The 39 Steps (1935)
Dir: Alfred Hitchock
One of Hitchock’s best British films, featuring the definitive Richard Hannay in Robert Donat, struggling to prove his innocence against the gathering forces of darkness. Madeleine Carroll plays the femme fatale who accompanies him on the fast and furious chase, including the famous Forth Bridge sequence. At one point they find themselves handcuffed together in one of the director’s seductive master strokes.

Bill Douglas Trilogy
Dir. Bill Douglas
The autobiographical trilogy, about growing up in a mining village, Newtongrange, close to Edinburgh in the Forties. Shot in gritty and evocative black and white. In "My Childhood" (1972), Douglas evokes a childhood of poverty and pain; "My Ain Folk" (1974) reveals that the man living next door is, in fact, his father; and "My Way Home" (1978) deals with personal emancipation as the autobiographical hero goes off to Egypt on National Service. A remarkable body of work.

Braveheart (1995)
Dir. Mel Gibson
A passionate and bloody account of William Wallace’s rebellion against the English with Mel Gibson as a Mad Mac set to right wrongs and bring freedom to the oppressed. Patrick McGoohan makes a wonderful villain out of Edward 1st with Sophie Marceau and Catherine McCormack as the women in Wallace’s heart. Epic battle scenes of the highest order. Web site

Flood Tide (1949)
Dir. Frederick Wilson
A Clydebank apprentice, played by Gordon Jackson, becomes a ship’s designer and falls in love with the boss’s daughter in a classic 1940s drama which also features Jimmy Logan, Rona Anderson, John Laurie and Elizabeth Sellars. Evocative as social history...and a particular time and place.


Gregory’s Girl (1980)
Dir. Bill Forsyth
Endearing and quirky comedy about a girl (Dee Hepburn) who infiltrates the school football team, causes male angst and resentment, and stirs romantic yearnings in the lanky Gregory (John Gordon Sinclair). Strong on observation and naturalistic performances, it proved a huge hit.

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