Mark Fountain, Director and Resident Accountant

Mark, is a Chartered Accountant and IT Consultant, and jointly started DVD Reviewer with Robert Shepherd on 1st November 1999. He has extensive experience in the client service industry, having spent ten years in this field, the last four within one of the Big Five advisory City firms. Having recently left this cosy environment to run Reviewer full time, Mark is looking forward to the challenges ahead relating to the day to day tasks of running a successful dot.com web site, which is number one in its field.

Marks says: "The growth of DVD Reviewer over the past year has been astounding. It has been incredibly hard work, but very rewarding to get this far. Our growth at over 40% per month recently with monthly pages served in the millions, will send a clear message to potential advertisers that DVD Reviewer is THE place to go to reach the targeted audience they require."

For any business related queries, Mark can be contacted on

Robert Shepherd, Director and Editor

Robert, is a professional Web Designer, coming to Reviewer fresh from designing the web site of the UKs biggest on-line gaming ISP. He has extensive experience in programming, graphics work and hitting computers with a hammer.

Robert says: "I love Pikachu, working the long hours which are needed to keep our website running smoothly can drive a man to the edge, but love for a yellow electric bunny rabbit somehow keeps a man firmly in the reality he so needs to be for this line of work."

For technical issues, Robert can be contacted on

Daniel Bates, Hardware Reviewer and Columnist

Daniel, is a qualified solicitor who has recently left a Multinational London Law Firm to take a post at the University of Cambridge to develop a course for law students developing their legal research and IT skills.

Having produced hardware and software reviews for his own interest for some time, Daniel sought out a larger audience and a more professional infrastructure by joining the DVD Reviewer team. Daniel burst onto the DVD scene with an article highlighting the differences between UK and US picture formats, and encouraging DVD fans to look to Australia as an additional market for discs.

Daniel looks forward to developing the reviews and articles on Reviewer to ensure that it remains the UK's premiere DVD website.

Dan can be contacted on

Mark Oates, News Editor and Reviewer

38 years old, working at home as a carer, Mark divides his spare time between (unpublished) comic novel writing, watching and reviewing DVDs and his plans for world domination.

"I'm of the old school," says Mark. "Unfortunately my folks don't care for pets, so the white cat (and the Nehru jackets) are out - and of course I've got too much hair. On the technical side, a campaign of upgrading over the past eighteen months has seen the introduction of a Philips 28" Widescreen TV, Sony STRDE475 DD5.1/DTS amp, and both an Alba 113 and Pacific 750 DVD players to a budget home entertainment system that takes some beating. It's my only weakness."

Mark can be contacted on

Richard Goodman, Reviewer and Columnist

Richard, 27, is a Web Site Manager at a UK University, responsible for developing new web projects and managing some of the services which result from those projects. The role encompasses all aspects of web projects, from specification and purchase of hardware through to development and testing of software.

Richard says: "I started reading DVD Reviewer when I was looking to buy my first DVD player back in December 1999. As soon as I had bought it, I started to post reviews of discs using the excellent 'Visitors Reviews' feature. When I read that Reviewer were looking to expand their staff of site reviewers, I applied straight away, and was very pleased to be accepted. Since that time I've reviewed over 50 discs for the site. I usually go for comedy, science fiction and action films, but an earlier flirtation with a career as a DJ has also left me with a love of music, so I enjoy music titles on DVD. One of the things that attracted me to the DVD format was the improved sound quality when compared to VHS, something which is obviously paramount with music titles. I'm very pleased to see that studios are now releasing DTS titles in region two, as all of the DTS soundtracks that I have heard so far have been excellent. I think that the other great feature of DVD is the potential for extras, so I'm always on the lookout for great extras on discs. I enjoy listening to commentary tracks, and also enjoy watching deleted scenes or out-takes."

Jitendar Canth, Reviewer

Jitendar says, "I am a sci-fi nut of indeterminate age and facial features courtesy of a beard of varying lengths, with perhaps an unhealthy obsession with the eighties. I'm also a late convert to the digital world, and still have a sneaking suspicion that these new fangled CDs will never catch on. However my DVD passion began when I first bought a widescreen TV and suffered through the pitiful quality of a zoomed VHS image. The next day I drove home with The Matrix on DVD, forgetting in my haste for a crystal clear image, to buy a player. That little mistake was eventually remedied and I turned to the trusty Internet for further help.

"Guiding my initial steps in this brave new digital world was of course DVD Reviewer and most of my first purchases were guided by the site's content. Then one day I bought a disc that turned out to be letterbox when advertised as anamorphic. I e-mailed Reviewer so the details could be corrected and I promptly received a reply thanking me for my input and inviting me to vent my spleen on the poor picture quality in a review, so I did. Then I wrote another one, and another. Today it feels natural for me to pick up a pen whenever I watch something and I am grateful to DVD Reviewer for giving me the opportunity to share my opinion."

Matthew Smart, Reviewer

Matthew, 24, is probably the biggest geek you’ll ever meet, only you won’t know it. Underneath that undeniably cool, hip and unflappable exterior beats the heart of a raging, red-blooded yet, "too artsy for his own good" nerd.

Matthew’s hobbies include foreign cinema, gaming and drinking more Diet Cherry Coke than is probably healthy. He enjoys reading books (on and off the toilet), various rough sports that involve at least one participant leaving the field of play bruised and bloody, and laughing at small children when they fall off their bikes. All too often forced out into daylight, he finds various ways of earning a shilling. However, he longs for the days of being a student again, if only to actually have the time to watch that back catalogue of hentai anime.

When Matthew isn’t writing what he calls, "marginally glib and only sometimes unfunny" reviews for DVD Reviewer, Matthew often smokes cigarettes, hurls insults and wishes he was Vincent Cassell.

David Beckett, Reviewer

David, 25, is a tetraplegic following an accident 11 years ago and is currently contemplating further forays into higher education following his BSc and MA in Social Sciences and International Relations respectively.

David says, "I didn't watch (or wasn't allowed) much in the way of TV or films as a child as I was encouraged to read and play with my younger brother. My family didn't have a VCR until I was about 10 and I fell in love with 'Monty Python and the Holy Grail', which my parents had taped from TV. Although I watched many films during my stay in hospital, I only became a film and DVD addict after I saw 'The Exorcist' when it was re-released in 1998. This was around the time that 'The Exorcist' and 'The Texas Chain Saw Massacre' were granted certificates by the BBFC and I quickly became a fan of horror movies and a slave to the shiny plastic discs that have brought me so much pleasure over the last 7 years. I like most genres of films but romantic comedies/'chick flicks', 'Pirates of the Caribbean' and 'Star Wars' leave me cold."

His current home cinema set-up consists of a Panasonic PRWD7 42" plasma screen, an Onkyo DV-SP403E DVD player, a Toshiba D-R1SB DVD recorder and a Denon AVR1706 amp connected to a 7.1 Eltax speaker system.

Stuart McLean, Reviewer

Stuart, 45, is Creative Director at a Windsor based production company, specialising in corporate videos. He has produced and directed programmes for a wide range of companies including Volvo, Next, Dell and IBM.

Stuart says, "I guess you could say I was a lurker on the site before I started to make a contribution. I preferred the reviews here as I could find out more about the technical quality of the transfers, for example, than in many other publications. Since joining the Reviewer team I have had a lot of fun reviewing an incredibly wide range of discs, and have discovered some great movies and TV shows along the way, as well as a few duds. We’re encouraged to give frank and honest assessments of discs without any editorial interference, and as a consequence I think this site remains one of the best to find out about forthcoming releases. Long may the good ship Reviewer sail!"

Alan Titherington, Reviewer

Alan, 42 (but acts 39), is a Senior QA Analyst for a large US company in one of the less-tall buildings in Canary Wharf. When he isn't ensconced in testing fund performance statistics with silly names, he joins the real world and plays the violin around London and beyond in various orchestras, pit bands and string quartets. Previous careers have involved being a professional musician, joining the army, and teaching music in secondary schools around South Wales and Bristol. Teaching was far more dangerous.

Despite not being able to sing or dance, he has the enviable task of reviewing many of the latest opera and dance DVDs on the site and is looking forward to the first WWF opera-ballet, which is bound to be the most fought-over disc in Reviewer history.

Alan says, "I only popped in to see if there was a region hack for my Scan 2000 machine, and they forced me to stay...honest!"

He lives in Lewisham amongst huge piles of dust and film soundtrack CDs, and is thinking of breaking into next door's flat so he can get more storage area for his DVDs. He is Welsh and does not own any cats.

Brian Elliott, Reviewer

Brian, is a freelance journalist and UEFA-qualified football coach. A native of Belfast, Northern Ireland, Brian’s first foray into DVD was with an LG 4710 in 2001, a purchase which (along with that of a Playstation 2) almost ruined his chances of emerging from the University of Ulster with his now dust-covered Philosophy degree.

Brian says, "Whilst many don’t realise it, I have one of the most important jobs at DVD Reviewer, which is keeping Rich Goodman away from reviewing wrestling discs."

Away from DVD Reviewer, Brian is every bit the football fanatic that his coaching role suggests, so much so that, in his own words, he "is much more likely to watching Dutch or Brazilian football, than checking out the latest series of '24'". This is, of course, when he is not playing, discussing, or appearing pensive about his beloved game.

He is also currently the sports editor for multi-faceted rock music magazine Burn, and is also a regular contributor to the well-respected SLAM! Wrestling website.

Si Wooldridge, Reviewer

Si has worked in the Public Sector as a Civil Servant for just over a year after a career in both Telecomms and the Armed Forces. After 15 years away, he came back home to North Yorkshire to pick up his roots, but ended up moving 20 odd miles away to sunny Darlington.

Si says, "I've always loved films but mainly it must be said the blockbusters. The advent of DVD allowed me to part with large sums of cash each month, nearly equalling in quantity at least my spending on music. One development in the DVD market that I really love is the introduction of the TV series boxset and I have collected a fair few of my old favourites on disc now. Working for Reviewer has allowed me to experiment a little and watch things I wouldn't dream of picking up normally, but I did do a cartwheel or two on the day we picked up a specialist reviewer to take care of the UFC titles. The only drawback that I can see to working for Reviewer at the moment is pile of 60 and growing unwatched DVDs of my own, but we all have our crosses to bear..."