After David Lean and Noël Coward's classic black-and-white British films about star-crossed lovers, nobody could quite look at train stations in the same way again. And if your mates have ever done that thing where they chase after you waving and pretending to cry as yours departs, this is what they're making fun of. Brief Encounter has earned its placed in the canon of great British films, with a dynamite performance by Celia Johnson as Laura, the well-to-do woman in a boring marriage who winds up in a passionate affair with Alec (Trevor Howard), a handsome stranger she meets in a chance encounter at the train station. It's supposed to be about the entanglements of romance and the strange matters of love in difficult situations. Upon its 1945 release, however, it was banned in Ireland because it was considered too permissive of adultery. Maybe it needed a Jackass-style disclaimer...?
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
