Robin Williams avoids his trademark tics and tremors to deliver a convincing performance as an inspirational English teacher in a conservative American boys school. Ethan Hawke and Robert Sean Leonard are the students who start to appreciate poetry as a result. Unfortunately, the parents object to Robin's liberal ways and it's left to the pupils to stage a moving protest when he gets the sack.

Dirk Bogarde plays an ageing composer who reassesses his life when his eyes alight on a beautiful teenage boy in Luchino Visconti's majestic film. His character, Von Aschenbach, has lived by a restrictive moral code, but he finds salvation in the angelic-looking boy. Unfortunately, Aschenbach is dying, leading to a heartbreaking scene where he lies on the beach watching the boy, knowing that his time is over.

The Olympic Games have produced so many emotional moments, but Derek Redmond's 400m semi-final run in Barcelona in 1992 produced drama to live long in the memory. 175m into the race, Redmond pulled his right hamstring. Rather than giving up, he rose to his feet and decided to finish the race. Unable to bear his son's agony, Jim Redmond ran onto the track to help. Millions around the world choked back the tears as the father-son team made it over the finish-line.

Beautifully crafted 193-minute opus from the master of epic cinema, David Lean. A turbulent love story set against the fiery backdrop of the Bolshevik revolution. Omar Sharif charms both Julie Christie and Geraldine Chaplin, and the rest of the female world, as the handsome and poetic Yuri. Doctor Zhivago was savaged by the critics on its release, but audiences flocked to it and the film has become a famous weepy. The tears flow Zhivago chases Christie, through the city streets, only to die before he can reach her.

Originally titled Oil, the extravagance of this blockbuster was matched only by its sister super-soap Dallas. The weekly wardrobe budget alone topped $10,000. Dynasty was also possibly also the only series ever to include royalty in its line-up - the Princess of Yugoslavia, Catherine Oxenberg. Even Dynasty managed to go over-the-top with a farcical plot line involving the mythical kingdom of Moldovia. The Carrington family attended a wedding there, only to become involved in a revolution. The entire cast was gunned down, leaving the audience weeping with laughter.