If the mark of a successful TV comedy is that repeat showings attract new viewers, then Dad's Army must be one of the best. The Very Best of Dad's Army includes five episodes almost covering its whole time span-from 1969's "Sons of the Sea", an entertaining caper when lost at home, to 1977's final episode "Never Too Old", in which sparky Corporal Jones marries his longtime sweetheart, and the ageing Second World War platoon drinks a toast to Britain's Home Guard. Along with these is 1973's "The Deadly Attachment", where a captive U-boat crew falls prey to dummy hand-grenades; 1972's "Keep Young and Beautiful", a touching tale of looking younger and sticking together; and the same year's "Asleep in the Deep", where the platoon uses its skill and judgement, plus a little luck, to escape a life-threatening situation. Fans and newcomers will enjoy the priceless interplay of Arthur Lowe and John le Mesurier, along with the contributions of Clive Dunn, John Laurie, Arnold Ridley, Ian Lavender and James Beck, in this nostalgic depiction of Britain as it once was. On the DVD: The 4:3 picture reproduction has come up well and the dual mono sound is more than adequate. Each episode features six scene selections, while the artist profiles provide brief but relevant biographical details. The half-hour Selection Box gives celebrities past and present a chance to pick their favourite extracts and explain just why they're hooked. Chances are you will be too. -Richard Whitehouse.

Story? What story? All a film like Shanghai Noon needs is the amazing stunt set pieces featuring kung fu superstar Jackie Chan and the ramblings of Owen Wilson (and to be sure, that's all it gets). It's a buddy comedy about Roy O'Bannon (Wilson), a minor, borderline incompetent desperado, and Chon Wang (Chan-Roy thinks he hears (and scoffs at) the name "John Wayne"-a member of the Chinese Imperial Guard searching for a kidnapped princess (Lucy Liu). They become reluctant partners in the Old West (Roy, who considers Chon his sidekick, is hurt to discover that the bounty on Wang's head is more than his own), brawling, drinking, bathing and bonding and in general having mildly amusing adventures together, while eluding a posse and other random enemies. There's not a lot of focus to the plot or much motivation for characters to turn up where and when they do-just what was achieved by the much-discussed trek to Carson City, anyway?-but Chan's inventively staged battle sequences (particularly an early one in which he uses flexible, resilient trees to best some Crow Indians) are predictable highlights. You'll wish there were more to some of them, but as with his many other films, you'll want them on video to watch in slow-motion to see how he pulls them off. And in a potentially star-making role, Wilson's loquacious, hyper-self-conscious meanderings-he's funny even when his lines aren't-make him seem less like a character than a very amusing deconstruction of one. Chan and Wilson are entertaining together, even though they're both off in their own little worlds. Think of it as Butch Cassidy and the Shanghai Kid, and you won't be too far off. -David Kronke, Amazon. com.

Hattie Jacques finally got to the play the title role in 1972 when Carry On Matron immortalised the character she had developed during several previous outings, most notably in Carry On Doctor. And she seized it with gusto. This is no one-dimensional performance, but a very human portrait of a woman doing her best to retain her authority in the face of mounting chaos-a raid planned by Sid James to steal the hospital's supply of contraceptive pills. Certainly, she's obsessed with regular bowel movements-this wouldn't be a Carry On film otherwise-but she remains a majestic figure of dignity with a touch of human warmth. Occasionally, too, a real hint of irony peeks through the slapstick and the innuendo. Surely scriptwriter Talbot Rothwell had his tongue lodged firmly in his cheek when he gave Barbara Windsor-then married to Ronnie Knight-the line, "I don't fancy being a gangster's moll!" Terry Scott makes a guest appearance and Sid James is at his most conniving and lecherous. Theatre impresario Bill Kenwright has a cameo role and there's an early appearance from Wendy Richard as a prototype Pauline Fowler. But it's the female stalwarts who shine. Joan Sims and Hattie Jacques were truly comic actresses of the highest order. -Piers Ford.

From practically the first episode, broadcast in 1989, The Simpsons impacted on planet TV like a giant multi-coloured meteor. With a claim to being the defining pop cultural phenomenon of the 1990s-hip, fast, sharp and primary-there was nothing even in rock & roll to match this. The Simpsons is possibly the greatest sitcom ever made. Although the animation was initially primitive, never before had cartoon characters been so well drawn. There had been loveable middle-aged layabouts on TV before, but Homer Simpson successfully stole their crown and out-slobbed them all in every department ("The guys at the plant are gonna have a field day with this," he grumbles in "Call of The Simpsons" as he watches scientists on a TV news item who can't decide whether he is incredibly dense or a brilliant beast). However, in this first series he isn't quite yet the bloated man-child he would become in later series; instead he's a growling patriarch with a Walter Matthau-type voice. His sensible half Marge's croak, meanwhile, has yet to settle down, while the vast cast of minor Springfield characters have yet to find their place. Bart, however, was a smash from the start: dumb as Homer but spiky-haired and resourceful, he sets out his manifesto in "Bart the Genius"; while "Moaning Lisa" spotlights his over-achieving sister and is a good early example of the series' clever handling of melancholy bass notes. Throughout its life there's always been confusion as to whether The Simpsons is a show for kids or adults, but with allusions in these first 13 episodes to Kubrick, Diane Arbus, Citizen Kane and (in a very satisfyingly anti-French episode) Manon des Sources, it should already have been clear that this was a programme for all ages and all IQs from 0 to 200. Dysfunctional they may have been, but the Simpsons stuck together, and audiences stuck with them into the 21st century. [+]

Welcome back to Cicely, Alaska, where whimsy and magical realism are always in season. While Northern Exposure's heart is as big as all outdoors, its charms are starting to wear a little thin in its penultimate season, particularly John Cullum's New Age-y DJ McDreamy, Chris (one longs for that season 1 episode in which he lost his voice). But there is compensation in such sweet, unexpected moments as the one in "A River Doesn't Run Through It," in which bush pilot Maggie O'Connell (Janine Turner) finds the tape recorder of Dr. Joel Fleishman (Rob Morrow), who is out in the field, and, missing his voice, sits down to listen to one of his tapes. The long-awaited thawing of what Joel calls their "bizarre" relationship is this season's biggest development. Their efforts to "go out" and be nicer to each other are frustrated by such nuisances as a dust-mite allergy ("Mite Makes Right"). Another blessed event is the birth of Shelley's (Cynthia Geary) so-called "Little Pooper," but not before she freaks at impending motherhood ("Baby Blues") and has a series of laundromat encounters with her future child at different stages in her life, from Barbie-playing adolescent to aspiring Dallas Cowboy cheerleader ("Hello, I Love You"). Aspiring young filmmaker and shaman Ed (Darren E. Burrows) finds himself at a crossroads in "Rosebud," one of his better episodes, in which he is charged with organizing a film festival to put Cicely on the map. Peter Bogdanovich, as himself, regales one and all with his Orson Welles stories, and encourages Ed to finally make a movie. [+]

Carl Reiner (Where's Poppa?) brought comic Steve Martin to the screen in this mostly funny 1979 movie about a relentlessly stupid but innocent man, whom we get to know from childhood (where it never occurred to him that he was white as he was raised by a family of black sharecroppers) to romance (where he doesn't quite know what to do with Bernadette Peters). Martin is game as the moron, and this is the kind of film with funny moments people still talk about. -Tom Keogh.