Best Of...
British cinema: Comedy/Drama
The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1962)
Tony Richardson
Colin Smith, a rebellious young man from a working class background in Nottingham, ends up in borstal after robbing a bakery...
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Tony Richardson
The Madness of King George (1994)
Nicholas Hytner
In 1788, King George III of Great Britain is almost 30 years into his reign but those closest to him have noticed a sudden deterioration in his state of mind...
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Nicholas Hytner
The Maggie (1954)
Alexander Mackendrick
Calvin B. Marshall is a wealthy American businessman who is desperate to have his personal property transported to his holiday retreat on a remote Scottish island...
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Alexander Mackendrick
Monsieur Ripois (1954)
René Clément
André Ripois is a young Frenchman who cannot help seducing attractive English women. He is drawn to them like a moth to the flame, the victim of a fatal attraction that will doubtless be his downfall one day...
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René Clément
Murder She Said (1961)
George Pollock
Whilst returning to her home village by train one afternoon, Miss Marple witnesses a woman being strangled in a passing train...
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George Pollock
My Beautiful Laundrette (1985)
Stephen Frears
London in the mid-1980s. Omar is a young British Pakistani, the son of disillusioned journalist Hussein who has become a bedridden alcoholic after his wife's suicide... [More...]
Stephen Frears
London in the mid-1980s. Omar is a young British Pakistani, the son of disillusioned journalist Hussein who has become a bedridden alcoholic after his wife's suicide... [More...]
Night Train to Munich (1940)
Carol Reed
Just before his country is annexed by Nazi Germany, the Czech inventor Axel Bomasch manages to escape to England, but his daughter Anna is arrested and sent to a concentration camp... [More...]
Carol Reed
Just before his country is annexed by Nazi Germany, the Czech inventor Axel Bomasch manages to escape to England, but his daughter Anna is arrested and sent to a concentration camp... [More...]
Our Man in Havana (1959)
Carol Reed
Jim Wormold is a modest vacuum cleaner salesman in Cuba, just a few years before the revolution. He attracts the attention of fellow Englishman Hawthorne, who invites him to work for the British secret service... [More...]
Carol Reed
Jim Wormold is a modest vacuum cleaner salesman in Cuba, just a few years before the revolution. He attracts the attention of fellow Englishman Hawthorne, who invites him to work for the British secret service... [More...]
The Pallisers [TV] (1974)
Ronald Wilson
In the 1860s, Plantagenet Palliser is the heir to a fabulously wealthy dukedom and the most eligible bachelor in England, but he is more preoccupied with his duties as a member of parliament than the inescapable prospect of wedlock... [More...]
Ronald Wilson
In the 1860s, Plantagenet Palliser is the heir to a fabulously wealthy dukedom and the most eligible bachelor in England, but he is more preoccupied with his duties as a member of parliament than the inescapable prospect of wedlock... [More...]
Pimpernel' Smith (1941)
Leslie Howard
On the eve of WWII, Horatio Smith, an eccentric Cambridge history professor, leads a party of students to Nazi Germany to look for evidence for an ancient Aryan civilisation... [More...]
Leslie Howard
On the eve of WWII, Horatio Smith, an eccentric Cambridge history professor, leads a party of students to Nazi Germany to look for evidence for an ancient Aryan civilisation... [More...]
The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933)
Alexander Korda
England, 1536. As one wife mounts the scaffold, another prepares to take her wedding vows. King Henry VIII is confident that this third marriage, to the beautiful but dim Jane Seymour, will be a success... [More...]
Alexander Korda
England, 1536. As one wife mounts the scaffold, another prepares to take her wedding vows. King Henry VIII is confident that this third marriage, to the beautiful but dim Jane Seymour, will be a success... [More...]
The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970)
Billy Wilder
Sherlock Holmes is at a loose end when he is summoned to the ballet to attend a performance of Swan Lake with his friend and colleague Dr Watson... [More...]
Billy Wilder
Sherlock Holmes is at a loose end when he is summoned to the ballet to attend a performance of Swan Lake with his friend and colleague Dr Watson... [More...]
Providence (1977)
Alain Resnais
In a dark old house, an elderly man rambles deliriously as he swigs glass after glass of white wine to ease the pain of his bowel cancer... [More...]
Alain Resnais
In a dark old house, an elderly man rambles deliriously as he swigs glass after glass of white wine to ease the pain of his bowel cancer... [More...]
Pygmalion (1938)
Anthony Asquith
Henry Higgins is a professor of phonetics for whom the rich variety of London accents holds a particular fascination. Whilst navigating Covent Garden one evening, he encounters a flower girl, Eliza Doolittle, and is amused by her strong Cockney accent... [More...]
Anthony Asquith
Henry Higgins is a professor of phonetics for whom the rich variety of London accents holds a particular fascination. Whilst navigating Covent Garden one evening, he encounters a flower girl, Eliza Doolittle, and is amused by her strong Cockney accent... [More...]
Quartet (1948)
Ken Annakin
The writer William Somerset Maugham introduces adaptations of four of his popular short stories. In The Facts of Life, 19-year-old Nicky Garnet blithely ignores three pieces of advice given to him by his well-meaning father before he sets off for Monte Carlo to compete in a tennis tournament: never gamble, never lend money to anyone and never have anything to do with women... [More...]
Ken Annakin
The writer William Somerset Maugham introduces adaptations of four of his popular short stories. In The Facts of Life, 19-year-old Nicky Garnet blithely ignores three pieces of advice given to him by his well-meaning father before he sets off for Monte Carlo to compete in a tennis tournament: never gamble, never lend money to anyone and never have anything to do with women... [More...]
The Railway Children (1970)
Lionel Jeffries
In 1905, the Waterburys are an idyllically happy family, living a contented life in their plush villa in the suburbs of London... [More...]
Lionel Jeffries
In 1905, the Waterburys are an idyllically happy family, living a contented life in their plush villa in the suburbs of London... [More...]
Riff-Raff (1991)
Ken Loach
After completing a short stretch in prison for theft, young Glaswegian Stevie heads South and finds work on a construction site in London... [More...]
Ken Loach
After completing a short stretch in prison for theft, young Glaswegian Stevie heads South and finds work on a construction site in London... [More...]
The Scarlet Pimpernel (1934)
Harold Young
France, 1792. The lofty ideals of the French Revolution are all but forgotten as a reign of terror sweeps the country. Aristocrats, monarchists and anyone who so much as sniffs at the Revolution are rounded up and dispatched with ruthless efficiency, courtesy of Madame Guillotine... [More...]
Harold Young
France, 1792. The lofty ideals of the French Revolution are all but forgotten as a reign of terror sweeps the country. Aristocrats, monarchists and anyone who so much as sniffs at the Revolution are rounded up and dispatched with ruthless efficiency, courtesy of Madame Guillotine... [More...]
Scrooge (1951)
Brian Desmond Hurst
Mr Ebenezer Scrooge loathes Christmas. To this, the most miserly of all money-lenders, the season of goodwill signifies nothing but humbug... [More...]
Brian Desmond Hurst
Mr Ebenezer Scrooge loathes Christmas. To this, the most miserly of all money-lenders, the season of goodwill signifies nothing but humbug... [More...]
Shallow Grave (1994)
Danny Boyle
Alex, David and Juliet are three friends who share a roomy flat in a trendy part of Edinburgh. Even though they are all professionals (respectively a journalist, accountant and doctor), they need a fourth flatmate if they are to pay their exorbitant rent... [More...]
Danny Boyle
Alex, David and Juliet are three friends who share a roomy flat in a trendy part of Edinburgh. Even though they are all professionals (respectively a journalist, accountant and doctor), they need a fourth flatmate if they are to pay their exorbitant rent... [More...]
Tea with Mussolini (1999)
Franco Zeffirelli
Florence, Italy, 1935. A group of harmless old English ladies, known by the locals as the Scorpioni, live in happy exile, meeting up to take tea together every afternoon... [More...]
Franco Zeffirelli
Florence, Italy, 1935. A group of harmless old English ladies, known by the locals as the Scorpioni, live in happy exile, meeting up to take tea together every afternoon... [More...]
This Happy Breed (1944)
David Lean
1919. In the aftermath of WWI, Number 17 Sycamore Road, Clapham, London acquires a new set of residents. The recently demobbed Frank Gibbons moves in with his wife Ethel, his three children, his sister Sylvia and his mother-in-law Mrs Flint... [More...]
David Lean
1919. In the aftermath of WWI, Number 17 Sycamore Road, Clapham, London acquires a new set of residents. The recently demobbed Frank Gibbons moves in with his wife Ethel, his three children, his sister Sylvia and his mother-in-law Mrs Flint... [More...]
Topsy-Turvy (1999)
Mike Leigh
In the long hot summer of 1884, the latest Gilbert and Sullivan operetta Princess Ida is proving to be a monumental flop... [More...]
Mike Leigh
In the long hot summer of 1884, the latest Gilbert and Sullivan operetta Princess Ida is proving to be a monumental flop... [More...]
Trainspotting (1996)
Danny Boyle
Mark Renton is a streetwise Edinburgh lad who chooses drug addiction over an ordinary humdrum life. Not for him the spirit-sapping routine afforded by a job and a normal family life... [More...]
Danny Boyle
Mark Renton is a streetwise Edinburgh lad who chooses drug addiction over an ordinary humdrum life. Not for him the spirit-sapping routine afforded by a job and a normal family life... [More...]
The Winter's Tale [TV] (1981)
Jane Howell
Polixenes, the King of Bohemia, has enjoyed visiting his old friend Leontes, King of Sicilia, but decides he must return to his own country... [More...]
Jane Howell
Polixenes, the King of Bohemia, has enjoyed visiting his old friend Leontes, King of Sicilia, but decides he must return to his own country... [More...]
Withnail & I (1987)
Bruce Robinson
Marwood and Withnail are two unemployed young actors who eke out a squalid existence in London in the late 1960s. Unable to find work, their most pressing concern is to avoid starvation and freezing to death in their grimy, rat-infested Camden Town flat... [More...]
Bruce Robinson
Marwood and Withnail are two unemployed young actors who eke out a squalid existence in London in the late 1960s. Unable to find work, their most pressing concern is to avoid starvation and freezing to death in their grimy, rat-infested Camden Town flat... [More...]