Based on the true story of Joy and George Adamson, who raised a lion cub on their game reserve until she was ready to set off into the big wide world. The popular drama spawned a sequel and a TV series, but the real tears flowed at the end of the first film when a devastated Adamson couple finally released their pride and joy back into the wild.

Alan Bleasedale's gritty black comedy, set against the bleak backdrop of unemployment in Liverpool during Thatcher's Britain, followed the lives of a group of tarmac layers living on life's scrapheap. Screened in the early 1980s, actor Bernard Hill won a BAFTA for his heartbreaking portrayal of Yosser Hughes, a once proud man, stripped of his job, family and dignity. Another story involved actor Michael Angelis, as a man reduced to searching for money down the back of his sofa, who kills his geese after cracking up at the desperation of his situation.

Freedom! Mel Gibson dons a kilt and hair extensions and proceeds to slice up some English with a huge sword in this stirring account of the Scottish freedom fighter William Wallace. After the evil English murder his wife, Wallace leads a rebellion against their oppressive rule. The film won bucket-loads of Oscars for Mel and the scene in which Wallace finally gets his come-uppance, is genuine lump-in-the-throat stuff.

Audrey Hepburn and George Peppard sparkle to the memorable refrain of 'Moon River' in this charming fairy tale about a lost girl looking for love in the big city. Romantic comedy is a difficult genre to perfect, and it has rarely been done as well as it is here. Hepburn and Peppard create the kind of screen chemistry that comes along all too rarely and there isn't a dry eye left in the house when the two of them finally get it together in the New York rain.

Lars Von Trier won a sackful of plaudits and awards for this disquieting and confrontational film - a howling commentary on love, religion and death. Emily Watson is the newly wed Bess, whose husband insists that she sleep with other men after he is crippled in an accident. Although reluctant at first, Bess becomes convinced that her sacrifice will make God cure him and events spiral downwards towards a truly heartbreaking conclusion.