The fiery life and fast times of the renowned distance runner Steve Prefontaine who held every record from 2,000 through 10,000 meters, an inspiration-filled movie.

When Samuel (Lukas Haas), a young Amish boy travelling with his mother Rachel (Kelly McGillis), witnesses the murder of a police officer in a public restroom, he and his mother become the temporary wards of John Book (Harrison Ford), a detective who's been assigned to solve the crime. After suspect line-ups and mug-shot books yield nothing, Samuel, in the most memorable scene of the film, recognizes the murderer as a narcotics agent whose picture he sees in the precinct. Once Book realizes that the police chief is in on it, too, he whisks Samuel and Rachel back home to Amish country, where he himself goes into hiding as a plain Amish man. Witness' juxtaposition of the life of the Amish and the violence of inner-city police corruption work surprisingly well for the story, and Kelly McGillis as the falling in love widow gives an almost perfect performance. Directed by Peter Weir, the film is extremely successful in drawing the viewer into its world and, accordingly, is immensely entertaining. The only thing that mars its polish is the one-dimensional, almost cartoonish handling of the upper-echelon police corruption--a subtler, more realistic treatment of this aspect of the story would have rendered the film near perfect. --James McGrath, Amazon.com

Overall, one of the lighter episodes this, in the 13-part survey of 20th Century phenomena and endeavours, narrated by Sir David Frost. Many of the "feats" depicted here are more dignity-defying than death-defying, involving chaps walking across hot coals, people launching themselves into shallow water from bizarre, home-made contraptions and a Frenchman who spectacularly scaled a 36-storey Philadelphia skyscraper unaided by machinery, only to be arrested at the top.

Once again, Sir David Frost's narrative is especially valuable for those who need absolutely everything explained to them: "The stuntman is an important man on a great many film sets", he intones, "but when things go wrong it can be deadly serious". The most spectacular footage here is that of a British man who ascended to 10,000 feet above the clouds using 450 helium balloons; the most quietly satisfying is that of Richard Branson's balloon landing in the drink with an ignominious plop; and the most luridly, shamefully compelling are the live shots of a plane crash at a 1997 German air show, which killed 10 people. Slapdash captions hardly enhance this production, including one informing us that the Victoria Falls are in Kenya. --David Stubbs

The prurient will be disappointed to learn that there's rather more politics than sex in this video, part of a themed series based on TV archive footage devoted to various aspects of 20th-century history. Amusingly, but perhaps unsurprisingly, a large proportion of the perpetrators named and shamed here turn out to be American presidents, with Watergate, Irangate, Billygate and Lewinskygate all lovingly preserved for posterity, and the complex history of the Kennedy dynasty reiterated in detail. Further afield, with the likes of Winnie Mandela and Papandreaou, the emphasis is on how some "scandals" are paid for with other people's lives, not just with a loss of credibility. The concept scores highly, simply because the very nature of TV news coverage means that the stories behind events such as these are of course first presented bit-by-bit as they unfold, whereas the chronological gathering-together of the material, as here, ensures that the events can be re-reported in continuous detail. This is one of the best titles in the series. --Roger Thomas

Andrew Davies' 1999 adaptation of Mrs Gaskell's Wives and Daughters was hailed as the rediscovery of a "forgotten" classic novel and found the BBC on the crest of a wave with costume dramas--led by Pride and Prejudice. Handsome and beautifully filmed, if anything, it surpassed the quality of even that highly praised landmark production.

"We should all look pretty strange under a microscope," botanist Robert Hamley tells our heroine Molly Gibson and of course Mrs Gaskell places all her characters under intense scrutiny, with affection but without judgement. Davies' screenplay peals back the layers, giving full vent to the comedy, tragedy and satire that drive this tale of provincial life to its highly satisfactory conclusion. Justine Waddell imbues Molly with an increasingly exasperated but remarkably forbearing intelligence, while Francesca Annis, as the outrageously self-absorbed step-mother Hyacinth, paints a wonderful portrait of affectation without ever totally alienating our sympathy. Michael Gambon's immensely touching Squire Hamley won him a Best Actor BAFTA, but all the performances are uniformly excellent, contributing immeasurably to five hours of television drama of the highest calibre.

On the DVD: Presented in 16:9 format with a Dolby Digital stereo soundtrack, this two-disc presentation retains all the hallmarks of the original BBC viewing experience. The picture quality is lush--the production lighting is excellent--and the sound quality sharp. The only gripe is with the extras: the Omnibus documentary "Who the Dickens is Mrs Gaskell?" is brutally truncated, cutting off talking heads like novelists Fay Weldon and Margaret Drabble in their prime and giving limited insight into how the production was made. As an audio bonus, there is also 30 minutes of John Keane's music.--Piers Ford