A young draughtsman is forced into a shotgun marriage. A landmark in English cinema in terms of social realism, dealing with the lives of ordinary people set against a grim Northern backdrop, it remains keenly observant in detail and rather moving in its very unpretentiousness. find out more...

In order to relieve the tension of depressing surroundings and boring people Northern English working class lad Billy spends most of his time in his own fantasy world. However all could change when he meets Liz and discovers that he may be able to escape into a new, bearable reality. A Brit classic that can be classified as 'kitchen sink' - the comedy. find out more...

A truly excellent piece of British filmmaking from the 40s. Housewife Rose Sandigate finds her world thrown into turmoil when an old flame, an escaped prisoner, seeks shelter in the home she has made for herself with her sedate husband George and children. The tension builds between the two as Rose fights her desire to rekindle a much-missed passion. Superbly realised depiction of post war urban England, specifically the East End, and the moral ambiguities that were creeping into society, partic find out more...

The screen version of John Osborne's 1950s drama depicts a rough period in the married life of angry young graduate Jimmy and Allison, a young English couple of disparate backgrounds whose turbulent relationship appears doomed. Richard Burton gives an intense performance as Jimmy, whose love for Allison, played by the ethereally lovely Mary Ure, only occasionally breaks through the anger he takes out on her in merciless verbal assaults, but when the clouds do part, their mutual devotion is beaut find out more...

The story of an ambitious young clerk who abandons his real love so he can marry into a rich family. The first of the British "realist" pictures - films that dealt with working class people and the realities of the English class structure - as a change from cosey middle class drama. find out more...

Arthur Seaton is a factory worker who lives for women and booze and doesn't give a damn for the consequences. He is two-timing with Doreen whilst Brenda is pregnant and forced to face his responsibilities without losing his fighting spirit. 'Don't let the bastards grind you down'. A classic early 1960s angry young men neo-realist drama.

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The Accident (1967):- a languid Oxford summer is the background to this self-assured treatment of Harold Pinter's screenplay. A calm veneer of civilization is laboriously peeled away, after an undergraduate is killed in a car crash and his girlfriend stays with a philosophy professor, setting the six central characters (three men, two wives and the girl) at odds as they gradually tear each other to shreds. Superb performances and a disconcertingly urbane atmosphere. find out more...

20 years before 'kitchen sink' came into vogue was this serious, committed film about life up north in a mining community. Based on AJ Cronin's novel this is a deeply affecting drama focusing on a small village's utterly reliance on the nearby coal pits and the consequences of their employer's amoral greed. The Stars Look Down is a heartfelt and influential film. find out more...