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

31. The Hit (1984)

The Hit is another splendid display of Tim Roth's virtuoso talents but this time in collaboration with two other British acting legends: Terence Stamp and John Hurt. The Hit was named by director Wes Anderson as his fifth favourite British film of all time. It is a film so baked in sunshine that you will feel the heat of its Spanish setting. The baked aesthetic is also emblematic of the heat between the three leads, as Hurt and Roth's Hit-Men transport supergrass Stamp to the men he was paid to rat out.

30. Sexy Beast (2000)

Ben Kingsley's gutter mouth gangster Don Logan arrives (like a boulder in a swimming pool) to disrupt the cosy retired life of Ray Winstone's ex-con Gal Dove. Having gained fame and an Academy Award for portraying Mahatma Ghandi in Richard Attenborough's 1982 biopic Ghandi, Kingsley's Logan was a revelation, and responsible for the most memorable use of the word "No" until Darth got a little upset about Padme.

29. Naked (1993)

Naked represents Mike Leigh at his darkest. David Thewlis plays Johnny; an over-educated, under-employed Manc who flees Manchester for London to avoid retribution for a rape he commits in the film's opening scene. Straight from the off it is difficult to have any sympathy for Johnny but his witty intellectual diatribes, aimed at the characters he encounters on the streets of London, make it difficult to disagree with his disenfranchised perspective. This is especially true when the film reveals there are far more monstrous characters than Johnny out there.