Although made in 1956, A Town Like Alice has remained enduringly effective and affecting. Based on Nevil Shute's novel the story revolves around a romance set against the unlikely backdrop of a forced march through the jungles of Malaysia by British prisoners--mostly women and children--captured by the invading forces of Japan. The title is a reference to the homesick yearnings of Australian soldier Joe Harman, played by Peter Finch. He forms a bond with one of the female prisoners, Jean Paget (Virginia McKenna), and their travails are depicted with a remarkable subtlety and commendable lack of corniness. It's a minor classic.

On the DVD: The black-and-white picture is presented in 4:3 format, with English subtitles if required. Extra features include a 25-minute "making of" documentary, a collection of behind-the-scenes photographs, potted biographies of the cast and crew and the original trailer. --Andrew Mueller

The legendary American choreographer Alvin Ailey is the subject of this well-balanced Tribute. Three of the four dances--"For Bird with Love", "Witness" and "Memoria"--are Ailey's, and the programme concludes with Ulysses Dove's "Episodes". Each is eloquently introduced by Judith Jamison, and each demonstrates the joyous, affectionate atmosphere which Ailey's work always seemed to generate. "For Bird with Love", a dance interpretation of the life of the seminal jazz saxophonist Charlie Parker, is probably the best known and best loved of the items presented here. Ailey always relied on an element of rather camp Broadway glitz to carry his ideas beyond the hardcore audience for modern dance, and much of the work presented here is closer to Cats than to Cunningham. Overall, though, these dances are superbly structured, graceful edifices which transcend their showbiz influences, and there are few examples of the craft that are so extrovertly welcoming to the viewer. --Roger Thomas

A satirical, surreal and acutely observed comedy-drama from the mid-1980s, A Very Peculiar Practice stars Peter Davison, who, following turns as a vet in All Creatures Great and Small and the Doctor in Doctor Who, here plays naïve Dr Stephen Daker, a profoundly nervous new addition to Lowlands University's medical practice. The distinctly eclectic team he meets is headed by the compassionate, incompetent, alcoholic and suicidal "Jock" McCannon (the gloriously theatrical Graham Crowden). Barbara Flynn is marvellous as the manipulative bisexual Dr Rose Marie, and David Troughton as Dr Bob Buzzard personifies the "greed-is-good" ethos of the era.

The seven 50-minute episodes here form an overall arc following Daker from sheer terror through romance with behavioural psychologist Lyn Turtle (Amanda Hillwood), to ethical conflict with the sociopathic vice-chancellor (played with relish by John Bird). Increasingly surreal (from strange nuns to stranger dream sequences--the second, even better series was more bizarre still), the series launches an acidic assault on the Thatcherite asset-stripping mentality that was then laying waste not just British universities, but the entire nation.

Written with an acute irony by Andrew Davies, whose move into more mainstream adaptations such as Pride and Prejudice (1995) was contemporary TV drama's greatest loss, A Very Peculiar Practice is a television landmark that, alongside The Singing Detective and Edge of Darkness, marks 1986 as one of the finest years in the history of the medium. --Gary S Dalkin

The 1982 gig A Very Special Concert reunited performers from the classic 70s fusion band Return to Forever--Chick Corea on piano, Stanley Clarke on acoustic bass and Lenny White on drums--and introduced saxophonist Joe Henderson to the mix. It was, according to director Gary Legon, only a last-minute thought to video it as well as taping what proved to be one of those great jazz occasions. The playlist includes two White compositions--the cheerful display piece "L's Bop" and the more sombre "Guernica"--and Clarke's "Why Wait" as well as an extended version of Corea's classic "500 Miles High". In its vocal version, this was one of the anthems of the fusion movement; here it becomes a lyrical meditation, a dirge, a dance and just about anything that Corea and the others want it to be: these are players who just love being back together for an evening.

On the DVD: A Very Special Concert has surprisingly good picture quality for its date and the circumstances; it is presented here with a visual aspect of 16:9. The digital sound, as Legon points out something of a novelty in 1982 for a live recording, has been remastered for PCM Stereo, Dolby Digital and DTS surround sound. The accompanying interview with Legon explains just how precarious the occasion was--problems with flights, lost instruments and crew meant that it very nearly did not happen; the interview is a fascinating reminder of all the practical considerations that go into special occasions. --Roz Kaveney