Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's 1943 film The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp was intended to bolster the propaganda effort. Colonel Blimp was a cartoon character conceived to parody the hidebound, elder military types whose attitudes towards war were irrelevant when it came to fighting the Nazis, a point made in the first few minutes of the movie when a platoon of young troops cheekily capture walrus-faced General Candy (Roger Livesey) during a training exercise, oblivious to his splutterings that "war starts at midnight!" Thereafter, Powell and Pressburger forge a more complex portrayal of Candy, following his career over 40 years, from the Boer War through World War I. There are strong, touching reminders of Goodbye, Mr Chips in his relationship with a German officer, played by Anton Walbrook, (a reflection, perhaps of Powell's own alliance with the German Pressburger), while Deborah Kerr recurs in three different roles, reminding Candy of the lifelong love he has missed out on. By the end, Candy's inability to recognise that the Nazis are not playing by his own, proper military rules is reaffirmed but more sympathetically. No one could mistake Powell and Pressburger's patriotic intentions here yet Winston Churchill was sufficiently disconcerted by the film to try to have it banned. It wasn't-and it proved a huge, deserved success. -David Stubbs Powell and Pressburger's first Technicolor masterpiece, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943) transcends its narrow wartime propaganda remit to portray in warm-hearted detail the life and loves of one extraordinary man. The film's clever narrative structure first presents us with the imposingly rotund General Clive Wynne-Candy of the Home Guard (Roger Livesey in his greatest screen performance), a blustering old buffer with spreading handlebar moustache and stomach to match. Confronted by a youthful regular army Captain he seems the epitome of stuffy, outmoded values. But travelling backwards 40 years we see a different man altogether: the young and dashing officer "Sugar" Candy, just returned from earning a Victoria Cross in the Boer War. [+]

Of all the biopics directed by Sir Richard Attenborough, Grey Owl is the most curious. Unlike the great and significant lives celebrated in Ghandi, Chaplin and Shadowlands, here Attenborough gives us the story of a man who has long been forgotten. Pierce Brosnan stars as Archie Grey Owl, whom we initially meet as a solitary trapper in 1930's outback Canada. His life story seems simple enough at first, but with the introduction of a wannabe pupil (Annie Galipeau), some cracks appear around the edges. Love complicates matters enormously, yet ultimately comes to explain Archie's big secret and why the film is structured in a cyclical fashion. Brosnan was reportedly disappointed with the final version of the film, feeling it ought to have focused on the more depressing aspects of Grey Owl's life. But that would have been at the expense of the touching love story, and potentially of the simply stunning scenery on which the camera lavishes much attention. The final public revelation of Grey Owl's secret resulted in him being dismissed as nothing but a fraud in his day. Attenborough's tale of boyhood dreams and commitment to cherished principles may not be as memorable as his more high-profile biopics, but will hopefully ensure the subject won't be forgotten again quite so quickly. -Paul Tonks.

The second series of The Forsyte Saga, based on John Galsworthy's To Let, moves the story of the sprawling, fractious and aristocratic Forsyte family into the 1920s. The drama shifts to a new generation shouldering the burdensome legacies of an aging Soames (Damian Lewis) and his failed marriage to free-spirited Irene (Gina McKee). The lovely Fleur (Emma Griffiths Malin), Soames' daughter by second wife Annette (Beatriz Batarda), and strapping Jon (Lee Williams), son of Irene and Soames' bohemian cousin, Jolyon (Rupert Graves), develop a romance much to the dismay of their feuding parents. But the long reach of the elder Forsytes' sins-and the tenderness with which they seek redemption through their children-ultimately undercuts the young lovers' happiness. Meanwhile, sundry characters move in and out of the Forsytes' orbit, including a French businessman (Michael Maloney) stirring more troubles for Soames, and an art dealer (Oliver Milburn) with designs on Fleur. As with Series 1, all this will feel familiar to anyone who has seen the 26-part, 1967 version; yet this updated effort renews and redefines the Forsytes' overlapping tragedies, with a more interior feel and a first-rate contemporary cast. As with its legendary predecessor, this Forsyte Saga depends heavily on the seemingly soulless Soames' slow evolution to humanity; Damian Lewis carries the load brilliantly. -Tom Keogh.