The centenary of the UK's famous Ealing Studios is being celebrated with the cinema re-release of six classic Ealing comedies on Friday.

Passport To Pimlico, Kind Hearts And Coronets, Whisky Galore, The Man In The White Suit, The Lavender Hill Mob and The Ladykillers are the six which are being re-issued in digitally remastered prints.

Puckoon is based on Spike Milligan's first novel

They will be showing in London's West End from Friday and will then tour the UK.

The six films were made during the "golden era" of Ealing Studios and are regarded as some of the best UK films ever made.

A cast of regulars, including Sir Alec Guinness, Joan Greenwood, Sid James, Herbert Lom and Margaret Rutherford starred in many of the films.

The first of the films being shown, Passport to Pimlico, was released in 1949, while The Ladykillers, also being re-released, was one of the last films to be made at Ealing Studios before it was sold to the BBC in 1955.

The films will also be shown at the first ever Ealing Film Festival, which takes place next month.

Gala

The opening night film will be a new version of Oscar Wilde's The Importance Of Being Ernest, the first fully-fledged Ealing Studios production for nearly 40 years.

The latest adaptation, which is due to open in the UK in September, stars Colin Firth, Judi Dench, Frances O'Connor and Reese Witherspoon.

The film version of Spike Milligan's novel Puckoon has already been chosen as the closing night gala.

The film, which stars Sean Hughes, Richard Attenborough and Elliott Gould, is adapted from Milligan's first book, which was published in 1964.