Brian McFarlane is the editor of The Encyclopedia of British Film, and Adjunct Professor at the Swinburne Institute of Social Research, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne

Introduction 1. Ladies on a train: Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes (1938) 2. Shaw's Cinderella on screen: Pygmalion (1938) 3. Pulling together for The Way Ahead (1944) 4. The long-lasting Brief Encounter (1945) 5. Two from the comfort zone: Great Day (1945) and Temptation Harbour (1947) 6. It Always Rains on Sunday (1947) - and other things go wrong too 7. The Third Man (1945) and several more 8. Genevieve (1953): Old cars and 'the other thing' 9. Double bill: Private Information (1952) and Cash on Demand (1963) 10. A Kind of Loving (1962) - and of living 11. The Servant (1963): things fall apart 12. Sex, talk, men and Women in Love (1969) 13. Hard men: Get Carter (1970) 14. From life: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1977) 15. Alice in the real world: Dreamchild (1986) 16. Guests and others at Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994) 17. Families, for better and worse: Secrets and Lies (1996) 18. In search of Wonderland (1998) 19. Giving and taking Last Orders (2002) 20. In your face: In the Loop (2009) Credits Index