The time Police Academy 2 topped the BFI top 100 Greatest Films of All Time

September 23^rd 1992, for most an ordinary day, but for the film industry, a day to wait the mail with baited breath.

Today, industry bible Sight & Sound was published, and it would contain the results of their Top 100 greatest films poll.

Over 800 critics, programmers, academics and distributors vote in the poll that is produced once every ten years, making it the most comprehensive and revered poll of its kind.

In 1992, the rumour was of a staid poll with Citizen Kane remaining in the number one spot and few major changes in the top ten.

Nothing could have been further from the truth.

“I was as surprised as anyone,” Ian Christie the renowned film academic who ran the 1992 poll.

“I mean, I thought Police Academy 2 was a stunning achievement, it had Officer Larvell Jones making those wacky sound effects and Mahoney being a loveable wiseass, it really was exceptional film-making.

“But I don’t think it would trouble the BFI list. It was good, but not Tokyo Story or L’Atalante good.”

However, as Mr Christie collated the poll results, it became clear that the number one film, with an unheard of 389 votes, was indeed Police Academy 2.

“Well, we were just thrilled,” said Steve Guttenberg, who played Officer Mahoney in the franchise.

“We knew we had something special with 2 and, frankly, we were a little hurt and bemused when the film wasn’t even nominated for an Oscar, so to see it do so well in the BFI poll more than made up for that snub.”

The news wasn’t universally welcomed, with noted critic Peter Bradshaw taking particular umbrage with the result.

“Personally, I thought it was a scandal to have Police Academy 2 supplant Citizen Kane. It made the BFI look a laughing stock.

“The original Police Academy was clearly the superior film as it’s got that bit with Commandant Lassard receives oral sex while giving the speech. Hilarious.”

The film would fall out over favour in later polls, with it disappearing from the top ten in 2002, as Citizen Kane returned to the top, and then falling out of the top 100 completely in 2012.

“Yeah, we may not have stuck around for long, but we were number one,” laughed Guttenberg.

“You can’t say that about Jean Renoir’s La Regle du Jeu which has never been placed higher that number two. So, suck it Renoir.”

Suck it Renoir, indeed.