'LOVE ACTUALLY IS NOT JUST POSITIVE LOVE'

Two decades on and Love Actually is still a firm favourite during the festive season. Here, the cast explains why the romcom has stood the test of time

- RHONA MERCER

It was released 20 years ago, but watching Love Actually over the Christmas period has become as much of a tradition as snogging under the mistletoe and overcooking the turkey.

Somehow, we never tire of seeing a distraught Karen (Emma Thompson) sob in her bedroom after discovering the necklace her husband Harry, played by the late, great Alan Rickman, bought her for Christmas was actually a gift for his beautiful new assistant Mia (Heike Makatsch). And every year our heart aches for poor Mark (Andrew Lincoln), as he pines for his best friend's new wife Juliet (Keira Knightley), then declares his feelings by holding up handwritten signs outside her front door on Christmas Eve.

What's more we're guaranteed to giggle - and slightly die inside with embarrassment - when we get to the scene where smitten Prime Minister David (Hugh Grant) grooves around 10 Downing Street to Jump (For My Love) by The Pointer Sisters, after realising he's in love with Martine McCutcheon's character, tea lady Natalie.

When Emma Thompson was asked why she thinks the film - which was written and directed by comedy legend Richard Curtis - remains popular, she said it's because it still strikes a chord with so many of us.

"Time and time again we forget that love is all that matters," she explained in a US TV special celebrating the 20th anniversary of the movie, which also stars Liam Neeson, Colin Firth and Bill Nighy.

While she's admitted she doesn't watch re-runs of the classic, Emma, 64, has revealed that she drew on her own first-hand experience of heartache for her character Karen. The star divorced her ex-husband Kenneth Branagh in 1995 after he had an affair with actress Helena Bonham Carter.