“The British are coming!” So claimed the screenwriter rather arrogantly onstage after winning his Oscar for Chariots Of Fire.

Actually, they weren’t. Goldcrest, the UK studio which produced Chariots Of Fire subsequently lost a ton of money on director Hugh Hudson’s unmitigated disaster follow-up Revolution, starring Al Pacino.

As a 20 year old I actually managed to wangle an interview there at this point with a senior executive. He waved his arm around to show me a ton of empty offices behind him where they had recently downsized and said “I had the guy who won an Oscar for Chariots Of Fire on the phone asking me to find a job for his daughter. I’ve got nothing, what do you expect me to do for you?” And that was as close as I ever got to working in the film business.

None of which detracts from the excellence of Chariots Of Fire, the story of rivalry from college to Olympics between 2 runners. Everyone remembers the slow-motion run down the beach to Vangelis’ iconic theme tune. I have no idea where this still came from.