DVD treat for Montalbano fans

Montalbano fans who are missing the Sicilian detective in his BBC4 series can see Luca Zingaretti playing a character on the wrong side of the law in the DVD of Kidnapping: La Sfida (15), writes Tony Spittles.

Sardinia and Tuscany are the backdrops for this modern-day thriller - now out on DVD on the Odyssey label priced £12.99 - with Zingaretti as a baddie who seems out of his depth when his gang snatch a young boy . . . only to find that his father, a wealthy workaholic German industrialist, refuses to pay the ransom and enlists a former secret service agent to track down his son.

Another Odyssey title takes viewers back in time to 1800s England, the setting for Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell (15), which has just finished a seven-week run in BBC1’s Sunday night drama spot.

This stylish and stunning adaptation of Joanna Clarke’s 800-page fantasy novel stars Bertie Carvel and Eddie Marsan as the title characters whose magical skills (including raising a woman from the dead and summoning up a flotilla of ships to terrify the French) send a thrill through the country.

The DVD release, £24.99, and the Blu-ray version at £27.99, both contain more than 20 minutes of exclusive, behind-the-scenes footage and deleted scenes from this ambitious production, which one critic said was “nothing less than a television triumph.”

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