John Forrest

A handsome gambler unwittingly becomes guardian of an orphaned, teenaged girl.

In this Dickens adaptation, orphan Pip discovers through lawyer Mr. Jaggers that a mysterious benefactor wishes to ensure that he becomes a gentleman. Reunited with his childhood patron, Miss Havisham, and his first love, the beautiful but emotionally cold Estella, he discovers that the elderly spinster has gone mad from having been left at the altar as a young woman, and has made her charge into a warped, unfeeling heartbreaker.

A soldier survives a bombing in which his three fellow soldiers were killed. When he recovers he discovers he has amnesia, and since his companions' bodies were burned beyond recognition, the army doesn't know which one of the four he is. He goes AWOL and searches out the families of the three dead soldiers, hoping to find out his own identity.

Compton Bennett's war drama The Gift Horse follows the fortunes of ageing destroyer The Ballantrae and her crew from the time they come together in 1940 until the climactic raid on occupied St Nazaire in 1942. Trevor Howard plays Lt Cmdr Hugh Alginon Fraser, the newly appointed captain, back in service after having left the navy following a court martial.

In 1830s England, Tom Brown attends a rugby boys' school, where his moral and personal growth is formed through friendship, bullying–particularly from the cruel Flashman–and the influence of headmaster Dr Thomas Arnold.

A working-class boy wins a scholarship to a public school, as part of a post-World War Two experiment in bringing boys of different social classes together.

Another stab at Henry Fielding's hilarious novel about the amorous misadventures of a dashing young man in 18th century England. The brilliant 1963 version, starring Albert Finney as the lusty hero, won four Oscars. Joan Collins does a great job as a Wicked Lady style highwaywoman.

Sir Ernest Pease is a self-important scientist sent undercover on a bombing mission to monitor the effectiveness of his latest invention, a new-fangled radar. When the plane is attacked, he parachutes to safety — only to be sent to a POW camp, where he takes on the alias of Lieutenant Farrow. There, the somewhat happy-go-lucky bunch of Brits suspect their acerbic new fellow prisoner of being a spy, and all sorts of culture clashes and misunderstandings ensue.