Bovril & Sherry, by Andy Wilkinson - Colin
Andy Wilkinson’s Bovril and Sherry has a subtitle “The Blood, Toil, Tears and Sweat of British War Films”. One might, therefore, reasonably think this is a book about British war films. While the author does indeed mention British films, he admits that many of the films are American.
This is a very short book in three main parts:
1. 1930-1939: These fourteen pages cover the period when the world became increasingly alarmed about Germany’s re-armament and sabre-rattling. Only four of the sixteen films covered were made in Britain during this inter-war period, although a few of the American-made ones have British content, such as The Charge of the Light Brigade. La Grande Illusion is a French language film, made in France, with a mostly French cast. I’m unsure why it has been included in a book about British war films.
2. 1939-1945: Thirty one films are listed in these twenty pages, although the author’s comments vary in length from Mrs Miniver with almost a page down to New Town for Old Town with just one sentence. As one might expect, the films chosen for this section are mostly British. I was pleased to see films about the Home Front included, such as the excellent Ministry of Information short, Go to Blazes, about how to handle incendiary and fire bombs, starring Will Hay and Thora Hird.
3. 1945-1969: Twenty six pages and twenty six films, finishing with The Battle Of Britain (1969). This was the period in which those films we now think of as “classic” war films were made, such as The Colditz Story, The Dambusters and The Great Escape.
Wilkinson then lists a number of songs and tunes that were released during WWII and which lifted spirits, such as Vera Lynn’s We’ll Meet Again; Glenn Miller’s In the Mood; and the Andrews Sisters’ Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy (and yes, those last two were 100% American composed and performed).
You may be curious to the purpose of the book: Wilkinson’s commentary occasionally mentions the director; a couple of the stars; and the Ministry of Information, if they were involved in making the film; but it certainly doesn’t attempt to provide detail. The plot is summarised in a few sentences. We get a brief mention of the context but, again, it’s not detailed. I can only suggest that the purpose of the book is tell us which films Andy Wilkinson enjoys watching on TV and which tunes he enjoys listening to as he’s doing the washing-up. If you want to know that, buy the book. If not, you’ll probably get a lot more from Wikipedia.
Colin
