The British crime film is one that evolved very soon after film began to be made in Britain, and of course reflects the societies and the concerns of those societies that produced it. earliest british crime films i.e Footpads and Robbery grew out of the late Victorian urban industrial landscape where theft and 'muggings' were a daily ordeal for many.

Some key British crime films
- Footpads
- Trainspotting
- Bullet boy
- London to Brighton
- Villian
- Mona Lisa 
- Lock stock and two smoking barrels

Mona Lisa (1986)
Social and political issues of the crime film 
- films reflect the society that made them and the audiences that consume them. Therefore when faced with a perpetuating British genre such as the crime film that has evolved accross the history of british film, and still continues to be a prominent British film form, it is worth examining both the social and political contexts in which they were recieved.
- while early British films were the product of a society that had little faith in law and order to resolve its issues of crime, by the late 1920s and early 1930s the authority figure of the crime solving police detective had become a common feature of the crime film.

Key themes in the British crime genre 
When watching a body of work across a period of time a number of key themes begin to emerge. Once identified, they can be traced through other films and their development established. Some of the themes that emerge in the crime genre include:
- crime and ounishment
- betrayl
- the criminal code

Working title films 

 - My Beautiful Laundrette
- Four Weddings and a funeral