Living With Lions The Complete Story   Starring: The British Lions Fremantle Media RRP: £17.99 FHED2589 Certificate: 15 Available 25 May 2009

Living With Lions - The Complete Story remains one of the most impressive sporting films ever made and an inspiration to players and fans alike. Chronicling the British Lions's 1997 tour of South Africa, Living With Lions is an unprecedented behind-the-scenes film like no other...

Living With Lions - The Complete Story is a reissue of Fremantle Media's 1999 DVD which is hard to get hold of. I'm not sure, but I'm guessing that the New Footage extra wasn't included on the original DVD release. This is the only real extra (the others allowing you to watch certain segments of the main feature grouped together by category) and at 1 hour and 15 mins, it's pretty impressive.

This is really two documentaries split across two DVDs. Disc one (2 hour, 47 mins) starts off with the training and runs through to the end of the second test. The extras (which as I mentioned before just group together aspects of the main feature) allow you to play things like the speeches and the players court segment. Disc 2 includes an additional 1 hour, 28 mins as well as the aforementioned New Footage extra.

From pre-tour training strategies in England, through every provincial game and each of the three fiercely fought test matches, this sporting documentary is sometimes filmed by the players themselves to give a truly access all areas of the British Lions, from the gym, the training field and the treatment table to the changing rooms, the bench and on field of play. Experience the passion, the determination and the humour of one of the greatest sporting achievements this century.

If you already own this, then it's not really worth splashing out the cash once again, but if you don't have this in your DVD collection this is the perfect opportunity to pick it up.

9

Nick Smithson