The London Box Set This fascinating box set will probably delight social historians just as much as cineastes. The four feature films here — Pool of London, The Yellow Balloon, Sparrows Can’t Sing, The Small World of Sammy Lee — span 12 years, starting in 1951. Though their casts include the likes of Anthony Newley, it’s the city that is the star.

There is something in the British psyche that drives us away from celebrating our capital, and each of the films here wallows in the seedy peripheries of London, from bombed-out Elephant and Castle (Yellow Balloon) through to the confusion of the East End at a time of new immigration and construction (Sparrows . . .).

Athough they struggle with limited budgets and poor scripts, all of these films have their moments, and they are topped off with a re-release of the brilliant James Mason documentary The London Nobody Knows and the eccentric musical Les Bicyclettes de Belsize.

The whole set is, of course, capital. Simply capital.

(Retail/rental DVD, TS £49.92, out Mon)

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