When Inspector Morse first appeared on television in 1987, nobody could have predicted that it would run into the next century, maintaining throughout a quality of scripts and storylines that raised the genre of the detective series to a new level. Much of its success can be attributed to John Thaw's total immersion in the role. Morse is a prickly character and not obviously easy to like. ...

Manufacturer: Carlton Visual Entertainment Ltd
Starring: John Thaw, Kevin Whately, Colin Dexter, James Grout, Peter Woodthorpe

Spin-off shows rarely match the success of their parent programmes, especially in the superhero/fantasy genre (cf. The Girl From U.N.C.L.E., The Bionic Woman, The Green Hornet). Characters who were perfectly useful as supporting figures dwindle when forced into the spotlight, and Angel takes a special risk by building an entire series around a character who is: a) supposed to ...

Manufacturer: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Starring: David Boreanaz, Charisma Carpenter, Alexis Denisof, J. August Richards, Andy Hallett

Manufacturer: Stax Entertainment Ltd

Manufacturer: ITV DVD
Starring: Tom Wisdom, Matthew Marsden, Joanne Whalley, Linus Roache, Stephen Graham
Directed By: Alan Bromly, Alan Grint, Anne Ross Muir, Baz Taylor, Brian Lennane

If Season One hooked viewers by promising unpredictable story lines and a willingness to experiment outside the boundaries of genre formatting, nothing prepared us for the latter half of Season Two. Softening the blow--much like the way Box Set 1 ends--is the start here with the kooky Thing-like invasion of "Bad Eggs". Then with the extraordinary double act of "Surprise" and "Innocence", ...

Manufacturer: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Starring: Sarah Michelle Gellar, Nicholas Brendon, Alyson Hannigan, Anthony Head, James Marsters

After the first season of Buffy The Vampire Slayer became a ratings success the show was renewed with a bigger budget and twice as many episodes. Seeds are sown through the early episodes for many of the stunning plot developments later in the season: there's a slow burn for the relationships building between Buffy and Angel (no surprise), Giles and Jenny (nice surprise), and Xander and ...

Manufacturer: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Starring: Sarah Michelle Gellar, Nicholas Brendon, Alyson Hannigan, Anthony Head, James Marsters

Manufacturer: Paramount Home Entertainment
Starring: Kate Mulgrew, Robert Beltran, Roxann Dawson, Robert Duncan McNeill, Ethan Phillips

Manufacturer: Vision Video Ltd.
Starring: Helen Worth, Simon Gregson, William Roache, Barbara Knox, Sue Nicholls
Directed By: Alan Bromly, Alan Grint, Anne Ross Muir, Baz Taylor, Brian Lennane

Manufacturer: Paramount Home Entertainment
Starring: Kate Mulgrew, Robert Beltran, Roxann Dawson, Robert Duncan McNeill, Ethan Phillips

Jane Austen goes Gothic in this darkly dramatic rendering of her Northanger Abbey, a novel that wasn't published until after her early and sudden death. Austen pokes fun at her peers in this story, in which her heroine, Catherine Morland (Katharine Schlesinger), is hopelessly addicted to macabre romance novels that wreak havoc on her imagination. She comes from a large, but loving family, ...

Manufacturer: BBC Video
Starring: Katherine Schlesinger, Peter Firth, Googie Withers, Robert Hardy, Geoffrey Chater
Directed By: Giles Foster