The 1980s. Fashion is horrendous. Thank God the music has spunk. But one thing the world's missing? Realistic portraits of teenagers on the big screen... Who knew that their saviour would arrive in the form of a previously painfully shy Chicago native?

Breaking onto the movie scene with warmer-upper National Lampoon’s Vacation, John Hughes took up the camera to direct his first hit Sixteen Candles. Suddenly, real-life issues were being burned up under the lens – forgotten birthdays, high school crushes, developing breasts…

“At the time I came along, Hollywood's idea of teen movies meant there had to be a lot of nudity, usually involving boys in pursuit of sex, and pretty gross overall,” Hughes once recalled.

“And the last thing Hollywood wanted in their teen movies was teenagers! It was all 25-year-olds in those movies. When I did Sixteen Candles, all the extras, they were all real freshmen boys and girls from the same high school.” What a difference one man can make.