £8.04 (47.43%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Andrew Davies' 1999 adaptation of Mrs Gaskell's Wives and Daughters was hailed as the rediscovery of a "forgotten" classic novel and found the BBC on the crest of a wave with costume dramas--led by Pride and Prejudice. Handsome and beautifully filmed, if anything, it surpassed the quality of even that highly praised landmark production. "We should all look pretty strange under a microscope," botanist Robert Hamley tells our heroine Molly Gibson and of course Mrs Gaskell places all her characters under intense scrutiny, with affection but without judgement. Davies' screenplay peals back the layers, giving full vent to the comedy, tragedy and satire that drive this tale of provincial life to its highly satisfactory conclusion. Justine Waddell imbues Molly with an increasingly exasperated but remarkably forbearing intelligence, while Francesca Annis, as the outrageously self-absorbed step-mother Hyacinth, paints a wonderful portrait of affectation without ever totally alienating our sympathy. Michael Gambon's immensely touching Squire Hamley won him a Best Actor BAFTA, but all the performances are uniformly excellent, contributing immeasurably to five hours of television drama of the highest calibre. On the DVD: Presented in 16:9 format with a Dolby Digital stereo soundtrack, this two-disc presentation retains all the hallmarks of the original BBC viewing experience. The picture quality is lush--the production lighting is excellent--and the sound quality sharp. The only gripe is with the extras: the Omnibus documentary "Who the Dickens is Mrs Gaskell?" is brutally truncated, cutting off talking heads like novelists Fay Weldon and Margaret Drabble in their prime and giving limited insight into how the production was made. As an audio bonus, there is also 30 minutes of John Keane's music.--Piers Ford

• All The King's Men | DVD | (01/08/2005) from £6.99   |  Saving you £9.00 (128.76%)   |  RRP £15.99

  As the Sandringham Company advanced onto the battlefield a strange mist was seen to descend and engulf them - almost as though God was wrapping them up and taking them from the terror that awaited... It was the last that was ever seen of the Sandringham Company and the mystery of that disappearance remains to this day. An all-star cast portrays this most poignant and mysterious event of the First World War - the disappearance in action of the Sandringham Company at Gallipoli in 1915

• A Self Made Hero | DVD | (12/02/2007) from £16.18   |  Saving you £1.81 (11.19%)   |  RRP £17.99

  In post-war Paris Albert Dehousse (Mathieu Kassovitz) attempts to escape his past (working as a travelling salesman in the war to avoid 'voluntary' labour in Germany) by creating a new identity for himself. Reinventing himself as a Resistance hero he is appointed to weed out traitors in France. Overcoming initial hostility from his new colleagues he soon finds his facade beginning to crack.

• When The Boat Comes In - Series 1 - Part 3 | DVD | (08/09/2003) from £10.93   |  Saving you £9.06 (82.89%)   |  RRP £19.99

  King for a Day. Sir Horatio Manners offers Jack a job which he can't afford to turn down. Meanwhile Bella is concerned about where Tom is getting his money from. Episode titles include: 'King For A Day' 'Happy New Year - Some Say' 'Heads You Win - Tails I Lose' 'Kind-hearted at With A Lifebelt'.

• Thomas And Sarah - The Complete Series | DVD | (16/04/2007) from £9.79   |  Saving you £20.20 (206.33%)   |  RRP £29.99

  This spin off to Upstairs Downstairs follows the trials and tribulations of Sarah - a parlour made - and Thomas - the chauffer - some time after leaving service with the Bellamys. Episodes Comprise: 1. Birds Of A Feather 2. The Silver Ghost 3. The Biters Bit 4. The Vanishing Lads 5. Made In Heaven 6. Alma Mater 7. A Day At The Metropole 8. The Poor Younf Widow Of Peckham 9. There Is A Happy Land 10. Return To Gethyn 11. Putting On The Ritz 12. The New Rich 13. Love Into Three Won't Go

• Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead | DVD | (08/02/2016) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Tom Stoppard's modern stage classic finds a pair of film actors worthy of its verbal japery and existential bewilderment: Gary Oldman and Tim Roth are deliciously locked in as the title characters of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead. And yet it remains difficult to tell which one is Rosencrantz and which Guildenstern--even they seem unsure--a clever part of Stoppard's ingenious design. Focusing on a pair of unremarkable characters from Hamlet, Stoppard sees the great play from their confused perspective. Now and again the action of Hamlet sweeps them up, but most of the time R&G are left wondering where they are, what they have been sent for, and why they can't remember anything that happened before the beginning of the play. Richard Dreyfuss (fittingly grandiloquent) is the Player King, who seems to know more about the ominous workings of fiction and tragedy than the heroes do. Stoppard's first outing as a film director is handsomely shot but uncertainly paced--although any time Oldman and Roth go into one of their tennis-match debates on probability, identity, or death, the movie crackles. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern may be the "indifferent children of the earth," but for this brief moment they deserve center stage. --Robert Horton

• Danielle Steel's Once In A Lifetime | DVD | (24/02/2003) from £8.47   |  Saving you £-2.48 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  An endearing and tragic love story that follows the life of a popular American novelist Daphne Fields struggling to come to terms with bringing up her deaf son alone after the heartbreak of losing her husband and daughter in a house-fire. As the only reminder of the family she once had she devotes her life to her son's upbringing with outstanding courage forever putting his happiness before her own. She finds strength in Dr. Matt Dane who is dedicated to the care and attention of deaf children. He offers support and comfort as her writing career takes off and she is forced to make many personal sacrifices. But Daphne is scared. Scared that she will never find the happiness she once had and scared that she will never be able to love again.

• The Russia House | DVD | (29/04/2002) from £6.99   |  Saving you £6.00 (85.84%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Intelligent casting, strong performances and the persuasive chemistry between Sean Connery and Michelle Pfeiffer prove the virtues in director Fred Schepisi's well-intended but problematic screen realization of this John Le Carré espionage thriller. At its best, The Russia House depicts the bittersweet nuances of the pivotal affair between a weary, alcoholic London publisher (Connery) and the mysterious Russian beauty (Pfeiffer) who sends him a fateful manuscript exposing the weaknesses beneath Soviet defence technology. Connery's Barley is a gritty, all-too-human figure who's palpably revived by his awakening feelings for Pfeiffer's wan, vulnerable Katya, whose own reciprocal emotions are equally convincing. Together, they weave a poignant romantic duet. The problems, meanwhile, emanate from the story line that brings these opposites together. Le Carré's novels are absorbing but typically internal odysseys that seldom offer the level of straightforward action or simple arcs of plot that the big screen thrives on. For The Russia House, written as glasnost eclipsed the cold war's overt rivalries, Le Carré means to measure how old adversaries must calibrate their battle to a more subtle, subdued match of wits. Barley himself becomes enmeshed in the mystery of the manuscript because British intelligence chooses to use him as cat's paw rather than become directly involved. Such subtlety may be a more realistic take on the spy games of the recent past but it makes for an often tedious, talky alternative to taut heroics that Connery codified in his most celebrated early espionage role. If the suspense thus suffers, we're still left with an affecting love story, as well as some convincing sniping between British and US intelligence operatives, beautifully cast with James Fox, Roy Scheider and John Mahoney. Veteran playwright Tom Stoppard brings considerable style to the dialogue, without solving the problem of giving us more than those verbal exchanges to sustain dramatic interest. --Sam Sutherland

• Hustle - Series 3 | DVD | (23/04/2007) from £6.55   |  Saving you £23.44 (357.86%)   |  RRP £29.99

  The con is on! Hustle follows the fortunes of a gang of five expert con artists let loose on the streets of London. From rare comic books to antique banknotes they are specialists in the way of the grifter and all are keen to liberate cash from the amoral and undeserving... Features all six episodes from season 3.