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For Richard Curtis it’s Gregory’s Girl, Gurinder Chadha prefers Tootsie and Katy Brand goes for Dirty Dancing. Whatever your relationship status, here are the film and TV romances to curl up with

When I wrote Four Weddings and a Funeral, I wanted it to be half as good as Gregory’s Girl. John Gordon-Sinclair is so natural, and his best friend, Robert Buchanan, is the funniest movie best friend ever. Then it has the most brilliant plot twist and the definitive final romantic conversation with Clare Grogan, dancing on her back under a tree. If anyone’s thinking of writing a romantic comedy, this is the place to start: not with Hollywood stars and pop songs, but with the low-key, local, truthful bliss of Bill Forsyth’s first masterpiece. Richard Curtis, screenwriter and director...

From the director of the beloved Local Hero: ‘Pure Simple Joy’ is an apt way to describe this deceptively meek, completely endearing Scottish film with a universal theme about adolescence and the reality of teen love. John Hughes’ teen pix do not hold a candle to the innocent charm found here. The gawky yet boundlessly optimistic Gregory falls head over heels for the teenaged wonder girl of his dreams… his only problem is that she’s light years ahead of him in terms of maturity. But the female social system takes on the problem in what must be the most gentle (make that Utopian) view of high school ever. Writer-director Bill Forsythe struck independent hit gold.

Gregory’s Girl

Blu-ray

Film Movement Classics

1980 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 91 min. / Street Date January 21, 2020 / 20.05

Starring: Gordon John Sinclair, Dee Hepburn, Jake D’Arcy, Clare Grogan, Robert Buchanan, Billy Greenlees, Alan Love.

Cinematography: Michael Coulter

Film Editor:...

"Hard work being in love, eh? Especially when you don't know which girl it is."

It was a film without much of a plot, set in a little Scottish town where youths seemingly roamed around freely without a care in the world. Unless you were an awkward teenager by the name of Gregory, of course.

Bill Forsyth's cute 1981 comedy became a surprise hit around the world, and has now been given a makeover in a DVD and Blu-ray re-release. So, after 33 years, does the film still resonate today?

Gregory's Girl star Clare Grogan: 'We didn't expect lasting legacy'

The thing about Gregory's Girl that still resonates, is that not much happens. Compared to high school comedies of the past decade or so, where it's all risqué shenanigans and slapstick situations, this film is relaxed and easy-going, just like John Gordon Sinclair's Gregory himself.

Forsyth's filmmaking style is at its finest here,...

Gregory's Girl has built up a loyal cult following since its release in 1981, with film critic Mark Kermode among its biggest fans.

Bill Forsyth's quirky, understated high school comedy became a surprise hit on both sides of the Atlantic, launching the careers of John Gordon Sinclair and Clare Grogan.

To celebrate Gregory's Girl's much-needed digitally remastered DVD and Blu-ray release, Digital Spy had a chat with Susan herself, Clare Grogan, about the film's ongoing legacy.

Gregory's Girl's re-release is something us dedicated fans will hugely appreciate - are you proud that the film still has a loyal cult following of fans to this day?

"It an incredible thing, I've been talking about it a lot recently, in fact it's something I talk about all the time in life. I can barely walk into a room anywhere in the world, and there's always someone in that room who...

Thirty years after it won hearts the world over, the cast of Bill Forsyth's classic teen romance come together for an emotional anniversary screening

It was the kind of fanatical reception that they all assumed would be forever reserved for "real" movie stars. But last Sunday, 30 years after the quiet man they used to call "Bill the van driver" directed them together in a tiny low-budget Scottish film about a schoolboy's unrequited first love, the cast of Gregory's Girl walked up the red carpet to a sea of jostling TV cameras, flashing paparazzi bulbs and thrusting autograph hunters at the anniversary screening of what has become one of the most loved British films of all time.

The enduring allure of the film that catapulted Bill Forsyth into the British film industry elite has surprised no one so much as its stars, most of whom were in their teens when they made it.