This week Brief Encounter celebrates its eightieth anniversary. A lot of the credit for its extraordinary longevity belongs to its producer Tony Havelock-Allan, although when I interviewed him back in 2000 my abiding memory was of a man who was far too modest to make any great claims for himself. Even when he did take credit for something, he managed to do so in a self-deprecating way. So the title, for example: We didn’t know what to call the film. Still Life  was obviously

It requires only a brief encounter with the 1974 remake of Brief Encounter  to appreciate what a bad film it is. The first mistake, of...

“One has one’s roots after all, hasn’t one?” says Dolly Messiter.¹ Laura briefly wishes her annoying neighbour were dead, but Dolly is...