Scottish university reveals top Christmas film... according to maths
The top five have been revealed
The age-old argument of what the best Christmas film of all time is could finally be settled thanks to research from the University of the West of Scotland.
Academics have been using maths and what is known as the ‘golden ratio’ to develop a system which can be used for all movies, musicals and plays.
The ‘golden ratio’ traditionally identifies a beauty spot in nature but has been applied to the plots, durations, and key moments of Christmas movies. Whatever lines up closest with the ratio could be perceived as the best.
The top five films using this method came out as:
1. Love Actually
2. Home Alone
3. Elf
4. It’s a Wonderful Life
5. The Snowman
Dr Stephen Langston is behind the research and said: “We created 16 points on a timeline and see what happens at those 16 points, relevant to a film, musical or a play.
“The film with 100%, sitting on every single golden ratio point, was Love Actually.
“As it happens Love Actually is one of my favourite films so I was quite pleased to see it come out on top.
“I guess this could be used to settle some arguments, but I take no blame for that.”
You can hear all the latest UK news on the hour, every hour.