Through a combination of pure curiosity and just plain boredom, at the start of 2024, I took the liberty of putting together an extensive Letterboxd list of every film ever funded, produced or distributed by Film4 Productions, and with a little help from some Channel 4 archive wizardry (don’t ask), the plan was to make my way through it all from the company’s birth to the present day.

For the uninitiated, Film4 are the film production and distribution arm of British public service broadcaster Channel 4. Founded in 1982, Film4 began life as Channel Four Films and was given the directive of investing in movies to be broadcast on the ‘Film on Four’ section of the channel.

From My Beautiful Laundrette to Poor Things via Trainspotting and so much in between - over the years and decades, Film4 would grow to become a crucial cog in the British film industry, going on to finance, produce, and distribute some of the most iconic films the country has ever seen.

Over the course of 43 years (and counting), Film4 has had a hand in nearly 500 titles – a rather daunting back catalogue containing a lot of incredibly niche, hard to find stuff; however, despite the intimidating nature of the list and the fact that completing the entire thing in 12 months was never really a possibility, a year later and I’d managed to make it to the end of the 80s.

It’s been a weird, wild ride so far and there’s been a lot of highly questionable efforts in the mix, yet, all things considered, it’s been an enthralling journey and a cool little snapshot of 1980s Britain (and beyond) through the eyes of a then-young Channel 4 still finding its feet and its way in the world.

There’s been ups and there’s been downs, but before I move on to a new decade, I just wanted to pause, take stock, take a look back at what I’ve watched so far, and honour the best that 80s Film4 had to offer.

Here are my top 20 Film4 films from 1982 – 1989:

“You know, in Soviet Union if you don't work you don't eat.”

“It's a bit like that here as well.”

Very sweet, very wholesome, very scouse. One for the hopeless romantics out there, for sure.

“I can speak their language. This is why the boss chose for me for the job. But I don't know what they really mean.”

Come for the highly pertinent comment on immigration and migrant labour, stay for Jeremy Irons’ questionable Polish accent and Hans Zimmer’s one note wonder of a debut score.

“Are you going to stick that horse cock in my ear?”

A tight, no nonsense survival thriller. Well-constructed tension throughout and a solid sense of creeping claustrophobia that gradually gets a grip on you. Nothing mind-blowing but does what it needs to do to get the job done.

“I want you to marry me.”

“Why? Are you pregnant.”

Miranda Richardson, amirite?

“Moving house is very upsetting. It's a big upsetment - people get upset.”

Sweet little film with a nice concept of following an entire property chain from Hammersmith one bed flat to Knightbridge mansion on moving day. However, as someone buying a house at the time of watching, it made for very stressful viewing at times.

“Never trust a man whose eyebrows meet in the middle.”

This is actually excellent life advice.

“Ain't nothing I can say to make it up to you. There's only things I can do to show you. That I am with you.”

A rough diamond. A scrappily plotted, tonally erratic slice of British history that has kind of aged well and kind of hasn’t. Undeniably groundbreaking for the sheer presence of its central queer romance at a time when such a thing was unthinkable, a lot of what goes on around Johnny and Omar, however, dilutes its impact.

From the scathing Thatcherite commentary to illicit mistresses to race relations to generational relations to weird cousin relations - with sub plots and random tangents aplenty, there’s a lot going on here. Some of it works, some of it doesn’t, but despite how confused it feels at times, you can’t deny the swings it takes.

“England has always been disinclined to accept human nature.”

A step above many of Film4’s earlier period pieces and a vitally positive depiction of gay life made during the height of the AIDS crisis.

“I think my wife is poisoning me.”

Finally, a Peter Greenaway film I can get behind. After appreciating but not massively digging The Draughtsman's Contract and A Zed & Two Noughts, this is definitely more my bag.

Mixing his impeccable eye for shot composition with far more emotional punch than any of his earlier efforts, together with Brian Dennehy‘s brilliantly sweaty performance, The Belly of an Architect is the director’s first out and out triumph.

“What made this country great was a place for everyone, and everyone in his place. And this is my place.”

A class film about class.

“We don’t have a real president in the White House.”

Part live concert, part political commentary, part hangout session, all poetry. This is Gil Scott-Heron’s world and we all just vibing in it.

“Muppet.”

“I’m not a muppet.”

Mike Leigh very much starting as he means to go on. Also…what a bloody cast.

“She blew in like the wind. No plans, no goals. No wishes, no wants.”

My first ever Agnes Varda joint and I liked it a lot. A bleak, unflinching, deeply human odyssey through life, death, and unfathomable loneliness. Truly one of the grimmest endings to a film I’ve seen in some time.

“I always wanted to be an orphan. I could have, if it wasn't for my parents.”

Gary Oldman and Alfred Molina out here absolutely acting the pants off one another. Quite literally at times. Tremendous stuff.

“He'll have a lettuce and I'll have a Bloody Mary.”

God, I miss Bob Hoskins.

“Why did you marry him, Mam?”

“He was nice. He was a good dancer.”

Terence Davies’ heavily autobiographical film is a steadily moving portrait of one family in wartime and post-war Britain. Glacially paced, yet the slow burn, photobook-like narrative lets us soak in the ups and downs of one working class family, offering plenty of nostalgia but warning us against its potentially malignant powers.

“You have to learn to talk like a Mexican. Tell me it's a hot day.”

One of the best immigrant’s journey films I’ve ever seen. I can’t stop thinking about that rat tunnel.

“I thought all this money would make me feel different.”

Charming, witty, sentimental, weird as hell. The perfect pick-me-up film really.

A baby Peter Capaldi. Burt Lancaster with some kind of humiliation kink. Webbed toes. Northern lights. Mark Knopfler letting rip with an absolute belter of a theme. What’s not to like?

"Try the cock, Albert. It's a delicacy. And you know where it's been."

A film for our times…released 36 years ago.

Michael Gambon’s performance is an absolute bulldozer of megalomaniacal Trumpian cuntishness so gloriously vulgar, his ultimate comeuppance becomes a thing of cathartic beauty. Not a film for everyone, but I loved it.

“I'm not afraid of heights. I'm afraid of falling.”

Despite being integral to British film in the 80s, the best Film4 title of the decade was actually an American cinema classic. An absolute one of a kind. Few films have captured the concept of family and human connection so acutely. A luscious, meditative, painfully relatable masterpiece that basks in its prolonged silences, topped off by a Harry Dean Stanton performance for the ages.

So there we go then. That’s 80s Film4 complete. On to the 90s we go!