Press, politics and the art of going big screen

Last week, scabrous TV satire The Thick of It was elevated to the silver screen as In the Loop, while this week Russell Crowe and Ben Affleck get to take on movie versions of the roles defined on the small screen by John Simm and David Morrissey in Paul Abbbot's justly feted TV series State of Play. But how often does a TV Show make a great movie?

And has a TV show ever generated a greater movie version of itself? Well, as a matter of fact, yes it has...