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...

A little Reaganite romance about a dashing fighter pilot and a simple girl from the town. It's tough trying to make it at pilot training school, but then Richi is just so hunky.... 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...

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.

find out more...

A Jewish doctor, Daniel Hirsh (Peter Finch) and a middle-aged woman, Alex Greville (Glenda Jackson) are both having affairs with the same male artist, Bob Elkin (Murray Head). Not only are Hirsh and Greville aware that Elkin is seeing the other but they actually know each other as well. Despite this, they are willing to put up with the situation through fear of losing Elkin who switches freely between them. Schlesinger's film highlights some worrying facts about how much people's attitudes to re find out more...

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...

In an unnamed European town, in an unspecified era, live Cynthia and Evelyn. Every day Evelyn cycles to Cynthia’s chateau to work as a lowly maid and every day the cruel, vindictive Cynthia inflicts countless sad find out more...