The ultimate American dream movie. Rocky comes from nothing, bashes the hell out of everybody, makes a fortune and finds love - and all to the accompaniment of a pounding soundtrack. The film also launched writer-star Sylvester Stallone's career into the stardom stratosphere. You won't want to cry, but you won't be able to help yourself when they triumphant champ cries out for his fiance at the end of the world title fight - ADRIAN!

The ever popular Cold Feet culminated with the tragic death of Rachel in a car accident, and the final episode of Cold Feet centres on Adam's struggle to come to terms with her death. At the funeral, he makes an emotionally-charged speech, saying that he can still see her, and those who can't only need to look at their young son, Matthew, to remember her.

Set on the east coast of New Zealand, this picturesque fable concerns itself with the ageing chief of a Maori tribe and his granddaughter Pai - named after the tribe's mythic founder Paikea, 'the Whale Rider'. Pai believes herself to be the next tribe leader, but her grandfather rejects the notion of a female chief, because centuries of patriarchal tradition dictate a male heir. Newcomer Keisha Castle-Hughes gives an astonishing performance as the young girl desperate for her grandfather's love and acceptance Her failure to hold back the tears when he fails to turn up for her school performance is particularly poignant.

The famous soap based around the imaginary town of Weatherfield, Manchester, is the longest running TV show in the UK, having first been screened in 1960. As a result, it has delivered over 40 years of trauma, but standout moments of sadness include the death of Stan Ogden after being in the show for 30 years and Alma losing her battle with cancer.

When Antonio, an impoverished young father desperate to earn a crust, lands a job in Rome as a bill-poster, he is distraught when the bicycle he needs in order to do his work is stolen. The film follows the father and son's increasingly hopeless quest to get the bicycle back.

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.

A textbook example of an opposites-attract love story, this film stars Barbra Streisand as a feisty radical Communist, and Robert Redford as a politically uninvolved naval officer. They have nothing at all in common, but are nonetheless attracted to one another time and time again, and their story progresses through World War II and the McCarthy era. Key moments include Streisand's desperate phone message after being jilted by the 'love of her life', and the last time the couple see each outside the New York Plaza hotel.

The film version of the play that dramatised the relationship between British author CS Lewis and American poet Joy Gresham, directed by Richard Attenborough. Anthony Hopkins gives another fine portrayal of British reserve as the author whose stuffy life is changed forever when he falls in love with Debra Winger. The wonderful performances of the two leads generate genuine emotion and you'll be choking back the tears when Winger dies and Hopkins tries to comfort her young son.

Heart-warming caper or sentimental slush, whichever way you look at it, the real star of this movie is the titular canine, despite appearances by a young Elizabeth Taylor and Roddy McDowall. After being sold to a rich Duke, Lassie (actually a male dog called Pal) embarks upon a journey across the country to re-join her family. The ahhh/ argh factor comes at the end of the mutt's journey, when the family's small son is reunited with 'man's best friend'.

Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr are both engaged to someone else when they fall in love on board a cruise ship bound for New York. When they meet it's love at first sight but, in order to make sure of their feelings for each other, they agree to both be at the top of the Empire State building in six months' time if they still feel the same. The tears flow when Cary Grant discovers the real reason that Kerr failed to show up in this classic weepy.