This is Spinal Tap has been voted the best comedy movie of all time by a panel of over 200 experts.

The spoof rockumentary that goes up to eleven came home ahead of Airplane!, Monty Python’s Life of Brian and Annie Hall. Big names including actor Dan Ackroyd and writer Richard Curtis contributed to the poll.

The iconic film stars writers Christopher Guest, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer as guitarist Nigel Tufnel, singer David St Hubbins and bassist Derek Smalls as they attempt to salvage their career with their new album Smell The Glove.

Time Out, who organised the poll, say: “It’s sublimely funny and sharp – a comedy built for the long haul which matures with each viewing.

“It’s so perfectly constructed and performed, the characters so rich and realistic, that it’s initially a challenge to determine the dividing line between reality and fiction.

“But the thing that pushes Spinal Tap ahead of the pack is what a radical and immaculately crafted piece of cinema it is. As funny as the hallowed scene in which Nigel boosts of his amps that go up to 11, you wonder if it would have been as brilliant had the exchange gone on just a second longer. It cuts off at the exact point where nothing more needs saying.”

Time Out’s top ten

01. This Is Spinal Tap (1984)
02. Airplane! (1980)
03. Mony Python’s Life of Brian (1979)
04. Annie Hall (1977)
05. Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)
06. Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004)
07. Withnail And I (1987)
08. Groundhog Day (1993)
09. Some Like It Hot (1959)
10. The Jerk (1979)