8:59am UK, Monday November 26, 2001

Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back have jointly topped a poll to find the 100 greatest films ever.

The George Lucas epics beat old favourites such as Some Like It Hot and It's A Wonderful Life to take first place in the Channel 4 countdown.

SP Star Wars film poster Darth Vader

But the black and white classics still made it into the top 10.

Mafia

Star Wars, which is 24 years old, has won similar polls in the past.

Mafia duo The Godfather and The Godfather (Part II) came joint second, followed by The Shawshank Redemption.

Tens of thousands of votes were cast by viewers from a list of films to make the show, hosted by Graham Norton.


Modern battle

Gladiator and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, once again battled it out in the top 20, but Gladiator repeatedlast year's Oscar victory over the Taiwanese martial arts film with a top 10 position in the poll.

Crouching Tiger - the biggest grossing foreign film in America and Britain - burnt less brightly in 18th place.

Pulp Fiction, Blade Runner, Schindler's List and Goodfellas also made the final cut, just keeping Jaws and Psycho out of the Top 10.

'Not buffs' list'

Nick Jones, Head of Film Programming for Channel 4, said: "We believe that this list represents what the public really like and is not the usual film buffs' list of titles most people have never heard of.

"The list is bound to stir debate but hopefully will encourage people to see more films that they don't yet know."