There have been a number of schedule changes over at Hong Kong Legends. Their new release dates are:

Skinny Tiger, Fatty Dragon - 24/5/04

Fist of the North Star - 7/6/04

Bullet in the Head - 5/7/04

Winners and Sinners - 2/8/04

They've also added a new title to the schedule: Sammo Hung's Moon Warriors, which stars Maggie Cheung and Andy Lau. This will be released on June the 21st.

The final three volumes of Friends will be released by Warner Home Video on June the 7th. Each volume will contain three episodes (remember the good old days, when you used to get six episodes on each disc?) The fifth disc will feature a collection of bonus materials. Fans who have been annoyed to see the series being belatedly released in season sets in the US with exclusive bonus materials (not to mention the fact that they sell for about a third the price of the UK discs), might be placated to find that some of the Region 1 extras are included here. The most significant is a documentary titled The One That Goes Behind The Scenes (43m, from the US season five set). There are three Friends of Friends featurettes (total 55m), a Friends Around The World featurette (8m), just over half an hour of Gag Reels, and a Fans of Friends Easter Egg (1m). Sadly there's no sign of the legendary suppressed finale episode, The One Where The Gang Get Horribly Slaughtered By Leatherhead. RRP for each disc is £15.99. 

Premiere Asia are dusting the cobwebs off of the acclaimed 2000 Japanese horror movie Ju-On (The Grudge), to finally give it a British theatrical release, on July the 2nd.

Paramount's June 7th schedule targets the male half of the population with an array of Westerns, war movies, and a Michael Caine box set, (which includes the original version of The Italian Job, Zulu and Alfie, for an RRP is £29.99). The other titles are Paul Newman's classic Oscar-winning generation-gap Western Hud, Steve McQueen's 1966 revenge drama Nevada Smith, two John Wayne westerns, 1971's Big Jake and Howard Hawks' 1970 swansong Rio Lobo, Wayne's Pearl Harbour-era Navy romance drama In Harm's Way, and two films more sympathetic than usual to the plight of the Native Americans, Dustin Hoffman's Little Big Man and Richard Harris' A Man Called Horse. All these films are presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic ratio, with Dolby Digital 5.1 audio, except Rio Lobo (which is 1.78:1 anamorphic), and Nevada Smith, which has mono audio. RRP is £15.99 each.

A new Special Edition version of Cecil B. DeMille's The Ten Commandments is also being released by Paramount, on June the 7th. The film will be presented in anamorphic widescreen format, with 5.1 Dolby Digital audio. Bonus features include a featurette, Cecil B. DeMille's Making of the Ten Commandments (9m), newsreel footage of the film's New York premiere, a brand new six-part documentary (37m), a commentary by Katherine Orrison (author of Written in Stone - Making Cecil B. DeMille's Epic The Ten Commandments), and three trailers (a 1956 Making of... trailer, and re-issue trailers from 1966 and 1989). RRP is TBC.

The second season of Cheers is also due on June the 7th. The set has an RRP of £34.99, and will feature unspecified "fantastic" DVD extras. The second series of Cheers spin-off Frasier is being released the same day, as a four-disc, twenty-four episode collection that will be "an essential brick in the comedy wall". (This is the sort of marketing crap you get from sites that simply regurgitate press releases!) The set will feature a commentary by director David Lees, interviews with the producers in Marching on to Season 2, Roz's Dating Tips, The Niles and Daphne Attraction, And Then There Was Eddie and Celebrity Voices. RRP is £34.99.

Fantasy fans should welcome the release of Stanley Donen's musical adaptation of Antoine de Saint-Exupery's novella The Little Prince, which features songs by Lerner and Loewe. The film, about a pilot who crashes in the Sahara desert, and meets a young boy who claims to live on an asteroid, will have Dolby Surround audio and a 1.78:1 anamorphic transfer. The release date is June the 28th, RRP is £15.99.

Other June 28th titles are the dire 1984 Dudley Moore and Eddie Murphy comedy Best Defense (no technical spec's available), the recent David Spade comedy Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star (no bonus materials, and Dolby Surround audio, apparently - the R1 version is stuffed with extras, RRP £19.99) and Claude Lelouch's romantic drama And Now... Ladies and Gentlemen.

Fox has released new sleeve images for their two-disc Planet of the Apes DVD set (due on April the 26th). The image on the left is the slipcase, the one on the right is the digipack that contains the discs.

5th April 2004

We start this week with a new review. It's of the recent $100m adaptation of Peter Pan, directed by Muriel's Wedding's P.J. Hogan. The disc has a handsome transfer, and energetic DTS audio mix (which may not be on the Region 1 version). The bonus materials are plentiful, but not terribly impressive. Click on the sleeve image, left, or here, to read the review. The disc is released on April the 26th.

We have two new competitions for you this week, where you could win a copy of the Danger Man - Complete Series One DVD box set, courtesy of Carlton, or a copy of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer - Season 7 DVD Collection set, courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment. Click on the banners, above, or here for the Danger Man competition, or here for the Buffy competition.

Independent CD label Film Score Monthly has released another pair of soundtrack discs which should be of interest to Zeta Minor visitors. As usual, the company has released one title in their Golden Age Classics range, and one from the Silver Age Classics range.

Their Golden Age title is a two-disc set that contains Miklós Rózsa's score for the 1956 historical drama Diane, which starred Lana Turner and Roger Moore. The MGM film, about court politics in Renaissance France, was a vehicle for Turner, who was nearing the end of her contract with the studio, and not entirely suited for the role of Queen Diane de Poitiers. Rózsa's lush, thematic score is presented on the CD in stereo, taken from the original three-track 35mm master elements (except for a couple of mono source cues). Disc one (71m) presents the film's score as featured in the film; the second (78m) includes alternate cues, source music and early workups. The disc also features additional and alternate cues from two other Rózsa historical soundtracks released by the label: Moonfleet and Plymouth Adventure.

Film Score Monthly's Silver Age release is an very welcome oddity: the score for the Logan's Run TV series, which has barely been seen since it originally aired, back in 1977 and 1978. (Film Score Monthly has already released Jerry Goldsmith's score for the film version). The TV series ran for only eleven episodes before succumbing to poor support from the network and indifference from viewers (leaving three episodes that would get their first airing in repeat screenings). As was common practice, not all the episodes had music especially-recorded for them. In fact only nine episodes featured original music. The ninety-minute Pilot episode was scored by Laurence Rosenthal, (who scored genre films Meteor, The Island of Doctor Moreau and Clash of the Titans, amongst others). Rosenthal scored three subsequent episodes, the rest were divided between three other composers (Jeff Alexander, Jerrold Immel and Young Sherlock Holmes' Bruce Broughton). Their music is included on the eighty-minute disc, too, as is the series' theme music, with its distinctive ping-pong siren sound. The disc is in stereo, remixed from the original half-inch three-track session masters.

Both titles are limited editions of 3000 copies. You can buy them from specialist retailers, or directly from Film Score Monthly's website.

And now a word or four thousand or so from Ceri, who's back with a vengeance, with a roundup of all the news you could possibly need, and a bunch of new offers from the online retailers. Take it away, Ceri!

Hello everyone! Here we go again!  You have a couple of weeks off and the next update ends up being huge! You really can’t let the grass grow…

For the Film additions to Incoming it’s primarily titles from Warner Home Video and Universal. On the TV side there are some major titles from Twentieth Century Fox and Warner, a bumper crop of Acorn titles, and lots of other interesting bits and pieces.

Whilst I’ve been away Julian has added a new retailer to the Offers page, as well as adding some good bargains, and there are plenty more I’ve added in this update. More of that later! Lets start with the feature film highlights to Incoming…

Anthony Minghella’s Cold Mountain, starring Jude Law, Nicole Kidman and Renee Zellweger, is now appearing on some retailers’ sites. It is to be released by Buena Vista and has a price of £22.99, so must be a two-disc set. No word on the bonus features yet, but its release date is July the 19th.

The Reservoir Dogs - Special Edition from Momentum is now listed as being a two-disc set, with disc one containing the main feature, a trailer and commentary featuring Quentin Tarantino, producer Lawrence Bender and select cast and crew. The second disc has deleted scenes, original interviews, Class of '92 interviews and Sundance Institute Filmmakers Lab, Scenes of Reservoir Dogs, tributes and dedications, Film Noir Files, Securing the Shot, and Location Scouting with Billy Fox. It’s listed for the 14th of June with a £19.99 RRP.

As reported here on the 1st of April, Mona Lisa Smile is scheduled for the 12th of July from Columbia Tri-Star. Three featurettes for the release has been cleared by the BBFC: What Women Wanted (10m41s), College Then and Now (14m37s), and Art Forum (6m30s). The three disc versions of Black Hawk Down and Panic Room, also from Columbia Tri-Star, are now being listed by the retailers for July the 19^th, which is a date that differs from the original press release. All three films have an RRP of £19.99. Columbia has also scheduled John Sturges’ dreary space film Marooned, for July the 26^th. Columbia Tristar is also planning to release the latest Stephen King mini-series, Kingdom Hospital (a new version of Lars von Triers’ The Kingdom) on June the 10^th.

There is quite a bit of information on Warner Home Video’s forthcoming releases, starting with the Clint Eastward-directed Mystic River, which is listed for June the 7th, with a £15.99 RRP. The Name of The Rose release has had it’s date revised to August the 30th, and two of the listed extras have been cleared by the BBFC: The Abbey Of Crime documentary (which runs to 43 minutes) and the Photo Journey with Director feature (16m). Its RRP is £19.99.

Now onto some of Warner’s titles which where announced as in preparation earlier in the year.

The Blazing Saddles - Special Edition is listed for the 19th of July, for £15.99. Seven untitled additional scenes from the film (totalling about nine minutes) have been cleared by the BBFC, along with Black Bart, the twenty-four-minute pilot episode of an abortive spin-off series. Black Bart, (which was also the film’s original title, features Lou Gossett Jr in the role played by Cleavon Little in the film.

For August the 2nd Warner has Enter The Dragon - Special Edition (a new two-disc edition), Cleopatra Jones, Cleopatra Jones And The Casino Of Gold and the schlocky Peter Cushing Hammer film where kung fu and vampires clash head on - Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires. The Enter The Dragon – SE has an RRP of £19.99, with the other three at £12.99.

The 6th of September sees The Lost Boys - Special Edition. THX 1138 - Special Edition is released a week later, on the 13th. Both have an RRP of £19.99.

Forbidden Planet, which is also thought to be a special edition, is listed for September the 20th. Johnny Weissmuller’s Tarzan The Ape Man, Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes and the Heat - Special Edition are all listed for release on the 27th of September. The latter has an RRP of £19.99 and the other three are £12.99.

Unfortunately, Blazing Saddles aside, there is no word on the content of the other special editions from Warner.

The are two Elvis movies box sets for August the 9^th: Set 1 contains Jailhouse Rock, The Trouble With Girls, Spinout and Double Trouble. Viva Las Vegas, Speedway, Harum Scarum and This Is Elvis are included in Set 2. Both box sets have an RRP of £39.99.

Right, that’s Warner done! Let’s move on to Universal. It’s seems their Mummy double feature release - The Mummy / The Mummy’s Hand – has been pulled and replaced with Dracula / House Of Dracula. Check Incoming for the all special features of this release along with Frankenstein / Bride of Frankenstein and The Wolf Man / Werewolf In London, which were added by Julian whilst I was away. All three are listed for May the 10th, with £19.99 as their RRPs. But really, if you are interested in these releases it is better to avoid them and go for the three R1 Dracula, Frankenstein and The Wolf Man Legacy Collection sets instead. The Dracula and Frankenstein sets both contain five films, The Wolf Man set has four, and all include the above extras plus a couple of others, with a release date of April the 27th.   Also, because of favourable exchange rate, you can pick up the complete set of all three or the individual releases quite cheaply. For example, the R1 section of Loaded247 has the individual Dracula, Frankenstein and The Wolf Man Legacy sets at £16.99 each. For the sake of a couple of quid there really isn’t much of a contest!

A few weeks ago several items to be included on a Spartacus – Special Edition from Universal were listed as cleared by the BBFC. The release is now appearing on retailers’ lists for May the 24th, with an RRP of £19.99. It’s listed as being fully-restored, including additional footage which was cut from the original release. The full list of special features are an audio commentary by Producer / actor Kirk Douglas, actor Peter Ustinov, novelist Howard Fast, Producer Edward Lewis, restoration expert Robert A. Harris and Designer Saul Bass; screenwriter Dalton Trumbo's Scene-By-Scene Analysis; Additional Alex North score compositions; Restoration demonstration; Vintage newsreel footage; 1960 Promotional cast interviews; a 1992 video interview With Peter Ustinov; Behind-the-scenes Gladiatorial School footage; the 1960 Documentary The Hollywood Ten (about writers blacklisted by the McCarthy hearings); Original storyboards by Saul Bass; and Photo galleries, which include production stills, lobby cards, posters, print ad’s and a ccomic strip.

Just listed as cleared by the BBFC for Universal is material for a DVD release of Backbeat, the film about Stuart Sutcliffe the 5th Beatle, which starred Stephen Dorff, Ian Hart and Sheryl Lee. This material is an interview with director Iain Softley (28m), another interview, this time with Softley and Ian Hart (10m), casting sessions footage (6m), and two deleted scenes: A Frosty Sense of Humour (1m) and Perfect Fit (2m).

The BBFC has also listed extras for special edition versions of Thunderbirds Are Go! and Thunderbird Six, from MGM. Thunderbirds Are Go! includes three featurettes: a History and Appeal documentary (10m); Factory of Dolls and Rockets (9m) and Epics in Miniature (8m); together with an animated photo gallery (3m) and 2 Easter Eggs (1m). Thunderbird Six also has three featurettes: on Lady Penelope (10m); Building Better Puppets (9m) and Tiger Moth (6m); an animated photo gallery (3m) and two Easter Eggs (1m). It looks like both these releases will duplicate the R1 versions, which, in addition to the above, are listed as being anamorphic widescreen and having DD 5.1, DTS 5.1 and original mono audio; commentaries with director David Lane and producer Sylvia Anderson; trivia quizzes and theatrical trailers.

The Crow 3 – Salvation is listed for the 30th of August from Buena Vista, with an RRP of £15.99. Extras recently cleared by the BBFC include: Who’s That Bird (8m); Production stills and sketches (3m); Behind the Make-Up (2m) and Behind the Scenes (8m).

To tie in with the anniversary of D-Day, Twentieth Century Fox has a two-disc special edition of The Longest Day for May the 31st, with an RRP of £19.99. The extras listed are Hollywood Backstories - The Longest Day Documentary; D-Day Revisited Documentary and original theatrical trailers for The Longest Day, Patton and Tora! Tora! Tora!

Eureka are re-issuing their Metropolis and M releases as a box set with an RRP of £24.99 on the 26th of April. Special features on Metropolis are an audio commentary by film historian and restoration expert Enno Patalas; The Metropolis Case; Credits & Cast; The Restoration; Photo galleries; biographies. The silent film has an original Gottfried Huppertz Musical Score.

The M disc features an audio essay by film historian R. Dixon Smith On The Impact Of M; The Restoration of M Documentary; Peter Bogdanovich’s audio interview with Fritz Lang; Fritz Lang documentary; Lending Order To Horror visual essay By R. Dixon Smith; film restoration comparison - Martin Koerber; photo gallery and animated slideshow; set designs and final screen comparisons; animated biographies and historical backgrounds.

Anchor Bay are reissuing their Trilogy Of The Dead four disc box set, featuring George Romero's trilogy of zombie films and a bonus disc of extras, on May the 31st, with an RRP of £29.99. The Night of the Living Dead disc features a Behind The Scenes featurette; trailer; photo gallery; a scene from the Bill Hinzman film Flesheater;  and Dance Of The Dead music video. Dawn Of The Dead has an exclusive audio commentary from make-up guru Tom Savini and a stills gallery. The Day of the Dead disc features a widescreen presentation (1.85:1); Behind the scenes footage; trailers; biographies and filmographies; photo gallery. The Bonus Disc contains Document of the Dead documentary; Night Of The Living Dead documentary; and a new photo gallery from all three films.

Another Marx Brothers box set is listed for August the 23rd, this time from Paramount. It’s a six-disc set featuring A Night At The Opera, A Day At The Races, A Night In Casablanca, The Big Store, At The Circus and Go West, for an RRP of £59.99. Paramount also have a special edition of Cecil B. De Mille’s The Ten Commandments for June the 7th. No word of the extras, or it’s RRP yet.

Cinema Club have two horror films lined-up for the 21st of June: one of Roy Ward Baker’s  70s Hammer films Doctor Jekyll And Sister Hyde, starring Ralph Bates and the Grand Guignol Horrors of the Black Museum, starring Michael Gough. Both have an RRP of £9.99.

The World War II film, The Way Ahead, is listed for May the 17th from Carlton with £9.99 as it’s RRP. It was directed by Carol Reed and starred David Niven, Stanley Holloway, William Hartnell, Jimmy Hanley, John Laurie, Hugh Burden and Peter Ustinov.

Finally for the feature film additions, DD Video’s release of the film-spin off Nearest and Dearest, which was pulled earlier in the year due to problems with the source materials, has reappeared for June the 14th. It’s RRP is £9.99. DD Video has cancelled the release of  The Creeping Flesh and Night of the Big Heat for “legal reasons”.

Right then, catch your breath and onto the TV releases!

Twentieth Century Fox has scheduled the first season of Chris Carter’s Millenium for the 12th of July, with an RRP of £39.99. Also on the 12th of July is Carter’s Harsh Realm - Season 1, which has an RRP of £34.99. 24 - Series 3 is showing for the 19th of July, at £49.99. The Lost in Space – Season 2 box set has a date of July the 5th, with an RRP of £49.99. Unfortunately, there is no mis-price at Choices Direct this time, darnit! The first season of Without a Trace, which is currently receiving an airing here in the UK on Channel 4, is listed for August the 30th at £59.99.

Warner Home Video’s Babylon 5 releases continue with a three-TV movie set of Third Space, Call To Arms and River of Souls, listed for the 16th of August, with an RRP of £34.99. Also from Warner is The West Wing - Complete Season 4 Box Set, which is listed for release on September the 13th, with an RRP of £59.99. July the 19^th will see the long-overdue release of Smallville - Season 2 set, as well as a Smallville - Complete Series 1 & 2, retailling at £79.99. Nip / Tuck, the series set in a plastic surgery practice, recently aired by Sky, is listed for the 20th of September, for £49.99. Finally from for Warner is Angels In America, listed for the 13th of September. This mini series stars Al Pacino, Meryl Streep, Emma Thompson, Michael Gambon and Simon Callow. HMV are the only retailer listing this at the moment and they are showing a pre-order price of £21.99, so it is not known if this is actual RRP or not yet.

As I said at the beginning there’s a shed load of new titles being listed by Acorn: Cribb, A Horseman Riding By, and more When The Boat Comes In, Rumpole of The Bailey and Midsommer Murders.

ITV’s superb Victorian police detective series, Cribb, makes it’s R2 debut on June the 14th with the release of Part 1, containing the first five episodes. Part 2 follows on July the 12th, and Part 3, to complete the series, on August the 9th. There’s no listing of the box set of these three volumes, yet. The series was originally broadcast in 1980 and stars the superb Alan Dobie, and is well worth a purchase if you haven’t seen it before.

A Horseman Riding By is a 13 part adaptation of the book by R.F. Delderfield, originally broadcast on BBC 1 in 1978, starring Nigel Havers, Glyn Houston (who played Bunter in all but one of the TV adaptations of the 1970s Lord Peter Wimsey serials, and is best known to Doctor Who fans as Professor Watson in The Hand of Fear) and Fiona Gaunt (best known as the fabulously sexy Dr. Helen Smith in Moonbase 3). The series follows the life of a soldier invalided out of the Boer War who takes over the running of a manor house and estate in Devon, through to the end of the First World War. The complete box set and Part 1 are listed for July the 12th. Part 2 is showing for August the 9th and Part 3 for September the 13th.

The rest of When The Boat Comes In - Series 3 and all of Series 4 are now showing. Series 3 – Part 2 has a date of June the 14th, with Part 3 and there’ll be a Complete Series 3 box set on July the 12th. (Series 3 - Part 1 is already listed for the 10th of May). Series 4 – Part 1 has a date of the 9th of August, and Part 2 follows on the 13th of September. Part 3 and the Complete Series 4 box set are listed for the 11th of October.

The Cribb, A Horseman Riding By and When The Boat Comes In series box sets have an RRP of £59.99, with the individual volumes at £19.99.

Rumpole of the Bailey – Series 7 is listed for June the 14th, with an RRP of £24.99.

Two more Midsommer Murders stories, Garden of Death and Judgement Day are listed for June the 14th. Both have an RRP of £16.99.

Finally, from Acorn, the Tenko - Series 3 box set has been put back again, and is now also listed for June the 14th.

It’s been a good couple of weeks for exciting information on titles from BBC Worldwide, what with the Doctor Who serial, The Leisure Hive, and The Nightmare Man, both listed for July. In addition to these are a few other interesting new titles.

The BBC Shop is listing the recent BBC 1 drama serial State of Play for September the 20th. The BBC 2 comedy series Early Doors, written by Craig Cash, (one-time writing partner of Caroline Aherne on The Royal Family and Mrs. Merton) is also listed by the BBC Shop for September the 6th. Both have RRP’s of £19.99.

July the 12^th also sees the release of another disc featuring Britain’s Favourite Sitcom, Only Fools and Horses. This one, entitled Fatal Extraction, has an RRP of £15.99.

To commemorate D-Day the BBC is broadcasting a special documentary film, D-Day - 6.6.44, and this gets a release the following day on June the 7th. Its RRP is £15.99.

Amazon is listing that The House of Cards Trilogy will include a commentary on one episode from each series with star Ian Richardson, writer Andrew Davies and producer Ken Riddington. The set has a date of June the 14th, with a £34.99 RRP.

Just listed as cleared at the BBFC is the informatively titled, DVD Asset, for the Smiley's People release, but it does run for a fairly substantial twenty-eight minutes. Smiley’s People has a date of June the 28th, and an RRP of £15.99.

Both the Dennis Potter Collection and Peter Cushing’s Sherlock Holmes releases are to be available in box sets, as well as the individual releases.

The Dennis Potter Collection, which features Brimstone and Treacle, Casanova, Pennies From Heaven and The Singing Detective, is listed for May the 31st, with the BBC Shop showing the price of £49.99.

The three Peter Cushing Sherlock Holmes releases - A Study In Scarlet and The Boscombe Valley Mystery, The Hound of the Baskervilles and The Sign of Four and The Blue Carbuncle, appear to have had their dates put back a month to June the 21st. They will available separately, or together as a box set, also due on June the 21st, with an RRP of £29.99. This may work out to be a cheaper way to buy the set than purchasing the individual releases, especially for those of you who didn’t get the BBC Learning release of The Hound of the Baskervilles from a few years ago and need to buy all three. If a good price turns up for the box set, I will, of course, let you know!

Finally, for BBC Worldwide, is the news that the Sellers On Sellers release has been put back to the 2nd of August. It also looks like the Big Train release has been delayed as well. Choices Direct are listing it as withdrawn and Play have a new date of October the 25th.

Carlton’s eagerly anticipated release of ITV’s early 70s children’s sci-fi series Timeslip is now listed by HMV as a complete box set for July the 19th. The series comprised of four interlinked serials - The Wrong End Of Time (6 episodes), The Time of the Ice Box (6 episodes), The Year of the Burn Up (8 episodes) and The Day of the Clone (6 episodes). It was originally made in colour, bar two episodes which were in black and white due to an ITV’s technician’s strike during production in late 1970. Sadly the series now only exists as black and white telerecordings, although one episode in PAL colour format has survived. This single colour episode will be included in the release along with the telerecordings. The series was released on VHS in the early 90s and the later serials regularly make a bomb on Ebay, due to reduced duplication runs. HMV is showing a price of £29.99 for the box set, which is a fair price considering the number of episodes, (which will probably be presented on four discs), but it is unknown yet whether this is their pre-order price or the actual RRP.

And now a round-up of all the bits and bobs of information.

As reported here, the Sea Of Souls - Series 1 release from Columbia Tri-Star has been pulled, but it has now reappeared on Play.com for January the 31st 2005. Expect its release date to move about as Series 2 finds a place in the BBC1 schedule.

Channel 4 Video are re-issuing Series 1 and 2 of Spaced as a box set, presumably to gain sales in the wake of Shaun of the Dead. The content of the set is apparently identical to the previous issues. It has a date of April the 12th and an RRP of £19.99.

Network’s The Adventures of Robin Hood – The Complete Series 2 has slipped to the 19th of April.

Contender, the company that released The Avengers, Farscape and The Professionals, and Medusa have merged, so this may have an effect on both their future releases. So, the following could still be on, or they could disappear as the merger shakes down. Medusa’s delayed release of Lynda La Plante’s Trial and Retribution series is now scheduled again. The box set and the four individual volumes have a date of September the 13th, with RRP’s of £39.99 and £12.99 respectively.

Jimmy McGovern’s recent BBC 2 serial, Gunpowder, Treason & Plot, featuring Robert Carlyle is listed from Contender for the 19th of April. It’s RRP is £14.99.

The Ulysees release for May the 24th is confirmed as being Ulysees 31, but it’s also from Contender. It has an RRP of £12.99.

There are other animation releases listed as well.

Three volumes of Batman - The Animated Series from Warner Home Video, are showing with RRPs of £12.99: Volume 1: The Legend Begins, on the 26th of July, Volume 2, on the 30th of August and Volume 3, on September the 27th.

Anchor Bay has a 75th Anniversary ten-disc box set of The Adventures Of Tintin due on the 31st of May, with an RRP of £29.99.

Series 3 of Henry's Cat from Delta has been pencilled in for May the 17th, at £5.99.

And that’s it for the additions and amendments to Incoming!

I’ve done a bit of a spring clean to the Offers page, removing the cobwebs from some of the bargain pre-order prices for releases which have now been out for a while, but there are plenty of new ones to replace them!

Firstly, Amazon are offering The Star Wars Trilogy box set at the pre-order price of £28.99 (that’s £16.00 off) – thanks to Matt C for letting us know about this. Choices Direct also have it at this price.

I’ve added The Dennis Potter Collection box set at The BBC Shop’s price of £49.99.

Benson’s World is the main retailer which I’ve weeded old pre-orders, but they have loads of new ones. They have Doctor Who – The Green Death at £13.99 (£6.00 off – a pound cheaper than most online retailers). I’ve also added the three individual Peter Cushing Sherlock Holmes releases, which are £7.99 each. As before, they have knocked down the forthcoming Acorn titles with an RRP of £19.99 to the pre-order price of £12.99. These are Love for Lydia – Part 1 and  Part 2, Raffles – Volume 3: Mr Justice Raffles, To Serve Them All My Days – Part 2 and Part 3, and When The Boat Comes In – Series 2 - Part 3 and Series 3 – Part 1.

Blackstar has re-launched itself to Sendit.com and I’ve added three of their sales – the Monkey! offer that’s doing the rounds (two for £12.50 or £6.99 each); a Tartan Horror Film sale, and a VCI TV sale.

dvd.co.uk are offering the Lord of the Rings Trilogy box set of the two-disc releases on pre-order for £29.99 (which is £20.00 off).

Whilst I was off Julian added a new retailer – DVDplus.co.uk – who offer free P&P within the UK, but unfortunately do not ship outside of the UK. Thanks to John Pettigrew for posting that they have Black Books - Series 2 at £12.87, The Day Today at £10.87, Friday the 13th - Parts 2-7 at £5.87 each, Kill Bill - Vol 1 at £12.87 and The Tall Guy at £5.87. They also have the Fraggle Rock release (which is out today!) at £11.87 (£8.12 off). [It’s worth noting that Special Edition versions of Paramount’s Friday the 13^th films are being worked on in the US – JK]

DVDsource have added some interesting titles in their Nice Price sale. They have the A Bit of a Do – Complete Box Set, released earlier in the year, at £20.99 (£9.00 off), Doctor Who – The Three Doctors at £9.00 (it dosen’t say if it’s with Bessie or not - I suspect not - but it is £10.00 off!) and three Peter Jackson films – Bad Taste at £6.99, and Braindead and The Frighteners both at £7.99.

HMV are having one of their seasonal clearouts. Thanks (again!) to Matt C for posting that Ever Decreasing Circles – Series 2 is included for £6.99, along with Halloween - 25th Anniversary Edition for £9.99. Also thanks to Andrew Foxley for posting that the sale also includes the Monkey! discs at £5.99. HMV’s exclusive Miss Maple box set, starring Margaret Rutherford, is now listed for £25.99 (£9.00 off).  They also have a couple of nice pre-orders – Harsh Realm – Season 1 at £25.99 (£9.00 off), Kung Fu – Season 1 for £21.99 (£9.00 off), The Norman Conquests at £21.99 (£9.00 off) and Timeslip – The Complete Series box for £29.99.

Loaded247.co.uk has Momentum’s three Christopher Lee Fu Manchu films – The Brides of Fu Manchu, The Face of Fu Manchu and The Vengeance of Fu Manchu – at £6.99 each (£6.00 off).

And finally, Play has two new sales running. Thanks to Chris for posting that there is Easter sale which has the Amelie 2 disc set and the Bowling for Columbine 2 disc set both at £7.99. In addition to those the sale also includes the three Fu Manchu films, as listed above, at the same price - £6.99 each. The other sale is a Brilliant Box Sets one, which includes Anchor Bay’s 4 Disc Roman Polanski Box Set for £17.99, Northern Exposure - Series 1 for £10.99, Minder Series 1-5 for £17.99 each, the recently released The Champions - Complete Series set for £31.99 and Fireball XL5 - Complete Series set at £24.99.

And that’s all from me this week. I’ll now hand back to Julian. Julian…

Thanks, Ceri, and welcome back!

I’ve introduced affiliate links to two of the retailers listed in the Offers section (CD-Wow and Amazon). Since I created this site in November 2002 the number of visitors to the site has grown exponentially, especially during the last couple of months, and, of course, bandwidth costs have risen to match the increased traffic. Using affiliate links is a pretty innocuous way of helping to fund the site, so I hope you’ll not think we’ve sold out! (Save that for when the site starts carrying banner ad’s and pop-ups!)