One of the strongest comedy dramas ever to grace our screens - and with satire dripping from nearly every frame - this 1967 Oscar-winnning classic quite rightly shot Dustin Hoffman to fame, brought Simon and Garfunkel's soundtrack songs to mainstream prominence and created a huge sexual fantasy for numerous young men as they went in search of their own sexy, mature Mrs Robinson.
The plot starts off gently, but the pressures - and a number of other things - soon mount. College boy Benjamin Braddock (an incredible performance by Hoffman, pictured) has graduated with aplomb, returns home and has no idea what to do with his life. Initially his parents are happy for him to be carefree, but, as the weeks roll by, they gradually become concerned, want him to settle down and find a career. No longer the bright-eyed and shy graduate, Ben has become increasingly morose; during the day he laps up beer while he lolls about in his parent's swimming pool, before mysteriously disappearing at night.
What his parents don't know is that Ben has been seduced by friend of the family and considerably older Mrs Robinson (a superb performance by Anne Bancroft). And when Benjamin falls for her daughter Elaine (Katharine Ross), all hell breaks loose...
Now feeling a tad dated - there's a tremendously overstated shock when Mrs Robinson announces to Ben that she's an alcoholic - the film still stands up as an essential must-see of modern cinema.
The Graduate is a Film programme that first aired in 1967 and has been classified a 15 certificate.
