A thoughtful record of the bleak final winter of World War II. My mother remembered hearing doodlebugs passing over Norfolk and I have a two year-old nephew currently oblivious of the present crisis; while what is now, as in wartime, known as the air raid siren ("I hope you'll never have to hear that sound, Tim") was ironically still a familiar sound to me as a child twenty years later as the maroon that summoned the fire brigade and lifeboats. So my own life spans the gap between both the events unfolded here and the current dark days we are living through three-quarters of a century later. Young Timothy was born on 1 September 1944, and there are still prominent figures in politics both here and in the United States (including the Democratic challenger in this autumn's elections) who were already born before he was.
(Modern viewers may criticise the lack of black faces, but Churchill remarkably is also absent from the film.)
(Modern viewers may criticise the lack of black faces, but Churchill remarkably is also absent from the film.)