The Hammer DVD Guide has been updated, with details of Universal's terrific Region 1 The Hammer Horror Series set, which features eight Hammer films: Brides of Dracula, The Curse of the Werewolf, Phantom of the Opera, Paranoiac, The Kiss of the Vampire, Nightmare, Night Creatures (a.k.a. Captain Clegg) and The Evil of Frankenstein. The set is released this week, and it appears that Universal have done a sterling job. A fine, authoritative review of the set can be found here.

Note that there have been concerns raised about the quality and durability of Universal's double-sided dual-layer discs (which they've also used for the Bela Lugosi Collection, which is also out this week), so if you're buying this set, it will be worth checking that all the films play properly, and that the retailer you buy it from has a good returns procedure! A Roobarb's DVD Forum thread about the set can be found here.

Ceri has updated the Incoming page, with some great new information. There are new dates for a lot of BBC titles, including the Dennis Potter collection titles; details of DD Video's Kessler box set, and the release of the recent BBC version of The Quatermass Experiment.

I've added a new DVD review to the site. It's for Revelation Pictures' second Goodnight Sweetheart DVD set, which is due on September the 26th. There are no great surprises, but it's a solid release, with a decent array of bonus material. Click on the sleeve image, above right, or here to go to the review.

Revelation would doubtless also like me to point out that their five-disc box set release of the 1990s version of The Tomorrow People comes out today. The set contains all five stories, spread over twenty-five episodes, together with bonus material (unseen behind-the-scenes footage; biographies; character analysis; A Geek's Guide; Episode Guide and Trivia; Photo' Gallery; Series Background Analysis; Locations guide; and hidden footage). The RRP is £34.99.

DVD NEWS

Speaking of DD Video, we have news of the third and final Survivors DVD box set, courtesy of Andy Priestner, who runs what might as well be the official Survivors website, which can be found here.

The four-disc set will feature the following bonus features: a forty-four page behind-the-scenes booklet (written by Andy); New World Rising: The Making of Survivors Series 3, a new sixty-five minute documentary, which will feature contributions from Lucy Fleming, Peter Jefferies, Tristan de Vere Cole, Stephen Dudley and Rich Cross; audio commentaries on Law of the Jungle and Mad Dog; and photo' galleries (comprised of BBC stills and the Denis Lill collection). The set is due on November the 14th.

A couple of date changes:

Anchor Bay's The Box of the Banned will now be released on September the 26th.

MIA's Pauly Shore is Dead and I Bought a Vampire Motorcycle will both now be released on October the 24th.

A DVD of five's new sketch show Swinging, the first ever commissioned and broadcast by the channel) will be released by Warner Home Video on October the 31st.

The set will feature all six episodes, presented in 16:9 anamorphic widescreen format, supplemented by exclusive unseen sketches and bonus material. There will also be English subtitles.

The show is currently being shown by five on Friday nights. The series features Jo Joyner, who has recently been seen in No Angels and Doctor Who, Ella Kenion, from Hardware and The Catherine Tate Show, and stand-up comedian Tom Price.

I have some more details of Optimum Releasing's two-disc Whisky Galore set, which was announced here on September the 7th.

The first thing to note is that the both the discs are single-layer discs, so there was probably nothing to be gained by putting it on two discs. It appears to be a deliberate attempt to mislead customers into thinking that they're getting more for their money than they actually are.

Durations of the bonus materials are: Introduction to Whisky Galore! by George Perry (5m); the 1990 Channel 4 documentary Distilling Whisky Galore (52m); The Real Whisky Galore! With Angus Campbell (19m - this is probably the featurette billed in the press release as A Personal History); and Hillary Mackendrick In Conversation With Anthony Slide (37m).

Other bonus features include an Ealing Comedy Poster Gallery, which features one poster apiece from the four Ealing films that Optimum have released on DVD; and trailers for Moby Dick, Breathless, and another Ealing title, It Always Rains on Sunday.

Menu screens from the set can be found here.

Here are some details of the League of Gentlemen's Apocalypse DVD, which is due on October the 3rd.

The bonus materials are: a commentary track by the team (including the real Jeremy Dyson); a Making of... featurette (12m); The Real Royston Vasey featurette (6m); A Cast of Thousands featurette (4m); A Gentleman's Diary (13m); deleted scenes (17m); outtakes (10m); photo' gallery; and teaser and theatrical trailers.

The disc features SDH subtitles, a Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track (at 448kbps), and an anamorphic 1.85:1 transfer. Menu screens from the disc can be found here.