Just caught the end of a Home Alone broadcast, which I've always enjoyed. It also has my favourite Christmas Carol, 'Oh Holy Night'. Which leads me happily to the George C Scott version of 'A Christmas Carol'.

Sister Act - Delores Van Cartier was a life goal and role model. As was Sister Luke in 'The Nuns Story'.

Look Who's Talking - I was obsessed with that film. I wanted Molly's apartment. I even tried to call my son Mikey. I was hugely upset as an adult to discover the apartment building was in Vancouver rather than Manhattan. No offence to Canada but it's not very glamorous.

Three Men and a Baby - I was determined to have that exact fabulous and vast apartment with its incredible decor. And that building is on the Upper West Side so it's kept its aspirational appeal.

ET I loved, always very moving. And I have always felt life in a faceless California suburb, with bikes and all that, is the life I didn't live but would've secretly loved. As a downmarket example of the same type, I really enjoyed Mask (1985). Rusty's house was great - chain link fencing, a garden ruined by drought, a swing, a bit of a dump, all that sun.

The Bodyguard - I saw that four times in a single day at the cinema. Mean Streets - Robert Di Nero's Johnny is the first man I ever found attractive.

Lastly, probably Annie. 'I love you Daddy Warbucks' is the greatest summing up of childhood wish fulfillment in screen history.

What about everyone else? Favourites and reasons, lifetime influence and bittersweet parallels?

Might this section be renamed? The Movie Parlour sounds a bit funereal. I suggest simply The Cinema. Or The Silver Screen, or No Sun Boulevard in tribute to our own climate.

Heathers too. The popularity of Clueless always confused me when Heathers was there to be enjoyed as a depiction of rich high school students. But that's not my childhood so much as youth so nevermind.

Star Wars trilogy.
Time Bandits.
Night of the Demon.
Dead of Night.
Doug McClure films.
Ray Harryhausen films.
Hammeramicus films.
The Dr. Phibes films.
Theatre of Blood.
Quatermass films.
The Cushing Doctor Whos.
Once Upon a Time in the West.
The Wild Bunch.
High Plains Drifter.
Blade Runner.
Flash Gordon.
The Wrath of Khan.
Saturn 3.
Outland.
Airplane.
Tron.
The Final Countdown.
Bond films.
Silent Running.
The Andromeda Strain.
The Amazing Mr. Blunden.
The Phantom Tollbooth.
Monty Python/Gilliam-Jones films.
Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Jaws.
1941.
Duel.
Close Encounters.
Poltergeist.
Alien.
Excalibur.
Rollerball.
Logan's Run.
Capricorn One.
Invasion of the Body Snatchers ('56 and '78).
Mad Max 2.
Polanski's Macbeth.
Bedkn*bs and Broomsticks.
Dragonslayer.
The Dark Crystal.
King Kong vs. Godzilla.
Woody Allen's silly earlier films (especially Love & Death).
Dark Star.
Charley Varrick.
Steelyard Blues.
The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
Watership Down.


War films were popular with a young Nightjar too.

Where Eagles Dare.
The Wild Geese.
The Battle of the B*lge.
Kelly's Heroes.
The Desert Rats.
633 Squadron.
Cross of Iron.
Aces High.

Oh, oh, yes, and Damien: Omen II.

Never forget

Well, Childhood....so before I was 10, (which was 1969)
1 Million years BC (Mmmm Raquel), strangely enough my Wifes Mums best friends friends Daughter (whose Dad was Fred Trueman) married her Son.....it didn't last.
Battle of Britain
2001 A Space Odyssey
All the Thunderbirds films
Day of the Triffids
The day the Earth Stood still/Caught Fire
Forbidden Planet.
Crack in the World

The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie.

I liked Thunderbirds. My favourite one was the skyscraper collapse. I had a model of Lady Penelope's car.

And James Bonds Aston Martin with an ejection seat. My Barbie couldn't fit in it, which was upsetting because with my additions of a tinfoil minidress, cotton wool fur coat, blue biro ink tattoo and smartly cut short Diana hairdo she was suited to it. The poor girl had to ride straddling a British Caledonian 747 model to get around. She was sleeping with a Royal Marine Commando doll who was several inches shorter than her.

War - I consider The Nuns Story to be a war film. I loved Carve Her Name With Pride. And Private Benjamin.

The Addams Family, Addams Family Values, and Breakfast At Tiffany's bringing up the rear. My favourite Bonds are Octopussy, The Man With The Golden Gun, and Moonraker - in that order.

Three Moores.

Well chosen.

You forgot The Spy Who Loved me though.

The Spy Who Loved Me was my favourite when I was young.

Along with OHMSS, it's the finest Bnod.

Great villain.
Great other villain.
Great theme song.
Mrs. Starr is great.
Great locations.
Great car.
Terrible effects.
Valerie Leon cameo.

I just wish to add, my neighbours Barbie had a plastic bungalow. Mine lived in a penthouse made of cardboard boxes with Sellotape floor to ceiling windows, handcrafted furniture, a cactus my great gran bought me on Rye Lane, Memphis style wall designs, and miniature antiquities I made at my pottery class.

I have still not seen Lady and The Tramp because I stole the video of it she had and felt so guilty I could never watch it.

Which one was that? When I was a kid they all sorta rolled into one, and I couldn't really tell the difference between the actors. Unlike now, where they've all rolled into one huge film that plays on bank holidays and I can tell, I just don't care about the lead actor.






Oh, that one.