The Beiderbecke Affair (1985 Various)

Written by Alan Plater and based on his own four part 1981 series Get Lost! but adding an important jazz element (disappointingly, it's actually played by Kenny Young). Full of quippy dialogue (sardonic non-sequiturs, a bit like screwball comedies) and wonderfully surreal situations (platinum blonde, being asked to referee, warehouse under church), with the old guy (Keith Marsh) and the dog as a sort of Greek chorus. Plater also likes digging at the urban planners, the police and nosy neighbours.

James Bolam and Barbara Flynn make a wonderfully endearing team - but they're not Nick and Nora.  With Dudley Sutton, Dominic Jephcott (DI with BA), Terence Rigby, Danny Schiller, Sue Jenkins (who Q correctly identified as from Brookside).

Had a good audience in the eighties but seems unlikely anything like this would get made now... On that note:

By 1995, when Plater suggested a fourth Beiderbecke serial, ITV no longer even pretended to uphold the public service ideal. 'I rang Jimmy Bolam and Barabara Flynn and asked if they would be up for another one. They said "Oh yea, great". So we got on to Yorkshire and the people there were also thrilled to bits, having earlier asked for a fourth serial. Yorkshire took the idea to the ITV Network Centre and were told to wait. What ITV market men did was analyse the viewing figures for the first three series and conclude that there would now be no audience for such things. Never mind that we got from eight to ten million as far as I recall. Right up to the end we got great notices and I still get fan letters now.'

'Talk of Drama', Sean Day-Lewis, 1998.

Made for Yorkshire TV and shot in and around Leeds. Pleased to see many locations are still there. Love the way the backgrounds are always populated by activity of some sort.

A Rather English Marriage (1998 Paul Seed)

Andrew Davies adapted Angela Lambert's 1992 novel about an odd couple - blustery, emotionally stunted Squadron-Leader Finney and mild, efficient, sensitive Courtenay, their 'marriage', and what happens when gold-digger Joanna Lumley comes along (handled more sympathetically than you might think).

It's of course very well acted. We completely missed a young Rosamund Pike (second from left):

It's the sort of story that becomes more poignant the older you get.

Mr & Mrs Smith (1941 Alfred Hitchcock)

An annoying premise, in which a truculent couple realise they're not married and - because he's said the wrong thing - she insists she doesn't want to tie the knot. Lombard is fine as always, shot by Harry Stradling (Hitch apparently only did the film as a favour to her, at RKO), Robert Montgomery is slightly annoying. I did though quite like their return to their favourite Italian restaurant which has become somewhat declassé, and the high chair in the rain.

With Gene Raymond, Jack Carson, William Tracy, Charles Halton.

Dark Places (2015 Gilles Paquet-Brenner & scr)

A rather silly story (from 'Gone Girl' author Gillian Flynn) - a mother pays to have herself rubbed out by a hit man?? - which is somehow mesmerizing, I guess attributable to Charlize Theron's performance and Paquet-Brenner's direction. Great cast though includes Chloe Grace Moretz, Tye Sheridan, Nicholas Hoult (brilliant accent), Christina Hendricks, Corey Stoll, Sean Bridgers, Drea de Matteo.

Seriously well photographed by Barry Aykroyd in Panavision. And with Douglas Crise and Billy Fox editing.

Paquet-Brenner has co-written (with Julian Fellowes) and directed the Agatha Christie story Crooked House.

This references the little girl Fanny Adams, who was murdered horribly in 1867 by a solicitor's clerk, and who was immortalised in the expression 'Sweet Fanny Adams'.

Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989 Woody Allen & scr)

"Sometimes to have a little luck is the most brilliant plan."

A terrific film, in which ophthalmologist Martin Landau has his neurotic girlfriend Anjelica Huston bumped off via dodgy brother Jerry Orbach - meanwhile nice Rabbi brother Sam Waterston is going blind.. Sight (the all-seeing God) is one of the themes in brilliant drama-comedy, extremely well written (earning both BAFTA and Oscar nominations) - excellent use of flashbacks.

In  parallel (well, completely separate) plot, Woody (good) falls for producer Mia Farrow whilst making a documentary about his pretentious brother-in-law Alan Alda, though his real interest is in the fabulous pronouncements of aging professor Martin Bergmann (a real life professor of psychology). And he finds time to take his niece Jenny Nichols to old movies, including Mr and Mrs Smith and Laird Cregar in This Gun For Hire (neither shown in the correct ratio, but both now due for a rewatch).

Using Bergman's cameraman Sven Nykvist, he had made a film every bit as deep as a Bergman, but a lot more fun. He's trying out murder to music (Schubert) too with several magic hour sequences, well directed.

With Claire Bloom, Joanna Gleason, Caroline Aaron.

Seriously overdue. Another rebuttal to those who thinks his films are all the same - the guy's a genius.

Betsy's Wedding (1990 Alan Alda & scr)

Alan Alda and Madeline Kahn host wedding of daughter Molly Ringwald (crazy fashionista) to Dylan Walsh. Alda is mixed up with shady building plot through brother-in-law Joe Pesci and gangster Burt Young, which is how his other daughter Ally Sheedy gets involved with a young Anthony LaPaglia (who steals the film). Meanwhile Catherine O'Hara (Home Alone) is outwitting her husband at property deals... Julie Bovasso is the grandmother.

Luckily, Bruce Broughton has left his synthesizer at home.

Sweet Liberty (1986 Alan Alda & scr)

Alan Alda becomes upset when his Civil War novel is given the Hollywood treatment by writer Bob Hoskins and director Saul Rubinek (Frasier and lots of TV), becomes infatuated with mercenary star Michelle Pfeiffer to the detriment of on-off relationship with Lise Hilboldt. Meanwhile Michael Caine (and his fencing stunt double) steal the film ('What a peculiar lunge').

Quite fun, sub-plots - e.g. mother Lillian Gish's quest for lost love - run out of steam; film wraps up a bit quickly. Feels a bit like they only shot two thirds of the material, in fact. Not as good as State and Main for sure, but good fun, makes you think about how the film itself is shot (why is this a crane shot? - oh, I see).

Almost sunk by Bruce Broughton's horrendous score. Shot by Frank Tidy.

To answer my own question, Alda has appeared in three Woody Allens: Everyone Says I Love You, Manhattan Murder Mystery and Crimes and Misdemeanours.

Song of the Thin Man (1947 Edward Bussell)

The final entry in the series is good entertainment, with a natty murder plot, some cool early jazz numbers (in a variety of 'jam joints') and outta sight jive talk (quickly mastered by Nora).

Stanley Roberts' story was written by Steve Fisher and Nat Perrin (who also produced), additional dialogue by James O'Hanlon and Harry Crane.

Joining Powell and Loy are Dean Stockwell as Junior, and Keenan Wynn (the other 'licorice stick' player), Phillip Reed, Patricia Morison, Leon Ames, Gloria Grahame, Ralph Morgan (looking rather thin), Marie Windsor and (uncredited) Esther Howard (Born to Kill). Shot by Charles Rosher, with an interesting on-stage shot where the lead performer is moved forward towards camera (on a platform of some kind I guess).

'I ain't feelin' it yet'

Postscript - saw a bit of one episode of the 1958 TV series with Peter Lawford and Betsy Drake - boy, it was AWFUL, really badly miscast and totally missing the essence.

Victoria (2016 -7 Created and written by Daisy Goodwin)

Well, Daisy sometimes delegates to other writers in epic eight-hour series (1 & 2 at time of writing) for ITV, in which it's fun to see Buckingham palace reimagined in its contemporary settings (it doesn't even have railings, to begin with). It's her debut as a screenwriter, though not as a novelist. She had to read the Queen's diaries as part of her degree course and found her surprisingly interesting. Thus much of what we see is directly connected to (her) history, with such hindsight-as-humour discussing of computers, industrial innovation and the latest Dickens.

Though we no doubt have invention also, in the below-the-stairs stories involving the Queen's dresser Nell Hudson, chef Ferdinand Kingsley et al.

We are absolutely loving the performances of Jenna Coleman, Tom Hughes and especially Rufus Sewell.

Also what we love about it is that it portrays a happy married couple in love, and who like each other (past examples: The Thin Man films, TV's The Good Life and The Beiderbecke Affair) - any conflicts arise from others and outside events (the Irish potato famine is a history lesson that needs retelling, with its million dead). Most fun is the episode in which the couple get lost on the Scottish moors and spend the night with an unsuspecting couple.

Pleased to say that series two does end with a proper season finale - none of your stupid unresolved endings, series that suddenly becomes Broadchurch etc...

Music by Martin Phipps.

Miss Austen Regrets (2008 Jeremy Lovering)

Yes, we think Miss Austen does have regrets, though usually she's denying them to everyone around her. Hugh Bonneville says he would have 'let' her continue to write when they were married - she claims the duties of marriage and family would have prevented it. That may be so, but poor Jane is in tough years as family wealth crumbles around her, and in a strong scene her mother (Phyllida Law) berates her for not marrying and being in the position where they're going to lose their cottage... As it turns out she isn't long for this world.. And she has the constant frustration of not being paid enough from the publishers.

Jane (Olivia Williams) sometimes comes over as more acerbic than witty, and doesn't help her niece Imogen Poots' quest for romance at all, so it's quite well written (Gwyneth Hughes) in that Life is not Literature. (Hughes also wrote The Girl and Remember Me, so ...)

With Greta Scacchi, Pip Torrens, Tom Hiddlestone, Tom Goodman-Hill, Adrian Edmonson, Sylvie Herbert (French lady), Jack Huston (doctor), Jason Watkins (Prince Regent's librarian).

The Old Curiosity Shop (2007 Brian Percival)

Which is curious.. as there's not much about the Old Curiosity Shop in it - which I suppose is one of the shortcomings in abridging a Dickens novel into ninety minutes - Martyn Hesford did the adaptation. There's certainly no customers.

Anyway, Sophie Vavasseur is the (slightly colourless) in-danger heroine, her useless gambling addict father is Derek Jacobi, and Toby Jones makes a truly vile and unredeemable Quilp. It's all appropriately dark and dingy and sinister, well shot by Peter Greenhalgh in Ireland locations.

With Gina McKee and Adam Godley, Anna Madeley and Josey Lawrence, Adrian Rawlings, Geoffrey Breton (Dick Swiveller sounds so much like a Carry On name) and Charlene McKenna, Bryan Dick (we last saw him in Capital), George MacKay (you know, Pride, Private Peaceful, Hunky Dory, The Boys Are Back), Martin Freeman and Steve Pemberton, Zoe Wanamaker.

Crazy, Stupid, Love. (2011 Glenn Ficarra, John Requa)

Written by Dan Fogelman. Ryan Gosling displays good comic timing, and moments (just before the punch-up below he calls someone 'grabby'). Also some of his ad-libbed scenes and interviews with Carell in the extras are really good and funny.

Kevin Bacon, John Carroll Lynch, Ryan Gosling, Steve Carrell

Emma Stone, Julianne Moore, Analeigh Tipton

Beautifully written and constructed, played by a winning cast, gorgeously shot by Andrew Dunn.

Toy Story (1995 John Lasseter)

Lasseter, Pete Docter (who also supervised the animation), Andrew Stanton and Joe Ranft wrote the story - the screenplay was by Stanton, Joss Whedon, Joel Cohen and Alec Sokolow.

What self-respecting boy would have a Little Bo Peep?

The cast includes Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Don Rickles, Wallace Shawn and Annie Potts.

It still looks amazing and is a lot of fun. Noticed the Alien reference, 'Virtual Realty' etc.

A Good Woman (2004 Mike Barker)

Howard Himelstein (My Sexiest Year is sadly unavailable) adapted Oscar Wilde's play 'Lady Windemere's Fan' - we kept thinking it played like a Woody Allen film. Scarlett Johansson, Helen Hunt, Stephen Campbell Moore, Mark Umbers, Tom Wilkinson, Milena Vukotic, Roger Hammond, John Standing.

Shot by Ben (half-brother of Michael) Seresin in and around Amalfi. Rather good, music too (Richard Mitchell). Not sure Hunt credible as man-stealer.

Atrani when not in film

Fair quota of usual quotable Wilde-isms - not all successful - including 'Sausages and women. If you want to enjoy the experience, don't watch the preparation of either'.

Glorious 39 (2009 Steven Poliakoff)

Reviewed here, one of Poliakoff's most coherent thrillers in which almost everybody is in on the conspiracy, filmed with the most long shots I think in anything - giving it a sinister distance.

The family are Bill Nighy, Romola Garai, Eddie Redmayne and Juno Temple, with Jenny Agutter in a telling but almost-not-there part. With David Tennant, Hugh Bonneville, Jeremy Northam, Toby Regbo, Christopher Lee, Corin Redgrave, Charlie Cox.

The Girl Next Door (2004 Luke Greenfield)

Emile Hirsch is delighted that Elisha Cuthbert moves in next door, despite the fact she turns out to be a porn star, trying to get away from pimp Timothy Olyphant. Whilst somewhat flaky, the film is fun. With Chris Marquette and Paul Dano as gorky friends, and a funny sex education video. Written by David Wagner, Brent Goldberg and Stuart Blumberg (The Kids are All Right).

Fanny and Elvis (1999 Kay Mellor & scr)

Because we had just watched the first, great part of her new series  Love, Lies and Records. Near the beginning, Ray Winstone (a sensitive performance) and Kerry Fox get into an argument over a car prang - they are at one point so close together they are almost kissing. It takes a while for it all to settle, and there's some slightly questionable plotting over their separation, but builds to a happy ending. Ben Daniels is good in support, especially when he pretends to be a doctor. With Colin Salmon, Jennifer Saunders, David Morrissey, Gaynor Faye (Kay's daughter)

That distinctive singer is Cerys Matthews. And why is there a special thanks to Jenny Agutter? And why had we left it so long??

Baby Driver (2017 Edgar Wright & scr)

First thoughts - Edgar Wright's most cohesive film, an actual thrillery plot, rather than a way of stringing together pastiches of other genres (which are undeniably brilliant). No doubt there are references to older road / bank heist movies like Vanishing Point but this is also unique in the way its scenes are perfectly cut and choreographed to the inspired and unusual music choices. It may be a bit predictable in places but there's absolutely tons going on to keep the attention engaged.

Credit to Bill Pope, Paul Machliss and Jonathan Amos and choreographer Ryan Heffington.

Ansel Egort and Lily James make an attractive couple. Is this going to be the last Kevin Spacey film? With Jaimie Foxx, Jon Hamm, Eiza Gonzalez.

There's something of John Huston to it, I thought...

The Book of Henry (2017 Colin Trevorrow)

In Gregg Hurwitz's fanciful tale a super-smart kid plans to murder his step-daughter-abusing neighbour - when the kid prematurely dies, his mum has to complete the job for him, with help from beyond the grave.

There's nothing wrong with the terrific acting of Naomi Watts, Jaeden Liebehrer (St. Vincent, Aloha, Midnight Special - and It) and Jacob Tremblay (Room), with Sarah Silverman, Dean Norris, Maddie Ziegler and Lee Pace (surgeon). It's also beautifully lit by John Schwartzman (in 2:1) and the music's by Michael Giacchino.

It's something different, anyway, quite sweet and amusing.

Trevorrow's main claim to fame seems to be Jurassic World, of which he was one of four writers and the director, and which Schwartzman shot and Giacchino scored. And Hurwitz is better known for being a novelist, with just a couple of TV things under his belt.

Shadows and Fog (1991 Woody Allen)

It's certainly Kafkaesque - being awoken in the middle of the night, not being told the plan you're supposedly part of, being written down on a 'list'... quite how he ends up with a magical ending is down to the talent of the writer, who sketched the beginning of this material in 'Death (A Play)', first published in 1975 in 'Without Feathers' and featuring Kleinman, a doctor, a prostitute, a man who claims he can sniff the identity of the killer, and even identical dialogue.

What it doesn't have though is a kick-ass cast of Madonna, Mia Farrow and John Malkovich, Jodie Foster, John Cusack, Kathy Bates, Lily Tomlin, Kenneth Mars (magician) and Wallace Shawn. With Fred Melamed, Fred Gwynne, Julie Kavner, Kate Nelligan, Donald Pleasance, David Ogen Stiers, Philip Bosco.

Features his trademark from this period of characters beginning to start a conversation with someone who is off-screen, e.g. Farrow with Tomlin under a railway bridge.

Santo Loquasto's minimal expressionistic sets (built in Queens) shot by Carlo di Palma in grey.

No one went to see it, of course. It's crazy, unsettling (especially Kurt Weill's music), strangely beautiful and funny.

Café Society (2016 Woody Allen & scr)

A model in screen writing, the master constructs the beautifullest of dramatic ironies - both Jesse Eisenberg and uncle Steve Carell are in love with the same woman (Kristen Stewart).. then halfway through, in joyous Woody Allen style, another story entirely takes place. Mob scenes featuring Corey Stoll are actually quite tough, for him. Seems to pack more in than most films of equivalent running time, something you seem now only to find in vintage films. Talking of which it's fun to guess what year we are actually in amidst welter of film and people name drops.

Blake Lively is the second Veronica. With Parker Posey and Paul Schneider ('I'm a writer - you wouldn't have heard of me'), Jeannie Berlin, Ken Stott, Kelly Rohrbach, Tony Sirico.

Absolutely incredible cinematography from Vittorio Storaro, who bathes the eyes (not for the first time) in colour.

Screen shots in wrong shape via www.woodyallenpages.com

You have to watch out for some of this tricky Jewish reasoning, e.g. celebrating life's meaninglessness, and 'No answer is an answer'.

Ghosts of Girlfriends Past (2009 Mark Waters)

Written by Jon Lucas and Scott Moore (The Hangover,  the dreadful Four Christmases), after Dickens. McConaughey is fine, Jennifer Garner, a young Emma Stone as ex-girlfriend #1, Michael Douglas, Robert Forster, Breckin Meyer, Amanda Walsh. It isn't a particularly good film, but is amusing enough to pass the time. Rich photography by Daryn Okada, music by Rolfe Kent.

The Italian Job (1969 Peter Collinson)

For all its standing as the quintessential British crime caper, taking place in quintessentially British cars, it's ironic they are driven by a French team (L'Equipe Remy Julienne)!

Douglas Slocombe's deep focus widescreen photography is almost scary!

 Always a pleasure, chaps.

Dirty Filthy Love (2004 Adrian Shergold)

Written by Jeff Pope (Cilla, Philomena, Mrs Biggs, The Fattest Man in Britain) and OCD sufferer Ian Pulston-Davies (also a TV actor). Michael Sheen and Shirley Henderson are terrific, as is David Odd's cinema verité camerawork. I think Henderson has difficulty with casting, and Sheen hasn't yet found the Oscar-winning part (he was BAFTA TV nominated for this, but lost to Ryhs Ifans in Not Only But Always, and was up against Cumberbatch and Mark Strong!) Martin Phipps' music also very important. (He wrote the brilliant War and Peace score, The Honorable Woman and The Shadow Line, The Line of Beauty.)

With Adrian Bower, Claudie Blakely, Anastasia Griffith, Anton Lesser. It's a funny and moving piece. There's something about Sheen's face when ticking or barking that is sort of funny, but breaks your heart at the same time.

Norman (2016 Joseph Cedar & scr)

Q was all over Norman, noting the silent sequence outside the shoe shop, the doppelganger dressing of Hank Azaria (an alternative version of Norman), Richard Gere's Woody Allenish-acting turn and the clever device of bringing two scenes into the same shot (and referring to him as Walter Mitty). For me, Norman is a blank centre in a cinematic film (when was the last time you saw a montage scene like that?) which wasn't at all like what I thought it was going to be, with its close, intimate framing and distinctive, helpful music by Jun Miyake.

With Lior Ashkenazi, Steve Buscemi, Josh Charles, Charlotte Gainsborough, Isaac de Bankolé and with the most sensationally acted scene this year, Michael Sheen, as he realises what's going on... Impossible to catch in a single shot...

Here's the Israeli version of the poster that was discussed in the extras:

It's Cedar's first US film.