Search: Directed by John Schlesinger

The fashions may have come and gone since John Schlesinger commited Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall's story of a young man torn between his family and the future to film but Billy Liar is still suprisingly light on his feet 50 years down the line.

It is precisely Diana’s lack of intellectual sophistication that makes her interesting.

For me, and I suspect an entire generation, this is the definitive, almost faultless, take on one of English literature’s most powerful and evocative works.

Schlesinger's North is constructed in smudgy shades of grey. Rain falls heavily; steam billows up from unseen trains; the streets are always wet, sometimes bright cobbles, sometimes just dirt.

There are still very few films that make room for male characters to be emotionally honest to this degree.

Thomas Ropelewski's script isn't sharp enough and Bratt's character is depressingly phoney.

An interesting curiosity for fans of Schlesinger's dramatic work, this film plays upon many of the same themes.