Ripping Yarns - The Complete Series (15)

Following the phenomenal success of "Monty Python's Flying Circus", Michael Palin and Terry Jones created the BAFTA-winning Ripping Yarns - The Complete Series (15). A parody of Boy's Own-style adventure annuals, "Ripping Yarns" sees Palin take the lead role in nine fantastic adventures - from stirring tales of sporting endeavour, intrepid exploration and wartime heroism to skullduggery, supernatural mystery and murder! It's available to own as a 2-disc set on 5th March 2012, RRP £19.99.

An illustrious supporting cast includes Ian Ogilvy, John Le Mesurier, Iain Cuthbertson, Denholm Elliott, Joan Sanderson and Don Henderson, with Terry Jones starring in one episode and fellow former Python John Cleese also making a cameo appearance. "Ripping Yarns" was produced and directed by the multi award-winning team of Terry Hughes (The Two Ronnies), Jim Franklin (The Goodies) and Alan J.W. Bell (The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy).

Special Features:
· Commentaries on all episodes by Michael Palin and Terry Jones
· Deleted scene from Murder at Moorstones Manor
· Audience laughter-free tracks on all episodes bar Tomkinson's Schooldays and Murder at Moorstones Manor
· Comic Roots - Michael Palin returns to his home-town of Sheffield
· "Secrets" - a BBC play from 1973
· Stills Gallery
· Michael Palin's Original Scripts PDF.

Originally broadcast on the BBC between 1976 and 1979, this set is a must-have item for all fans of great British comedy.

Ripping Yarns - The Complete Series (15) is available from Network DVD
Release Date: 5th March 2012
RRP: £19.99
Discs: 2
Running Time: 225 mins (approx.)
Screen Ratio: 1.33:1 Colour
Catalogue Number: 7953361

Disc One

TOMPKINSON'S SCHOOLDAYS. Set in the frontier days of British education, when upper lips were stiff with cold and corporal punishment was an A-Level. A savage, searing indictment of something or other.
Produced and Directed by Terry Hughes. Original BBC Transmission 7 January 1976

THE TESTING OF ERIC OLTHWAITE. A boy becomes a man in the harsh world of the Depression. The rough, tough story of folk who couldn't afford to go on the Jarrow March.
Produced and Directed by Jim Franklin. Original BBC Transmission 27 September 1977

ESCAPE FROM STALAG LUFT 112B. A tale of courage and valour behind the lines in the Kaiser's Germany. An inspiring story of camp life and a British officer who wouldn't lie down.
Produced and Directed by Jim Franklin. Original BBC Transmission 4 October 1977

MURDER AT MOORSTONES MANOR. Hugo and Dora drive down to see Mumsie and Dadsie-pie for a long weekend in the country. But it turns out to be longer than they thought.
Produced and Directed by Terry Hughes. Original BBC Transmission 11 October 1977

ACROSS THE ANDES BY FROG. The stirring story of one man and six frogs who tried to defy the world in the greatest gamble of all.
Produced and Directed by Terry Hughes. Original BBC Transmission 18 October 1977

THE CURSE OF THE CLAW. The terrifying account of a man who dabbled in the dark mysteries of the Orient, and lived to tell the tale. Or did he...?
Produced and Directed by Jim Franklin. Original BBC Transmission 25 October 1977

Disc Two

WHINFREY'S LAST CASE. Dashing, debonnaire Gerald Whinfrey saves his country twice a week. But in 1913 a German plot to start the First World War without telling anybody coincides with his holiday. Where do Whinfrey's priorities lie? Has he got any? A knockabout tale of international intrigue.
Executive Producer Sydney Lotterby. Produced and Directed by Alan J.W. Bell. Original BBC Transmission 10 October 1979

GOLDEN GORDON. A torrid tale of football fanaticism in the 1930s. Super-fan Gordon Ottershaw supports a team which hasn't won a match for six years. But worse is to come, and Gordon and his bicycle clips are reunited in a last desperate bid for glory and Bovril. Executive Producer Sydney Lotterby. Produced and Directed by Alan J.W. Bell
Original BBC Transmission 17 October 1979

ROGER OF THE RAJ. Roger Bartlesham comes of age in a world of eighteen-course breakfasts and twelve servants per leg. But when the Great War breaks out Roger finds himself in a world of changing values and is forced by circumstances to the most despicable act known to the British Army. Produced and Directed by Jim Franklin.
Original BBC Transmission 24 October 1979

The Gentle Touch - The Complete Fifth Series

The Gentle Touch - The Complete Fifth Series (15)

Jill Gascoine stars as tough, no-nonsense female cop Maggie Forbes in The Gentle Touch - The Complete Fifth Series (15). It is available from all good retailers on 14th November 2011, RRP £39.99 in a 4-disc set.

Made at a time when there were very few ranking female officers in the police force, The Gentle Touch not only showed police procedure within a Metropolitan Police CID unit but also gave insight into how a woman might cope with such a role in what was very much a man's world. An instant hit with viewers, it became one of the most successful police dramas ever made, running for five years before spinning off into another series - C.A.T.S. Eyes.

Following the continuing challenges faced by DI Maggie Forbes, this fourth series, originally screened in 1982 and 1983, features more powerful and contemporary storylines that reflected the changing nature of police work in 1980s Britain; a stellar guest cast includes Joan Hickson, Michael Praed, Joanne Whalley, Art Malik and Clive Swift.

FACTFILE:

The Gentle Touch - The Complete Fifth Series (15) is a Network DVD release

Release Date:             14th November 2011

RRP:                          £39.99

Discs:                         4               

Running Time:            650 (approximately)

Screen Ratio:             1.33:1

Cat. No:                     7953690

The Strange World Of Gurney Slade On Dvd On 15th August 2011

Both a product of its time and also wildly ahead of itself, Both firmly of and spectacularly ahead of its time, THE STRANGE WORLD OF GURNEY SLADE (PG) is said to be to television comedy what The Prisoner is to television drama - brilliantly inventive and startlingly surreal.

It's a compelling mix of innovation that pre-dates The Mighty Boosh and Psychoville, THE STRANGE WORLD OF GURNEY SLADE - THE COMPLETE SERIES (PG) is available for the first time in any format on 15th August 2011, RRP £14.99.

The story is that Anthony Newley stars as an actor who walks off the set of a banal sit-com in disgust and ennui, and into a fantasy world of his own imagination. In this strange odyssey through his own personal alternative reality, he indulges in random conversations with both animals and inanimate objects - it's a world in which characters can step out of advertising posters and where he can hear the most intimate thoughts of passers-by!

An unpredictable, absurdist fantasy, Gurney Slade created an indelible impression upon anyone who saw it. Created by Newley and written by the highly talented Sid Green and Dick Hills (who were soon to become key writers for Morecambe and Wise), this series has been newly transferred from the original 35mm film elements specifically for this release.

FACTFILE:

THE STRANGE WORLD OF GURNEY SLADE- THE COMPLETE SERIES (PG) is a Network DVD release
Release Date: 15th August 2011
RRP: £14.99
Disc: 1
Total Running Time: 150 mins (approx.)
Screen Ratio: 1.33:1 Black and white
Cat. No.: 7953388