Top 10 Best UK Films of All Time

What would this list be without the Best Picture-winning The King’s Speech? Colin Firth stars as King George VI, who consults with speech therapist Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush) to try and overcome a crippling stammer in time for him to conduct a wartime radio speech regarding Britain’s 1939 declaration of war on Germany. Though it’s a simple story and easy to see where it’s going, it’s shot through with so much gusto by everyone involved that it’s difficult not to root for George anyway.

Firth is on a total charm offensive here, conceding the less-savoury aspects of his subject’s personality but ultimately becoming a likeable, inspiration figure by the time that marvelous speech sequence comes around. Geoffrey Rush didn’t win an Academy Award (unlike Firth), though certainly should have for his vibrant, often hilarious performance as George’s therapist and later, his friend. Helena Bonham Carter is also in sound form as Queen Elizabeth, in a role seemingly tailor-made for her talents.

Lynne Ramsay’s adaptation of Lionel Shriver’s controversial novel is one of the most sobering films about the family unit I have ever seen. Kevin Katchadourian (Ezra Miller) begins the story in prison after committing a mass murder at his school, and from here we go back as his mother Eva (Tilda Swinton) tries to come to terms with why Kevin did it, and what part she played in it.

Swinton delivers here what is easily the best work of her career, playing a shell-shocked husk of a human being, having to deal with bereaved parents spitting in her face, and the subsequent anguish over whether her failure to bond with her son led to this tragedy. Though all of the children who play the various iterations of Kevin are excellent, Ezra Miller is superb as the teenage version, aptly capturing the moody obnoxiousness of the age, and the creepier facets of his personality too. The film will not be for all tastes because it does not explain Kevin’s actions, but that is the film’s point: life isn’t tied up in neat bows with convenient expository explanations for everything. Sometimes, even often, life is ambiguous, and the results are rarely totally conclusive.

In the Loop is a spin-off of Armando Iannucci’s hit TV series The Thick of It, serving as a satire on the Iraq War, and also the absurd political relationship between America and the UK. Most of the film covers the efforts of the Minister for International Development Simon Foster (Tom Hollander) to cover his own hide after making a slip-up during an interview on a radio show. Some decry his lack of partiality, while when the Americans visit, they try and use his comments to justify moving forward with an invasion in the Middle East.

In the Loop is essentially a crazier, swearier version of The Thick of It, with the Prime Minister’s spin doctor Malcolm Tucker (Peter Capaldi) clearly benefiting the most from these greater allowances. Still, all the actors are on top form, and the screenplay, which received an Oscar nomination, is first-rate.

After Daniel Craig’s second outing as Bond, Quantum of Solace, was merely adequate, he had a lot to prove with his third time up to bat, Skyfall. Appointing Sam Mendes as director certainly proved to be a savvy choice, for the acclaimed filmmaker gave Bond the Dark Knight treatment, focusing on dark cityscapes, a fall-and-rise narrative, and exuberant set-pieces.

I don’t think anyone expected Skyfall to be quite as great as it turned out to be, benefiting from one of the series’ best-ever villains in Javier Bardem’s Raoul Silva, and an excellent performance from Judi Dench as M, giving her final turn as the character. This is everything a contemporary blockbuster needs to be: it’s smart, slickly-directed, visually stunning (thanks to master DP Roger Deakins) and superbly acted. It also manages to be reverent to the Bond of old while ushering in a new era for the character. Smartly, Mendes is attached to return for Bond 24, so the odds are looking good that we won’t see another Quantum.

One of the most unexpected Best Picture winners in the history of the Oscars, Slumdog Millionaire went from being a small, $15 million movie from Danny Boyle, to becoming the novel movie on everyone’s lips at the end of 2008. This is a charming story about a young man, Jamal Malik (Dev Patel), who plays the Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire and manages to exceed expectations, causing the local police to assume that he has somehow cheated.

Through flashbacks, we learn how his hard life in the slums of Mumbai gave him all the knowledge he needed to answer every question correctly. Boyle’s movie riffs gently on the nature of fate, but smartly doesn’t force it down our throats, making it immensely enjoyable whether you subscribe to its musings or not. It is Boyle’s directorial energy above all else that makes the film such a breeze to watch, combined with Patel’s sure leading appeal, making him a character audiences can effortlessly root for. Trust a director of Danny Boyle’s caliber to take a potentially niche story and turn it into one of the best films of 2008, and a colossal box office success.

Steve McQueen reaches his artistic peak (to date) with 12 Years A Slave, a riveting adaptation of Solomon Northup’s 1853 memoir, in which Northup (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a free American black man, finds himself sold into slavery, from which he isn’t able to escape for, yes, twelve years. As uncompromising and visceral as anything McQueen has made up this point, 12 Years refuses to turn its head away from the horrors of slavery, and as such has been held by many critics as “the ultimate film about slavery”.

Through flashbacks, we learn how his hard life in the slums of Mumbai gave him all the knowledge he needed to answer every question correctly. Boyle’s movie riffs gently on the nature of fate, but smartly doesn’t force it down our throats, making it immensely enjoyable whether you subscribe to its musings or not. It is Boyle’s directorial energy above all else that makes the film such a breeze to watch, combined with Patel’s sure leading appeal, making him a character audiences can effortlessly root for. Trust a director of Danny Boyle’s caliber to take a potentially niche story and turn it into one of the best films of 2008, and a colossal box office success.

Easily the best entry in the so-called “Blood and Ice Cream Trilogy”, Shaun of the Dead is the movie that put Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost on the map as bonafide stars. The story depicts the efforts of Shaun (Pegg) and his friend Ed (Frost) to survive a zombie apocalypse in London, shot through the prism of their unique brand of humour, resulting in countless references to other awesome zombie films, loads of gore, excellent foreshadowing, and of course, a Cornetto.

Managing to deliver exciting action and uproarious humour, Shaun of the Dead delivers everything audiences want out of a movie: even if you’re not typically a fan of zombie movies, the relentless laughs will likely win you over anyway. In an homage to George A. Romero, the odd sliver of social satire doesn’t go amiss either. Simply put, this is the beginning of a beautiful trilogy, even if the other two never quite managed to out-do the original.

Alfonso Cuaron’s loose adaptation of P. D. James’s 1992 novel is without question one of the greatest sci-fi movies of the last 30 years (beaten, of course, by his own recent masterpiece, Gravity). In 2027, the fall of civilisation is taking place as humanity seemingly loses the ability to reproduce, but Theo Faron (Clive Owen) discovers that a West African refugee named Kee (Clare-Hope Ashitey) has managed to fall pregnant, and may well be the final hope of the human race.

Managing to deliver exciting action and uproarious humour, Shaun of the Dead delivers everything audiences want out of a movie: even if you’re not typically a fan of zombie movies, the relentless laughs will likely win you over anyway. In an homage to George A. Romero, the odd sliver of social satire doesn’t go amiss either. Simply put, this is the beginning of a beautiful trilogy, even if the other two never quite managed to out-do the original.

Martin Campbell’s Casino Royale gave us more than I ever could have imagined. After a number of increasingly awful James Bond films featuring Pierce Brosnan (though through no fault of his own), it was decided that the series needed a new lick of paint, and was going to be rebooted with a new actor who took Bond back to his roots, though confusingly, Judi Dench would still be sticking around as M. Standing as probably the best franchise reboot in history, Casino Royale gives us everything we want from a Bond film: a globe-hopping plot, sexy ladies, a sly, brooding villain, scintillating action, cracking one-liners and a very handsome leading man.

Managing to deliver exciting action and uproarious humour, Shaun of the Dead delivers everything audiences want out of a movie: even if you’re not typically a fan of zombie movies, the relentless laughs will likely win you over anyway. In an homage to George A. Romero, the odd sliver of social satire doesn’t go amiss either. Simply put, this is the beginning of a beautiful trilogy, even if the other two never quite managed to out-do the original.

Asif Kapadia’s riveting, emotionally resonant documentary about Brazilian motor-racing champion Ayrton Senna makes good on the cardinal rule of a great documentary film: it needs to be compelling even if audiences aren’t particularly interested in the subject matter. Prior to seeing this film, I was no fan of Formula One, and yet I still found Senna to be a riveting humanist portrait of an admirable figure that at the same time featured awesome, white-knuckle footage of the racer’s greatest moments, making for an affectionate, pulse-racing tribute to the star sportsman.

Managing to deliver exciting action and uproarious humour, Shaun of the Dead delivers everything audiences want out of a movie: even if you’re not typically a fan of zombie movies, the relentless laughs will likely win you over anyway. In an homage to George A. Romero, the odd sliver of social satire doesn’t go amiss either. Simply put, this is the beginning of a beautiful trilogy, even if the other two never quite managed to out-do the original.

10. The King's Speech

9. We Need To Talk About Kevin

8. In The Loop

7. Skyfall

6. Slumdog Millionaire

5. 12 Years A Slave

4. Shaun Of The Dead

3. Children Of Men

2. Casino Royale

1. Senna