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

43. Rita, Sue and Bob Too! (1987)

Alan Clarke's second film for the fledgling Film Four couldn't have been more different than his first: Billy The Kid And The Green Baize Vampire. Having previously focussed upon the experiences of young working class males Clarke shifts his focus to the sexual politics experienced by two young women on a Bradford council estate. This is a superb adaptation of Andrea Dunbar's stage play and is worth watching in a double bill with experimental docudrama The Arbor, which chronicles Dunbar's troubled life.

42. 28 Days Later (2002)

Danny Boyle and Alex Garland's 2002 handheld-horror was at the vanguard of the contemporary cycle of Zombie films and remains one of its strongest entries. This was our first real introduction to Cillian Murphy who plays Jim, a man who awakens from a coma to discover that the population of Britain has been decimated by the Rage virus. Unfortunately for Jim most of the "survivors" are now rabid, blood-thirsty Olympic sprinters. One of the best British horror films of the last 20 years.

41. Twenty Four Seven (1997)

In a long and varied career Bob Hoskins gives one of his most lovable and moving performances as Darcy, a man who tries to reinvigorate the young lads on his estate by forming a boxing club. Hoskins inclusion brought Meadows' work to a wider audience and would lead to Hoskins returning in his next film: A Room For Romeo Brass. Shot in black and white and containing some of the funniest and most poignant scenes of any of Meadows' films,Twenty Four Seven shouldn't be missed.