Brief Encounter at 80: why we’re still falling for David Lean’s 1945 romance

The story of hot tea and unconsummated love hails from a very different era – and was far from easy to make. Yet it remains a key influence for film-makers from Sofia Coppola to Celine Song, James Ivory to Greta Gerwig

The first time David Lean’s 1945 romantic masterpiece was shown to the public, the audience were in stitches. It not being a comedy, this was far from ideal. The director was so embarrassed, he returned to his hotel planning to break into the film lab and burn the negative at the earliest opportunity.

Eighty years on, the legacy of Brief Encounter has proved anything but. First, its train station setting and ubiquity on British TV led to parodies by everyone from Victoria Wood to Birds Eye ready meals.