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...

Married life is proving difficult for cashless and homeless newlyweds Jenny and Arthur. With well meaning, but interfering, parents, nosey neighbors and a town that thrives on gossip, can their marriage last? Will there ever be any good news? The Family Way was deemed worthy of an 18 certificate, upon its release back in 1966, merely because it dealt with the concept of physical intimacy in a thoughtful and no-nonsense manner. A touching, observant film, adapted from Bill Naughton's 'All in Good find out more...

L-Shaped Room - Leslie Caron was nominated for an Oscar and won a BAFTA for this story of a jilted pregnant girl alone in her shabby Notting Hill suburban room of the title, sharing her desperation with her low-life neighbours and considering abortion in this sensitive tale of social morals at the dawning of the 60s. One of the classic 'social realism' films of the era. find out more...

A Borstal boy has nothing going for him bar his ability to run. When selected to run against a public school he begins a rigorous training programme whilst reliving his troubled past and planning his confrontation with authority. One of the classic early '60s working class dramas. To be seen. 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...

The story of a miner who becomes a champion rugby player, but who can't overcome his violent and aggressive personality, which ruins his personal life as he wins his way to success. Rugby League football as a metaphor for the rat race and real passion in the tormented affair between Harris's inarticulate demanding miner/footballer and his dowdily uncomprehending landlady. One of the great films produced by the English "realist" movement of the 50s/60s. find out more...

When a Woman Ascends the Stairs might be Japanese filmmaker Mikio Naruse's finest hour, a delicate, devastating study of a woman, Keiko, played heartbreakingly by Hideko Takamine, who works as a bar hostess in Tokyo's very modern post-war Ginza district. Sly, resourceful, but trapped, Keiko comes to embody the conflicts and struggles of a woman trying to establish her independence in a male-dominated society. A profoundly moving masterpiece. find out more...