Classic Movies: The Story of...

Ian Nathan examines more cinematic landmarks, beginning with David Lean's 1946 adaptation of the novel by Charles Dickens, which starred John Mills as Pip and Valerie Hobson as Estella.

Ian Nathan examines Richard Attenborough's biopic of silent film actor, writer and director Charlie Chaplin, which starred Robert Downey Jr in the title role.

Ian Nathan examines Sydney Pollack's 1975 conspiracy thriller, which starred Robert Redford, Faye Dunaway and Max von Sydow

Ian Nathan examines David Lynch's 2001 neo-noir mystery, which follows an aspiring actress newly arrived in Los Angeles and stars Naomi Watts, Laura Harring and Justin Theroux.

Ian Nathand examines the 1968 historical drama, which starred Peter O'Toole as Henry II, Anthony Hopkins as Richard the Lionheart and an Oscar-winning Katharine Hepburn as Eleanor of Aquitane.

Ian Nathan looks at Alfred Hitchcock's 1935 spy thriller, which starred Robert Donat as a man who has to go on the run after being wrongly accused of murder.

Ian Nathan looks at Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's 1943 anti-war satire that follows a soldier as a he rises through the ranks in the British military.

Ian Nathan takes a look at the 1949 Ealing comedy about the inhabitants of a London street discovering documents proving they are really citizens of Burgundy.

Highlander is one of a kind, strange and haunting fantasy epic about immortality and sword fights. Rediscovered again and again since its release in 1986. 

The Railway Children: The book by legendary children's author E. Nesbit, it is a cinematic rite of passage that makes us remember the mysteries of childhood.

Escape From New York (1981): In the dystopian future of Escape from New York, the island of Manhattan has been turned into a maximum-security prison.

A celebration of cinematic masterpiece The Ipcress Files, a spy thriller from 1965, based on Len Deighton's novel published three years earlier. Directed by Sidney J Furie, it starred Michael Caine as an intelligence officer from the War Office investigating the disappearances of high-level scientists.

The 1949 British black comedy regarded as a cinematic masterpiece. A crime story, it sees Alec Guinness playing eight characters, alongside co-stars Dennis Price, Joan Greenwood and Valerie Hobson. The plot focuses on a vengeful man attempt to secure the family's dukedom by murdering the eight people ahead of him in the line of succession to the title.

The planning and making of the 1955 British docudrama war film starring Richard Todd and Michael Redgrave. Directed by Michael Anderson, the plot was based on the attempt by the RAF to destroy six dams in Germany during the Second World War

Ian Nathan looks at the 1948 British adventure film, which stars John Mills and tells the story of Robert Falcon Scott's ill-fated attempt to be the first to reach the South Pole.

Ian Nathan looks at the 1980 sci-fi adventure, which starred Sam Jones in the title role as the American football player thrown into a battle to save the Earth.

Ian Nathan takes a look at John Schlesinger's 1963 British New Wave classic, starring Tom Courtenay as problematic protagonist Billy Fisher and Julie Christie as his free-spirited love interest Liz.

Ian Nathan returns to cast his eye over more cinematic masterpieces, beginning with David Lean's 1945 romantic tragedy starring Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard.

Ian Nathan examines Alexander Mackendrick's 1949 Ealing comedy, in which Scottish islanders try to salvage 50,000 cases of whisky from a shipwreck.

Ian Nathan examines Mel Brooks' classic 1968 comedy, which stars Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder as two men who set out to make a Broadway flop.

Ian Nathan examines the Boulting brothers' 1959 comedy, a satire on British industrial life starring Ian Carmichael Peter Sellers, Richard Attenborough and Margaret Rutherford.

Ian Nathan examines the 1974 adaptation of the Agatha Chistie mystery, featuring a stellar cast of train-bound suspects and Albert Finney as Belgian detective Hercule Poirot.

In the final episode of the series, we delve into Michael Cimino's Oscar-winning epic The Deer Hunter starring Robert De Niro and Christopher Walken, which pioneered a radically new way of depicting the atrocities of war.

A look at cinematic masterpieces, beginning with film critic Ian Nathan examining the qualities of director Carol Reed's 1949 film noir The Third Man, which starred Orson Welles and Joseph Cotten.

A look at Alexander Mackendrick's Ealing black comedy starring Alec Guinness and Katie Johnson, in which a criminal and his gang meet their match in the form of elderly landlady.

A look at John Boulting's 1944 film noir, which was adapted from Graham Greene's novel and starred Richard Attenborough as psychopathic gangster Pinkie Brown.

Movie critic Ian Nathan examines the qualities of Mike Nichols' 1967 romantic comedy drama, which starred Dustin Hoffman as a young man having an affair with a married woman.

Movie critic Ian Nathan examines the qualities that made 1985 epic action drama Ran, directed and co-written by Akira Kurosawa, an enduring classic.

Movie critic Ian Nathan examines what made James Cameron's Terminator 2: Judgment Day, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, a sci-fi classic.