Trainspotting crowned as top film

Gritty drug drama Trainspotting has been named the best British film of the past six decades.

The movie - starring Ewan McGregor and Robert Carlyle - triumphed in a Diamond Jubilee poll staged by HMV to find the top screen hits of the Queen's reign.

Monty Python And The Holy Grail was runner-up in the poll, while another Python comedy Life Of Brian was ranked fourth.

A pair of Harry Potter films made the top 10, as did two movies by the late British-based US director Stanley Kubrick, A Clockwork Orange and 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Trainspotting was based on the novel by Irvine Welsh about a group of heroin addicts in late 1980s Edinburgh. The film - also famous for its soundtrack - was made by Oscar-winning director Danny Boyle, soon to take a major role at London 2012 as the artistic director of the opening ceremony.

Trainspotting took six per cent of the 24,000 votes in the month-long poll, which saw the noughties as the most popular decade across the entire top 60, accounting for 18 of the titles.

Appropriately in the Diamond Jubilee year, the multiple Oscar-winning film The King's Speech, which starred Colin Firth as the Queen's father King George VI, featured in the top 10.

The highest ranked James Bond film was Goldfinger at 13. HMV is selling many of the films at a discount to mark the Jubilee.