Fanis, a professor of astronomy and astrophysics, recalls his childhood growing up as a Greek boy in Istanbul and the time spent with his shopkeeper grandfather learning about life and, in particular, the art of cooking. And it was here, in his grandfather's store, that he first fell in love, with Saime. After political tensions over Cyprus in 1963 Fanis's family were deported, but his grandfather stayed in Istanbul, and it is decades later that they meet again as Fanis returns 'home', after yea find out more...

Alan Bennett reminisces about his early years as a schoolboy, growing up in Leeds, and on to undergraduate life at Oxford University. find out more...

One of the most rousingly enjoyable sports movies ever made, this small-town drama tells the story of the Hickory Huskers, an underdog basketball team from a tiny Indiana High School trying to make it to the state championship. find out more...

This dramatic history of Chicago's Chess Records has a superb soundtrack(though it consists almost entirely of covers) and its insights into the relationship between white money making businessmen and poor black talent back in the stifling '50s more than makes up for its overwrought melodrama, historic inaccuracies and poor script. find out more...

One of the best films to come out of the British cinema for a long time. The story of the peroxided bar girl Ruth Ellis, who murdered her upper class lover and became the last woman to be hanged in the UK. A study not just of her personality and the tragic love affair which ended in this crime of passion, but of the seedy mood of repression and austerity in class ridden 50s Britain. Miranda Richardson is outstanding in this compelling movie. find out more...

A group of college-age buddies struggle with their imminent passage into adulthood in 1959 Baltimore. A college student returns home for the Christmas holidays and picks up with the old gang as they try to fend off adulthood and marriage by hanging out at the local diner and talking about football, women, cars and rock'n'roll. Strong dialogue and believable characters take precedence over stupid action and the obnoxious caricatures that beset so many adolescent comedies. The sense of period is i find out more...

A working-class African-American father tries to raise his family in the 1950s, while coming to terms with the events of his life. 

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A high school musical which ripped off everything it could from the 1950s. At the time it was slated, but, in retrospect, it started a trend and is nowhere near as bad as some of the movies which followed it. In fact, one could go as far as to say it's now a bit of a classic... find out more...

'Julie and Julia' tells the story of 2 women; Julia Childs, who wrote 'Mastering the Art of French Cooking' and 'My Life in France', the latter of which is adapted for one half of this film, and Julie Powell, a present day New Yorker who, to escape the tedium of her own life, decided to cook her way through Julia's 524 recipes and writes a blog about doing so. The parallels and the differences between their two lives are highlighted. In the more interesting of the 2 stories Meryl Streep contin find out more...

Winner of an Oscar for "Best Documentary", this film (beautifully shot in black and white) recaptures the life and music of the late, great jazz trumpeter Chet Baker. The founder of the Californian school of "Cool Jazz" this film is in itself remarkably cool and stylish. find out more...