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A striking stage presence for more than 60 years and a familiar face on TV

Sheila Burrell, who has died aged 89 after a long illness, was a cousin of Laurence Olivier, and a similarly distinctive and fiery actor with a broad, open face, high cheekbones and expressive eyes. She stood at only 5ft 5ins but could fill the widest stage and hold the largest audience. Her voice was a mezzo marvel, kittenish or growling and, in later life, acquired the viscosity and vintage of an old ruby port, matured after years of experience.

In a career spanning more than 60 years, she made her name as a wild, red-headed Barbara Allen (subject of the famous ballad) in Peter Brook's 1949 production of Dark of the Moon (Ambassadors theatre), an American pot-boiler about the seduction of a lusty girl by a witch boy and the hysterical reaction of her local community.

The role remained one of her favourites,...

Cloudburst Dvdmgm-mod Limited Edition Collection1952/Not Rated/83 MinsList Price: $19.98 – Now AvailableCharles Bronson's Paul Kersey had little on Robert Preston's John Graham, as a man who decides to take matters in his own hands by hunting down and murdering those who killed his wife in the Hammer production Cloudburst. Robert Preston you ask? A decade before his iconic role as The Music Man, Preston had a Death Wish of his own as a war vet who witnesses his wife getting run over by a couple fleeing the scene of a robbery. Set in 1946, Preston's Graham is a respected cryptographer who supervises a large team tasked with decoding messages that may aid in the capture of criminals from the war. The former Canadian now lives in London with his pregnant wife Carol (Elizabeth Sellers), who payed a terrible price for fighting alongside her husband in the war.Graham is a strong man,...

The age of the Aztecs remains a source of mesmerising mystery, a contrast between brutal human sacrifice and the cultural splendour of gold, gems and mighty pyramids.

It's a world brought back to life in The Feathered Serpent, a classic TV historical fantasy show where dark corridors of whispered evil threaten to undermine the glory of the empire.

I had fond memories of this UK children's drama from my childhood and was delighted when it finally surfaced on DVD earlier this year. It was released by Network, which specialises in bringing long-lost TV and film classics to disc format.

Thames Television broadcast two seasons between 1976 and 1978. Starring Diane Keen and the late Patrick Troughton (who had been the second Doctor Who between 1966 and 1969), The Feathered Serpent is a story of murder, intrigue and political manoeuvring set in 11th century Mexico.

The story begins as the old Aztec religion of god...