ET voted fave family film fodder

Pips Wizard of Oz to winning post

ET is the "greatest ever family film", according to a poll published in today's issue of Radio Times.

More than 2,500 people chipped in their faves for the online search to find the ultimate popcorn experience for mum, dad and the nippers. Spielberg's classic pipped The Wizard of Oz and Mary Poppins, which had to make do with second and third spot, respectively.

Film critic Barry Norman hailed ET as "a magical tale for children, a triumph of special effects, a chastening lesson to bigots everywhere and, as the director Steven Spielberg describes it, a simple and pure love story".

The full list of 100 essential family films can be found in Radio Times, but here's the top ten:

1. ET the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
2. The Wizard of Oz (1939)
3. Mary Poppins (1964)
4. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968)
5. Toy Story (1995)
6. Shrek (2001)
7. Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971)
8. Back to the Future (1985)
9. The Jungle Book (1967)
10. The Sound of Music (1965)

Reg readers with kids will doubtless be glad to see that classics from their own childhoods are well represented. Radio Times film editor Andrew Collins said: "Entertain one generation and they'll pass it on to the next. When the elusive ingredients come together… something magical happens: memories are imprinted*, bonds formed and imaginations fired." ®

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*True enough. I still can't shift the sound of Dick Van Dyke's Cockney accent from my mind, and it's been forty years since I first saw Mary Poppins.