LATEST ADDITIONS

We sometimes wonder how Father Ted managed to get commissioned. First up, the series was the brainchild of Graham Linehan and Arthur Mathews, whose only previous sitcom experience was creating the appalling (and now largely forgotten) Alexi Sayle vehicle Paris. Then there's the subject matter itself – the somewhat unappealing prospect of spending time with a trio of Catholic priests on a tiny island off the west coast of Ireland. Even the cast was mainly unknown, with some having next to no acting experience.

Despite its enticing price tag, Pioneer's BDP-450 is aimed squarely at the home cinema enthusiast with audiophile leanings. Super Audio CD and DVD-Audio might not be exactly in the rudest of health as far as formats go, but there are plenty of legacy discs out there, and no shortage of folk who eagerly follow the trickle of SACD titles onto the market.

Against all the odds, director Joe Wright has managed to find a fresh approach to Tolstoy's novel with this 12th bigscreen adaptation. Wright stages the story within the confines of an artificial theatre setting to act as a 'metaphor for Russian society at the time' and 'the roles we all play in life'. If this all sounds rather dull and conceptual, it's not – instead it adds a lavish visual conceit to this well-worn story of love, and those visuals look great in 1080p courtesy of the Blu-ray's richly saturated VC-1 2.40:1 encode.

When Jaws broke box office records in 1975 it led to the release of countless copycat films. While the vast majority of these cash-in flicks were utter trash, 1978's Piranha managed to buck the trend – even Steven Spielberg went on record saying, 'It's the best of the Jaws rip-offs', and convinced Universal not to take out an injunction blocking the film's release.