Billy Liar

A daydreaming undertaker’s clerk drifts between fantasy and the fear of adulthood in this key work of the British New Wave, adapted by Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall from their stage version of the former’s novel. One-time actor Schlesinger presides over an accomplished ensemble, with Tom Courtenay giving Billy’s evasions a sharp, restless energy. But it’s Christie – in her breakout role – who jolts the film awake. As the incandescent Liz, she embodies the possibility of a life beyond Billy’s half-hearted daydreams, her spontaneity and emotional clarity cutting through the film’s greyscale malaise.