This DVD boxset (the UK version, not the really cool American version with the crate packaging and map) contains the original 14 episodes of Sharpe and was released one episode at a time, starting in 2002, before this packaged set gained a separate release some time later.

The series is set during the Napoleonic War at the start of the 19th Century, and centres around a British sergeant named Richard Sharpe (Sean Bean). Sharpe saves the life of General Sir Arthur Wellesley (soon to be Lord Wellington), single-handedly killing three Frenchmen in the process. This is more impressive than it perhaps sounds considering that the rifles used at the time could only fire one shot before needing reloading, and even the best soldiers at the time could only manage two rounds per minute.

As reward for his bravery, Sharpe is promoted by Wellesley to the rank of lieutenant, and given command over a group of men in the 95th Rifles, including a rather belligerent chap named Sergeant Patrick Harper (Daragh O’Malley). The problem Sharpe initially faces is that, being raised from the ranks, neither officers nor soldiers want anything to do with him. The officers think he is common and not gentleman (and they’d be right) and the soldiers think he’s not a proper officer and will get them all killed. It’s this initial conflict that drives the first episode, Sharpe’s Rifles, as Lieutenant Sharpe must contend with mutiny in the ranks, and a disliking from other officers, if he is to survive.

Naturally survive he does, and he endures many adventures (most of which being based on the books by Bernard Cornwell). Throughout the course of the 14 episodes (all filmed for a 2 hour timeslot on ITV, so are effectively feature films in their own right) Sharpe marries 3 times, gets promoted up as far as Lieutenant Colonel and performs a great many heroic deeds, much to the annoyance of the French (and many of the English officers).

Sharpe is very much a man’s man, and doesn’t care whether he offends anyone (including ladies) which accounts for much of his charm. If he’s not telling ‘fops’ to ‘get off their bloody horse’, he’s given ladies compliments on their cleavage (as he does to Liz Hurley, who plays a former flame and a prostitute in one episode and is forced to undress in front of him).

Other guest appearances of note include Daniel Craig as a no good British officer, Alexis Denisof (from Buffy and Angel) as a cowardly officer who steals Sharpe’s wife and Brian Cox as a devious Irish Major.

It’s Sean Bean’s performances in Sharpe that saw him tipped to play James Bond (before Brosnan finally got the nod) and then to appear as a 00 agent in Goldeneye. Sharpe is fantastic entertainment, whether you’re interested in the historical aspect of the Napoleonic Wars, or whether you just like to see a northern hero sticking it to the Frogs (as Sharpe himself calls them). The boxset is also great value for money in the UK, with 14 DVDs included.

Special Features

This is a little disappointing as the Sharpe’s Legend documentary that is included with another boxset release is absent from here, so you only really get photo galleries. There’s not even an episode guide booklet, so unless you have the outer box itself you can’t even tell which episode comes next in the sequence as the DVDs aren’t even marked with volume numbers.

Don’t let the absence of special features put you off though, this is British television at its absolute best – and better yet, there are another two episodes of Sharpe that were made after this release so you can get another fix once you’ve watched all of these.

The plastic surgeons, Christian Troy (Julian McMahon) and Sean McNamara (Dylan Walsh) are lifelong friends who graduated med school together, and both are in love with the same woman, Julia (Joely Richardson). The first season showed how the twisted interpersonal relationships between the characters were formed and how Sean’s son Matt wasn’t actually Sean’s, he was Christian’s.

Things got worse from here as the pair got mixed up with a drug dealer who wanted his identity changed, a serial slasher known as ‘The Carver’, transsexuals who seemed drawn to Matt and various other dark and satirical events that plagued them.

The development over the years of Sean McNamara, from the steady, loyal one, into the love rat who just can’t help himself, saw the two friends become more like each other than they would ever care to admit – to the point where they actually thought they may be in love with each other.

The best part of Nip/Tuck is the fact that characters can do evil, nasty, distasteful things and more often than not get away with it. In most shows, you know that characters will get their comeuppance, and anyone who commits a crime will, at some stage, pay for it. Not with Nip/Tuck. This was made clear in the first series when Matt ran over a girl, leaving her for dead, and got clean away with it.

Nip/Tuck is dark, extremely dark.

The final season of Nip/Tuck has been criticised by many for being too over the top in terms of storyline, almost desperate in places as the show ran its course to a natural end. However, whether these criticisms are just or not (as the show has definitely seen better days in earlier seasons, with the Carver for instance) there are still some highlights left to savour in this final season. One such highlight is the development of Sean and Christian’s relationship to the extent that they require couples’ therapy. This touches on the previously mentioned storyline where the pair suspected they may be gay, and in love with each other.

Not the best season by far, but a suitable dark conclusion to one of the darkest and funniest shows in years.

Finding that they are getting a lot requests from abroad but are unable to investigate them because of family commitments, Grant and Jason from Ghost Hunters decide to form an international investigation team led by Robb Demarest from the Florida branch. Their first case is in England and the 800-year-old Chillingham Castle, reputed to be the most haunted castle in the country. To be fair, at night with no lights on, the place does have a foreboding vibe.

Not surprisingly, most of the cases take place in the United Kingdom so that there is no issue with a foreign language but they do go to Italy and check out a haunted monastery with a reported demonic presence, Transylvania, Slovakia (gothic compound), Germany (a headless ghost), and Germany where they team up with Destination Truth’s Josh Gates to investigate Frankenstein’s castle.

Each episode is broken up into two separate cases. The investigators are given the backstory to the place, eyewitness accounts of paranormal activity, a tour of the site, and then the investigation begins. The team’s goal is to prove or disprove the presence of paranormal activity. The team waits until night and breaks up into couples and explores the site. The investigators are equipped with an array of scientific equipment including thermal imaging and an electronic voice phenomenon device that picks up noises not detectable by the human ear. Each episode mixes footage of the investigation with soundbite interviews with the team members conducted after the fact. After the investigation, they review the evidence and then present their findings to the client.

What is refreshing about Ghost Hunters International is that it takes the Ghost Hunters template on the road all over the world. The investigators are skeptical and are looking to debunk things that were thought to be unexplainable. They attempt to capture potential evidence of the paranormal but unfortunately most of what they find consists of the odd disembodied voice or footage of a strange shadow. The investigators do often experience something first hand but it are rarely recorded and therein lies the rub. Still, if you are even remotely interested in the unexplained, the show is entertaining to watch but unfortunately the personalities of the team aren’t as distinctive as the ones on the original Ghost Hunters. On Ghost Hunters International, the exotic locations are the real star of the show.

Special Features:

There is over an hour’s worth of deleted/extended scenes for every episode. We get more backstories to the various haunted locations and naturally we see more of the investigations themselves.

The first season featured two of the show’s most memorable arcs. Upon being released from prison (to establish his criminal credentials), Vinnie is assigned to infiltrate the Sonny Steelgrave (Sharkey) organization after his son Dave killed Vinnie’s training agent who had previously been investigating the crime family. Vinnie gradually works his way up and manages to gain Sonny’s confidence. Ray Sharkey is quite good as the unpredictable crime boss who constantly keeps Vinnie on his toes. He’s understandably cagey as deals get busted and henchmen are killed.

Vinnie answers to Frank McPike (played with wonderfully sarcastic dry wit by Banks) and he is the one that assigns Vinnie his cases and supplies him with crucial information. Vinnie’s other contact is Lifeguard (Bynes), whom he contacts on a regular basis with updates on the case under the guise of Uncle Mike, in case the phone is being tapped. One of things that is so good about Wiseguy is that it takes the time to show how being so deep undercover takes its toll on Vinnie. He comes so close to death on a regular basis and has to be a hell of an actor because his life depends on it.

The first season’s second story arc, and arguably the best one of the show’s entire run, saw Vinnie go after the multi-billionaire international arms dealer Mel Profitt (Spacey). In the process, Vinnie uncovers a crime syndicate in a whole other league than anything he’s experienced before. His way into this particular organization is through assassin Roger Loccoco (William Russ), who works for Profitt. Through him he meets Mel’s beautiful sister Susan (Joan Severance) who introduces him to Mel.

Not surprisingly, the one to watch is a young Kevin Spacey as the crazy, power-hungry Mel. He’s a larger than life criminal mastermind seemingly coming apart at the seams and yet manages to just keep it together enough to run his vast empire – thanks to Susan and a regular shot of heroin. Spacey does a fantastic job giving depth to this first class nutjob, knowing when to chew up the scenery and when to pull it back.

At the end of season one, burn-out from a grueling undercover assignment, Vinnie threatens to resign. Frank puts him on a six-month extended leave of absence instead. Vinnie decides to return home to Brooklyn in an attempt to clear his head and enjoy some semblance of a regular life. Meanwhile, Frank gets promoted and his superiors put pressure on him to bring Vinnie back to work.

After a short story arc that saw Vinnie deal with a small group of white supremacists trying to take over his neighbourhood, Wiseguy settled into its next memorable storyline. Eli Sternberg (Lewis) and his son David (Silver) are clothing manufacturers struggling to reach a deadline on an order and need a lot of money fast. Eli makes a deal with Enrico Pinzolo (Tucci), a local businessman/loan shark who controls the garment industry via trucking. Unhappy with what his father has done, David asks the OCB for their help and in doing so help them bring down Pinzolo. Comedian Jerry Lewis holds his own and shows off his dramatic chops against solid character actors like Ron Silver and Stanley Tucci. It’s great to see these guys bounce off each other and sink their teeth in this excellent material.

Season three begins with Vinnie’s stepfather and Mafioso boss shot and gravely wounded in a mob hit. When another don his hit, Vinnie teams up with the head of a rival family (Davi) to find out whom from one of the other families ordered these hits. Robert Davi, who’s appeared in a lot of crappy films and T.V. shows, gets a meaty role to demonstrate what an underrated talent he is by eloquently delivering substantial monologues and playing an honourable tough guy.

After Ken Wahl had a dispute with the show’s producers and left the show before the start of the fourth season, his character was written out and replaced with the much less interesting Michael Santana (Bauer), a United States attorney based in Miami. When his case against a powerful leader of a drug cartel falls apart due to a flawed arrest warrant based on information illegally beaten out of an informant, Santana is disbarred. McPike seeks him out in order to help find Vinnie who has run afoul of the same cartel. While Steven Bauer is a fine actor, it was hard to empathize with his character like you could with Vinnie whom viewers had grown attached to over three seasons. The ratings declined and Wiseguy was canceled after this season.

Watching these episodes again reminds one of just how good Wiseguy was back in the day and how it paved the way for crime shows like The Sopranos and The Wire.

Special Features:

Much like the previous first season box set, a lot of the original music has been replaced with much cheaper substitutes. However, this really doesn’t detract from the engrossing storylines or fascinating characters. However, one entire story arc has been excised entirely due to original music rights issues. This was the storyline that saw Vinnie going undercover to bust a corrupt English record mogul played by Tim Curry and featured the likes of Debbie Harry and Glenn Frey in supporting roles. Its omission is sorely missed.

Based loosely on the 1999 novel by science fiction writer Robert J. Sawyer, the show was originally developed at HBO. However, executives there felt that it was better suited for a broadcast network and sold it to ABC. David S. Goyer (the Blade trilogy) wrote the pilot, along with Brannon Braga (Star Trek: The Next Generation), and they both served as executive producers.

All good science fiction shows start off with a great premise and Flashforward’s is a doozy. FBI Special Agent Mark Benford (Fiennes) wakes up in a crash with his car turned upside down. He crawls out of the wreckage to find the world around him in utter chaos. We flashback a few hours and meet a wide variety of characters. Suddenly, in the middle of their respective lives, they all simultaneously blackout for 137 seconds during which time they experience visions of their lives six months in the future.

This phenomenon appears to have affected everyone in the world except, for some unknown reason, Benford’s partner, Demetri Noh (Cho), who experienced no flashforward. He interprets this to mean that he’s going to die. Flashforward explores how a diverse cast of characters interpret and react to their own flashforwards with the focus on Benford’s investigation of the blackout. In his flashforward, he saw the results of the investigation into the global blackout and uses it to recreate the investigation in the present. Over the course of the first ten episodes, many of the characters uncover all kinds of tantalizing clues.

The show takes this intriguing premise and runs with it in a compelling way with the FBI investigation being the most interesting storyline and the one that drives the narrative. It would be a shame if this show was canceled before it got a chance to offer some resolution for its loyal fans.

Special Features:

“Creating Catastrophe: The Effects of a Global Blackout” takes a look at how they shot the blackout sequence with all kinds of stunts and special effects. Obviously, a lot of planning went into it and this extra sheds light on what it took to pull it off.

“Flashforward: A Look Ahead” features a clip from an upcoming episode.

“Could” is a teaser for the remaining episodes for this season.

Fans of erectile dysfunction might remember a certain advert where football legend Pele talked about erection problems; that was Peter Serafinowicz dubbing his voice. Fans of Star Wars may be trying to forget The Phantom Menace, but they won’t want to forget Ray Park as Darth Maul, the best thing about the film; that was Peter Serafinowicz providing his voice.

Peter Serafinowicz is a very versatile voice actor, and that’s where most of his best comedy comes from. For example, his sketches in The Peter Serafinowicz Show that show The Beatles arguing demonstrate the skill of Peter’s impressions as he plays John Lennon and Paul McCartney perfectly.

Serafinowicz is also providing the voice of Paul McCartney in the upcoming 3D movie version of Yellow Submarine.

In The Peter Serafinowicz Show, we’re treated to a series of sketches showing various comedy creations, such as the gay Sherlock Holmes who becomes aroused when he solves a case and has to take Watson there and then, and the robot talk-show host who keeps outing his guests’ secrets before they can say them, and then proceeds to try and kill everyone.

The trouble with this sketch show is that sketch shows by and large are becoming passé. Right the way through to the 80s, sketch shows were the mainstay of British comedy – however we now have different tastes and improvisation shows such as Mock the Week, Would I Lie To You and QI are more popular than the sketch show format. Only shows such as Little Britain and The Catherine Tate Show have successfully lasted with the sketch show format. It’s an old style of comedy and one that takes a long time to build up any momentum, due to its reliance on the audience’s familiarity with the characters and the catchphrases that they use.

Whether The Peter Serafinowicz Show will be around long enough to build up any kind of momentum is another matter, but this show, while having its moments (such as the brutally honest shopping channel presenters who call everything shit) still suffers from too many missed laughs.

From a personal note though, Serafinowicz’ impression of Vader was funny on a geek level because he ‘is’ the voice of Darth Maul – nerds up and down the country would have chortled to themselves over that one, before explaining it to their parents or better halves.

The first season of Robin Hood was good clean fun, where nobody really suffered or died. The second season went down something of a dark road, before it’s very dark conclusion – which is where the third season kicks off. Pitched as being much darker than the previous seasons, they weren’t wrong.

Robin Hood season three begins with Robin wanting revenge of Guy for what happened in the Holy Land, and Robin seemingly prepared to give up on his duties to the people of Nottingham, and England.

The arrival of Friar Tuck (we wondered he wasn’t in the first two series) managed to convince Robin that his place was defending Nottingham and his king, so the third series could get underway.

What makes this series different is that relationships are constantly changing, and characters are descending into darkness. Where Alan a Dale had betrayed Robin and his men in series two, only to make amends, in this third series some characters were finding nothing at all worth fighting for and are prepared to betray everyone, family included. Guy of Gisborne for example has become a shell of a man, not forgiving himself for killing Marion and losing any respect, or fear, for the Sheriff.

Allies of Robin’s become his mortal enemies, and his mortal enemies become his most trusted friends. The conclusion of the series is both suitably climactic and harrowing at the same time, as it even threatens to go all ‘Wild Bunch’ at one point.

Is this version of Robin Hood the best TV version? Well, there is the excellent Robin of Sherwood (1984-86) which also ran for three series to contend with, but this third series of Robin Hood is perhaps on a par with that. It’s certainly the best of the three series, even without the delectable charms of Lucy Griffiths.

As ever, the storyline has been left open, and perhaps following the latest big screen outing for the legend that is Robin Hood, with Russell Crowe, we may get another Robin Hood series before too long.

Season 11, if you remember, was the one after the Hammster’s crash, where we all thought he would be nothing more than a drooling mess. He wasn’t, sort of. In this season the team went on another one of their massive races, where Jeremy Clarkson raced against Japanese public transport, something which is never, ever late.

The team also took some old bangers and made police cars out of them. Well, they tried at least. Hammond’s hairdresser’s 4×4 effort didn’t really work, and Clarkson’s chariot add-on merely took his wheel off when he attempted to apprehend the Stig.

Hammond and Clarkson continue their joke of crashing into James May’s car whenever they come to a stop, even when May has bought a rather attractive Alpha Romeo in the team’s Alpha challenge.

The highlight of the series however was when the boys took on their German counterparts in a Top Gear challenge. They arrive in Spitfires, before jumping into Aston Martins, to the theme from Dambusters (but never once mention the war).

This challenge concludes as a rather ‘Stig’ looking James May makes up several seconds on a German touring car racer to win it for Blighty.

Top Gear is fun for boys at its purest form, and great entertainment to boot.

The boys from the Dwarf are back once again. Slightly older, slightly rounder, slightly less hair and slightly less funny, but back nonetheless.

Red Dwarf has been missing from TV screens for far too long and despite the constant rumours of a big screen outing it hasn’t really looked like returning. Despite the absence of a new series, movie or even a cartoon adaptation (hey, they’ve done that for everything else) Red Dwarf has been on cable almost every day on the TV channel Dave.

Dave is the channel that everyone loves to watch because it always shows the classic TV programs that entertain us, such as Top Gear, Mock the Week, QI and of course, Red Dwarf. Dave was called Dave because everyone (and this is a fact) has a friend called Dave… go on, think about it.

Now, while Red Dwarf became one of Dave’s most popular shows, and since the BBC showed no interest in bringing it back, Dave itself decided to commission a new three part episode of the classic Sci-Fi show.

The fans were in raptures.

Red Dwarf was originally a low budget, two man show about Dave Lister (Craig Charles) being stranded in space as the last man in existence. In order to keep him sane, the computer (Holly) brought his best friend/enemy Arnold J Rimmer (Chris Barrie) back to life as a hologram. The two men would spend their days arguing and getting on each other’s nerves as much as possible.

Then the Cat (Danny John-Jules) was introduced as a human/cat hybrid, followed by Kryten (later played by Robert Llewellyn) as the helpful android. As the show progressed the budget became bigger and the scope of the show increased. The series peaked around series 3 or 4 before starting to go downhill and become too self referential, pandering to the demands of the fans who wanted to see recurring characters such as the Cat’s alter ego Dwayne Dibley, and Rimmer’s more heroic counterpart, Ace Rimmer.

Eventually Chris Barrie left altogether, being replaced with Chloë Annett who, while being better to look at than Barrie, wasn’t as much fun on screen. The final series, series 8, reunited all of the cast in what was widely regarded as a great disappointment.

So what about Red Dwarf: Back to Earth? As expected, the magic of the earlier series of the show was never quite recaptured, but it was more enjoyable than the dire series 8. As Craig Charles now plies his trade on Coronation Street, having the Dwarfers shift into our reality and meet actors from Coronation Street was a stroke of genius. There were elements of Schwarzenegger’s Last Action Hero as Dave Lister came face to face with Craig Charles in the Rovers Return.

However, moments like these were few and far between, especially with the rather thick imagery of Blade Runner being ever present throughout the three parter before delving into movie parody at the conclusion.

As the special features showed, the effects were of great importance to the production, which is sad as the script writing is what always kept Red Dwarf apart from other shows at the time. The biting dialogue between two men who really despised each other is what fans of the show came to love, and this was sadly missing.

Back to Earth also suffered from being shot like a movie, rather than a TV series. This gave the feeling that you weren’t watching an episode of Red Dwarf at all, it was more like a high budget drama or piece of cinema. With too many cinematic shots, close ups and grand camera movements, the chance for the characters to play off each other was lost.

This was a great idea from Dave, and worth it for the scenes on Coronation Street, but next time give the fans what they need, not what they want.

Created by Eiji Tsuburaya, a special effects innovator who had a hand in the creation of Godzilla in 1954, Ultraman focuses on the adventures of the five-member Science Special Search Party of the International Science Police Organization. They are stationed in Japan investigating unusual phenomena while protecting Earth from alien invaders from outer space.

While investigating a UFO, deputy captain Shin Hayata’s (Kurobe) jet plane is taken out by a strange spherical object. Hayata’s unconscious body is enveloped by an alien red sphere where he is confronted by a being from the M78 nebula. The alien has been pursuing another extra-terrestrial known as Bemular, a “devilish monster who disturbs the peace of space.” The M78 nebula alien merges with Hayata so that when he is trouble he can transform into this powerful being known as Ultraman.

The show has fairly cheap production values, including shots of fighter jets that look like models right out the Thunderbirds, and stiff acting but this only adds to Ultraman’s charm. All of the episodes follow the same basic formula: a strange alien monster threatens Earth forcing Hayata to transform into Ultraman and stop it. There are also a lot of snazzy gizmos, cool weapons and neat vehicles that you couldn’t get enough of when you were a kid. The rubber-suited monsters evoke the ones made popular by the Godzilla films only on a much smaller budget. As a result, it is a lot of fun to see Ultraman slug it out with one of these things.