Ben Hur (Charlton Heston) is a Jewish prince who falls out with his close Roman friend (Stephen Boyd) when he refuses to promote Roman rule over his people - his mother and sister are imprisoned and he is enslaved. Hur plans and achieves revenge, but finds true peace when he joins the new following of Jesus Christ. This lavish biblical epic won a record-breaking eleven Oscars and is best known for its exciting chariot race sequence.

Collection of eleven classic films from influential filmmakers Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. 'The Battle of the River Plate' (1956) tells the true story of the famous 1939 naval battle. Hans Langsdorff (Peter Finch) is captaining the crack German battleship Graf Spee through the South Atlantic, unaware that a small number of lightweight British battle cruisers are hot on his trail. When the British cruisers manage to trap the powerful German ship in the Uruguayan harbour of Montevideo, they attempt to trick Langsdorff into believing that an entire battle fleet is waiting to destroy his vessel at sea. In 'A Canterbury Tale' (1944), a British sergeant, a land girl and a United States Army officer arrive at a Kent village on the same train. The newcomers are brought face to face with the bizarre menace causing bewilderment in the tight-knit community: someone is pouring glue onto the hair of girls who dare to venture out at night with visiting servicemen. Powell and Pressburger offered this 'propaganda' piece as their contribution to the war effort, but the authorities were unsure how its oddball tone would go down with the Allies. In '49th Parallel' (1941), Laurence Olivier and Leslie Howard are among the stars who try to prevent Nazi sailors, from a sunken U-Boat, reaching neutral USA through Canada in this classic war film, which was intended to persuade America to join World War II. Pressburger won an Academy Award for the story and the film was directed by Powell. In 'I Know Where I'm Going!' (1945), a woman (Wendy Hiller) has always known what she wanted in life, and now she is about to marry a millionaire. But when she ends up stranded on a Hebredian island due to a storm, she begins to see things a little differently. 'Ill Met By Moonlight' (1957) was the final film created by Powell and Pressburger together. Set on the island of Crete during the Nazi occupation, the film stars Dirk Bogarde and David Oxley as British officers assigned to kidnap the German commander-in-chief General Kreipe (Marius Goring) and spirit him back to Cairo. If successful, the morale of the Germans would be weakened and the resistance would be stronger. But once he is captured, the British officers have to get him past German patrols at almost every turning. In 'The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp' (1943), stuffy ex-soldier Clive Candy (Roger Livesey) recalls his career which began as a dashing officer in the Boer War. As a young man he lost the woman he loved (Deborah Kerr, who plays three roles) to a Prussian officer (Anton Walbrook), whom he fought in a duel only to become lifelong friends with. Candy cannot help but feel that his notions of honour and chivalry are out of place in modern warfare. The film's title comes from 'Evening Standard' cartoonist David Low's satirical comic creation, Colonel Blimp. In 'The Red Shoes' (1948), ballet impressario Boris Lermontov (Walbrook) hires up-and-coming ballerina Victoria Page (Moira Shearer) and talented young composer Julian Craster (Goring) to work with him on a new ballet, an adaptation of the Hans Christian Andersen story 'The Red Shoes'. The show is a great success and Victoria and Julian fall in love, but Boris is jealous and makes moves to spoil their happiness. 'A Matter of Life and Death' (1946) is a classic wartime propaganda movie, commissioned by the Ministry of Information, but turned into a fantastical allegory by the Archers, aka Powell and Pressburger. David Niven plays an RAF pilot who is ready to be picked up by the angels after bailing out of his plane. But an administrative error in Heaven leads to a temporary reprieve, during which he must prove his right to stay on Earth. A tribunal in heaven ensues to decide the case. In 'They're a Weird Mob' (1966), Nino Culotta (Walter Chiari) is an Italian immigrant who arrives in Australia with the promise of a job as a journalist on his cousin's magazine, only to find that when he gets there the magazine has folded, the cousin has done a runner and the money his cousin sent for the fare was borrowed from the daughter of the boss of a local construction firm. 'The Tales of Hoffman' (1951) is an adaptation of Jacques Offenbach's opera and follows Hoffman's (Robert Rounseville) tales of his love for the doll Olympia, the courtesan Giuletta (Ludmilla Tcherina) and the frail diva Antonia (Anne Ayars), and of how his quest for the eternal woman was always thwarted by evil. Finally, in 'Black Narcissus' (1946), a group of British nuns are sent into the Himalayas to set up a mission in what was once the harem's quarters of an ancient palace. The clear mountain air, the unfamiliar culture and the unbridled sensuality of a young prince (Sabu) and his beggar-girl lover (Jean Simmons) begin to play havoc with the nuns' long-suppressed emotions. Whilst the young Mother Superior, Sister Clodagh (Deborah Kerr), fights a losing battle for order, the jaunty David Farrar falls in love with her, sparking uncontrollable jealousy in another nun, Sister Ruth (Kathleen Byron).

Philip Leacock directs this 1960s British film exploring a childhood friendship threatened by a religious divide. Michael O'Malley (Philip Needs), a young Catholic boy, and Rachel Mathias (Loretta Parry), a young Jewish girl, become friends when the former rescues the latter from schoolyard bullies. With both considered outsiders in Protestant England, a strong basis exists for a bond between the pair. However, in their innocence, Michael and Rachel become friends in spite of, rather than because of, their family backgrounds. Distraught when Rachel's parents declare that they are moving away, the pair set off on an adventure that may well change their lives forever...

On board the Orient Express as it pulls out of the Gare De Lyon is a man named Poole, who has stolen an important political diary and is being pursued by two people who want it back. Valya wants the diary to avenge her father's political assassination, while Zurta is the thief who acquired it for her. Poole throws them off the trail by hiding the diary in the compartment of pompous author Alastair McBain.

A semi-documentary based on the lives of two friends living on the remote Shetland island of Foula. It shows their struggles with the harshness of isolation and the everyday hurdles of love and survival. In 1978 director Michael Powell added a new (colour) introduction and epilogue to the film which was re-titled `Return to the Edge of the World'.

A semi-documentary based on the lives of two friends living on the remote Shetland island of Foula. It shows their struggles with the harshness of isolation and the everyday hurdles of love and survival. In 1978 director Michael Powell added a new (colour) introduction and epilogue to the film which was re-titled `Return to the Edge of the World'.

A collection of four classic films starring Julie Christie. In 'Billy Liar' (1963), undertaker's clerk Billy (Tom Courtenay) escapes his dreary small town existence in a 1950s Northern town by living in a fantasy world where he realises his ambitions. When his job, unsympathetic working class family and two fiancees threaten to become too much, he meets the fashionable Liz (Christie), who offers him his one chance for real escape. Christie won an Oscar for her role in 'Darling' (1965). In the film she plays Diana Scott, an ambitious model determined to make it to the top. Using her sexuality, she manipulates powerful men, but in so doing becomes a prisoner of the jet-setting lifestyle she once yearned for. Dirk Bogarde co-stars as Diana's long-suffering boyfriend. 'Far From The Madding Crowd' (1967) is an adaptation of Thomas Hardy's 19th-century story of a woman's passion. Bathsheba (Christie) is in love with three very different men who are also in love with her: her first love is a handsome and wayward soldier; the second is the local noble Lord, and the third is an ever-patient farmer. 'The Go-Between' (1970) is an adaptation of the classic novel by L.P. Hartley. A young teenage boy, Leo (Dominic Guard), is invited to a wealthy school friend's rich family estate and is drawn into a love affair between his friend's twenty-something sister, Marian (Christie), and the family neighbour, even though she is engaged to be married. She uses Leo as a go-between, sending messages to her lover. Despite feeling he is betraying her fiance Hugh (Edward Fox), Leo carries on being the messager boy and discovers more about the attraction between men and women along the way.

Young Jim Hawkins (Bobby Driscoll) finds himself set for adventure on the high seas when he is entrusted with a treasure map by ailing pirate Billy Bones.The map shows the location of treasure buried by Bones' former captain, Flint. Other members of Flint's crew are also after the booty, so Jim is accompanied by Squire Trelawney and Doctor Livesy as they make their way by sea to the island where the treasure is hidden. However, some of Flint's crew, led by the one-legged John Silver (Robert Newton), have managed to inveigle their way aboard Jim's ship as crew members, and will stop at nothing to get their hands on the treasure.

Three classic films adapted from novels by Charles Dickens. In 'A Tale of Two Cities' (1958), Sydney Carton (Dirk Bogarde) is a frivolous London barrister, hopelessly in love with Lucie (Dorothy Tutin), even after she marries Charles Darnay (Paul Guers), who is descended from an unpleasant French aristocrat. Darnay is lured back to France as the Revolution gets into swing where he is arrested and awaits execution. Sydney, seeing Lucie's despair, goes to France, frees Charles and takes his place in the queue for the guillotine. In 'Oliver Twist' (1948), Oliver (John Howard Davis) is a young orphan boy who is expelled from the workhouse run by Mr Bumble (Francis L. Sullivan). After becoming an apprentice to an undertaker Oliver decides to run away to London, only to meet the Artful Dodger (Anthony Newley) and fall amongst his gang of thieves, led by the scheming Fagin (Alec Guinness). Finally, in 'Great Expectations' (1946), orphan Pip (Anthony Wager) befriends an escaped convict before being elevated to higher circles as the companion of mad Miss Havisham (Martita Hunt) and her niece, Estella (Jean Simmons), with whom the boy quickly falls in love. When the adult Pip (John Mills) discovers a mysterious benefactor has paved the way for him to become a gentleman, he assumes Miss Havisham is responsible.

Set during the London Blitz of 1940, Tommy Trinder stars as a kennelman who volunteers for the East End Auxiliary Fire Service. The volunteers have to work alongside the regular firemen, who resent the amateurs but who could also not have saved so many lives without them. This film was made in 1943 with the help of the National Fire Service and is now seen as a tribute to all the professionals and volunteers who put their lives at risk saving others.

Collection of ten classic films from the award-winning British director. In 'The Sound Barrier' (1952), Ralph Richardson stars as an aircraft manufacturer whose all-consuming passion with making the ultimate supersonic jet kills both his son and son-in-law and almost destroys him and the rest of his family. In 'Hobson's Choice' (1953), Lancashire bootmaker Henry Horatio Hobson (Charles Laughton) keeps a tight rein on his three daughters until his eldest, Maggie (Brenda De Banzie), marries his assistant, Willie Mossop (John Mills), and sets him up in his own bootmaking firm. To Hobson's consternation, Willie has soon become his father-in-law's main business rival. In 'Blithe Spirit' (1945), cynical writer, Charles Condomine (Rex Harrison), asks a medium (Margaret Rutherford) to hold a seance in his house so he can collect material for his latest book. No one is more surprised than the medium when she inadvertently conjures up the ghost of Condomine's first wife (Kay Hammond). The ghost refuses to go away, preferring to taunt her less sophisticated replacement (Constance Cummings). In 'Brief Encounter' (1945), a respectable, happily married doctor (Trevor Howard) comes to the aid of an equally upstanding housewife (Celia Johnson) when a passing train blows cinder into her eye. Thus begins a tentative romance, conducted in the tearooms and railway cafe of a small English town. In 'Great Expectations' (1946), orphan, Pip (Anthony Wager), befriends an escaped convict before being elevated to higher circles as the companion of Miss Havisham and her niece, Estella (Jean Simmons), with whom the boy quickly falls in love. When the adult Pip (Mills) discovers a mysterious benefactor has paved the way for him to become a gentleman, he assumes Miss Havisham is responsible. In 'Oliver Twist' (1948), Oliver (John Howard Davis) is a young orphan boy who is expelled from the workhouse run by Mr Bumbel (Francis L. Sullivan). After becoming an apprentice to an undertaker, Oliver decides to run away to London, only to meet the Artful Dodger (Anthony Newley) and fall amongst his gang of thieves, led by the scheming Fagin (Alec Guinness). In 'Madeleine' (1949), Madeleine (Ann Todd) is the eldest daughter in a respectable Victorian Glasgow family. She begins an affair with Frenchman, Emile L'Anglier (Ivan Desny), without her father's knowledge. Meanwhile, Madeleine's father insists on her seeing various suitors. When Madeleine becomes engaged to William Minnoch (Norman Wooland), Emile threatens to reveal their relationship. 'The Passionate Friends' (1944) is an episodic tale of an average working class family in the interwar years. The story traces the melodrama caused by illicit affairs, family bereavement, the first ripples of women's liberation and political instability in the country during the General Strike. It highlights the fact that these internal wranglings are all happening in one house in an average street, and that each average house has its own dramatic stories to tell. Finally, 'In Which We Serve' (1942) is a World War II drama about a destroyer, told through flashbacks and the reminiscences of the surviving crew after their beloved ship is torpedoed.

Hugh Williams, Ralph Richardson and Deborah Kerr star in this British wartime drama. As Hitler invades Poland in 1939, British journalist Colin Metcalfe (Williams) is appointed as Norway's new foreign correspondent. During a sea voyage of his new home, his boat comes under fire from a German U-boat despite the country's neutrality. But when he reports the attack to the British embassy they disbelieve him and - to add insult to injury - remove him from his post. When German forces later invade Norway, Metcalfe returns, determined to uncover what is going on and to stop the Nazis in their tracks.

Early film from the legendary Powell/Pressburger team. A woman (Wendy Hiller) has always known what she wanted in life, and now she is about to marry a millionaire. But when she ends up stranded on a Hebredian island due to a storm, she changes her mind.

Undertaker's clerk Billy (Tom Courtenay) escapes his dreary small town existence in a 1950s Northern town by living in a fantasy world where he realises his ambitions. When his job, unsympathetic working class family and two fiancees threaten to become too much, he meets fashionable Julie Christie, who offers him his one chance for real escape.

David Lean directs this classic adaptation of Dickens's novel about a young orphan who develops 'great expectations' after a mysterious benefactor pledges to sponsor his transformation into a gentleman. Pip (Anthony Wager) is visiting the graves of his deceased parents when he finds himself confronted by an escaped convict, Magwitch (Finlay Currie). Unfortunately for Pip, Magwitch isn't the only frightening adult he becomes acquainted with. When Miss Havisham (Martita Hunt), an eccentric old woman still dressed for the wedding at which she was abandoned by her groom years ago, seeks a playmate for her charge, Estella (Jean Simmons), it is Pip who is sent for. The boy quickly falls in love with Estella, though his hopes seem forlorn due to the gap in social standing between the two. When an older Pip (John Mills) discovers that he has a benefactor, he feels that Estella may be won, but has he read the situation correctly?