DB7

50 - Performance (1970)
Gangland enforcer James Fox gets involved with decadent fading rock star Mick Jagger in Nicholas Roeg's and Donald Cammell's dazzling, ideas-rich, extraordinarily inventive full-stop to the 60s.

49 - Saturday Night And Sunday Morning (1960)
A very young Albert Finney makes his debut as a prototypically Angry Young Man in this ground-breaking piece of Social Realism - experimental for its time, and still a fascinating study of youthful post-war disaffection.

48 - The Ipcress File (1965)
Michael Caine's first, and best, excursion as Len Deighton's spy Harry Palmer. Redolent with 60s hip and a fine thriller to boot.

47 - Local Hero (1983)
The finest of the whimsical Scottish films whose off-beat appeal kick-started the British film industry's revival in the mid 1980s.

46 - A Matter Of Life And Death (1946)
Originally commissioned by the wartime Ministry of Information to bolster relations between Britain and the US, Michael Powell's compassionate and technically superb film about a pilot who cheats death has come to be regarded as a masterpiece in its own right.

45 - Touching The Void (2003)
Stunning docudrama about a 1985 mountaineering expedition that went horribly wrong, told in the words of the survivors. From the director of the Oscar-winning One Day In September.

44 - Brighton Rock (1947)
Vintage British crime thriller, featuring a chilling turn from Richard Attenborough as a brutal teenage racketeer.

43 - My Beautiful Laundrette (1985)
Stephen Frears' witty, intelligent look at multi-ethnic life in Thatcher's Britain. A great piece of 1980s cinema, which launched the career of Daniel Day-Lewis.

42 - A Man For All Seasons (1966)
A multi-Oscar-winning adaptation of Robert Bolt's play about Sir Thomas More, the man who stood up to Henry VIII. Paul Scofield, Robert Shaw, John Hurt and Orson Welles are among the high profile cast.

41 - Gregory's Girl (1980)
Essential British 80s teen movie, starring John Gordon Sinclair as the goofy schoolboy infatuated with a fantastic female footballer in his class.

40 - Don't Look Now (1973)
Chilling but moving classic of British cinema. Julie Christie and Donald Sutherland star as a couple who move to Venice after the death of their daughter, only to encounter forebodings of death amid its dank off-season canals.

39 - Carry On Up The Khyber (1968)
A series of jokes based around the word Khasi, appalling racial stereotyping, bawdy sexism, Kenneth Williams looking like a wilted lettuce?The most classic of all Carry Ons.

38 - Brazil (1985)
Undoubtedly Gilliam's masterpiece. Visual brilliance combines with snappy satirical humour to create one of the best films of the 80s.

37 - The Killing Fields (1984)
The staggering story of the Cambodian Holocaust, and of the Pulitzer prize-winning journalist Sydney Schanberg and Dith Pran - who bear witness as the country is turned into one horrific, giant death camp.

36 - The Long Good Friday (1980)
Tough London gangster movie in which Bob Hoskins is an underworld boss undertaking an elaborate doublecross.

35 - The Remains Of The Day (1993)
Antony Hopkins stars in this definitive Merchant-Ivory film, adpated from the novel about class, love and repression by Kazuo Ishiguro.

34 - Sexy Beast (2000)
Ex-criminal Ray Winstone's idyllic retirement is disrupted when Ben Kingsley asks, nay demands, that he do one more job. Superlative Brit-gangster flick.

33 - Secrets And Lies (1995)
Mike Leigh's superb comedy-drama of family relationships. Heart-rending, bitter and delightful by turn.

32 - The Crying Game (1992)
Neil Jordan's Oscar-winning depiction of an IRA volunteer's attempt to escape his violent past. Startling, sophisticated and immensely satisfying drama dominated by a magnetic Stephen Rea.

31 - Alfie (1966)
Thoroughly dated by its misogyny, but entertaining and finely-crafted nevertheless, Lewis Gilbert's tale of a cynical Cockney lecher contains a prime turn from Michael Caine. A great document of 60s London.

30 - The Third Man (1949)
Orson Welles's Harry Lime steals the show (and anything else he can get his hands on) in this stunning noir set amid the ruins of post-War Vienna, and featuring perhaps the most memorable chase sequence in cinema.

29 - Great Expectations (1946)
John Mills is the orphan who enters high society in David Lean's Oscar-winning adaptation of the great Dickens novel. Trim but stylish and sophisticated, it remains a benchmark for quality period drama.

28 - My Left Foot (1989)
Award winning drama from Jim Sheridan based on Christy Brown's autobiography. Daniel Day-Lewis stars as the writer and artist who overcame the debilitatations of his cerebral palsy.

27 - The 39 Steps (1935)
Atmospheric, funny and, of course, thrilling version of John Buchan's classic novel. Hitchcock at the peak of his unequalled powers.

26 - Kes (1969)
Ken Loach's raw, truthful re-telling of Barry Hines's gritty story of a boy's alienation and brutal school life in 60s Yorkshire.

25 - The Omen (1976)
Ambassador Gregory Peck's life becomes a hell on earth when he adopts Satan's son in this hugely popular, diabolical chiller.

24 - The Railway Children (1970)
A timeless British children's classic that launched a generation of adolescent fantasies about Jenny Agutter.

23 - The Ladykillers (1955)
A star-studded cast is led by sinister Alec Guinness in this vintage slice of Ealing Comedy. A gang of thieves get more trouble than they bargained for when they rent rooms in the Kings Cross home of little old lady.

22 - Get Carter (1971)
British gangster classic starring Michael Caine as the eminently quotable, ultimately tough Jack Carter.

21 - The Commitments (1991)
Adapted from the best-selling novel by Roddy Doyle, Alan Parker's BAFTA-winning musical comedy-drama follows the fluctuating fortunes of a Dublin rock 'n' roll band.

20 - Brassed Off (1996)
Invigorating tale of efforts to save the Grimley Colliery Brass Band, and the pit the players represent in concert halls the world over.

19 - The Wicker Man (1973)
A bona fide cult classic. A repressed, virginal Scottish policeman visits a remote Scottish island to investigate the disappearance of a girl, and becomes embroiled in sexual misadventure and pagan rites.

18 - Chariots Of Fire (1981)
Ripping good running yarn with a corking theme tune, some dashed fine acting and heart-warming nostalgia for just about the last time Britain won anything (other than the rugby, match).

17 - Zulu (1964)
Vintage tale of the attack by 4,000 Zulus on a small British outpost in 1870s Natal. Stars Stanley Baker, Jack Hawkins and Michael Caine.

16 - Withnail And I (1987)
The foremost British cult comedy. Two aspiring actors go on holiday by mistake. Students recite whole stretches of this film, and still haven't killed it - so it must be as good as it seemed at the time.

15 - The English Patient (1996)
Beautifully shot adaptation of Michael Ondaatje's classic novel. Showered with Oscars and plaudits on its release, including gongs for Best Picture, director (Anthony Minghella) and actress (Juliet Binoche).

14 - Gandhi (1982)
Epic biopic of Indian spiritual leader Mahatma Gandhi from Richard Attenborough. Ben Kingsley gives a career best performance in the central role.

13 - Educating Rita (1983)
Michael Caine and Julie Walters star in the screen version of Willy Russell's play. An enthusiastic Liverpudlian housewife goes to a lecturer to better herself, but ends up teaching him a thing or two.

12 - Elizabeth (1998)
Cate Blanchett received an Oscar nomination for her portrayal of Britain's famous female monarch in Shekhar Kapur's award winning film, about the intrigue and backstabbing that surrounded Elizabeth 1st's accession.

11 - Sense And Sensibility (1995)
An above average adaptation of Austen's mannered first novel. A star-filled British cast shine under Ang Lee's assured direction.

10 - Goldfinger (1964)
James takes on nasty Auric Goldfinger, who has a dastardly plan to irradiate the US gold reserves with the help of Pussy Galore, in the best of the early Bond movies.

9 - Lawrence Of Arabia (1962)
Superlative multi-Oscar winning biography of T E Lawrence (played by Peter O'Toole), the Oxford-educated lieutenant, who united Arab tribes against the Ottoman Turks in WW1.

8 - Oliver! (1968)
Ron Moody's quick-fingered Fagin steals the show in this Sunday afternoon telly favourite by the maker of The Third Man, Carol Reed.

7 - A Clockwork Orange (1971)
Famous for the controversy surrounding copycat violence and Kubrick's decision to withdraw it in 1973, A Clockwork Orange can now be judged for what it is: an intelligent, visually stunning, disturbing and yet queasily entertaining adaptation of what was already a great work of literature.

6 - Shakespeare In Love (1998)
Award-trawling period romantic comedy set in the Bard's London. Joseph Fiennes and Gwyneth Paltrow are the protagonists in the confused, troubled, but suitably entertaining, story of Shakespeare's love life.

5 - The Full Monty (1997)
Gaz and his mates turn the bum steer of redundancy and recession into sure-fire crowd-pleasing entertainment in this classic Yorkshire comedy with a social conscience.

4 - Monty Python And The Holy Grail (1975)
The knights who say 'Ni', a Trojan rabbit, the similarities between ducks and witches and sex-crazed damsels are just some of the ingredients in this surreal reworking of the Arthurian legend by the Monty Python team.

3 - Four Weddings And A Funeral (1994)
Hugh Grant is at his bumbling best in this feel-good farce about whether or not to tie the knot. British filmmakers showed Hollywood how to do romantic comedy and Oscar nominations followed.

2 - The Italian Job (1969)
Michael Caine blows the bloody doors off in this iconic, quintessentially British comedy crime caper. Noel Coward, Benny Hill and John Le Mesurier also appear but the car's the star.

1 - Trainspotting (1996)
The blackly comic tale of a motley crew of Edinburgh heroin addicts and Mark Renton's escape to (hopefully) a better life was the funniest, bleakest British film of the 1990s.

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