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Fresh Air TV critic David Bianculli reviews DVD collections of British TV shows, including a few series that have never before been televised in the U.S. Highlights include Fortysomething, a six-part comedy series starring Hugh Laurie, and Helen Mirren at the BBC.

Comedian and actor Will Ferrell stars in the new film Blades of Glory. He plays a former Olympic ice skater who, banned from competition with a rival (Jon Heder of Napoleon Dynamite fame), discovers a loophole: they can compete as a pair.

Ken Loach's film The Wind That Shakes the Barley examines the early days of the Irish Republican Army and the radical organization's impact on the Irish people. Some British papers have criticized Loach for making the movie.

Director Edgar Wright and actor-writer Simon Pegg came to prominence in England with their TV sitcom Spaced, and made a worldwide splash with the zombie comedy of manners Shaun of the Dead. Their latest collaboration, a parody of Hollywood police shoot-em-ups called Hot Fuzz, is set in a buccolic English village where things just aren't the way they seem.

The TV Set is actually Jake Kasdan's latest movie project. It pokes fun at how networks create the fall TV lineup. Kasdan talks about the film and some of his past work ... including his short-lived career as a child actor.

Actress and foster-care advocate Victoria Rowell talks about her new memoir The Women Who Raised Me. She pays tribute to the many women who cared for her and inspired her to become a success.

Madeleine Thien, the daughter of Malaysian-Chinese immigrants, lives in Quebec City, Canada. Her first novel, Certainty, has just been published in the United States. The book is ripe with juxtapositions.

English comedian and actor Sacha Baron Cohen's popular film Borat is now out on DVD. Cohen is best known for his characters Ali G (a journalist from England), Bruno (a flamboyantly gay Austrian fashion reporter) and Borat (a reporter from Kazakhstan).

Director Lasse Hallstrom's new movie, The Hoax, chronicles Clifford Irving's attempt to publish the "autobiography" of Howard Hughes.

These days an increasing number of nonprofit groups use auctions to fundraise money. In Seattle, that trend is fueling a growth in what has been a niche segment in auctioneering.

Guest host Dave Davies talks with Peter Berg, executive producer of NBC's Friday Night Lights, who also directed and co-wrote the 2004 film of the same title. Both are adapted from H.G. Bissinger's book about the high-stakes world of Texas high-school football. The TV series, which won a Peabody Award, ends its first season tonight.

The gritty cop drama The Shield, starring Michael Chiklis, begins its sixth season tonight on the FX cable network. It's intense from the start — and it keeps building from there.