"The British are coming!"

So cried screenwriter Colin Welland when Chariots of Fire won the 1981 Best Picture Oscar - an optimistic outburst that heralded a rollercoaster decade, with steep highs and deep lows. Despite the high-profile likes of Gandhi, A Passage to India and The Last Emperor, it was more noted for films made by smaller-scale companies like HandMade (Withnail & I), Palace (The Company of Wolves), Merchant-Ivory (A Room with a View) and Working Title (My Beautiful Laundrette, pictured).

It was also a time that saw unprecedented advances by women and ethnic minorities thanks to funding opportunities offered by Channel 4, which also helped create a truly symbiotic relationship between the big and small screen.

British Film in the 1980s