In this opening episode, movie critic Ian Nathan examines the qualities that made this 1949 film noir starring Orson Welles an enduring classic.

Movie critic Ian Nathan examines the qualities that made this 1955 black comedy - starring Alec Guinness and Peter Sellers - a classic.

Movie critic Ian Nathan examines the qualities that made this 1948 gangster film noir starring Richard Attenborough, an enduring British classic.

Movie critic Ian Nathan examines the qualities that made this 1967 romantic comedy-drama starring Dustin Hoffman an all-time classic.

Movie critic Ian Nathan examines the qualities that made this 1985 epic action drama, directed and co-written by Akira Kurosawa, an enduring classic.

Movie critic Ian Nathan examines what helped to make James Cameron's 1991 sci-fi-action sequel, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton, so critically-acclaimed within the genre.

Ian Nathan returns to cast his eye over more cinematic masterpieces, beginning with David Lean's 1945 romantic tragedy starring Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard.

Ian Nathan examines Alexander Mackendrick's 1949 Ealing comedy, in which Scottish islanders try to salvage 50,000 cases of whisky from a shipwreck.

Ian Nathan examines Mel Brooks' classic 1968 comedy, which stars Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder as two men who set out to make a Broadway flop.

Ian Nathan examines the Boulting brothers' 1959 comedy, a satire on British industrial life starring Ian Carmichael Peter Sellers, Richard Attenborough and Margaret Rutherford.

Ian Nathan examines the 1974 adaptation of the Agatha Christie mystery, featuring a stellar cast of train-bound suspects and Albert Finney as Belgian detective Hercule Poirot.

Ian Nathan examines Michael Cimino's 1978 Vietnam War drama, which starred Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken, John Savage, John Cazale and Meryl Streep.

One of the greatest spy films ever made, The Ipcress Files begins with a kindap, a killing and a cup of coffee.

Kind Hearts and Coronets is one of a kind, a superb pitch-black comedy about gentle serial killing.

The Dam Busters begins in 1942, where a bespectacled man plays marbles with his children under a silver sky.

From Charles Frend, this 1948 drama tells the story of Robert Falcon Scott’s failed attempt to be the first to reach the South Pole.

As Mike Hodges’ flamboyant science fiction epic and Queen’s iconic rock song declares, Flash Gordon will be the saviour of the universe.

Directed by John Schlesinger in 1963, Billy Liar is one of the signature films of the British New Wave, the dynamic naturalism of the sixties.