Co-adapted by Noël Coward from his own one-act play Still Life, this is one of the finest films ever made in Britain. What makes the illicit love between doctor Trevor Howard and housewife Celia Johnson so memorable is their sheer ordinariness - they really could be anybody sitting in the dark of the cinema or in the comfort of their armchair. That's why Falling in Love, the unofficial Hollywood remake, fell so flat - Robert De Niro and Meryl Streep simply weren't ordinary enough. Romancing to the strains of Rachmaninov's Second Piano Concerto, the leads are outstanding, but credit should also go to the forgotten Cyril Raymond, whose decent dullness as Johnson's husband makes those stolen Thursdays seem so special.

Returning home from a shopping trip to a nearby town, bored suburban housewife Laura Jesson is thrown by happenstance into an acquaintance with virtuous doctor Alec Harvey. Their casual friendship soon develops during their weekly visits into something more emotionally fulfilling than either expected, and they must wrestle with the potential havoc their deepening relationship would have on their lives and the lives of those they love.