Top British Programs Debut on DVD Jan. 4 - Michael Kitchen, Martin Clunes, and WWII Drama

Chief curators of the best Brit TV” (Time), Acorn Media starts off 2011 with three acclaimed DVD debuts on January 4th. Martin Clunes (Doc Martin) leads an all-star cast in the International Emmy-winning black comedy Dirty Tricks. Broadcast on BBC America, Clunes stars as a charmingly ruthless social climber involved in a series of suspicious deaths. The Guilty is a taut conspiracy thriller featuring fan-favorite Michael Kitchen (Foyle's War) in “a tour de force” performance (Sunday Times) as a lawyer willing to do anything to protect his reputation. Enemy at the Door, Series 2 features the finale of the gripping WWII drama series based on the harrowing true story of the long Nazi occupation of Britain's Channel Island. Please see the press releases below. DVDs available upon request. I hope you had a wonderful holiday!!

Martin Clunes (Doc Martin) leads an all-star cast in a saucy black comedy seen on BBC America; Winner of an International Emmy® for Best Drama

DIRTY TRICKS
North American Home Video Debut on January 4, 2011

“A terrific cast” —The Daily Telegraph
“Hilarious (and decidedly naughty)” —The Daily Telegraph
“Thriller with a sharply comic edge” —The Mirror

Silver Spring, MD —Winner of an International Emmy® for best drama (2001), Dirty Tricks makes its North American home video debut on January 4, 2011 from Acorn Media (DVD Single, $29.99, www.AcornOnline.com). Broadcast on BBC America and based on the book by Michael Dibdin (the Aurelio Zen mysteries), this award-winning black comedy stars Martin Clunes (Doc Martin, Men Behaving Badly) as a charmingly ruthless social climber involved in a series of suspicious deaths. Wittily written and brilliantly acted, Dirty Tricks delights with a first-rate supporting cast sending up modern marriage and mores with wit as crisp and intoxicating as the best British gin. The series co-stars James Bolam (New Tricks, Beiderbecke trilogy), Lindsay Duncan (Traffik, Alice in Wonderland), Neil Dudgeon (Life of Riley, the new lead of Midsomer Murders) and Julie Graham (At Home with the Braithwaites, Bonekickers).

Part bawdy bedroom farce, part zany crime caper, this saucy British romp stars Martin Clunes as a charming underachiever on the run from the law. Sure, he's manipulative, money-grubbing, and completely amoral. But is he a murderer? Absolutely not, he insists—despite the pesky corpses piling up.

After befriending an accountant (Neil Dudgeon), he beds the man's randy wife, Karen (Julie Graham), before a wealthy widow (Lindsay Duncan) next catches his eye. When Karen meets an untimely demise, a plodding police detective (James Bolam) gets involved, and things take a decidedly dicey turn.

Street: January 4, 2011 SRP: $29.99
DVD Single: Approx. 146 min. - British drama - SDH subtitles
Bonus Features: Biography of author Michael Dibdin and cast filmographies
Contains nudity, strong language, and graphic sexual situations

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Michael Kitchen (Foyle's War) stars in taut conspiracy thriller

THE GUILTY
Debuts on DVD January 4, 2011

“A tour de force for Kitchen” —The Sunday Times
“Terrific psychological thriller” —The Sunday Times
“Brilliant drama” —The Mail on Sunday
“Compelling” —Daily Mail


Silver Spring, MD —Akin to Mystic River as a dark drama full of moral ambiguity, The Guilty debuts on DVD from Acorn Media on January 4, 2011. Tightly plotted and crackling with suspense, The Guilty features fan-favorite actor Michael Kitchen (Foyle's War) as a lawyer willing to do anything to protect his reputation. This provocative psychological drama, which aired on public television in the 1990s and was finalist at the Houston International Film Festival, also stars Caroline Catz (Doc Martin, Murder in Suburbia) in one of her earliest roles (www.AcornOnline.com, $39.99, 201 minutes).

London attorney Steven Vey (Michael Kitchen) has a brilliant career, a beautiful wife, and money to burn. To top it off, he's about to be named Britain's youngest-ever judge. But one night, a celebration with his pretty secretary, Nicky (Caroline Catz), goes too far. He calls it a drunken indiscretion; she calls it rape.

Meanwhile, Birmingham punk Eddy Doyle (Sean Gallagher, Coronation Street) is fresh out of prison with no prospects. After learning that the stuffy vicar who raised him isn't his real dad, Eddie goes in search of his father. When they meet, Doyle is lured into a conspiracy with horrific results.

Lives intertwine and tension builds to a “nail-biting finale” (The Sunday Times) in this provocative psychological thriller from the makers of Chancer, starring Clive Owen. Everyone is guilty of something—and justice isn't always served.

Street: January 4, 2011 SRP: $39.99
DVD 2-Disc Set: Approx. 201 min. - SDH subtitles
Contains violence and brief nudity

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Finale of the gripping WWII drama series

ENEMY AT THE DOOR, SERIES 2
On DVD January 4, 2011

Torn between defiance and survival

“Compelling television” —McClatchy-Tribune News Service

Silver Spring, MD —Enemy at the Door, Series 2 arrives to DVD from Acorn Media on January 4, 2011 as the finale to the gripping WWII drama series. Based on the harrowing true story, Enemy at the Door chronicles the long Nazi occupation of Britain's Channel Island. The late 1970s series stars Alfred Burke (Public Eye) and Bernard Horsfall (On Her Majesty's Secret Service), and guest stars John Rhys-Davies (The Lord of the Rings), Kenneth Cranham (Rome), Stephanie Cole (Doc Martin), and David Hayman (Trial & Retribution). Intelligent writing, masterful acting and exacting historical detail distinguished the series on public television for years. Following 2009's DVD release of Series 1, this 4-disc set includes the last 13 episodes of this touchstone historical drama (www.AcornOnline.com; $59.99).

Three years into World War II, the German occupation of the Channel Islands continues. On the German side, the pragmatic local commandant, Major Richter, tries to strike a balance between military necessity and good civil relations. However, his efforts are complicated by the recent imprisonment of Dr. Philip Martel, who represented the interests of the Guernsey islanders. And the local SS officer, Hauptmann Reinicke, proves to be a thorn in Richter's side, always eager to win points with his superiors in Berlin. With the war carrying on, can the fragile harmony between the occupiers and the occupied survive much longer?

Enemy at the Door ran for two series on ITV from 1978-1980 and broadcast in the U.S. on public television. The series was produced by Tony Wharmby (Bones, Lillie) and Michael Chapman (The Bill, Public Eye).

Street: January 4, 2011 SRP: $59.99
DVD 4-Disc Boxed Set: 13 episodes - Approx. 660 min. - British drama
Special Feature: Historical background on the Channel Islands

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Coming up:
January 25:
Man in a Suitcase, Set 1, DVD debut of the stylish action-packed 1960s spy series starring Richard Bradford (The Untouchables); Pie in the Sky, Series 4, more from Richard Griffiths' (Harry Potter, The History Boys) culinary cop series; Wish Me Luck, Series 2 features British heroines in a gripping WWII drama set behind enemy lines; and The Agatha Christie Hour, Set 2 features more classic Agatha Christie short fiction.

February 1:
Discovering Hamlet (Athena, DVD Debut), Kenneth Branagh and Derek Jacobi (Cadfael) offer a behind-the-scenes look at Shakespearean theatre with more than three hours of bonus features, narrated by Patrick Stewart; Garrow's Law, Series 1 (U.S. Debut) offers a riveting new courtroom drama series seen on BBC; Single-Handed, Set 1 (U.S. Debut) features a lone cop fighting crime and corruption in rural Ireland in the award-winning crime series; and Blue Murder: The Complete Collection includes every episode of the smash-hit British crime drama with Caroline Quentin as “The most fascinating British female cop since Jane Tennison” (San Francisco Chronicle).

About Acorn Media: The Acorn Media Group, a leading independent global media company, provides distinctive home video products and other merchandise to consumers in North America, the U.K., Australia, and New Zealand. With a special focus on the best of British television programming, Acorn Media has exclusive distribution rights to hundreds of collectible titles on DVD. Its U.S. division will release more than 100 DVDs in North America in 2011, including Upstairs, Downstairs Complete Series: 40th Anniversary (timed to premiere of sequel), NBC's Who Do You Think You Are? Season 1, New Tricks Season 3, and more from Murphy's Law, Midsomer Murders, Murdoch Mysteries, George Gently, Doc Martin, Agatha Christie's Poirot and Marple, and Bill Moyers.

Acorn's and Athena's DVD sets are available from select retailers, catalog companies, and direct from Acorn Media at (888) 870-8047 or www.acornonline.com.