Back on screens for its 80th anniversary, David Lean’s Brief Encounter (scripted by Noel Coward) is one of the most powerfully romantic films of all time.

Celia Johnson is Laura, a housewife and mother who meets doctor Alec (Trevor Howard) by happenstance at a railway station. As their acquaintance grows, so too does their unexpected attraction; but both are married. Unexpectedly and desperately in love, they must choose if they will be together or apart. Filmed in 1945, Brief Encounter is an undoubted period piece but so beautifully made and performed (and backed by a famously passionate Rachmaninoff score) that it remains utterly timeless.