It’s Saturday evening the week before pay day. You’re staring at your DVD collection, debating what to watch. American Pie and Ferris Bueller are sat side-by-side on the shelf. Which do you take?

The John Hughes movie, of course. While many of the ‘90s teen comedies remain decent in their own right, they owe a huge (Hughes) debt of gratitude to Hughes’ pioneering work.

“The studios never perceived those films as hits,” Hughes once reminisced. “They'd always bring them out in February, which is when the studios usually dump the movies they have no confidence in.

“Of course, I was naive, I thought, ‘Fantastic! Right in the middle of that long stretch between Christmas and Spring Break, your coats are getting dirty, everything's dark, dingy - what a great time for a movie!’

“Especially one that's a little depressing. You see, one of the bits of wisdom I've picked up about adolescence is that joy and sorrow are equally pleasant to a teenager; those extreme states of mind are pretty cool whatever they are!”

Hughes may be gone. But his legacy lives on.