More personal than Knowing Me, Knowing You and sharper than the series just broadcast, this masterfully observed, grotesquely populated comedy is to the ’90s what Fawlty Towers was to the ’70s?but you know all that. Buy this, then, for the meaty extras and as a handy reminder that UK comedy can still be the best in the world.

Comprising this summer’s Hyde Park concert (a rocking preview of the Illumination album that followed) and last year’s BBC Later… special of Paul unplugged circa Days Of Speed, this double-header is a timely celebration of the Modfather’s continuing success. Both blinding, though the latter set of acoustic Jam and TSC chestnuts (a Noel Gallagher assisted “That’s Entertainment” included) is pretty much unbeatable.

Tight script and fantastic acting from Rob Brydon, but what is the actual point of this much lauded two-hour divorcee monologue? In theory it’s a comedy, but with not a single laugh in the entire series there’s a very real danger for non-pseuds that its supposed greatness will completely pass you by. They won’t be running repeats of this at Christmas next year, that’s for sure.

In an ideal world, Blondie would have existed only on video. The golden Deborah, adored by the camera, would now live forever as a shimmering punk siren, blessed with a voice of both honey and crystalline clarity. Harry fronts Blondie at their 1983 farewell concert in Toronto uncomfortably, inelegantly, and sings without any of the vitality of the sassy little Kittens whose success has prompted this release.

The rap trio who defined cool in the ’90s for want-not-to-be-middle-class white boys have probably released this two-disc video compilation just in time, before they become horribly pass

Another dusting-off for the Plastic Ono Band, playing for peace and headlining over Bo Diddley, Jerry Lee, Chuck Berry and Little Richard. Yoko climbs out of a bag to shriek along with the atmospheric desperation of “Yer Blues” and “Cold Turkey”, and provides the highlight, during “John, John (Let’s Hope For Peace)”, by throwing Eric Clapton into such confusion he doesn’t know what to play.

The history of Clement “Coxsone” Dodd’s legendary Jamaican studio is told through interviews, copious amounts of music and historical footage. There are also plenty of interesting diversions, such as a chapter on how vinyl records are made in a Kingston pressing plant. Early performances by the likes of The Skatalites and Ernest Ranglin are the icing on the irie cake.

DVD EXTRAS: Additional interviews with many of the artists featured, plus 16-track CD and 90-page booklet.

Thought deceased, big beat is in fact set to be the new ska?resurrected every few years by students who think they’ve discovered a new sound. Brighton scene originators Skint are therefore proud of Fatboy Slim, Lo Fidelity Allstars and X-Press 2 with David Byrne, but who’s got time to sit through 26 of their videos? Plenty of laughs here nevertheless, as typified by Doug Aitken’s wigs’n’ breakdancing promo for “Rockafeller Skank”.

The sex pistols have become as much of a great British institution as the ones they so chaotically threatened more than a quarter of a century ago. Retelling their stories individually, Lydon, Matlock, Jones and Cook today look and sound as harmless as the good old guy down the pub, although Lydon still employs the glittering Stare to dramatic effect. Malcolm McLaren and Jamie Reed join journalists, record company executives and production and studio staff as the history of the Pistols, and the making of their one great album, is related in detail, with live clips accompanied by footage of such splendid outrages as the Bill Grundy show and the Jubilee boat trip. Jones’ real musical strengths in the band are revealed for the first time, and, in another surprising twist, Lydon, Jones and Cook express regrets over their treatment of Matlock.

Thomas Vinterberg christened the Dogme genre with immense style in this 1998 Danish classic with edgy docu-drama camerawork and grainy digital video helping to supercharge a time-honoured narrative progression from cosy family gathering to shock revelation. Partly inspired by a real-life radio phone-in confession, Vinterberg’s jet-black farce moves from incest, suicide and racism to cathartic redemption.

DVD EXTRAS: Trailer, Dogme certificate, interview/picture booklet.

Steve Martin is dentist Robert Sangster trapped in a too safe relationship with his hygienist (Laura Dern). When he takes a walk on the wild side with drug-dealing patient Susan Ivey (Helena Bonham Carter), Sangster’s pharmaceutical supplies are pilfered and Ivey’s psychopathic brother and the police send his life into tailspin. A laboured attempt to reinvigorate an increasingly tired-looking Martin.

To Catch A Thief

RETAIL DVD (PARAMOUNT HOME ENTERTAINMENT, FULL SCREEN)

Houseboat

RETAIL DVD (PARAMOUNT HOME ENTERTAINMENT, FULL SCREEN)

Cary Grant, rated by no less imaginative an authority than David Thomson as the greatest screen actor of all time, stars in three outrageously enjoyable humdingers. The magnificent His Girl Friday is fast as a cheetah, its quips flying furiously as Grant and Rosalind Russell jockey for position in Howard Hawks’ newspaper-world romantic comedy, a 1940 remake of The Front Page. Verbal gymnastics that cinema’s long since dumbed down from. That no one delivers a line with as many disingenuous ambiguities as Grant is reaffirmed in Hitchcock’s To Catch A Thief (1955). Otherwise it’s slow and flawed in pitch, not one of Hitch’s best, but Grant as a retired Riviera cat-burglar is inspired casting, and Grace Kelly’s never what you’d call hard to watch. Sophia Loren is an ageing foil for Grant in ’58’s Houseboat, more of a soft family movie, flatly directed by Melville Shavelson, with kids galore. Even so, Grant twinkles.