The Avengers and Bond babe took time out from singing and acting to chat to DVD & Blu-ray Review. Read more in Issue 134, which is out in shops tomorrow...

Is it strange to be talking about something that must seem like such a long time ago?
It is. It’s so far back.

It’s a shame that so many episodes from the first series of The Avengers are now lost... 
I’m surprised that some of them are still knocking about. What is astonishing is that anybody cares about the first ones. It was black and white and it was on tape. But there are thousands of people who know all about it and care, which is nice.

There was a public outcry after you left the Avengers...
Two years was long enough. After that the emphasis was quite a lot more on sex and naughtiness.

You’ve recorded some extras for the DVDs. What was that like?
I recorded something when it went onto video. And I’ve recorded something now it’s gone onto DVD. So it’s all fascinating and yes that was fun.

Was there a difference between the two experiences?
The only real difference was that I had seen two of the episodes they’re going to put out this time. Whereas when I did the interview for video I was in the make-up chair and the interviewer started asking me a question about a particular episode that was really testing me and I said, “For God’s sakes I don’t remember.” And he was horrified. So for the rest of my make-up session he put bits of two episodes up on the screen for me to watch. And I have to say it’s the first time I’d seen anything since those days, because I’m not somebody who sits and watches myself in anything. I must say I was extraordinarily surprised that it was so good and in such good nick. This was when they’d tidied them all up – now they’ve tidied them up even more.

Do people collect memorabilia from The Avengers?
There are people who’ve got yards and yards of stuff. And there are people who’ve got yards and yards of stuff of me. But everybody’s got so much more than I have because I don’t keep anything - otherwise you’d be overrun. But it is astonishing. And there are people who are such fans of things that it’s amazing.

You went from Mrs Gale in The Avengers to Pussy Galore in Goldfinger. She really stood up to Bond and I think it took a long time to get back to that...
Yes, well it’s taken them 30 years or so to get back to that. Mind you, in the book she’s supposed to be a lesbian and then Bond changes her. I mean Ian Fleming was such a misogynist. There was no way that anybody should be able to stay as a lesbian when they’d met Bond. Whether Bond was Ian Fleming or Ian Fleming was Bond is purely academic.

You recently released a single, ‘The Star Who Fell from Grace’...
I was surprised to be asked to do any such thing. But they asked if I’d like to do this with the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra. And I haven’t been to Prague and I want to go there and I thought, ‘Oh won’t that be exciting.’ And of course I’m an idiot because I never went to Prague! The conductor goes to Prague, he lays it down over there and comes back with this recording and I have that to work on. And I record in some grotty studio in London. It’s a very, very sad song about someone who’s drunk too much or taken too many drugs and has fallen down and lost favour. It’s a song of desperate regret.

Who was the best Bond?
It’s true to say that Sean was and is still the best Bond and he has the advantage of being the first in any case. But he is the nearest thing to the character that Ian Fleming wrote.

The Avengers Series 1 & 2 Boxset will be released on DVD on 5 October and is reviewed in Issue 134 of DVD & Blu-ray Review. The later series of the Avengers will follow in 2010.

As Halloween approaches, the gore count rises to unspeakably evil levels. G2 Pictures is doing nothing to stem the blood splatter, instead releasing its own pair of grim tales to chill the claret! 

In Necromentia – available on DVD from 5 October 2009 – Hagen keeps his recently deceased, adulterous girlfriend in the basement, waiting for her to one day return to him from beyond the grave. So when he meets the mysterious Travis, a drifter with a dark secret who apparently holds the key to hell and Hagen’s one chance to revive his beloved, he doesn’t think twice about the sacrifices he will be forced to make.

Meanwhile, in Pig Hunt – also out on DVD on 5 October – John takes his city friends to his dead uncle's remote ranch to hunt wild pigs. It seems like a typical guys’ weekend with guns - despite the presence of John's sexy girlfriend Brooks. But as John and his crew trek deeper into the forest, they begin to realise the awful truth about his uncle’s demise and the legend of The Ripper - a murderous three-thousand-pound black boar that prowls the landscape.

Thanks to the wonderful folks at G2 Pictures we have 10 DVD copies of each film to give away, giving 10 lucky entrants a horror double-bill to enjoy!

To stand a chance of winning, click the link below and answer a simple question.

There’s a new issue of DVD & Blu-ray Review out next Wednesday and right from the off it’s a stonking good read! There’s some big news to kick things off, as The Sarah Connor Chronicles’ Thomas Dekker shares the pain of cancellation and lets off a lot of steam about Dollhouse. If you want to know what Joss Whedon *really* thinks about his underperforming TV series you have to read this!

Elsewhere in news, we chat exclusively to director Duncan Jones (aka Zowie Bowie), who reveals how he got to play ground control to Sam Rockwell’s Major Tom in the sci-fi gem Moon...

And Everyone’s Talking About... no-budget zombie-flick Colin, which out-performed its £45 costs to play at Cannes and land theatrical and DVD releases. Did you know ex-Review staffer Rosie is actually in the film? We chat to writer/director Marc Price who credits his success to sitting and watching DVDs. Nice work, fella!

We also chat to Honor Blackman about how she graduated from The Avengers to Goldfinger. And you’d be surprised how many Bond flicks she hasn’t seen...

An in-depth interview with legendary director Sam Raimi adds to our glut of horror coverage (our make me an expert feature will also tell you everything you need to know about horror franchises), and we get a once-in-a-lifetime chance to sit in on the recording of the commentary for Looking For Eric!

As per usual, we’ve got the most comprehensive DVD and Blu-ray reviews on the planet. Here’s just a taster of what discs we’ve been spinning this month: Coraline; An American Werewolf In London on Blu-ray; Wolverine; FAQ About Time Travel; Synecdoche, New York; Rudo & Cursi; Anything For Her; Gladiator on Blu-ray; The Last House On The Left remake; Telstar; Ip Man; Le Donk And Sco-Zay-Zee; The Uninvited; Fast & Furious; seven Luc Besson Blu-rays; and one of the greatest films ever made – FW Murnau’s Sunrise.

We’ve got our office copies in and as Tony the Tiger would say, they look ggggrrrreeeeaaaaaaaaatttt! Subscribers should get theirs soon (barring any post delays due to the ongoing strike). Everyone else, start queuing at your local newsagent next Wednesday 30 September.

Universal Pictures wants to teach women about Blu-ray. So it’s organised a little event to do just that:
“To celebrate the release of Bridget Jones and Love Actually on Blu-ray Universal Pictures invite you to a night for WOMEN ONLY to learn about Blu-ray, watch clips from the ultimate chick flicks Love Actually and Bridget Jones and feast on delicious snacks and drinks (served by Butlers in the Buff!)”

The response from one female journalist? “It was the 'Butlers In The Buff' part I was aghast at. Like women can only be enticed to learn about technology with the added incentive of nibbles'n'nipples...”

That sound of muggle-blubbing must mean that the Harry Potter film franchise is coming to an end. With the final book currently being fashioned into two movies, the cast are now giving their final performances.

But who will go on to even bigger and better things in the future? And who’ll turn out to be a squib when it comes to movie magic? Scroll down the page and cast your vote in our poll on the right-hand side to have your say...

The choices are:
Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy)
Rupert Grint (Ron Weasley)
Katie Leung (Cho Chang)
Matthew Lewis (Neville Longbottom)
Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter)
Emma Watson (Hermione Granger)

Insurance companies have put out an advert criticising Obama's health reform plan. Will Ferrell and a host of other stars have joined the debate...

Bad news if you had plans to attend The Prisoner All-Nighter event at the Prince Charles Cinema on Saturday 26 September. Sadly, it seems that you will now be a free man (or woman) - as the screening "has been cancelled due to logistical problems".

Rumours that the event's producers were last seen being chased down a beach by a giant white balloon are yet to be confirmed.

However, Network Distributing's PR man assures us that the Blu-ray release is still going ahead and will be out in shops on 28 September.

Review managed to blag a photo with Jason Statham last night, as the Crank star waited for friends outside the Soho Hotel in London. As we asked for the snap his mates turned up and Jase was about to blow us off: “Sorry mate we’re going inside,” until we introduced ourselves and chatted about his recent cover appearance. And the bloke taking the photo? Shifty and Lock, Stock star Jason Flemyng!

DVD & Blu-ray Review editor Ali Upham spotted Guy Ritchie in a pub about two streets away from here last week. Could there be a Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels reunion on the cards? The rumour starts here...

Yesterday we told you about the Jameson Cult Film Club’s screening of Fight Club (quick recap: it’s on Tuesday 6 October 2009, it’s free if you apply online for tickets and it’s taking place in a Shoreditch warehouse). Today we can add a whole extra layer to Operation Mayhem, as we offer one lucky winner plus a friend the chance to live out their movie star dreams!

To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the movie, Cult Film Club fans will get the chance to recreate Tyler Durden’s signature stunts with an exclusive action-packed Fight Club stunt workshop on 6 October.

Led by a professional stage combat expert, participants will learn how to recreate unforgettable scenes from the film with all the moves being captured on camera for a chance to impress friends when it’s all over.

They will gain exclusive insider knowledge of the movie industry, with tricks of the trade revealed over the day-long induction, before being whisked to the Jameson Cult Film Club screening of the infamous movie.

One runner up will also scoop a prize of a bottle of Jameson Whisky.

IMPORTANT: Winners must be free to attend the workshop during the day on 6 October. This competition is for the workshop and screening only and winners need to make their own way to the venue and sort out their own accommodation (so if you live outside London, start nagging your friends for a sofa spot now). However, once the workshop has been finished, the winners will then be taken by taxi to the screening in the evening.

For those not lucky enough to secure a slot at the workshop, more than 350 tickets are available for the screening itself which promises to be an unforgettable cult film experience. Anyone wanting to attend just has to register at www.jamesoncultfilmclub.com.

And, what’s more, the screening of Fight Club will exclusively be shown in high definition to celebrate the film’s release on Blu-ray for the first time on 23 November!

To enter, click the button below and answer a simple question. The competition closes at 12pm on Thursday 1 October and winners will be notified the same day.

The first rule of Jameson Cult Film Club is... that you have to tell everyone about the great free screenings that will be available! And before you chide us for such a clichéd opening line, you should know that the first event in the “new bigger, better” series kicks off on 6 October with a screening of Fight Club at Village Underground in Shoreditch.

“Fight Club on the 6 October is the first of the Jameson Cult Film Club screenings for ’09/’10 and there will be six further free screenings across London, with the next taking place in October in Islington over four consecutive nights,” the spokesman informs us.

“Again, all of these screenings are free and anyone can apply for tickets at www.jamesoncultfilmclub.com.”

Will you still feel like a free man (or woman) after being subjected to 17 hours in The Village? Find out by joining The Prisoner All Nighter at the Prince Charles Cinema in Leicester Square, on Saturday 26th September.

To mark the Blu-Ray release of The Prisoner, the first 125 Network customers who pre-order the Blu-Ray edition from the Network website will receive a pair of tickets to The Prisoner All Nighter.

Things kick off at at 8.30p, with every episode of The Prisoner being screened in High Definition for the first time anywhere in the world.

There’ll also be appearances by special guests who appeared in the show. The event will be opened by Prisoner Loudspeaker Announcer Fenella Fielding and closed by an additional special guest.

Attendees will also be entered into a prize draw to win some unique Prisoner merchandise and everyone in the Prince Charles screening will also receive an exclusive 1967 reproduction ITC brochure.

The Pythons celebrate their Ruby Jubilee this month – and the jocular jesters are marking the milestone in fine style with a brand new DVD boxset! Celebrating 40 Years Of Monty Python is available on 14 September 2009, courtesy of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.
The five-disc extravaganza offers the ultimate Python experience as it features the much-loved classics Life Of Brian, The Holy Grail and The Meaning Of Life, as well as And Now For Something Completely Different. The DVD boxset also includes Monty Python Live At The Hollywood Bowl.

To celebrate the release we’ve joined forces with our friends at Sony Pictures Home Entertainment to come up with a top competition prize. One lucky winner will scoop a large HD TV, a DVD player and a copy of Celebrating 40 Years Of Monty Python on DVD! Five runners up will also win a copy of the 40th Anniversary DVD boxset. Closing date: 29 September.

For more information on Monty Python visit www.sonypictures.co.uk/homevideo.

To be in with a chance of winning, visit the competition website and answer a simple question...