Emma Thompson is one of this country's most successful and respected actresses who mixes her acting roles with screenwriting.
Acting was in Thompson's blood her father Eric was an actor, best known for writing and narrating The Magic Roundabout, her mother Phyllida Law was also an actress.
This week sees her return to the role of Nanny McPhee in Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang. So to celebrate the release of the film we take a look at he movies that really should be in your film collection.
Sense and Sensibility
Ang Lee took on the adaptation of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility in 1995, which saw Thompson in the central role of Elinor Dashwood.
Set in the English countryside, the film follows the loves and heartaches of sisters Elinor (Thompson) and Marianne Dashwood (Kate Winslet).
The two have extremely divergent approaches to life: Elinor represents "sense" and believes in behaving with propriety and thoughtfulness, while Marianne represents "sensibility" and basks in her own emotions.
Both women, however, experience confusion when their lovers, seemingly on the verge of proposing marriage, spurn
But not only did she star in the movie she also adapted the popular novel. And despite being nominated for another acting Oscar it was for her scriptwriting that she was honoured.
Howard's End
Despite appearing in The Tall Guy in 1989 it was Howard's End that really saw her career take off in 1992.
The movie was an adaptation of E.M. Forster's novel and saw Thompson star alongside Anthony Hopkins, Vanessa Redgrave and Helena Bonham-Carter.
The dying Ruth Wilcox (Redgrave) wishes to leave her country home, Howards End, to Margaret Schlegel, a modest woman of little means who will soon be forced out of her own home in London.
But Ruth's husband, Henry (Hopkins), an upper middle class businessman, keeps secret her desire even after he and Margaret become friends.
However, after Henry and Margaret marry, their class differences and philosophies threaten to cause them unhappiness. Margaret's sister, Helen (Carter), is disgusted by the Wilcox's snobbish ways and is attracted to helping struggling clerk Leonard Bast (Sam West) improve his position.
For her performance Thompson was nominated for her Best Actress Oscar, an award she went on to win, she also picked up the Bafta and Golden Globe.
The Remains of the Day
The Remains of The Day was another Merchant Ivory movie that saw Thompson reunite with Anthony Hopkins in 1993.
On the large English estate of Lord Darlington (James Fox), a disciplined English butler, Stevens (Hopkins), devotes himself to his duties with rigorous dedication.
Like his father (Peter Vaughan) before him, Stevens lives to serve, to bring order and certainty to the estate's minutiae.
Though Stevens has the opportunity to break free of this mould in the form of a romance with the spirited housekeeper, Miss Kenton (Thompson), he chooses to remain within the safe structure of the household, even one that has misguided loyalties to Nazi Germany.
Once again it was another critical hit, with both Thompson and Hopkins praised for their central performances.
Another Best Actress nomination came Thompson's way, but she lost out to Holly Hunter for The Piano.
In The Name of the Father
1993 was a great year for the actress as she also starred in In The Name of the Father, was which was based on the autobiography Proved Innocent by Gerry Conlon.
In The Name of the Father tells the tumultuous and wrenching tale of a man wrongfully imprisoned in 1974 for the bombing of a London pub.
Daniel Day-Lewis stars as Conlon, a young Irish petty thief living in London who gets picked up after he and a friend, Paul Hill (John Lynch), rob a hooker's apartment.
The British police, desperate to produce results in their search for the culprits in the pub bombing, force a false confession out of Conlon after subjecting him to days of sadistic torture and threats.
Thompson takes on the role of the lawyer who battles to prove Conlon's innocence. As well as being nominated for Best Actress for The Remains of the Day Thompson also picked up a Best Supporting Actress nod for her role in In The Name of the Father.
Last Chance Harvey
Teaming up with Dustin Hoffman, Last Chance Harvey is one of the actresses most recent roles, and another of her best.
Hoffman stars as Harvey Shine, a divorced and haggard jingle-writer quickly aging out of his career and workaholic ways. With a warning from his boss to not bother rushing back, Harvey goes to London, begrudgingly, for his daughter's wedding, fielding that work calls the whole time he's there.
When Harvey greets his estranged daughter, Susie (Liane Balaban), it becomes clear just how far away he's grown from his family. Harvey has grown so distant from his only child that she has asked her step father to give her away.
As Harvey leaves his heartbreak at the ceremony for an emergency work call, he misses his flight and gets fired. While nursing a whiskey at the airport bar, Harvey bumps into Kate (Emma Thompson), an airport employee escaping her own bad day with a glass of wine and a book.
Suddenly taken by Kate's British charm, a tipsy Harvey bombards her with tales of his trouble. This unlikely trading of sob stories leads to lunch, a walk around London, and a day of unexpected romance.
Thompson is charming as Kate, a lonely middle-age woman struggling to deal with her mother's constant prying into her life. Despite not having had the best of luck in romance, Kate is an optimist at heart and a spark for life that means she never gives in together.
But with mixing and matching her roles her entire career Thompson has gone on to produce great turns in Love Actually, Brideshead Revisited, An Education and, of course, Harry Potter.
Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang is released 26th March
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw
Emma Thompson is one of this country's most successful and respected actresses who mixes her acting roles with screenwriting.
Acting was in Thompson's blood her father Eric was an actor, best known for writing and narrating The Magic Roundabout, her mother Phyllida Law was also an actress.
This week sees her return to the role of Nanny McPhee in Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang. So to celebrate the release of the film we take a look at he movies that really should be in your film collection.
Sense and Sensibility
Ang Lee took on the adaptation of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility in 1995, which saw Thompson in the central role of Elinor Dashwood.
Set in the English countryside, the film follows the loves and heartaches of sisters Elinor (Thompson) and Marianne Dashwood (Kate Winslet).
The two have extremely divergent approaches to life: Elinor represents "sense" and believes in behaving with propriety and thoughtfulness, while Marianne represents "sensibility" and basks in her own emotions.
Both women, however, experience confusion when their lovers, seemingly on the verge of proposing marriage, spurn
But not only did she star in the movie she also adapted the popular novel. And despite being nominated for another acting Oscar it was for her scriptwriting that she was honoured.
Howard's End
Despite appearing in The Tall Guy in 1989 it was Howard's End that really saw her career take off in 1992.
The movie was an adaptation of E.M. Forster's novel and saw Thompson star alongside Anthony Hopkins, Vanessa Redgrave and Helena Bonham-Carter.
The dying Ruth Wilcox (Redgrave) wishes to leave her country home, Howards End, to Margaret Schlegel, a modest woman of little means who will soon be forced out of her own home in London.
But Ruth's husband, Henry (Hopkins), an upper middle class businessman, keeps secret her desire even after he and Margaret become friends.
However, after Henry and Margaret marry, their class differences and philosophies threaten to cause them unhappiness. Margaret's sister, Helen (Carter), is disgusted by the Wilcox's snobbish ways and is attracted to helping struggling clerk Leonard Bast (Sam West) improve his position.
For her performance Thompson was nominated for her Best Actress Oscar, an award she went on to win, she also picked up the Bafta and Golden Globe.
The Remains of the Day
The Remains of The Day was another Merchant Ivory movie that saw Thompson reunite with Anthony Hopkins in 1993.
On the large English estate of Lord Darlington (James Fox), a disciplined English butler, Stevens (Hopkins), devotes himself to his duties with rigorous dedication.
Like his father (Peter Vaughan) before him, Stevens lives to serve, to bring order and certainty to the estate's minutiae.
Though Stevens has the opportunity to break free of this mould in the form of a romance with the spirited housekeeper, Miss Kenton (Thompson), he chooses to remain within the safe structure of the household, even one that has misguided loyalties to Nazi Germany.
Once again it was another critical hit, with both Thompson and Hopkins praised for their central performances.
Another Best Actress nomination came Thompson's way, but she lost out to Holly Hunter for The Piano.
In The Name of the Father
1993 was a great year for the actress as she also starred in In The Name of the Father, was which was based on the autobiography Proved Innocent by Gerry Conlon.
In The Name of the Father tells the tumultuous and wrenching tale of a man wrongfully imprisoned in 1974 for the bombing of a London pub.
Daniel Day-Lewis stars as Conlon, a young Irish petty thief living in London who gets picked up after he and a friend, Paul Hill (John Lynch), rob a hooker's apartment.
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