66 Essential British Films To Take Your Mind Off The World Cup

34. A Room For Romeo Brass (1999)

The character of Morell is an example of Shane Meadows and Paddy Considine's brilliance, in taking those people we recognise from everyday life and growing up, and realising them on screen. Morell is the weird lad from the estate who knocks around with kids a little bit too young for him. He isn't a paedophile, just an emotionally stunted weirdo with a persecution complex, who takes to bullying those much younger or weaker than him. This was Paddy Considine's feature debut, and what an arrival.

33. Sid And Nancy (1986)

If Oscars are supposed to be awarded for acting then how come Gary Oldman hasn't won one? Once again he puts in an uncanny performance, channelling the spirit and energy of Sid Vicious in Alex Cox's chronicle of Vicious' doomed love affair with Nancy Spungen. Chloe Webb is also perfectly cast as Nancy, in a film that isn't afraid to portray the heroin soaked madness that led to the couple's mutual destruction.

32. The Man Who Fell To Earth (1976)

Alongside The Hunger and his brief role as Nikolai Tesla in The Prestige, this is Bowie's finest cinematic hour. Rarely has a performer been so aptly cast, though Nic Roeg and the producers would have been all too aware of this going in. The Man Who Fell To Earth sits amongst the pantheon of great intelligent sci-fi films from the early to mid-seventies. It is the tale of an Alien who comes to Earth in order get rich and take water back to his own planet, a story with far more invention and depth than most sci-fi that emerged directly after Star Wars.