84 Charing Cross Road is a British/American drama film directed by David Hugh Jones. The screenplay by Hugh Whitemore is based on a play by James Roose-Evans, which itself was an adaptation of the 1970 epistolary memoir of the same name by Helene Hanff, a compilation of letters between herself and Frank Doel dating from 1949 to 1968. Although the play has only two characters, the dramatis personae for the film were expanded to include Hanff's Manhattan friends, the bookshop staff, and Doel's wife Nora.

Plot

In 1949 Helene Hanff, in search of obscure classics and British literature titles she has been unable to find in New York City, notices an ad placed by antiquarian booksellers Marks & Co located at the titular address in London in the Saturday Review of Literature. She contacts the shop and manager Frank Doel fulfills her requests. A long distance friendship evolves over time, not only between the two but between Hanff and other staff members as well, including birthday gifts, holiday packages, and food parcels to compensate for post-World War II food shortages in England. Their correspondence includes discussions about topics as diverse as the sermons of John Donne, how to make Yorkshire Pudding, the Brooklyn Dodgers, and the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.

Hanff postpones visiting her English friends until too late: Doel dies in December 1968 and the bookshop eventually closes. She finally visits Charing Cross Road and the vacant shop in the summer of 1971.