David Lean's epic romance set against the turbulant backdrop of the Russian revolution. One man's struggle for moral political and personal survival amidst the complex web of intrigue and tangled loyalties that accompanied the fall of the Tsar.

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This is the Shakespearean opus containing many a familiar line, "Once more into the breach dear friends..." amongst them, and spoken by an absolutely outstanding cast. A must to watch, even if it's not on your school syllabus! find out more...

John Boorman's semi-autobiographical story of London during the Blitz, as seen by the nine-year-old son of an ordinary suburban family. Air raid shelters, shrapnel, and GIs "stealing our women"; a clever blend of tragedy and irony make this a superb film, head and shoulders above average. find out more...

This story of a ship, the British destroyer HMS Torrin, and memories of the folks back home, are told in flash backs by survivors as they cling to a life raft. The epitome of stiff upper lip, as Coward's captain graciously condescends to his forelock-touching crew like an indulgent auntie, serves chiefly as a reminder of the structures of snobbery and privilege in the services which were partially responsible for Labour's postwar election victory. find out more...

A truly epic epic and winner of 7 Academy Awards. Lawrence serves British colonial interests during the First World War by uniting the Arabs against the fast collapsing Ottoman Empire. Stupendous cinemascope drama with a cast of thousands and some of cinema's most famous shots; Sheik Ali's emergence from the desert haze and the storming of Aquaba for example. This is the director's cut, a more coherent version than the original cinema release. find out more...

Guinness restores the morale of British PoWs by building a bridge which is of military value to the Japanese, and then attempts to thwart the RAF's destruction of it! A classic film which swept 7 Oscars including "Best Picture". find out more...

Jack Hawkins gives perhaps his best performance as captain of a British corvette during the Second World War. Inexperienced young men face two enemies, the Atlantic and the U-boats, but the more deadly one is "The Cruel Sea". Adapted from Nicholas Montsarrat's novel and shot in a semi-documentary style. find out more...

Lots of stiff upper lip and Brit grit in this heroic true story of how Lancaster bombers, carrying Dr Barnes Wallis's Bouncing Bomb, destroyed the dams on the Rhur, damaging German industrial production and the Nazi war effort. find out more...

Sweeping romantic drama of epic proportions. Fiennes's WWII pilot lays badly burned and in the care of an army nurse. As the unnamed, stiff-upper-lipped "English Patient" begins to recover, memories emerge of a past life as an archaeologist/cartographer in the Sahara, and a passionate affair with a married woman, Katharine. Though Anthony Minghella's adaptation of Michael Ondaatje's novel simplifies, jettisons and changes certain elements of the original story, it remains a rich, complex, entran find out more...

Based on David Low's cartoon character, Major General Clive Wynne-Candy, VC, we back-track over his life, drawing us into sympathy with the prime virtues of honour and chivalry which have transformed him from dashing young spark of the 1890s into crusty old buffer of World War II. Roger Livesey gives us not just a great performance, but a man's whole life, losing his only love (Deborah Kerr) to the German officer (Walbrook) with whom he fought a duel in pre-WWI Berlin, then becoming the latter's find out more...