0:00:15 > 0:00:19In post-war Britain, times were tough,
0:00:19 > 0:00:21and the role cinema played in boosting morale
0:00:21 > 0:00:23was never more important.
0:00:23 > 0:00:29In the 1940s and '50s, the nation was nearly bankrupt,
0:00:29 > 0:00:31and rationing would last until 1954.
0:00:33 > 0:00:37So audiences flocked to see a succession of war films
0:00:37 > 0:00:40that reflected both their own recent experiences
0:00:40 > 0:00:44and celebrated how Britain had triumphed in the face of adversity.
0:00:46 > 0:00:50Here, we're looking at the best of those great British war films.
0:00:50 > 0:00:55And we begin with Noel Coward's classic In Which We Serve,
0:00:55 > 0:01:01made during the war, in 1942, and this film is hugely important
0:01:01 > 0:01:08because, as we shall see, it was a launchpad for so many famous actors.
0:01:09 > 0:01:13Not least for Richard Attenborough, who made his big-screen debut
0:01:13 > 0:01:16playing the only sailor who deserts his post.
0:01:17 > 0:01:20Now, Richard's name was accidentally left off the credits of the film
0:01:20 > 0:01:25but Noel Coward, otherwise known as "The Master",
0:01:25 > 0:01:28made some amends for that here, praising his performance
0:01:28 > 0:01:33during this encounter at the National Film Theatre in 1971.
0:01:35 > 0:01:37My friend here...
0:01:37 > 0:01:40gave a wonderful performance.
0:01:42 > 0:01:47And, coming not too far behind, I was very good.
0:01:47 > 0:01:51It was very carefully cast and, I must say, I think
0:01:51 > 0:01:54I'm very proud of it indeed.
0:01:54 > 0:01:59It repaid...for many, many years, having known the Navy,
0:01:59 > 0:02:01and come from a naval family,
0:02:01 > 0:02:04I'd been at sea a great deal with the Navy and I wanted,
0:02:04 > 0:02:09in a way, to pay a very tiny bit of my debt back
0:02:09 > 0:02:12for all the wonderful hospitality that I'd received.
0:02:13 > 0:02:18And without Lord Mountbatten...
0:02:19 > 0:02:22..it would never have got off the floor and onto the screen.
0:02:23 > 0:02:27He had just taken over Combined Operations
0:02:27 > 0:02:30and was working like a dog and, every Sunday,
0:02:30 > 0:02:33I think I told you this, he used to work on the rushes with me,
0:02:33 > 0:02:36so that we did get it accurate.
0:02:38 > 0:02:43And, of course, with his usual extraordinary concentration...
0:02:44 > 0:02:48..he did arrange everything.
0:02:48 > 0:02:51The commander-in-chief, Portsmouth,
0:02:51 > 0:02:55lent me 200 real sailors
0:02:55 > 0:02:57every day for two weeks.
0:02:57 > 0:03:00So that all the drill, and everything, was accurate
0:03:00 > 0:03:07and not a lot of actors putting their lanyards in unorthodox places.
0:03:07 > 0:03:10LAUGHTER
0:03:13 > 0:03:16And, of course, the net result of having the authentic chaps
0:03:16 > 0:03:20doing it made it real.
0:03:21 > 0:03:24MACHINERY GRINDS AND THUMPS
0:03:26 > 0:03:28MAN SHOUTS INSTRUCTIONS
0:03:31 > 0:03:34EXPLOSION
0:03:40 > 0:03:42EXPLOSION
0:03:42 > 0:03:45All right! Shake it up!
0:03:45 > 0:03:47All right. Let's have it down there!
0:03:47 > 0:03:49EXPLOSION
0:03:55 > 0:03:57Come on! Shake it up!
0:03:57 > 0:03:59EXPLOSION
0:03:59 > 0:04:02REPEATED FIRE
0:04:02 > 0:04:04Come on, set 'em ready!
0:04:04 > 0:04:05Pick it up! That's not ready!
0:04:07 > 0:04:09KLAXON, EXPLOSION
0:04:13 > 0:04:16- Keep it up. Stop star shell. - Stop star shell!
0:04:16 > 0:04:19Star shell, check, check, check!
0:04:20 > 0:04:22And again!
0:04:28 > 0:04:31EXPLOSIONS
0:04:59 > 0:05:02It wasn't entirely a mistake casting him for that part.
0:05:02 > 0:05:04LAUGHTER
0:05:04 > 0:05:06He practically stole the picture.
0:05:07 > 0:05:10And it was fun. Fun.
0:05:11 > 0:05:15Quite a lot of it was fun, but it was very hard work.
0:05:15 > 0:05:18But, thank God, it turned out all right.
0:05:18 > 0:05:22I'd like to tell just one very brief story about In Which We Serve.
0:05:22 > 0:05:24Towards the end of the film...
0:05:24 > 0:05:26LAUGHTER
0:05:26 > 0:05:32..we were in a Carley float and we were in a tank in the studios.
0:05:32 > 0:05:34And because we were all somewhat delicate,
0:05:34 > 0:05:37the water was heated slightly.
0:05:37 > 0:05:42We were in this tank for, I think, between two and three weeks.
0:05:42 > 0:05:45The smell was something to be wondered at.
0:05:45 > 0:05:49There was oil on the water, there was sawdust all round the tank,
0:05:49 > 0:05:52which was going mouldy, it was absolutely awful.
0:05:52 > 0:05:55It was the remains of us every day.
0:05:55 > 0:05:58And on our last day... We all used to lower ourselves,
0:05:58 > 0:06:03holding our noses, into the water, but The Master, of course, never.
0:06:03 > 0:06:07Always first in, off the edge and dived in.
0:06:07 > 0:06:10A little flat but, nevertheless, dived in.
0:06:12 > 0:06:18On this last day, he emerged from underneath the water with oil
0:06:18 > 0:06:21and filth and dirt streaming off his face
0:06:21 > 0:06:24and turned to all of us, who were waiting to go in, and said,
0:06:24 > 0:06:27"There's dysentery in every ripple."
0:06:27 > 0:06:30LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE
0:06:38 > 0:06:43John Mills had appeared in films for a decade before In Which We Serve
0:06:43 > 0:06:46but it was his role as Seaman Shorty Blake
0:06:46 > 0:06:48that really saw his career take off
0:06:48 > 0:06:52and made him one of British cinema's biggest stars.
0:06:58 > 0:07:00MACHINE-GUN FIRE
0:07:00 > 0:07:03- HE COUGHS - Got it. I spoke too soon.
0:07:05 > 0:07:07How did they get the gunshots there?
0:07:07 > 0:07:09You were obviously in a studio,
0:07:09 > 0:07:12but how the dickens did they get machine-gun fire
0:07:12 > 0:07:13on the top of the water?
0:07:13 > 0:07:14Well, that was a bit tricky and, of course,
0:07:14 > 0:07:18it was a long time ago and special effects weren't what they are today.
0:07:18 > 0:07:20And they didn't know what to do.
0:07:20 > 0:07:22Noel said, "We can't use live ammunition,
0:07:22 > 0:07:25"he's only halfway through the film."
0:07:25 > 0:07:29They got the property master to come and, this is absolutely true,
0:07:29 > 0:07:32he went out into Denham, he went to a chemist and he bought grosses of
0:07:32 > 0:07:36what we used to call in those days, rather delicately, French letters.
0:07:36 > 0:07:39Brought them back to the studio and the special effects
0:07:39 > 0:07:42got a long steel pipe, put it under the water,
0:07:42 > 0:07:45about that far from the top, fitted these things on, one after another,
0:07:45 > 0:07:48like that, blew in compressed air, and then they got the shot.
0:07:48 > 0:07:49It really worked.
0:07:49 > 0:07:53And so I'll really go down as the only actor to have been
0:07:53 > 0:07:55shot in the arm by a contraceptive.
0:07:56 > 0:07:58It was a very good shot.
0:07:59 > 0:08:03In Which We Serve was also the first directing opportunity
0:08:03 > 0:08:06for a man who would go on to become
0:08:06 > 0:08:08a giant of world cinema.
0:08:09 > 0:08:12Oh! The great David Lean.
0:08:12 > 0:08:14Oh, yes, he started in Britain.
0:08:14 > 0:08:17We'll hear from David himself later but, for now,
0:08:17 > 0:08:20here, once again, is Noel Coward.
0:08:22 > 0:08:27Noel, what made you choose David Lean?
0:08:27 > 0:08:30Well, when I knew that I was embarked on this project...
0:08:31 > 0:08:33Up until then,
0:08:33 > 0:08:37I hadn't been profoundly impressed with British films,
0:08:37 > 0:08:39as a whole.
0:08:39 > 0:08:42And I thought, well, I'd better have a look-see.
0:08:43 > 0:08:46And so I went to a projection room
0:08:46 > 0:08:48twice a day for two weeks
0:08:48 > 0:08:53and saw every British film that was available.
0:08:55 > 0:08:57LAUGHTER
0:08:59 > 0:09:02And out of the credits
0:09:02 > 0:09:04I observed that the ones I'd liked, the cutting...
0:09:06 > 0:09:09..had been done by somebody called David Lean
0:09:09 > 0:09:13and the photography had been done by somebody called Ronald Neame
0:09:13 > 0:09:16and the general production
0:09:16 > 0:09:19had been done by Anthony Havelock-Allan.
0:09:19 > 0:09:22And so, I said, "All right, let's have a look."
0:09:22 > 0:09:26So, I asked David Lean to come and see me.
0:09:26 > 0:09:30And he said, yes, he would do it with pleasure
0:09:30 > 0:09:32but he insisted on co-directing.
0:09:35 > 0:09:38People stiffened, like a Bateman drawing.
0:09:38 > 0:09:42But I said, "Oh, please, do,"
0:09:42 > 0:09:46because I knew nothing, apart from having played a scoundrel,
0:09:46 > 0:09:50I knew nothing, really, about any of the technical side
0:09:50 > 0:09:51of making a movie.
0:09:51 > 0:09:54And, of course, it was David who directed the picture.
0:09:54 > 0:09:58I took the actors aside occasionally...
0:09:58 > 0:10:00LAUGHTER
0:10:00 > 0:10:03But he was a wonderful director.
0:10:06 > 0:10:10The director of The Dam Busters, Michael Anderson,
0:10:10 > 0:10:13also got his big break on In Which We Serve.
0:10:13 > 0:10:19He's seen here acting opposite John Mills in the role of Albert Fosdick.
0:10:19 > 0:10:23He was also working behind the camera as David Lean's assistant
0:10:23 > 0:10:28and here he is discussing how one particular scene of Lean's
0:10:28 > 0:10:31had made a huge impression upon him.
0:10:31 > 0:10:33I worked with him as his assistant very closely
0:10:33 > 0:10:35on In Which We Serve,
0:10:35 > 0:10:38and I remember, for instance,
0:10:38 > 0:10:41a scene - I was standing there when it was being shot -
0:10:41 > 0:10:45and David and Noel Coward were directing it.
0:10:45 > 0:10:49The scene in the shed when the ship had gone down
0:10:49 > 0:10:53and the men were shaking the captain by the hand and saying goodbye.
0:10:53 > 0:10:56In the script, it just read, "The men say goodbye to the captain."
0:10:56 > 0:11:01The way it was handled, it developed into a deeply moving scene,
0:11:01 > 0:11:04playing on the face of nearly every man that the audience
0:11:04 > 0:11:06had come to know throughout the story.
0:11:06 > 0:11:08And I was...
0:11:08 > 0:11:09This kind of thing, I think,
0:11:09 > 0:11:13has affected some of the moods that I've tried to create myself.
0:11:14 > 0:11:15Goodbye.
0:11:17 > 0:11:21- Goodbye, Sir.- Goodbye, Rawlings.
0:11:21 > 0:11:23- Goodbye, Sir.- Goodbye. Thank you.
0:11:23 > 0:11:25- Good luck, sir.- Thanks. Goodbye.
0:11:25 > 0:11:27- Bless you, sir.- Thank you. Goodbye.
0:11:27 > 0:11:30Goodbye, sir. It's been very nice to know you.
0:11:30 > 0:11:33Thanks, Roach. Goodbye.
0:11:33 > 0:11:36- Very best of luck, sir. - Thanks, Moone. Goodbye.
0:11:37 > 0:11:39Goodbye, sir.
0:11:40 > 0:11:42- Goodbye, sir.- Goodbye, Moran.
0:11:42 > 0:11:45- Goodbye.- Goodbye, Hollett.
0:11:45 > 0:11:48- Goodbye, sir. - Goodbye, Edgecombe.
0:11:49 > 0:11:53- Goodbye, sir. Bon voyage. - Thanks, Brodie.
0:11:53 > 0:11:56- Goodbye, sir.- Goodbye, Mackeridge.
0:11:56 > 0:12:00- Good luck, sir.- Thanks, Blake. Goodbye.- Goodbye, sir.
0:12:00 > 0:12:03And Michael Anderson goes on to talk about
0:12:03 > 0:12:07how he tried to create a similar mood in The Dam Busters.
0:12:08 > 0:12:11The men are preparing to take off for the raid
0:12:11 > 0:12:12and some are playing cricket
0:12:12 > 0:12:16and others are drinking soup from Thermos flasks
0:12:16 > 0:12:19and others are writing letters home, and it set
0:12:19 > 0:12:24the mood of the people who were about to embark upon this mission.
0:12:24 > 0:12:27And I did it all in one continuous take.
0:12:27 > 0:12:30I did it from the moment of a man catching a cricket ball
0:12:30 > 0:12:33until the final moment, when everyone is on the last truck
0:12:33 > 0:12:37and the waiting planes are mere dots in the distance.
0:12:37 > 0:12:41This is the kind of contribution, I think, that one makes.
0:12:45 > 0:12:49MURMUR OF CONVERSATION
0:12:53 > 0:12:56MUSIC: The Dam Busters March PLAYS SLOWLY
0:13:16 > 0:13:20LAUGHTER AND CONVERSATION
0:13:29 > 0:13:31JAUNTY WHISTLING
0:13:38 > 0:13:41Well, chaps. My watch says time to go.
0:13:57 > 0:14:00MUSIC SWELLS
0:14:08 > 0:14:11MUSIC: The Dam Busters March
0:14:13 > 0:14:17One of the things that came, I think,
0:14:17 > 0:14:20mainly from me, was the fact that I wanted to cast all the people
0:14:20 > 0:14:24in all the aircraft to their near physical likeness.
0:14:24 > 0:14:28In other words, I had photographs of all the crews.
0:14:28 > 0:14:31Wherever possible, I spoke to survivors,
0:14:31 > 0:14:33members of crew who'd survived.
0:14:33 > 0:14:37And I went to great trouble to try and get the people in each plane
0:14:37 > 0:14:40as near to those who took part in the raid themselves.
0:14:40 > 0:14:41This was a luxury.
0:14:41 > 0:14:45I'm sure that an audience wouldn't be aware of this fact
0:14:45 > 0:14:48but it was something that I felt was a responsibility of mine
0:14:48 > 0:14:51towards the people who were in the planes.
0:14:51 > 0:14:54I would say that what we did in Dam Busters was the forerunner
0:14:54 > 0:14:57to what became known as audience participation.
0:14:57 > 0:15:00The way the film was treated was to take the audience
0:15:00 > 0:15:02with those pilots on a bombing raid
0:15:02 > 0:15:06and to show them as much as the bombers and the pilots saw.
0:15:07 > 0:15:10We didn't attempt to show the German side at all.
0:15:10 > 0:15:13Whether this is right or wrong is another question.
0:15:13 > 0:15:15This was the point of view we took.
0:15:15 > 0:15:18And we followed it through right through to the end.
0:15:18 > 0:15:22We lead the audience to take the part of the pilot in that raid.
0:15:29 > 0:15:31This is new.
0:15:31 > 0:15:33Hutch, warn the others.
0:16:12 > 0:16:14New course, skipper. 165, magnetic.
0:16:16 > 0:16:20MUSIC: The Dam Busters March
0:16:30 > 0:16:33The real-life leader of Dambusters Squadron was
0:16:33 > 0:16:35Wing Commander Guy Gibson,
0:16:35 > 0:16:38played in the film by Richard Todd.
0:16:38 > 0:16:40Todd was also Ian Fleming's
0:16:40 > 0:16:43first choice for the role of James Bond
0:16:43 > 0:16:45before Sean Connery got the licence to kill.
0:16:46 > 0:16:49He was also a war hero,
0:16:49 > 0:16:52one of the first British soldiers to
0:16:52 > 0:16:55land in Normandy as part of Operation Overlord.
0:16:55 > 0:16:58Didn't you find it difficult or inhibiting
0:16:58 > 0:17:01to play a real and recent hero?
0:17:01 > 0:17:03Erm...
0:17:03 > 0:17:04I found it difficult.
0:17:04 > 0:17:08I find it difficult playing anything, but I'd spent
0:17:08 > 0:17:11nearly two years working up to the Guy Gibson role,
0:17:11 > 0:17:14talking to people who knew him,
0:17:14 > 0:17:17his relations and friends and chaps who had flown with him.
0:17:17 > 0:17:23Not inhibiting, because whether you create an imaginary character
0:17:23 > 0:17:27or whether you try to model yourself on a living person,
0:17:27 > 0:17:32if a character has sufficient impact and reason for being
0:17:32 > 0:17:34put on the screen at all,
0:17:34 > 0:17:36whether he's living or whether he's imaginary,
0:17:36 > 0:17:40it does presuppose the fact that it is an interesting person, you know?
0:17:40 > 0:17:44And you either try to create the interesting person or you try
0:17:44 > 0:17:46to model yourself on an existing interesting person.
0:17:46 > 0:17:50You wouldn't agree with somebody who said that a hero in fact was
0:17:50 > 0:17:54just brave, but not interesting apart from his bravery?
0:17:56 > 0:17:58Well, that's difficult to answer,
0:17:58 > 0:18:01because there are so many different types of hero. Erm...
0:18:01 > 0:18:04A lot of so-called heroic people that
0:18:04 > 0:18:07I have met are very intelligent and very interesting people
0:18:07 > 0:18:11and their bravery didn't come out of sort of derring-do so much
0:18:11 > 0:18:13as out of taking an intelligent,
0:18:13 > 0:18:16calculated risk and hoping to get away with it.
0:18:19 > 0:18:24And here is Todd talking again in a much later interview
0:18:24 > 0:18:29about the film with which he became most strongly associated.
0:18:29 > 0:18:30Brakes off!
0:18:30 > 0:18:33All the leading actors were ex-service.
0:18:33 > 0:18:36They knew how to salute and how to march and how to stand
0:18:36 > 0:18:39and how to take an order and how to give an order.
0:18:39 > 0:18:41- All set?- Yes, sir.
0:18:41 > 0:18:45'And they knew what all those blokes must have felt during the raid.'
0:18:45 > 0:18:46Good luck.
0:18:46 > 0:18:49For added authenticity,
0:18:49 > 0:18:54grainy test footage of the bouncing bomb was added to the film.
0:18:54 > 0:18:56Whenever you saw the bouncing bomb,
0:18:56 > 0:19:00it was always as if you were seeing through a pair of binoculars.
0:19:02 > 0:19:05That explained why the quality of film was different,
0:19:05 > 0:19:09because the original film was pretty dire, pretty scratchy.
0:19:09 > 0:19:12At the time of filming,
0:19:12 > 0:19:16the famous backspin of the bombs was still a state secret,
0:19:16 > 0:19:19so each frame was painted over with a blobby circle to
0:19:19 > 0:19:22hide its true barrel shape.
0:19:23 > 0:19:27The whole ethos of The Dam Busters was, "It's a job,
0:19:27 > 0:19:31"let's get on with it," which is what it was actually like in war.
0:19:32 > 0:19:34Enemy coast ahead.
0:19:40 > 0:19:44Two years after The Dam Busters, in 1957,
0:19:44 > 0:19:48came another giant of a war film.
0:19:48 > 0:19:51David Lean's Bridge On The River Kwai,
0:19:51 > 0:19:56today considered one of the greatest epics of all time.
0:19:56 > 0:20:00It starred Alec Guinness as Lieutenant Colonel Nicholson,
0:20:00 > 0:20:04the man in charge of British soldiers in a Japanese war camp
0:20:04 > 0:20:06in Burma.
0:20:07 > 0:20:09I must call your attention, Colonel Saito,
0:20:09 > 0:20:13to Article 27 of the Geneva Convention.
0:20:13 > 0:20:16Belligerents may employ as workmen prisoners of war
0:20:16 > 0:20:18who are physically fit other than officers.
0:20:18 > 0:20:20Give me the book.
0:20:20 > 0:20:22By all means. You read English, I take it?
0:20:22 > 0:20:24- Do you read Japanese?- I'm sorry, no.
0:20:24 > 0:20:26But if it's a matter of precise translation,
0:20:26 > 0:20:28I'm sure that can be arranged.
0:20:28 > 0:20:30You see, the code specifically states that the...
0:20:30 > 0:20:32MEN MURMUR
0:20:32 > 0:20:35Stand fast in the ranks!
0:20:35 > 0:20:38You speak to me of codes?
0:20:38 > 0:20:39What code?
0:20:39 > 0:20:43The coward's code!
0:20:43 > 0:20:47What do you know of the soldier's code, of Bushido?
0:20:47 > 0:20:49Nothing!
0:20:49 > 0:20:51You are unworthy of command!
0:20:54 > 0:20:58Despite the praise that has been heaped on the film
0:20:58 > 0:21:00ever since its release,
0:21:00 > 0:21:04Lean himself was not entirely happy with all of it.
0:21:05 > 0:21:09The cameras were taken away from me, the movie... The sound cameras.
0:21:09 > 0:21:13And I finished that film with an Aeroflex,
0:21:13 > 0:21:15which as you know is a hand camera.
0:21:15 > 0:21:19We did the waterfall scene, a whole lot of scenes,
0:21:19 > 0:21:23which gave it a size that it hadn't got before.
0:21:23 > 0:21:24Anyhow, that's that.
0:21:24 > 0:21:27What scene had you shot, then, that prompted them to say, "OK.
0:21:27 > 0:21:30"That's the end and we'll take away the cameras now"?
0:21:30 > 0:21:33Alec is blown up at the end.
0:21:35 > 0:21:37And I foolishly...
0:21:40 > 0:21:43..took a shot of James Donald, who was the doctor,
0:21:43 > 0:21:48looking around the blown-up bridge and saying, "Madness, madness..."
0:21:48 > 0:21:52And then walking away from camera. Now, as he walks away from camera,
0:21:52 > 0:21:55James was put straight onto the aeroplane, of course,
0:21:55 > 0:21:59as soon as he had said, "Madness, madness," and it was a double,
0:21:59 > 0:22:03who is like some ghastly mannequin sort of walking across the sand.
0:22:03 > 0:22:06I can't bear it. I saw the other day.
0:22:19 > 0:22:22The film won seven Oscars,
0:22:22 > 0:22:26including the Best Actor award for Alec Guinness, who here tells
0:22:26 > 0:22:31Michael Parkinson the story of how he cracked one particular scene.
0:22:32 > 0:22:35What about that famous walk in River Kwai, you mentioned
0:22:35 > 0:22:38the film there, when you'd been put in that awful isolation thing
0:22:38 > 0:22:41and you had that extraordinary staggering or lurching
0:22:41 > 0:22:43walk across the parade ground when they let you go.
0:22:43 > 0:22:45Where did that come from?
0:22:45 > 0:22:48Well, that's a sort of very personal one.
0:22:48 > 0:22:52But it's true because it shows the funny process that does
0:22:52 > 0:22:55go on with an actor, maybe.
0:22:55 > 0:22:58My son had polio when he was about 12
0:22:58 > 0:23:01and was paralysed from the waist down. He's fine now.
0:23:01 > 0:23:07He plays rugger and runs around, does whatever he wants,
0:23:07 > 0:23:12but when he was recovering and walking again a bit,
0:23:12 > 0:23:16it was obviously a very stiff, strange walk,
0:23:16 > 0:23:17and I had a little cine camera
0:23:17 > 0:23:21and I remember, when he was first walking, taking shots of this
0:23:21 > 0:23:23and then when one saw it on the screen,
0:23:23 > 0:23:25my wife and I persuaded ourselves that he was fine,
0:23:25 > 0:23:27he was walking fine,
0:23:27 > 0:23:30but obviously deep down inside one, one thought, "Oh, Lord,
0:23:30 > 0:23:32"he's going to limp for life,"
0:23:32 > 0:23:35or something, you know, of that nature.
0:23:35 > 0:23:38And years later,
0:23:38 > 0:23:43when it came to doing that scene on the River Kwai, I found
0:23:43 > 0:23:48myself doing the identical walk that I had on that little
0:23:48 > 0:23:52cine camera from five, six years previously.
0:23:52 > 0:23:55I had entirely forgotten. I didn't know I was doing it.
0:23:55 > 0:23:58It was only when I saw myself on the screen, I thought,
0:23:58 > 0:24:02"Where on earth did that curious, slightly lurchy,
0:24:02 > 0:24:04"bent walk come from?"
0:24:04 > 0:24:08- It was the same as I had on the cine camera.- That's extraordinary.
0:24:11 > 0:24:15Now to another film where getting the walk right was crucial.
0:24:15 > 0:24:17It's Reach For The Sky,
0:24:17 > 0:24:19the tale of Douglas Bader,
0:24:19 > 0:24:23the great pilot who became a World War II hero,
0:24:23 > 0:24:26despite having lost both legs in an earlier flying accident.
0:24:28 > 0:24:31Douglas Bader was a one-off.
0:24:31 > 0:24:34Originally, he was meant to be played by Richard Burton,
0:24:34 > 0:24:38but Kenneth More lobbied hard for the part
0:24:38 > 0:24:40and absolutely made it his own.
0:24:42 > 0:24:45- How did you actually get inside the part of Bader?- Well, I met Douglas.
0:24:45 > 0:24:47I played a round of golf with him -
0:24:47 > 0:24:51that's the way to learn about a man, you know, to play golf with him -
0:24:51 > 0:24:53at Gleneagles, and met him
0:24:53 > 0:24:57once or twice at dinner with Ronnie Squire, my old friend.
0:24:57 > 0:24:59And he hated the film people. He said,
0:24:59 > 0:25:01"I like you, Ken. You're all right.
0:25:01 > 0:25:04"You can do it, but the rest of them can't. They're awful."
0:25:04 > 0:25:08But I managed to sort of... I took to his character.
0:25:08 > 0:25:11I warmed towards him and I saw what he stood for,
0:25:11 > 0:25:14because he's really a Rudyard Kipling fellow, you know?
0:25:14 > 0:25:17There's not many men like Douglas Bader.
0:25:17 > 0:25:18But it seems to me that it's much,
0:25:18 > 0:25:22much more than simply learning how to play a man with tin legs?
0:25:22 > 0:25:24Well, you've got to learn to walk with no legs.
0:25:24 > 0:25:27I mean, I went to the limb centre in Putney
0:25:27 > 0:25:30and they made some artificial legs to go round my own.
0:25:30 > 0:25:33And I remember Danny Angel telling me,
0:25:33 > 0:25:37"You must remember that your legs weigh a ton each.
0:25:37 > 0:25:40"Everything is painful, dragging your legs around.
0:25:40 > 0:25:42"If you haven't got any legs, you've still got them.
0:25:42 > 0:25:45"And you're conscious of them all the time."
0:25:45 > 0:25:47And when you appreciate that,
0:25:47 > 0:25:49that you cannot move this enormous weight below you,
0:25:49 > 0:25:51you understand the part.
0:25:51 > 0:25:53I think we ought to see a clip now.
0:25:53 > 0:25:55It's a particularly telling scene.
0:25:55 > 0:25:59It's in fact after you have had your aeroplane crash, as Douglas Bader,
0:25:59 > 0:26:02and you don't in fact yet know that you've lost both legs.
0:26:02 > 0:26:03At the age of 21.
0:26:03 > 0:26:06Nice of you to come and see me.
0:26:06 > 0:26:07Yes, isn't it?
0:26:09 > 0:26:12As a matter of fact, I've come to say goodbye.
0:26:12 > 0:26:13What?
0:26:13 > 0:26:16I've been posted to the Middle East.
0:26:16 > 0:26:17Oh...
0:26:19 > 0:26:21Lucky devil.
0:26:21 > 0:26:23I wish I was going with you.
0:26:24 > 0:26:26HE MOANS
0:26:26 > 0:26:28Giving you some trouble?
0:26:28 > 0:26:31Well, it's the left one. It hurts like hell.
0:26:34 > 0:26:36It's bound to hurt at first, I expect.
0:26:36 > 0:26:39Well, I wish they'd cut it off, like they did the right one.
0:26:39 > 0:26:41That doesn't hurt at all.
0:26:43 > 0:26:46Would you really like them to cut it off?
0:26:46 > 0:26:49I don't give a damn what they do as long as they stop it hurting.
0:26:51 > 0:26:55Matter of fact, Douglas, they have taken it off.
0:26:55 > 0:26:57Why does it hurt so much, then?
0:27:14 > 0:27:15You had to know some time.
0:27:15 > 0:27:18Yes, I suppose so.
0:27:18 > 0:27:20Thanks for telling me, John.
0:27:20 > 0:27:24Now, that's a very moving scene. There's a story, isn't there?
0:27:24 > 0:27:26There is a story about that scene.
0:27:26 > 0:27:28Just before that scene took place, the tea trolley,
0:27:28 > 0:27:30the studio tea trolley, came around.
0:27:30 > 0:27:33Now, on the tea trolley there were always 12 pieces of bread
0:27:33 > 0:27:35and dripping. Only 12, never less, never more.
0:27:35 > 0:27:38Now, 12 people wanted bread and dripping.
0:27:38 > 0:27:41More than 12 people wanted bread and dripping, including me.
0:27:41 > 0:27:44But you had to get in fast before everybody else grabbed it.
0:27:44 > 0:27:46So just before the scene started, I said to my stand-in,
0:27:46 > 0:27:49Jack Mandeville, "Get me a piece of bread and dripping!"
0:27:49 > 0:27:52So we played the scene and I really rose to the occasion
0:27:52 > 0:27:54and I had them all crying and I was crying myself.
0:27:54 > 0:27:58You couldn't hear a pin drop in the studio.
0:27:58 > 0:28:03And immediately Lewis Gilbert who directed the film said, "Cut."
0:28:03 > 0:28:06And everybody was going, "Oh, my God..."
0:28:06 > 0:28:10I said, "Jack! Did you get my piece of bread and dripping?"
0:28:11 > 0:28:15Reach For The Sky was Britain's biggest box office hit
0:28:15 > 0:28:16for 1956.
0:28:18 > 0:28:21In fact, it was the most successful film in Britain
0:28:21 > 0:28:23since Gone With The Wind.
0:28:24 > 0:28:27So what was it like for the film's subject?
0:28:27 > 0:28:30Here is the man himself, Douglas Bader,
0:28:30 > 0:28:33talking to Dennis Tooie in 1965.
0:28:36 > 0:28:40What was your general reaction to Reach For The Sky? I know,
0:28:40 > 0:28:42in fact, you never saw the film publicly,
0:28:42 > 0:28:44but I gather you did see, it or most of it, before it was released?
0:28:44 > 0:28:47Yes, I did. Well, actually, it was...
0:28:47 > 0:28:49It's a very difficult thing to answer, that,
0:28:49 > 0:28:51because the producer of the film,
0:28:51 > 0:28:55a chap called Daniel Angel, for whom I have the greatest possible regard,
0:28:55 > 0:28:58he was in the Army in the war and he got polio in India,
0:28:58 > 0:29:01fighting out there, and he's paralysed from the waist down.
0:29:01 > 0:29:02He's a very good chap
0:29:02 > 0:29:05and we had the most monumental arguments about the script
0:29:05 > 0:29:08and so on and, of course, the difficulty of looking
0:29:08 > 0:29:11at a film about yourself, whether it is you or me or whoever it is,
0:29:11 > 0:29:15and your past, is that you see...it's unreal.
0:29:15 > 0:29:19You see, for instance, scenes you recognise,
0:29:19 > 0:29:25words you recollect, and people are saying things
0:29:25 > 0:29:28and you recognise it all, but it's being said by strangers.
0:29:28 > 0:29:33Your wife is some girl you've never seen before in your life.
0:29:33 > 0:29:38You are depicted by Kenneth More or whoever it is, you know, and
0:29:38 > 0:29:42so you can't understand it anyhow, but the whole thing is unreal.
0:29:42 > 0:29:45You cannot see it objectively.
0:29:45 > 0:29:48Did Kenneth More in fact consult much with you about the part?
0:29:48 > 0:29:51No. Kenneth More was very, very wise about this,
0:29:51 > 0:29:54certainly afterwards. He saw me once.
0:29:54 > 0:29:57We met at lunchtime, when he said he'd do the part, you know,
0:29:57 > 0:30:00and then he played a round of golf with me
0:30:00 > 0:30:02because he wanted to see what happened on the golf course.
0:30:02 > 0:30:05And he never saw me again
0:30:05 > 0:30:07until the film had been finished
0:30:07 > 0:30:09because he said - and of course he was quite right - he said, "Look,
0:30:09 > 0:30:11"if I live with you..." A lot of people said to me,
0:30:11 > 0:30:14"I suppose Kenneth More has lived with you for weeks,
0:30:14 > 0:30:18"because he's so frightfully good. He took you off so marvellously."
0:30:18 > 0:30:20And the answer was, as Kenneth said,
0:30:20 > 0:30:24"If I am against you all the time I shall caricature you."
0:30:24 > 0:30:27And he was absolutely right.
0:30:27 > 0:30:29We were talking about how you felt about the film.
0:30:29 > 0:30:32How did people close to you, your friends and your wife...?
0:30:32 > 0:30:36Well, my friends - and these are the people who matter in life,
0:30:36 > 0:30:38obviously - my friends said it was frightfully good
0:30:38 > 0:30:42and my wife slipped off to the local one evening, you know,
0:30:42 > 0:30:45several weeks after it had been shown, and she came back and said,
0:30:45 > 0:30:50"It was absolutely uncanny the way that Kenneth More has got you.
0:30:50 > 0:30:52"He's quite extraordinary."
0:30:52 > 0:30:54Now, that's from your wife.
0:30:54 > 0:30:57I mean, I've been keeping the woman for 30-odd years now
0:30:57 > 0:30:59and she really must know!
0:31:04 > 0:31:07The director of Reach For The Sky was Lewis Gilbert.
0:31:07 > 0:31:11I've had the privilege to work for him a couple of times myself.
0:31:11 > 0:31:17He also made Alfie, Educating Rita, Shirley Valentine, oh,
0:31:17 > 0:31:19and three James Bond films.
0:31:21 > 0:31:23Did you enjoy making Reach For The Sky with Kenneth More?
0:31:23 > 0:31:26Yeah, I loved Kenneth More.
0:31:26 > 0:31:28And it was very interesting with Douglas Bader,
0:31:28 > 0:31:32but Bader, who was a great man, lost his legs when he was about 21,
0:31:32 > 0:31:37learned to walk, and rejoined the Air Force with no legs.
0:31:37 > 0:31:39I mean, he was an amazing character.
0:31:39 > 0:31:42But he was very difficult. I mean, really difficult.
0:31:42 > 0:31:44And I suppose...
0:31:44 > 0:31:48- In what way?- Well, in many ways.
0:31:48 > 0:31:51Well, for instance, he said to me,
0:31:51 > 0:31:53"Well, Gilbert, you were in the Air Force.
0:31:53 > 0:31:56"Why don't you write the script?"
0:31:56 > 0:31:58And I did and then he said to me,
0:31:58 > 0:32:00"Well, you've left out all my friends," and I said,
0:32:00 > 0:32:03"Well, the book is 600 pages and there's 500 people.
0:32:03 > 0:32:06"We obviously have to leave some out," and he said,
0:32:06 > 0:32:08"Well, that's your problem.
0:32:08 > 0:32:10"You've got to put my friends back in.
0:32:10 > 0:32:12"And if you don't, I won't help you
0:32:12 > 0:32:14- "and I won't be doubling for Kenneth More."- Oh, goodness.
0:32:14 > 0:32:17And I'd had enough of that so I said to him,
0:32:17 > 0:32:19"Well, Douglas,
0:32:19 > 0:32:23"if we can make an ape climb up the Empire State Building
0:32:23 > 0:32:24"in King Kong, I daresay we can find
0:32:24 > 0:32:26"somebody to double for you without legs."
0:32:26 > 0:32:30- Which we did.- Tough talking. - That's what happened, yes.
0:32:32 > 0:32:37Reach For The Sky wasn't the only story of a real-life war hero
0:32:37 > 0:32:39that Lewis Gilbert directed.
0:32:39 > 0:32:42Two years later, in 1958,
0:32:42 > 0:32:46he made Carve Her Name With Pride,
0:32:46 > 0:32:49starring Virginia McKenna.
0:32:49 > 0:32:54This was the powerful and harrowing true story of Violette Szabo,
0:32:54 > 0:32:58a British spy who bravely worked behind enemy lines.
0:33:01 > 0:33:04I don't think I really did look like Violette very much.
0:33:04 > 0:33:08First of all, she was dark and I was fair, and they didn't want me
0:33:08 > 0:33:11to change the colour of my hair. They said it was fine as it was.
0:33:11 > 0:33:14It was more the essence, really, of the character they wanted,
0:33:14 > 0:33:17more than someone who looked the same.
0:33:17 > 0:33:19Tres bien. Merci, bonsoir.
0:33:19 > 0:33:22Virginia was wonderful in that film,
0:33:22 > 0:33:25but she wasn't naturally that kind of character, because she's
0:33:25 > 0:33:30very quiet and very laid back, and it was a great difficulty for her
0:33:30 > 0:33:34to be running round with a machine gun and being a wartime heroine.
0:33:42 > 0:33:46The film's most moving scene comes at the end
0:33:46 > 0:33:49where, despite being tortured,
0:33:49 > 0:33:53Violette refuses to betray her comrades.
0:33:54 > 0:34:01We had to walk out and down a path to a barren square,
0:34:01 > 0:34:04where there was a line of men with guns.
0:34:05 > 0:34:08We were asked to stand in a row.
0:34:08 > 0:34:12And that's where we were executed.
0:34:12 > 0:34:17The three British agents - Denise Bloch, Lillian Rolfe,
0:34:17 > 0:34:21and Violette Szabo - are to be shot.
0:34:21 > 0:34:26I'd had a message that they would like me, just before I was shot...
0:34:28 > 0:34:31..to have a little half smile on my face.
0:34:33 > 0:34:37And I said to Lewis, "I can't. I absolutely can't."
0:34:39 > 0:34:43It was so ludicrous to me to have been asked to do that
0:34:43 > 0:34:47and then he, thank God, absolutely understood
0:34:47 > 0:34:51what I meant. So I didn't have to smile.
0:34:57 > 0:34:59Fire!
0:34:59 > 0:35:02GUNFIRE CONTINUES
0:35:05 > 0:35:08Carve Her Name With Pride was unusual for
0:35:08 > 0:35:12focusing on a female character's war experiences.
0:35:12 > 0:35:16In 1958, I benefited from another prominent female role.
0:35:18 > 0:35:23A wartime nurse, sister Diana Murdoch, in Ice Cold In Alex,
0:35:23 > 0:35:27now considered one of the most important films of the period.
0:35:28 > 0:35:33It tells the story of a dangerous trek across the desert
0:35:33 > 0:35:35by a small band trying to reach the safety
0:35:35 > 0:35:38of the British base in Alexandria.
0:35:39 > 0:35:43It was shot over several gruelling but unforgettable weeks in Libya.
0:35:43 > 0:35:47The days were boiling, the nights were freezing,
0:35:47 > 0:35:50and the wind blew sand everywhere.
0:35:51 > 0:35:56The film's most famous scene of all comes at the climax, when we've
0:35:56 > 0:36:01reached Alex, and we've reached the ice-cold lager that's been
0:36:01 > 0:36:05Captain Anson's incentive throughout the punishing journey.
0:36:05 > 0:36:11We had to use real lager, as no imitation had the right look.
0:36:11 > 0:36:14And John Mills was the only one of us
0:36:14 > 0:36:18who could glug the whole glass down in one.
0:36:23 > 0:36:26Worth waiting for.
0:36:26 > 0:36:30Ice Cold In Alex was a success everywhere,
0:36:30 > 0:36:34even winning one of the top prizes at the 1958 Berlin Film Festival.
0:36:35 > 0:36:37Looking back on it today,
0:36:37 > 0:36:41one of the most interesting features is its sympathetic portrayal
0:36:41 > 0:36:47of one of the enemy - very unusual for British films both then and now.
0:36:49 > 0:36:53Anthony Quayle's character, Van der Poel, is discovered to be
0:36:53 > 0:36:55a German spy.
0:36:55 > 0:36:57But despite that revelation,
0:36:57 > 0:37:02a growing respect develops between him and Captain Anson.
0:37:04 > 0:37:07One key scene shows Anson rescuing Van der Poel
0:37:07 > 0:37:10when he gets caught in quicksand.
0:37:13 > 0:37:17This was actually shot at Elstree Studios rather than the desert.
0:37:17 > 0:37:22But the sludge was an awful mixture
0:37:22 > 0:37:25made by the effects team, and when
0:37:25 > 0:37:27it came to filming, it was so cold
0:37:27 > 0:37:29that ice had formed on the top of it.
0:37:48 > 0:37:50Poor Anthony Quayle.
0:37:50 > 0:37:53If that wasn't bad enough,
0:37:53 > 0:37:56his character had to wear very short shorts.
0:37:57 > 0:38:00And of course, that wasn't the only flesh on display.
0:38:02 > 0:38:05The film includes a love scene between my character
0:38:05 > 0:38:08and Captain Anson that made headlines
0:38:08 > 0:38:12and had to be re-shot after protests from the censors.
0:38:12 > 0:38:15I had this tremendous romance, big scene,
0:38:15 > 0:38:19didn't I, with Sylvia Syms? And think how things have changed.
0:38:19 > 0:38:24I mean, we were rolling about in the sand and I think it was Lee Thompson
0:38:24 > 0:38:28said, "You know, well, it's a good scene,
0:38:28 > 0:38:30"a quite passionate scene."
0:38:30 > 0:38:34He said to Sylvia Syms, "Why don't you undo two buttons on your shirt?"
0:38:34 > 0:38:37So she said, "OK," so she undid them.
0:38:37 > 0:38:39And I think that didn't get through.
0:38:39 > 0:38:42I think it was too much that two buttons were undone
0:38:42 > 0:38:44and only open about down to here.
0:38:44 > 0:38:46- So it's changed slightly, hasn't it?- A little bit.
0:38:46 > 0:38:48Actually, looking at stills,
0:38:48 > 0:38:51- it's a little more than two buttons as well.- Is it?
0:38:51 > 0:38:53But, nevertheless, the point is taken.
0:38:53 > 0:38:55Maybe the stills... Sneaked the stills through.
0:38:57 > 0:38:59I think you don't understand women.
0:39:03 > 0:39:05I don't.
0:39:05 > 0:39:07She'll know what she wants.
0:39:08 > 0:39:12It's poor. Nothing you do will make the slightest difference.
0:39:13 > 0:39:15It's you.
0:39:15 > 0:39:17I think you should know by now.
0:39:18 > 0:39:22And I thought we rolled around rather well in Ice Cold In Alex
0:39:22 > 0:39:26and it was too daring and it was cut out.
0:39:26 > 0:39:30And that was the only really sort of violently exciting love scene
0:39:30 > 0:39:32I've ever had.
0:39:33 > 0:39:36What were my memories of the scene?
0:39:36 > 0:39:40Well, it was very uncomfortable,
0:39:40 > 0:39:43and the sand got everywhere.
0:39:46 > 0:39:49The 1960s saw more successful war films, of course,
0:39:49 > 0:39:53like The Great Escape and The Longest Day,
0:39:53 > 0:39:56but generally, audiences tastes were moving on.
0:39:56 > 0:40:00Rather as the Western was falling out of favour in America,
0:40:00 > 0:40:04so here in Britain we were making fewer war films.
0:40:04 > 0:40:08But the influence of those that we made in the 1940s
0:40:08 > 0:40:13and '50s extend to present-day filmmaking.
0:40:13 > 0:40:17The Dam Busters dogfight scenes were used as a template by
0:40:17 > 0:40:22George Lucas for the space battles in the original Star Wars film.
0:40:22 > 0:40:26And Steven Spielberg was hugely aware of the films made
0:40:26 > 0:40:30here in Britain when he was directing Saving Private Ryan,
0:40:30 > 0:40:36which was praised for its realistic depiction of the D-Day landings.
0:40:36 > 0:40:43Oh, yes. Here he is talking to Mark Cousins about the film in 1998.
0:40:43 > 0:40:46Could you tell me some of the more unusual things that you did with
0:40:46 > 0:40:51camera and sound in order to effect this shellshock in the audience?
0:40:51 > 0:40:55I did a lot of things like de-saturate the colour.
0:40:55 > 0:40:58The film is in colour but the film is very faded,
0:40:58 > 0:41:01so the film looks authentically period,
0:41:01 > 0:41:04it looks like a 1940s colour picture
0:41:04 > 0:41:08would have looked 50 or 54 years later.
0:41:08 > 0:41:12I shot with a 45- and 90-degree camera shutter.
0:41:12 > 0:41:16What that does is it de-glamorises sequences by getting
0:41:16 > 0:41:18rid of all out-of-focus blurring.
0:41:18 > 0:41:21Often, when somebody runs through frame it's kind of beautiful
0:41:21 > 0:41:24because they kind of streak and they blur.
0:41:24 > 0:41:25Not every frame is in focus.
0:41:25 > 0:41:27If you look at every frame one at a time
0:41:27 > 0:41:30on a film you see that only several frames are in focus.
0:41:30 > 0:41:32Most of it's out of focus.
0:41:32 > 0:41:35When you shoot with a 45-degree shutter, every single frame,
0:41:35 > 0:41:3824 frames per second, is in focus, which means that that,
0:41:38 > 0:41:40coupled with my vibrating camera,
0:41:40 > 0:41:43I had a vibrating lens called a shaker lens
0:41:43 > 0:41:45on top of our other lenses,
0:41:45 > 0:41:47and I could press a button electrically and create a shake in
0:41:47 > 0:41:50the lens and take my finger off the button and the shaking would stop.
0:41:50 > 0:41:54All those things made the film nervous to look at,
0:41:54 > 0:41:57which is exactly the kind of fear that the soldiers were
0:41:57 > 0:41:59feeling inside of themselves.
0:41:59 > 0:42:02All I can do here is die. Covering fire.
0:42:04 > 0:42:09Were you aiming to be more brutal than anything that went before?
0:42:09 > 0:42:11Well, that's not really for me to say.
0:42:11 > 0:42:13That wasn't my original intention,
0:42:13 > 0:42:15just to be brutal for brutality's sake.
0:42:15 > 0:42:17I wasn't trying to do that.
0:42:17 > 0:42:20I was simply trying to show war like it was, and like it is.
0:42:20 > 0:42:22And like I said before,
0:42:22 > 0:42:26I've read a lot of testimonies from veterans of that war
0:42:26 > 0:42:29and seen documentaries and talked to them in person
0:42:29 > 0:42:32and they all said, "There were two wars fought - there was our war,
0:42:32 > 0:42:34"and there was Hollywood's war.
0:42:34 > 0:42:38"Can you find it in your heart to tell the story of our war?"
0:42:38 > 0:42:41And when they said that to me, I was an instant convert.
0:42:41 > 0:42:45I said, "Yes, I will tell the story of your war.
0:42:45 > 0:42:49"I'll try to be as conventional to your experience and unconventional,
0:42:49 > 0:42:52"therefore, to the American Hollywood experience
0:42:52 > 0:42:53"as I possibly can be,"
0:42:53 > 0:42:56and sure, there's all sorts of conventionality throughout
0:42:56 > 0:43:02part of my movie, but I try to be as conventional to a real-life war
0:43:02 > 0:43:04as I possibly could be.
0:43:07 > 0:43:12All the films we've examined in this programme share that same ambition,
0:43:12 > 0:43:15to reflect the reality of war.
0:43:16 > 0:43:19It's one of the reasons we always value them,
0:43:19 > 0:43:22with their heroes personifying courage,
0:43:22 > 0:43:26starring actors who lived through the fighting themselves.
0:43:27 > 0:43:30They are stirring tales
0:43:30 > 0:43:32that touched everybody at the time,
0:43:32 > 0:43:35and patriotic reminders of how pulling together can
0:43:35 > 0:43:37result in victory.
0:43:37 > 0:43:42No wonder they still resonate with us so strongly...even today.