The definition of comfort television is this: you want to go where you know everybody's name. And you're always glad you came. Cheers is open for business once again in this set that contains all 22 episodes of the first, and best, season of the show that inherited Taxi's mantle as television's best ensemble-driven workplace comedy. It can be instructive to return to a long-running series' more humble beginnings. While Cheers got drunk on farce in its later years, it began life as a much more grounded human comedy. In these inaugural episodes, the action does not stray from the Boston bar owned by Sam Malone, a washed-up baseball player three years sober. The straws that stir the drink are the supporting players: Nick Colasanto as addled Coach; Rhea Perlman, the Thelma Ritter of her generation, as surly and fertile waitress Carla; George Wendt as quintessential barfly Norm; and John Ratzenberger as Cliff, the bar know-it-all ready with "little-known facts" (and blessedly far from the pathetic blowhard his character would evolve into). Spiking this concoction is the palpable chemistry between Ted Danson's Sam and Shelley Long's Diane Chambers, fledgling waitress and self-described "student of life". The battle lines are drawn in the episode "Sam's Women": He's the "dim ex-baseball player" and she, "the post graduate". But, as Carla so indelicately puts it, they can't "put their glands on hold". [+]

Season 1 Pulling few punches and garnering its fair share of headlines as a result, The Tudors is a controversial, yet compelling period piece, that dramatically tells the story of the early years of King Henry VIII. Not for nothing, though, has it attracted its fair share of awards attention. For The Tudors is a complex drama, and not one to simplify its storylines. The young Henry, for instance, is exploring his muddled romances and his insecurities, against the challenges his kingdom is facing. It’s a plate-full for him to deal with, and in the hands of a superb performance from Jonathan Rhys Meyers-a real revelation in the role-as the young Henry, it’s all vividly and skillfully knitted together. But The Tudors isn’t just about its central character, for there’s a terrific supporting cast at work too. Sam Neill’s Cardinal Wolsey, Jeremy Northam’s Thomas More and Natalie Dormer’s Ann Boleyn are just some who earn plaudits here. Behind the camera there’s the pen of Elizabeth writer Michael Hirst at work, and he too deserves much credit, clearly getting his teeth into the fascinating subject matter. The Tudors is, undoubtedly, a graphic production, and earns its 15 certificate comfortably. It’s also been knocked for the liberties it takes with its history when putting its story across, with some justification. [+]

The Great Escape image of Steve McQueen (as "The Cooler King") astride his motorcycle has entered silver-screen iconography, alongside Brando on his bike from The Wild One. Based on a true story about a group of POWs who mount a daring breakout from a supposedly inescapable Nazi prison camp, this rousing and suspenseful World War II epic features an all-star cast, including James Garner, Richard Attenborough, Charles Bronson, Donald Pleasence, James Coburn, and David McCallum. -Jim Emerson A stirring example of courage and the indomitable human spirit, for many John Sturges' The Great Escape is both the definitive World War II drama and the nonpareil prison escape movie. Featuring an unequalled ensemble cast in a rivetingly authentic true-life scenario set to Elmer Bernstein's admirable music (who writes contrapuntal march themes these days?), this picture is both a template for subsequent action-adventure movies and one of the last glories of Golden Age Hollywood. Reunited with the director who made him a star in The Magnificent Seven Steve McQueen gives a career-defining performance as the laconic Hilts, the baseball-loving, motorbike-riding "Cooler King". The rest of the all-male Anglo-American cast-Dickie Attenborough, Donald Pleasance, James Garner, Charles Bronson, David McCallum, James Coburn and Gordon Jackson-make the most of their meaty roles (though you have to forgive Coburn his Australian accent). Closely based on Paul Brickhill's book, the various escape attempts, scrounging, forging and ferreting activities are authentically realised thanks also to the presence on set of technical advisor Wally Flood, one of the original tunnel-digging POWs. Sturges orchestrates the climactic mass break out with total conviction, giving us both high action and very poignant human drama. Without trivialising the grim reality, The Great Escape thrillingly celebrates the heroism of men who never gave up the fight. On the DVD: The Great Escape special edition is indeed a special event. [+]

His Girl Friday is one of the five greatest dialogue comedies ever made. Howard Hawks had his cast play it at breakneck speed, and audiences hyperventilate trying to finish with one laugh so they can do justice to the four that have accumulated in the meantime. Rosalind Russell, not Hawks' first choice to play Hildy Johnson-the ace newsperson whom demonic editor Walter Burns is trying to keep from quitting and getting married-is triumphant in the part, holding her own as "one of the guys" and creating an enduring feminist icon. Cary Grant's Walter Burns is a force of nature, giving a performance of such concentrated frenzy and diamond brilliance that you owe it to yourself to devote at least one viewing of the movie to watching him alone. But then you have to go back (lucky you) and watch it again for the sake of the press-room gang-Roscoe Karns, Porter Hall, Cliff Edwards, Regis Toomey, Frank Jenks, and others-the kind of ensemble work that gets character actors onto Parnassus. -Richard T Jameson, Amazon. com.

The clue to what Son Of Rambow is about is all in the title, minus that W, of course (which presumably keeps the lawyers at bay). For it's the story of two young boys who, after watching Sylvester Stallone in action, decide that they can make a home movie addition to the Rambo saga, and ultimately set about to do just that. This proves to be an inspired platform for one of the best British comedies of recent years. Directed by Garth Jennings (who also helmed the big screen adaptation of The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy), Son Of Rambow is actually at heart the exploration of a friendship between two young boys in the 1980s, and the highs and lows that go along with it. Most, but not all, of the chuckles come from the reimagining of Rambo (replete with stunts and plenty of action), but Son Of Rambow also packs in some poignant, affecting drama without ever feeling like it's in any way overstaying its welcome. And with a musical backing that catches the flavour of the 80s pretty much perfectly, this is a treat of a movie, and a very British one at that. Don't miss it. -Jon Foster Will Poulter, Bill Milner, Jules Sitruck, Charlie Thrift, Jessica Stevenson.

The pity of war has been a much-favoured film topic; the treachery of war much less so, though never more persuasively than in Paths of Glory, Stanley Kubrick's breakthrough feature from 1957. Kirk Douglas gives one of his finest screen performances as Colonel Dax, the idealistic First World War soldier appalled by the arbitrary court-marshal meted out to three of his men after an impossible attempt to storm German lines goes disastrously wrong. George Macready is an utterly believable Gerneral Mireau, obsessed with his own honour and standing, whom Adolphe Majou complements tellingly as the urbane and cynical General Bruler. Those who know Kubrick from his later sprawling epics will be surprised at the tautness and concision shown here, even though the screenplay-which he co-wrote-has a certain theatrical stiffness. On the DVD: Paths of Glory on disc reproduces well in full-screen format, and Gerald Fried's bitingly ironic score comes through powerfully. There are five dubbed and six subtitled languages. The original trailer is a masterpiece of gritty reportage, well worth reviving. Along with Dr Strangelove and 2001, this is Kubrick's most focussed and durable film. -Richard Whitehouse.

Fantastical writer Gary Ross (Big, Dave) makes an auspicious directorial debut with this inspired and oddly touching comedy about two 90s kids (Tobey Maguire and Reese Witherspoon) thrust into the black-and-white TV world of Pleasantville, a Leave It to Beaver-style sitcom complete with picket fences, corner malt shop and warm chocolate chip cookies. When a somewhat unusual remote control (provided by repairman Don Knotts) transports them from the jaded real world to G-rated TV land, Maguire and Witherspoon are forced to play along as Bud and Mary Sue, the obedient children of George and Betty Parker (William H Macy and Joan Allen). Maguire, an obsessive Pleasantville devotee, understands the need for not toppling the natural balance of things; Witherspoon, on the other hand, starts shaking the town up, most notably when she takes football stud Skip (Paul Walker) up to Lover's Lane for some modern-day fun and games. Soon enough, Pleasantville's teens are discovering sex along with-gasp!-rock & roll, free thinking and soul-changing Technicolour. Filled with delightful and shrewd details about sitcom life (no toilets, no double beds, only two streets in the town), Pleasantville is a joy to watch, not only for its comedy but for the groundbreaking visual effects and astonishing production design as the town gradually transforms from crisp black and white to glorious colour. Ross does tip his hand a bit about halfway through the film, obscuring the movie's basic message of the unpredictability of life with overloaded and obvious symbolism, as the black-and-white denizens of the town gang up on the "coloureds" and impose rules of conduct to keep their strait-laced town laced up. Still, the characterizations from the phenomenal cast-especially repressed housewife Allen and soda-shop owner Jeff Daniels, doing some of their best work ever-will keep you emotionally invested in the film's outcome and waiting to see Pleasantville in all its final Technicolor glory. -Mark Englehart.