It really depends on what you want from a Messiah as to what you want hear on a recording. If you like huge choirs of men and women and large orchestras with woodwind, then avoid this recording as it is not your style! However, if you like period instruments, this is a natural choice. The overall sound is sharper and more austere than many recordings, but this is also partly due to its origins.

This is the 1754 version for the Foundling Hospital, when 4 or 6 trebles and 13 men from the Chapel Royal were used as the choir; and two soparanos, an alto, tenor and bass performed the solos. This authentic, documented arrangement is quite different from many modern performances, which also omit half a dozen or so arias and recitatives that are recorded here (including "Death where is thy sting?").

Overall, this recording of Messiah feels right. The dark, scratchy sound from the orchestra is summoned for "He was despised and rejected of men." Emma Kirkby dazzles with clarity in "He is like a refiners fire". The (all important) Hallelujah chorus is strong, confident and has a great finally - but is less exuberant than some. This is made up for by "Worth is a lamb that was slain" that is a wall of sound from the off.

So it won't suit everyone, but it is a cracking version and a great one to have, especially if it is the only one you own!

Why this wasn't popular on telly at the time, I'll never know. Immaculate acting by everyone - including Rosamund Pike before she was Jane Bennett, or a Bond girl, for that matter.

The story is of three friends - three girls - in 1930s England before the second world war. It is a tale of how they came out (in to Society, as it was then), married and settled down. Yet it is so much more. It portrays the eccentricities of the British upper classes, with their whims and `individual' moral standards. After all, the author, Nancy Mitford, was in a good place to see all this first hand with one sister, Deborah, marrying the Duke of Devonshire and another marrying Oswald Mosley. So there are doves that are "dyed pink and dried in the airing cupboard" and a baby that "looks like a howling orange in a black wig - really, it is kinder not to look!" The wit is razor sharp, cutting deepest at the those who deserve it most, such as the indomitable Lady Montdor.

Overall, if you enjoy people watching, you'll love this DVD.

One the surface, Venice is supremely beautiful and romantic city- the gondolas, the masked balls and, of course, the canals at sunset. But Venice is really a city created out of adversity, hard trading with the East and naval battles. Thankfully, the balance in this DVD is beautifully trod by our native guide, Count Franceso da Mosta. As you have probably guessed by now, he leaves the tourist trail behind to give an insiders view of the city. From Casanova to Napoleon; the Jewish Getto to the stealing of St Mark's body from Alexandria; the story is enticing and enthralling. And, of course, it makes you want to visit (or return to) Venice.

Whether you just want to enjoy the touristy bits of the city, or find out more about the history, this DVD is perfect capturing of Venice on film.

If you have never heard Spem in Alium, and you like relaxing music, buy this CD. It is a motet by Thomas Tallis for 40 voices - so it starts with one chorister and builds until all 40 members of the choir are singing without the support of any instruments. The result is like waves of sound washing over you with serenity, positivity and a feeling that nothing else matters - such is the power of music!

This recording by Winchester Cathedral Choir is definitely one of the best available. The sound is smooth (no jarring tones anywhere) and the volume, starts and stops are effortless. It really expresses what an amazing, awe-inspiring thing is must have been to hear this polyphonic music in an age (16th century) that was more used to monophonic.

Also included on this CD is a fine selection of Tallis' other choral works for five voices. They seem so much less grand after Spem in Alium, but they are just as enjoyable in there own way.

From the first notes of the first concerto, it is easy to tell that the playing is going to sparkle. Manze and the Academy of Ancient music are on top form, enthusing the music with warm and virtuosity. The result is immensely satisfying to listen to. And Gramophone Magazine has a similar, if more informed, opinion: "I seem never to tire of these endlessly charming works and it is this set that perhaps contains Albinoni's crowning achievement in the concerto sphere, a lyrical Adagio for solo oboe with a simple string arpeggio accompaniment belonging to the Second Concerto... None of this is lost either on the three accomplished soloists - Andrew Manze, Frank de Bruine and Alfredo Bernardini - or the strings of the Academy of Ancient Music which provide lively and sensitive support. In short, the set affords uninterrupted pleasure from start to finish."

There are so many good bits... but the Concerto for oboe in D minor, Op.9/2: Adagio (Track 5) is sublime. I've heard lots of recordings of this on the radio, but this is the one that stands out and makes the CD worth buying for just this 5min 30 sec! It's the smoothest, least affected version. The oboist, Frank de Bruine, manages to make the notes soar effortlessly without faltering - the result is pure relaxation to listen to.

The rest of the concertos are a delight too. Both elegant and lively, they are as good as Baroque playing gets.

This is the second CD the Academy of Ancient Music's have released in the aim to record Op.1 to 7 by 2009 (the 250th anniversary of Handel's death). The Organ Concertos Op.4 have proven a slightly controversial recording, however. There was a cross exchange of printed words between David Vickers and the conductor, Richard Egarr, as they did not see eye-to-eye about the appropriate level of ornamentation that should be applied to organ. Egarr bases much of his `twiddly bits' on an `original' 18th-century recording on a barrel organ in Kent, England. This, it is thought, may have been programmed on to the cylinders by John Christopher Smith, Handel's companion and right-hand man in the last 30 years of his life. While this seems a fair, and unique, source for Egarr, Vickers was less sure of its validity...

Anyway, to the results. The are different from traditional (sic) modern recordings. The organ is soft (tuned in an `English' manner) and this makes the concertos less grand, almost slightly woolly! Once you get used to this completely different style and sound of the playing, however, this CD has a lot of delights to offer. The organ playing is light, gamely and delicious, and the strings are sharp and full (as can be expected of natural strings).

This is a challenging set of Organ Concertos to listen to - they seem so different. But listen on and I hope, like myself, you find them compulsive and very enjoyable.

At last: a fine recording of Op.3 on period instruments! This gives the music a less crisp edge, but they make up for it by infusing a warm and fullness you just don't get with modern instruments.

The playing is sparkling, and there is plenty for the musicians to get their `teeth' into. From the thumping opening of the No.1 in B-flat major - G minor - I (Track 1) to the light flutterings that begin No.6 in D major - D minor - I (Track 21), this CD is a tour de force.

This is the first CD in the Academy of Ancient Music's aim to record Op.1 to 7... so I shall be listening out for more of this quality!

I was lent the tapes by a friend and, as I wasn't a LOTRs fan, I thought I just stick them on and get the 13 hours over with! Well, it didn't quite work out like that. By the second tape I was completely hooked and rationing myself to only half-an-hour per day in case I should finish them too soon. In this way, it took nearly a month to listen to them and, at the end, I felt quite a sense loss because the story was over (a bit sad, I know, but true). I suppose you'd call that a complete conversion and I've now got my own CDs.

Many of the reasons why the adaptation is so good have already been said, but... I think Ian Holm (Frodo) and Michael Horden (Gandalf) are particularly good - there is so much inflection and intonation in their voices. I'm also a great fan of the music - in the 20th century English music tradition like Burgon (Brideshead) but with definite Celtic influences.

Overall, I like the `Englishness' that pours out of this production - which seems true to the books and the Oxford don who wrote them. And it doesn't lurch from one battle to the next like the films (don't get me started on them!!). Anyway, enjoy!

This is smooth, understated and confident singing of Handel arias. Padmore manages to bring freshness to Where E're You Walk from Semele, but I love Waft Her Angles Through the Sky from Jephtha - the long slow lines exposing the honey in his voice. Arguably the best track is described as a bonus - As Steals the Morn (L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato) - which is odd since it is the name of the album. Padmore is joined by Lucy Crowe and they both have such clarity that they reveal the interplay between the vocal parts in this duet. They bring a soaring, full sound that is uplifting and immensely satisfying. It is worth buying the CD just for this one duet.

I think this CD also reinforces just how good Handel's writing for the voice is really is.

This is a long-standing favourite, ever since it was first aired on television in 1994. It just gets better the more I watch it. There are so many subtleties in the plot and jokes. It's often said that Chuzzlewit is one of Dickens' comic masterpieces, and I must confess the odd snort at wry lines like "and many's a day I remember your young ladies playing at buryings in the shop" (the undertaker's shop, that is). And the two nurses pouring gin from a teapot - vial and wonderful.

All the cast are strong. I particularly like Keith Allen's dark Jonus Chuzzlewit as his character slides from a penny-pincher to a wife beater and murder - he's every inch a dangerous-man-to-know. Tom Wilkinson is excellent as the "sleak and sly" hypocrite Pecksniff. And Elizabeth Sprigg's Sarey Gamp makes, what is such a Dickensian character, believable and an unusual combination of hard-hearted and vulnerable.

Give this Dicken's a go. For me it's the best classic dramas to come out of BBC in the last 20 years (although Bleak House vies for that spot)!