During the Second World War, Air Commodore Waltby is flying to Allied Command Headquarters with an attaché case packed with information that could stave off an invasion by Germany. Unfortunately, his plane is shot down and he and three colleagues are left drifting in a lifeboat in the North Sea - with the vital intelligence reports still not in the hands of Allied Command. As the Allied authorities direct the search, the four men are edging closer to death and the Germans are planning their assault.

During the Second World War, Air Commodore Waltby is flying to Allied Command Headquarters with an attaché case packed with information that could stave off an invasion by Germany. Unfortunately, his plane is shot down and he and three colleagues are left drifting in a lifeboat in the North Sea - with the vital intelligence reports still not in the hands of Allied Command. As the Allied authorities direct the search, the four men are edging closer to death and the Germans are planning their assault.

Classic British war film based on the novel by Pierre Boulle in which a group of POWs are forced to build a bridge in Burma for the Japanese. Colonel Nicholson (Alec Guinness) is the appointed leader of the men interned in the camp. When the Japanese commander, Colonel Saito (Sessue Hayakawa), orders his captives to build a bridge across the river Kwai, Nicholson agrees on the basis that the project will keep his men occupied and give them an opportunity to prove, through the quality of their work, the superiority of British engineering. However, as the bridge progresses and the POWs strive to show their craftsmanship, Nicholson appears to lose sight of the fact that the ultimate object of the bridge is to help the Japanese win the war. The impending arrival of a British commando team, sent to destroy the bridge, looks set to provide a stern test of where the true loyalties of the increasingly obsessive Nicholson lie.

Margaret Rutherford and Robert Morley star in this British comedy. The Drossmouth repertory company are having enough trouble preparing for their production of the poorly-written melodrama 'Tarnished Gold' when the play's indomitable author Catherine Beckwith (Rutherford) arrives. She soon locks horns with the play's producer Harry Blacker (Morley), a confrontation which quickly escalates into out-and-out war.

Powerful drama about loyalties and the industrial workplace in early 60s Britain. Factory worker Tom Arnold (Richard Attenborough) does not share the same feelings as his fellow workers in a developing industrial dispute and refuses to go on strike with them. This results in him being 'sent to Coventry' by all concerned, including his best friend Joe Wallace (Michael Craig). The newspapers soon hear about this and the story becomes a matter of national concern, with many different parties trying to use Tom's stance to their own ends.

First in the series of films based on the cartoon creations of Ronald Searle. Miss Millicent Fritton (Alastair Sim), headmistress of St Trinian's School for Girls, attempts to stave off her creditors by 'looking after' the pocket money of a wealthy sheikh's daughter currently enrolled at the school, and investing it on the sheikh's horse, Arab Boy, in the local derby. Unfortunately, Miss Fritton's bookmaking brother Clarence (also Sim) has backed another horse, and kidnaps Arab Boy to ensure his own sizeable win. Miss Fritton enlists the help of disreputable boot boy Flash Harry (George Cole), the teaching staff and the Old Girls in rescuing Arab Boy and returning him to the race.

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.

Four films based on the cartoon creations of Ronald Searle. In 'The Belles of St Trinians' (1954), Miss Millicent Fritton (Alastair Sim), headmistress of St Trinian's School for Girls, attempts to stave off her creditors by 'looking after' the pocket money of a wealthy sheikh's daughter currently enrolled at the school, and investing it on the sheikh's horse, Arab Boy, in the local derby. In 'Blue Murder at St Trinians' (1956), the anarchic schoolgirls win a UNESCO prize trip to Rome. Upon arrival they become involved with a jewel thief (Lionel Jeffries) who hides out with the school, disguised as the headmistress. The jolly hockey sticks are being waved with malicious force once again in 'The Pure Hell of St Trinians' (1957). After they burn their school down, the girls are sent to the Middle East, where an Arab sheik tries to lure them into his harem. Flash Harry (George Cole) attempts to come to the rescue, only to find himself stranded on a desert island with a familiar member of the constabulary (Joyce Grenfell). In the 1966 film 'The Great St Trinians Train Robbery', a bunch of crooks take on more than they can handle when they decide to bury the loot from a successful robbery in the grounds of St Trinians. The high-spirited girls (or 'hooligans' as they are sometimes known) take it upon themselves to confront the highly-strung criminals, with devastating and comic effect.

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.

1950s British romantic comedy starring John Gregson and Diana Dors. After inheriting a large fortune from his father and breaking up with his girlfriend Ethel (Susan Stephen), young northerner Chayley Broadbent (Gregson) heads to London where he meets and falls for nightclub performer Ruthine West (Dors). He later proposes to Ruthine but becomes wise to the fact that she may only be after his money. Will he go ahead with the marriage or return to his former life?