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Among the most memorable movie and television characters are the workplace pyschopaths who will steal your ideas, abuse you to the point of suicide and even threaten your life.

But what about the celluloid good-guys who are willing to overlook rank incompetence, will give you a day off when your dog has died and even fall in love with you..?

We rate some of the best and worst on-screen bosses.

The good

M, James Bond

Current M, Judi Dench, plays it tough but fair, even when Bond oversteps the boundaries a tad by shooting the wrong guy, breaking into her house, hacking into her computer and taking off on company time (while running up substantial expenses) without informing her.

Okay, so in the past she has coldly left Bond to be tortured, but more recently she has worked through her issues with her employee (''A sexist, misogynist dinosaur, a relic of the Cold War") and now appreciates his unique talents. The only time she issues a verbal warning is when he is about to reveal what 'M' stands for. ''Say another word and I will have you killed,'' she informs him.

Chief, Get Smart

''Oh, M-ax..!'' This cry of frustration was often heard inside the Cone of Silence at CONTROL headquarters, the centre of 1960s spoof series Get Smart. The boss of ever-bungling Secret Agent 86 (played by Don Adams in the original series and recently remade with Steve Carell), Chief (Ed Platt) was often irritated with the screw-ups of his star secret agent but somehow maintained his patience, even when his real name - Thaddeus - was revealed.

Dr Bob Kelso, Scrubs

Heartless and cruel, concerned only with his own career path - right? Wrong! The director of Medicine at Sacred Heart Hospital, (the setting of US comedy series Scrubs, which stars Zach Braff), only acts that way to ensure the hospital continues to run smoothly. Really! For instance, Kelso (Ken Jenkins), in order to unite the hospital removes the employee discount at the hospital's coffee shop - with the exception of himself. Boss of the Year!

Perry White, Superman: the Movie

The tough-talking editor (Jackie Cooper) of the Daily Planet pretty much ignores Clark Kent, but considering the number of times Clark arrives back without the story, makes the list simply for not firing him.

Colonel Potter, MASH

Similar to a Rocky Road - hard exterior, marshmallow inside - Sherman T. Potter (Harry Morgan) ran a tight ship but turned a blind eye to the antics of his talented but highly strung surgeon, Hawkeye. Known for his creative but family-friendly cussing: ''Oh, horse hockey!"

Maxwell Sheffield, The Nanny

What could be less believable, that a guy who produces Broadway musicals and has a butler is not gay, or that he is not rendered deaf by cut-glass qualities of Fran Drescher's incredibly nasal voice?  Maybe he was partial to her back-comb hair. The classic good-guy boss/endearing employee romantic set-up. Played by Charles Shaughnessy.

The bad

Miranda Priestly, The Devil wears Prada

The Cruella de Ville of the fashion world, Priestly (Meryl Streep) is the officially the Boss from Hell - demanding, capricious, unforgiving. Said to have been modelled on Vogue editor Anna Wintour, Priestly dispatches her assistant Anne Hathaway on Ulysses-style missions - such as finding the latest Harry Potter novel to read to her kids - before it is published.

Darth Vader, Star Wars

Let's just say DV doesn't take kindly to failure from his subordinates, squeezing...the life....out...of..them for relatively minor transgressions - such as the ham-fisted escape of the rebels from the Death Star. But hey, if you pay peanuts, you get monkeys.

Katharine Parker, Working Girl

Parker (Sigourney Weaver) claims to be your friend, but steals your ideas and takes the credit. Her employee Melanie Griffith eventually gets her own back, eventually dispatching her with this memorable throwaway: ''You know where you can bury your hatchet? Now get your bony ass outta my sight!''

Bill Lumbergh, Office Space

Before there was The Office's David Brent (Ricky Gervais), there was Bill Lumbergh from the 1999 cult film Office Space.

Micromanaging to the point of insanity, prone to pulling staff on weekends and a paperwork fiend, Lumbergh (Gary Cole) cut the mold of frustrating bosses. Best known for ending his unpalatable requests with ''m'kay?'' (also used in Beavis and Butthead animation) and "That'd be great".

Best line: ''Oh, oh, and I almost forgot. Ahh, I'm also gonna need you to go ahead and come in on Sunday, too...''

Buddy Ackerman, Swimming with Sharks

What list would be complete without Hollywood bigshot Buddy (Kevin Spacey), the sadistic, verbally abusive boss who drives his mild-mannered employee Guy to the edge of insanity and over the edge of the law?

Choice line - "You are nothing. If you were in my toilet bowl I wouldn't bother flushing it. My bath mat means more to me than you."

Montgomery Burns, The Simpsons

''Well, that's odd ... I've just robbed a man of his livelihood, and yet I feel strangely empty. Tell you what, Smithers - have him beaten to a pulp.''

Aided by the pathetic but strangely odious Smithers, Mr Burns is interested only in furthering his staggering fortune at the expense of people and the environment. Completely at home on the Fortune 500 List.

Tony Soprano, The Sopranos

Possibly the most perfect manifestation of the Psychopathic Boss ever brought to the screen, this New Jersey sanitation expert/ruthless gangster has a problem keeping staff - probably because of his propensity to bump them off.

Even his nephew, the impulsively violent Christopher is not safe, with Tony (James Gandolfini) smothering him after a car accident to save his own skin (Tony is also responsible for the death of Adriana, Christopher's girlfriend).

Plus, he's in therapy - can it get any worse for his long-suffering employees?