Video documenting the fifth Amaz!ng meeting in Las Vegas. Speakers include: Michael Shermer, Penn and Teller, The Mythbusers, John Rennie, Scott Dikkers, Phil Plait, Matt Stone and Trey Parker, Neil Gershenfeld, Hal Bidlack, Richard Wiseman, Peter Sagal, Christopher Hitchens, Nick Gillespie and Ron Bailey, Eugenie Scott, Lori Lipman-Brown, Jamy Ian Swiss, James Randi, and many more! Includes all Sunday papers! 6 DVDs total spanning over 17 hours!

Anthony Russo, Greg Mottola, Jay Chandrasekhar, Joe Russo, John Fortenberry Studio: Tcfhe Release Date: 08/05/2008

Anthony Russo, Jason Bateman, Andrew Fleming, Chuck Martin, Danny Leiner Studio: Tcfhe Release Date: 08/05/2008

Arlene Sanford, John Amodeo, John Fortenberry, Lev L. Spiro, Paul Feig Studio: Tcfhe Release Date: 08/05/2008 Run time: 598 minutes Rating: Nr

: Self-proclaimed pit-bulls of truth, Penn & Teller use their trademark humor, knowledge of carnival tricks, and hidden cameras to blow the lid off popular notions about second hand smoke ,self help products, diet claims, creationism, TV psychics, Feng Shui, bottled water and more!!!!

Penn & Teller: Bullshit! The Complete Season 2 Box Set marks the return of the self-proclaimed pit-bulls for the truth, set out to prove that many of the institutions society holds dear are bogus and designed to profit from the desperate and trusting public. Each of the 13 episodes includes interviews and undercover segments intertwined with Penn & Teller’s comedy. With zeal, passion and conviction the duo examines taboo topics and organi-zations such as PETA, safety hysteria, the business of love, 12 step programs and the fountain of youth. Penn & Teller won two Emmys® for their 1985 PBS special "Penn & Teller Go Public" and the prestigious 2004 Writers Guild Award for Best Comedy/Variety Series. They have also authored two best selling books.

The third season of this award-winning series featuring master showmen Penn & Teller, delivers viewers an aggressive, humorous exposé of taboo topics, using the duo's trademark humor, knowledge of carnival tricks as well as hidden cameras and blatant confrontation. Winner of the prestigious 2004 and 2005 Writer's Guild Award for Best Comedy/Variety Series and nominated the last three years for the Emmy® for Outstanding Reality Program and Outstanding Writing for Non Fiction Programming, Penn & Teller: Bullsh*t! Continues its controversial muckraking throughout season three by confronting many of the institutions society holds dear.

Christopher Poole, Joshua E. Kessler, Scott Schaefer, Star Price, Tom Greenhut The fourth season of this award-winning series featuring master showmen Penn & Teller, delivers viewers an aggressive, humorous exposé of taboo topics, using the duo’s trademark humor, knowledge of carnival tricks as well as hidden cameras and blatant confrontation. Winner of the prestigious 2004 and 2005 Writer’s Guild Award for Best Comedy/Variety Series and nominated the last three years for the Emmy® for Outstanding Reality Program and Outstanding Writing for Non Fiction Programming, Penn & Teller: Bullshit! continues its controversial muckraking throughout season three by confronting many of the institutions society holds dear.

The fifth season of this award-winning series featuring master showmen Penn & Teller, delivers viewers an aggressive, humorous exposé of taboo topics, using the duo’s trademark humor, knowledge of carnival tricks as well as hidden cameras and blatant confrontation. Nominated the last four years for the Emmy for Outstanding Reality Program and Outstanding Writing for Non Fiction Programming, Penn & Teller: Bullshit! continues its controversial muckraking throughout season five by confronting many of the institutions society holds dear.

Christopher Poole, Scott Schaefer, Star Price, Tom Greenhut Genre: Television: Series
Rating: TVMA
Release Date: 12-MAY-2009
Media Type: DVD

William Hartnell, Carole Ann Ford, Waris Hussein, Richard Martin, Christopher Barry, Frank Cox

6 x DVD limited edition edition DVD Box set

David Tennant, Catherine Tate Kicking off with a jam-packed Christmas special and ending with a blockbuster extended closing instalment, Doctor Who?s fourth series since it was revived is a breathless, exciting one, that also boasts some exceptional episodes.

You get fourteen episodes for your money here, and the ones in particular to watch out for are the outstanding Silence In The Library/Forest Of The Dead double header, the almost single-location creepfest that is Midnight, and the trio of Turn Left, The Stolen Earth and Journey?s End that round off the series. In the midst of those is also one of the very best cliffhangers that Doctor Who has ever employed in its long and glorious history.

This is also the series of Doctor Who that introduces Catherine Tate as full-time companion Donna Noble, working alongside David Tennant?s Doctor across time and space. And it?s—against initial expectations—arguably the best combination since the show returned. Here, there?s no hint of romance between the pair, as they instead knuckle down to business, occasionally helped by the likes of Martha Jones (Freema Agyeman), Sarah Jane Smith (Elisabeth Sladen) and Jack Harkness (John Barrowman).

Let?s not forget too the collection of monsters we meet this time round. The daleks and Davros are the main attractions in Doctor Who Series 4, while the return of the Sontarans proves to be a bit of a disappointment. But, after viewing the series, chances are you?ll be counting shadows around you, and wary of getting on the wrong side of the Ood.

As with most series of Doctor Who, there are one or two bumpy episodes and missteps, but this is still unmatched at what it does, and finds the show in even more confident form than last time round. That, along with the immense rewatch value, is what makes this terrific piece of family entertainment such a compelling buy. —Simon Brew

Ricky Gervais, Ashley Jensen, Stephen Merchant Extras,Ricky Gervais' much-anticipated follow-up to The Office, is a quieter affair, and a little less accessible that its award-laden predecessor. But across the six episodes on this first season DVD set are several episodes that will richly reward repeated viewings.

Gervais plays Andy Millman, an actor whose roster of jobs seems to consistently consist of extras work. Each episode follows him on a different production, and also brings in a notable guest star. Lining up throughout the series are the likes of Samuel L Jackson, Kate Winslet and Ben Stiller. And while their presence undoubtedly adds something to each carefully crafted episode, it's perhaps those with the lesser names that show the programme on top form—certainly the appearance of Les Dennis makes for an excellent half hour of comedy-drama.

At the core though is Gervais' Millman—a far easier character to warm to than David Brent—and Ashley Jensen's marvellous Maggie Jacobs. It's these two who consistently provide the show's highlights, and while the headlines have been generated by the all-star roster of names attracted to appear in Extras, it's the two less showy characters who work the best.

Extras isn't a show full of belly laughs, and its fanbase is likely to be smaller than that of The Office. But it's still a quality creation, properly crafted, with an awful lot to it to enjoy and appreciated.—Simon Brew

Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant Attracting yet more star names, while wisely moving the narrative on, the second series of Extras really finds the show maturing nicely, and unsurprisingly, cleaned up more awards in the process.

That said, it remains a far more divisive programme than its forerunner, The Office. Written by, directed and featuring Stephen Merchant and Ricky Gervais, its appeal is more concentrated and less broad, following Andy Millman on his progression from background artist to his own TV show. At times, for a programme frequently billed as a comedy, there's a melancholy tone, although that's not to say it doesn't deliver its fair share of laughs in the process.

Many of those laughs are oiled by the seemingly never-ending conveyor belt of big names who take part in the show. Extras's first season attracted the likes of Kate Winslet and Samuel L Jackson, but this time, the likes of Daniel Radcliffe, Sir Ian McKellen and David Bowie are quick to join in. There's, er, Barry from EastEnders, too, who adds to the fun.

And fun is, ultimately, what Extras serves up, albeit laced with a depth and occasional bout on introspectiveness. As with the first season, it's Ashley Jensen who steals the show from underneath Extras' cavalcade of star names, with a terrific portrayal of Maggie Jacobs.

Yet this second series feels and is superior to the first, and already, its creators have announced that they're putting the brakes on the show, save for one final special to sign off with. And it'll be sad when it all ends. For while Extras takes a little time to get to love, it's likely to be held in similar regard to the aforementioned The Office in the years to come. —Jon Foster

Seth MacFarlane, Alex Borstein, Harold McKenzie, Karyn Finley Thompson Family Guy shouldn't work at all. Even by the witless standards of modern television, it is breathtakingly derivative: does an animated series about the travails of a boorish, suburban yob with a saintly wife, a hopeless son, a clever daughter and a baby sound familiar at all? Even the house in Family Guy looks like it was built by the same architects who sketched the residence of The Simpsons.

However, Family Guy does work, transcending its (occasionally annoyingly) obvious influences with reliably crisp writing and the glorious sight gags contained in the surreal flashbacks which punctuate the episodes. Most importantly, the show's brilliance comes from two absolutely superb characters: Stewie, the baby whose extravagant dreams of tyrannising the world are perpetually thwarted by the prosaic limitations of infanthood, and the urbane family dog Brian—Snoopy after attendance at an obedience class run by Frank Sinatra. Family Guy does not possess the cultural or satirical depth of The Simpsons—very little art in any field does. But it is a genuinely funny and clever programme. —Andrew Mueller

Seth MacFarlane, Alex Borstein The second series of Seth MacFarlane's animated sitcom Family Guy continues with its own brand of acerbic pop-culture satire mixed with gleefully tasteless comedy. Even though the chaotic Griffin household bears more than a passing resemblance to The Simpsons, and their neighbours are uncannily like those from King of the Hill, the show's combination of extended flashbacks, surreal fantasy sequences and delightful non sequiturs ("Math, my dear boy, is nothing more than the lesbian sister of biology") refreshes the familiar formula. And any show that features Adam "Batman" West guest starring as the demented Mayor of Quahog must score points for bizarre originality.

Highlights of the 15 episodes here include Peter discovering his feminine side ("I Am Peter, Here Me Roar"), Stewie and Brian on an eventful road trip ("Road to Rhode Island"), Peter annexing his neighbour's pool and inviting the world's dictators round for a barbeque ("E Peterbus Unum") and, as a bonus episode, the irreverent "When You Wish Upon a Weinstein", which was deemed "too offensive for TV". It may be lowbrow scatological farce, but unlike its big-screen live-action cousins (think Farrelly Brothers), Family Guy is always warm-hearted and never vicious.

On the DVD: Family Guy, Series 2 is spread across two discs that boast Dolby 5.1 sound but standard 4:3 picture. There's no "Play All" facility (something else this release has in common with The Simpsons on DVD) and there are no extras other than the "bonus" episode. —Mark Walker

Seth MacFarlane, Alex Borstein The third season of Seth MacFarlane's Family Guy finds television's most dysfunctional cartoon family even more animated than usual. As MacFarlane himself noted, he was inspired to go for broke, thinking that the series—already juggled like a hot potato in the US TV schedules (at one point, it aired opposite the mighty Friends)—had been cancelled. Just as This Is Spinal Tap walked the fine line between "clever and stupid", so Family Guy gleefully mocks the line between "edgy and offensive".

Like The Simpsons, Family Guy lends itself to multiple viewings to catch each densely packed episode's way-inside "one-percenter" gags (so-called by the creators because that is the percentage of the audience who will get them), scattershot pop-culture references, surreal leaps and gratuitous pot shots at everyone from, predictably, Oprah, Kevin Costner and Bill Cosby to, unpredictably, Rita Rudner. Also like its Springfield counterpart, this series benefits from a great ensemble voice cast, with surprising contributions from a no-less-stellar roster of guest stars. —Donald Liebenson

Joss Whedon, Tim Minear, Vern Gillum As the 2005 theatrical release of Serenity made clear, Firefly was a science fiction concept that deserved a second chance. Devoted fans (or "Browncoats") knew it all along, and with this well-packaged DVD set, those who missed the show's original broadcasts can see what they missed. Creator Joss Whedon's ambitious science-fiction Western (Whedon's third series after Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel) was canceled after only 11 of these 14 episodes had aired on the Fox network, but history has proven that its demise was woefully premature. Whedon's generic hybrid got off to a shaky start when network executives demanded an action-packed one-hour premiere ("The Train Job"); in hindsight the intended two-hour pilot (also titled "Serenity," and oddly enough, the final episode aired) provides a better introduction to the show's concept and splendid ensemble cast. Obsessive fans can debate the quirky logic of combining spaceships with direct parallels to frontier America (it's 500 years in the future, and embattled humankind has expanded into the galaxy, where undeveloped "outer rim" planets struggle with the equivalent of Old West accommodations), but Whedon and his gifted co-writers and directors make it work, at least well enough to fashion a credible context from the incongruous culture-clashing of past, present, and future technologies, along with a polyglot language (the result of two dominant superpowers) that combines English with an abundance of Chinese slang.

What makes it work is Whedon's delightfully well-chosen cast and their nine well-developed characters—a typically Whedon-esque extended family—each providing a unique perspective on their adventures aboard Serenity, the junky but beloved "Firefly-class" starship they call home. As a veteran of the disadvantaged Independent faction's war against the all-powerful planetary Alliance (think of it as Underdogs vs. Overlords), Serenity captain Malcolm Reynolds (Nathan Fillion) leads his compact crew on a quest for survival. They're renegades with an amoral agenda, taking any job that pays well, but Firefly's complex tapestry of right and wrong (and peace vs. violence) is richer and deeper than it first appears. Tantalizing clues about Blue Sun (an insidious mega-corporation with a mysteriously evil agenda), its ties to the Alliance, and the traumatizing use of Serenity's resident stowaway (Summer Glau) as a guinea pig in the development of advanced warfare were clear indications Firefly was heading for exciting revelations that were precluded by the series' cancellation. Fortunately, the big-screen Serenity (which can be enjoyed independently of the series) ensured that Whedon's wild extraterrestrial west had not seen its final sunset. Its very existence confirms that these 14 episodes (and enjoyable bonus features) will endure as irrefutable proof Fox made a glaring mistake in canceling the series. —Jeff Shannon

Beyond Firefly on DVD
Watch Stargate: Continuum on DVD
Catch up on Stargate Atlantis on DVD
Check out Sunshine on DVD

Stills from Firefly (Click for larger image)

Robert Sigl, Ron Oliver, Stephen Manuel

David B. Thompson, David Ostry, Stephen Manuel

David B. Thompson, David Ostry, Stephen Manuel

Brian Downey, Michael McManus, David B. Thompson, David Ostry, Stephen Manuel

Brian Downey, Michael McManus, David B. Thompson, David Ostry, Stephen Manuel A "Light Universe" and a "Dark Zone" keep good and bad apart for the characters of Lexx, even though it's often hard to tell the difference between the two in this offbeat and unique sci-fi show that delights in its own nastiness. The episodes in this second collection from the second series are: "Stan's Trial", "Love Grows", "White Trash", "791" and "Wake the Dead".

In "Stan's Trial", he's still desperate for some "bingo bongo yum yum time", which blinds him to a sting operation laid at the Celes Pleasure Liner. His alleged traitorous past finally catches up, and the events of "Giga Shadow" are made clear. A new, shorter title sequence opens the gender questioning "Love Grows". The Lexx accidentally eats a rubbish dumper and the toxic cargo has an adverse effect on everyone—to say the least. Their sex organs are swapped! A cliffhanger surprise leads directly into "White Trash", where we find the yokel clan family have been stowed away since before the destruction of The Cluster.

On a crashed ship a cyborg pilot has been decapitated, which gives 790 an idea. While Kai and Xev find a hold full of prisoners with their hearts removed, 791 is born—with more than just a little personality re-programming. This homage to Alien ends with Xev's immortal line: "You may still only be a head 790. But you're the best head I ever had." Then we're back into spoof territory as "Wake the Dead" enjoys turning The Lexx into the stomping ground for a crazed teen killer. Still asleep from a joyride begun 287 years before, the group of "deserving" kids are dispatched with glee in a great performance by Michael McManus. There's even a shower murder with a musical nod to Psycho from composer Marty Simon. And we finally see a Lexx toilet—and its tongue!

On the DVD: the most exciting extra for fans is a commentary from Brian Downey (Stan) and writer Lex Giggeroff on the episode "Wake the Dead". They have great fun discussing Xenia Seeberg's wigs and confirm that this was indeed pitched as a "teen slasher flick". Also featured is a gallery of nine stills, some hilarious text "Faxx" about all five episodes, biographies of Stan and Lyekka, and a "Story So Far" re-cap. The 10-minute "Making of Lexx the Series Part 2" documentary is the same as the VHS release. —Paul Tonks

Bruce McDonald, Christoph Schrewe, Robert Sigl, Stephen Manuel, William Fleming Lexx's third year had a predetermined 13 episode run, and in a new direction there's also a predetermined continual storyline. This is teasingly set-up by "Fire and Water"—the names of a binary planet system. The Lexx is stuck in orbit around 4,000 years after the "End of the Universe." We're introduced to the mysterious Prince (Nigel Bennet) who rules the planet Fire, 790 experiences a shift of devotion, and Xev gets a new hairdo. All threads are expanded by "May" (Anna Kathrin Bleuler) who's found on planet Water. All too suddenly, Xev's in love with Prince and Stanley with May. The crew are torn every which way. Even more so when a fleet of new Moths land Kai in "Gametown", where the show's most gratuitous nudity yet reassures fans that this third year will be as dangerous and dirty as it's always been.

Ralph (Withnail & I) Brown's character Duke suddenly comes to the fore in "Boomtown." These towns teach us more and more about the lifestyles on the two planets, and since this one is essentially a nonstop orgy Stan decides Water is the planet for him! (If the nudity seemed gratuitous in "Gametown", that's nothing in comparison.) Ending on a shock appearance by Kai (no spoilers here), a balloon chase leads straight into "Gondola." Lost among the schizophrenic denizens of "K-Town," Stan and Xev are eventually found by the dead assassin whose biomechanical systems are malfunctioning. It takes a shock reappearance of season 2's Universe-destroying Mantrid to make sense of his groin-located repair mechanism. Subsequently split up, Kai suffers the red tape of petty bureaucracy in Hog Town while Stan and Xev descend 39,000 steps to the planet's "Tunnels." Stan bumps into show writer Lex Gigeroff cameoing as insane surgeon Doctor Rainbow, and escape is determined by another death and resurrection from the enigmatic Prince.

Stan has been endlessly teased by Xev. They got it together (in a manner of speaking) in "Love Grows," but here at last they experience the "ultimate in sexual satisfaction." Don't they? "The Key" metaphorically stands for a number of things in this ship-bound episode, which furthers the season's mystery considerably. And as if the sexual tension wasn't high enough already, the lifestyle offered Stan on the Water planet's "Garden" is all too tempting. The biggest lure is the return of beautiful plant gal Lyekka. Following straight on from that cliffhanger ending, "Battle" becomes a game of strategic cat and mouse aboard squadrons of hot air balloons. This season's budget helps return the look of the show to its stunning beginnings, and in this episode there are some of the best-conceived effects shots from the entire run. By now it's obvious that each community on the planet Fire is a thinly veiled satire on an aspect of modern society. A splendidly theatrical cameo from Ellen Dubin as Queen allows the viewer to question feminism, bureaucracy, and why the hell Giggerota has been reincarnated to taunt poor Stan.

At last all questions are answered in what might as well be a two-part finale. "The Beach" would for any other series be considered the clips show: on an idyllic yet purgatorial stretch of sand, Stan is forced to account for his life by viewing events of the past. Judged by his harshest critic—himself—he then suffers all that Prince has promised and more as the true meaning of "Heaven and Hell" is revealed. Creator Paul Donovan clearly maintained a strong hand in every aspect of this season, but in directing his own work with these last two episodes we witness a genuinely rare example of personal vision. The narrative has been consistently surprising, but the twist left for last is literally breathtaking. TV sci-fi has never been so sexy and intelligent at the same time. —Paul Tonks

Chris Bould, Christoph Schrewe, Colin Bucksey, Paul Donovan, Stephen Manuel The last season of this sexy SCI FI channel hit cuts a brutally funny path through planet Earth. The hapless crew of the hungry organic spaceship could not be more misguided in its final effort to find safe haven. Earth has big troubles of its own with killer vegetables on the march and wackos in charge everywhere. And Prince (Nigel Bennett), the crew's chief nemesis in Series 3, resurfaces as a scheming bureaucrat out to steal the LEXX.
S4-V1 — Little Blue Planet, Texx LEXX, P4X, Stan Down S4-V2 — Xevivor, The Rock, Walpurgis Night, Vlad S4-V3 — Fluff Daddy, Magic Baby, A Midsummer's Nightmare, Bad Carrot

DVD SPECIAL FEATURES INCLUDE audio: 5.1 Surround Sound, 2.0 Stereo; CGI gallery; storyboards; behind-the-scenes photos; production sketches; cast and character bios; and interactive trivia.

Chris Bould, Christoph Schrewe, Colin Bucksey, Paul Donovan, Stephen Manuel The final adventures of the SCI FI channel's most unconventional crew! With both the LEXX and Earth down for the count, things go from bad to worse in a most unpredictable way. All kinds of earthly paradises and cultural icons get caught in the comedic crossfire as this irreverent international hit draws to its no-holds-barred conclusion.
S4-V4 — 769, Prime Ridge, Mort, Moss S4-V5 — Dutch Treat, The Game, Haley's Comet, Apocalexx Now S4-V6 — Viva LEXX Vegas, Trip, Lyekka vs. Japan, Yo Way Yo

DVD SPECIAL FEATURES INCLUDE audio: 5.1 Surround Sound, 2.0 Stereo; CGI gallery; storyboards; behind-the-scenes photos; production sketches; and interactive trivia.

Julian Barratt, Noel Fielding

Julian Barratt, Noel Fielding, Paul King Is there anything on television quite like The Mighty Boosh? Bluntly, who cares, for the ongoing adventures and antics of Noel Fielding and Julian Barratt remain a comedic treat, even if season three does have its up and down moments.

Let's temper that, quickly: The Mighty Boosh on one of its lesser days can still generate more laughs than 90% of other modern-day comedy series, and that's certainly the case with the six episodes here. Lead characters Howard and Vince are found working in the Nabootique this time, and it's not long before they're joined by some old favourites. Cue Bob Fossil, the sublime Shamen, and the Moon, among others.

If there's one downside to The Mighty Boosh's third season, it is perhaps a little too much self-indulgence, which occasionally tempers things. But then that's set against some brilliantly ambitious episodes, some of the finest surrealist humour on the telly, and the terrific Crack Fox.

There's little denying that as a show, The Mighty Boosh can easily be classed as bizarre, bonkers, and straight-out odd. But here, that's turned into the show's strength. And given the side-splitting laughs it continues to generate, we wouldn't have it any other way. —Jon Foster

Monkey

Ricky Gervais, Mackenzie Crook It feels both inaccurate and inadequate to describe The Office as a comedy. On a superficial level, it disdains all the conventions of television sitcoms: there are no punch lines, no jokes, no laugh tracks and no cute happy endings. More profoundly, it's not what we're used to thinking of as funny. Most of the fervently devoted fan base that the programme acquired watched with a discomfortingly thrilling combination of identification and mortification. The paradox is that its best moments are almost physically unwatchable.

Set in the offices of a fictional Slough paper merchant, The Office is filmed in the style of a reality television programme. The writing is subtle and deft, the acting wonderful and the characters beautifully drawn: the cadaverous team leader Gareth, a paradigm of Andy McNab's readership; the monstrous sales rep, Chris Finch; and the decent but long-suffering everyman Tim, whose ambition and imagination have been crushed out of him by the banality of the life he dreams uselessly of escaping. The show is stolen, as it was intended to be, by insufferable office manager David Brent, played by cowriter Ricky Gervais. Brent will become a name as emblematic for a particular kind of British grotesque as Alan Partridge or Basil Fawlty, but he is a deeper character than either. Partridge and Fawlty are exaggerations of reality, and therefore safely comic figures. Brent is as appalling as only reality can be. —Andrew Mueller

On the DVD The Office, Series 1 is tastefully packaged as a two-disc set appropriately adorned with John Betjeman's poem "Slough". The special features occupy the second disc and consist of a laid-back 39-minute documentary entitled "How I Made The Office by Ricky Gervais", with co-writer Stephen Merchant and the cast contributing. Here we discover that Gervais spends his time on set "mucking around and annoying people", and that actress Lucy Davis (Dawn) is the daughter of Jasper Carrott; as well as seeing parts of the original short film and the original BBC pilot episode; plus we get to enjoy many examples of the cast corpsing throughout endless retakes. There are also a handful of deleted scenes, none of which were deleted because they weren't funny. —Mark Walker

Ricky Gervais, Martin Freeman The second series of the award-winning BBC2 mockudrama The Office exceeded even the sky-high standards of the first. Indeed, it ventured beyond caricature and satire, touching on the very edge of darkness. Ricky Gervais was once again excruciatingly superb as David Brent, a subtly shaded modern English comic grotesque in the desperate and self-deluding tradition of Alan Partridge and Basil Fawlty.

In this series, however, Brent's to-camera assertions concerning his man-management qualities and executive capabilities are seriously challenged when the Slough and Swindon branches are merged and his former Swindon equivalent Neil takes over as area manager. To compensate Brent cultivates his pathologically mistaken image of himself as an entertainer/motivator/comedian whose stage happens to be the workplace. This culminates in a comically disastrous motivational session ending with a sing-along of Tina Turner's "Simply the Best", which is greeted, typically, with stunned, appalled silence.

Meanwhile, Tim, who can only maintain his sanity by teasing the priggish, puddingbowl-haired Gareth, continues to wrestle with his yearning for receptionist Dawn, a sympathetic character persisting with a relationship with a yobbish bloke about whom she still maintains unspoken reservations. As ever, it's the awkward, reality TV-style pauses and silences, the furtive, meaningful and unmet glances across the emotional gulf of the open-plan office, that say it all here.

As for Brent, his own breakdown is prefaced by a moment of hideous hilarity—an impromptu office dance, a mixture of "Flashdance and MC Hammer" as Brent describes it, but in reality bad beyond description. Then, when his fate is sealed, he at last reveals himself as a humiliated and broken man in a memorable finale to perhaps the greatest British sitcom, besides Fawlty Towers, ever made. All this and Keith too. —David Stubbs

On the DVD: The Office, Series 2 is a single-disc release unlike the more generous Series 1. Extra features are enjoyable nonetheless. Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant feature in a gleefully shambolic video diary—highlights of which include Gervais flicking elastic bands at his cowriter and taping their editor to his swivel chair. The ubiquitous Gervais also mockingly introduces some outtakes (mostly of him corpsing throughout dozens of takes) and a series of deleted scenes, notably of Gareth arriving in his horrendous cycle shorts. —Mark Walker

Ricky Gervais, Martin Freeman The two-part conclusion to The Office bids farewell to David Brent and his long-suffering co-workers in a surprisingly poignant not to say dignified manner. Supposedly accompanied by the fly-on-the-wall documentary crew three years after his highly undignified exit from Slough-based paper merchants Wernham Hogg, the first part reveals Brent as a travelling salesman by day and D-list "celebrity" by night, enduring humiliating club appearances organised by his clueless manager. But Brent can't keep away from his old stamping-ground in Slough, especially with the imminent prospect of the annual Christmas party. As much to spite suave rival Neil as anything else, Brent is on an agonisingly painful hunt for a date to bring along.

Back at Wernham Hogg, lovelorn Tim has to endure not only the officious behaviour of Gareth, now his manager, but also a cheerless existence bereft of Dawn, who is living in Florida with boorish fiancé Lee. Matters are brought to a head for all concerned—including Lee and Dawn, flown over specially for the occasion—when they finally gather in the office for the party.

As ever the script is full of priceless one-liners (witness big Keith's chat-up spiel, as he promises "at least one orgasm" to any woman), and the show is peppered with those direct appeals to camera (Tim's weary "I don't believe he just said that" look, Brent's desperate self-justificatory "Eh?"), as well as achingly effective silences that simultaneously enhance the fly-on-the-wall conceit and heighten the comic effect. Without descending into the sentimental or the trite, somehow The Office closes for business on a genuinely heartwarming note.

On the DVD: This single disc has good, if unexceptional, bonus features. There's a behind-the-scenes documentary in similar format to those on the previous releases, a commentary from Stephen Merchant and Ricky Gervais on Episode 2, a funny and deservedly self-congratulatory featurette on the Golden Globe Awards ceremony, the full video of David Brent's single "If You Don't Know Me By Now" plus a recording session for "Freelove Freeway" (with Noel Gallagher on backing vocals). —Mark Walker

Pride and Prejudice, Simon Langton

John Shackley, Jim Baker, Graham Theakston, Christopher Barry Science fiction fans viewing British television in the 1980s had much to contend with. Limited budgets and unconvincing special effects often required a leap of faith of such size as to put people off. But, in the midst of this, emerged The Tripods, a fondly-remembered sci-fi hit of the time, of which both series are present on this DVD set.

Adapted from the books by John Christopher, The Tripods is set late in the 21st century, with humanity living in peaceful servitude, albeit under the eye of huge alien machines. These machines—The Tripods—fit the young with special headgear that will ensure future humans are similarly subservient to the alien invaders, and it's when two teenagers, Will and Henry, look to evade such treatment that the adventure begins.

Hearing stories of other `uncapped' humans in the south, they set off on a journey to find them, while being pursued by The Tripods, who naturally aren't best happy.

There are many pleasant surprises to The Tripods, even rewatching it today, and the programme has stood up really very well to the rigours of time. The limited budget means that the deployment of the Tripods themselves is kept for carefully chosen moments, and they're convincing, at time intimidating invaders. But it's the storytelling that's key here, and it's that which should ensure this DVD release earns The Tripods a new collection of fans. Well worth picking up. —Jon Foster

David Barrett, Guy Norman Bee, Harry Winer, John T. Kretchmer, Marcos Siega