Family comedy All Stars is released on dvd and blu-ray next week in the UK.

You may be wondering why we’re discussing a film about two kids looking to throw an ambitious dance show in order to save their struggling youth center.

You may even think we’re going mad, considering its cast of child actors are being supported by the likes former Girls Aloud singer Kimberley Walsh, former So Solid Crew rapper turned actor Ashley “Asher-D” Walters, and Torchwood star John Barrowman.

Well, upon release, we didn’t give it much thought either.  Then we discovered it was directed by a man whose name may not be familiar, but his work certainly should be: Ben Gregor.

Gregor first rose to cult fame as the director of a trilogy of classic short films made alongside writer and actor Tim Plester – all of which had strong TVO connections.

Ant Muzak, Blake’s Junction 7 and World Of Wrestling feature the likes of Steve Oram, Tom Meeten, Stephen Evans, Justin Edwards, Simon Farnaby, Waen Shepherd, Kevin Eldon, Mackenzie Crook, Martin Freeman, Mark Heap, Johnny Vegas and Miranda Hart amongst their star-studded cast.

Really, if you haven’t seen these shorts, you could do a lot worse than pick up the delightful dvd which houses all three, and consider it the best tenner you’ll spend in ages.  And these are not Gregor’s only foray into Onion Land, either!

As well as co-founding the Straight8 competition (which gave us the likes of Sticks And Balls and Stiffy), Ben also directed Oram & Meeten’s seminal The Wingnut Tapes, a full season of Ideal, superhero spoof sitcom No Heroics (feat Nick Burns and Tony Way), and TV movies D.O.A. and Ketch! & HIRO-PON Get It On (featuring Richard Glover and Laura Patch respectively).

Following his work on the second season of The Increasingly Poor Decisions Of Todd Margaret (starring Sharon Horgan) and Series One of The Midnight Beast (featuring Simon Farnaby), Gregor began work on All Stars, which we shamefully let slip us by.

Well, not quite. The film had a couple of cheeky cameos from Simon Farnaby and Alex Kirk for good measure, so we gave it one cheeky post in it’s favour, and we promptly forgot all about it. Since then, we’d dug back into Gregor’s back catalogue, and realised how very much he’s ‘one of ours’.

So if, like us, you’re suddenly itching to see All Stars, you can pick it up on dvd and blu-ray from The Velvet Onion Amazon Store now.

The dvd is just £10, and the blu-ray is only £13.  Both will be released on Monday, 26th August.  You can see the trailer for All Stars below.