Alfred Hitchcock is perhaps Britain's most famous and highly regarded film director, yet he is best known today - even in Britain - for the films he made after he left the country in 1939 for a career in Hollywood. Films like Notorious (1946), Vertigo (1958), Psycho (1960) and The Birds (1963) attest to a skilful filmmaker who thoroughly deserved his reputation as the 'Master of Suspense'.

But Hitchcock's talent didn't magically appear as he crossed the Atlantic. The key elements of what was already recognised as his unique 'style' were in place by the time Hollywood came knocking. He directed no less than 23 films in Britain from 1926 to 1939, including several films in the crime and suspense genre that he made his own, but also melodramas, comedies and even a musical. These films developed the themes, preoccupations, tricks and techniques that audiences and critics still admire today.