Although during its lifetime over a hundred Ealing Studio films were made, there are only a small handful that stand out as premium titles that even non film aficionados would have heard of. This list of truly classic films would have to include Kind Hearts and Coronets, The Ladykilllers and The Lavender Hill Mob, and of course Passport to Pimlico.

The residents of London's Pimlico are a hardy bunch; well they have to be considering they have an unexploded bomb on their patch.

Due to the damage caused by other bombs, there aren't that many places for the local children to play, so they invariably play on a bomb site. It's whilst playing that they accidentally set off the UXB. Thankfully no-one is hurt, but when local shopkeeper Arthur Pemberton (Stanley Holloway) is lowered down into the hole, he discovers a wealth of hidden treasures.

Amongst them is an ancient document that claims that the area is in fact owned by French aristocrats from Burgundy.

Taking advantage of this situation, the community decide to declare their independence from the rest of Britain, tear up their ration books and enjoy the high life with their newfound wealth. What they don't count on however is a backlash from Whitehall which leads to all manner of unseen social and diplomatic problems as the situation soon spirals out of control.

Now don't look so glum officer; you know as well as I do that it's illegal to sell Space Dust to anyone.

What Henry Cornelius managed to do, on his directorial debut no less, was to turn a project with no real major star attached and turn it into a solid ensemble piece that thrives off of an intriguing, finely tuned script.

The film succeeds for being smartly observational rather than being an all out comedy. Scriptwriter T.E.B Clarke, who also wrote Ealing's other hugely popular film The Lavender Hill Mob, provided a script with very little in the way of gags. Instead, the humour is born from the bizarre scenario he creates.

Passport to Pimlico still manages to impress today with its sharply acute view on the absurdity of bureaucracy and red tape, that could easily apply to the silliness that often comes in our direction by way of Brussels and political correctness gone mad.

But where it also excels is in its warm and charming portrayal of a community coming together against adversity. Both classes come together to unite against a common enemy, in this unusual case, against the British government.

And of course this newly restored version, with much of the visual noise that comes with being over sixty years old magically removed, only helps to enhance the film's joyful cheeriness.

Yes there's clearly a historical need to preserve such great classic films such as this, but it also has to be remembered that films like this can exist in their own right for purely being a thoroughly entertaining watch.