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The Essay Podcast

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Essays from leading writers on arts, history, philosophy, science, religion and beyond.

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The Essay: British War Films of the 50s

The Essay: British War Films of the 50s: Episode 1: The Cruel Sea

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British War Films of the 50s

Episode 1

Episode 1: The Cruel Sea

The Cruel Sea

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Simon Heffer on the film The Cruel Sea, about the price of victory in World War Two.

Simon Heffer celebrates the film The Cruel Sea, based on a novel by Nicholas Monsarrat, which sought to depict the true price which had been paid for victory in World War Two.

Uncomplaining Tommy Atkins, the Glamour Boys of 657 Squadron and merciless Nazi officers with razor-thin lips: it's easy to mock the British films about the Second World War which were made in the 1950s, but the historian and columnist Simon Heffer is passionate about them. 

In 2011 Simon Heffer wrote and presented a series of Essays for BBC Radio 3 which celebrated some of the great British films made about the Second World War while it was still going on - films in which propaganda and morale-boosting played central roles. 

In this new series, he turns to films which were made after the war was over, in the 1950s, when a new and more realistic approach to events became possible and questions about the difficult realities of peace were beginning to be asked. Where better to ask them than in the single most important artform of the time? As Simon Heffer says: 

"From 1939 to 1945 they had all been in it together; now they were all in the Odeon together." 

He starts with The Cruel Sea, based on a novel by Nicholas Monsarrat, which, far from romanticising or glamorising war, set out to depict the true price which had been paid for victory. 

In subsequent programmes, Simon Heffer looks at The Colditz Story, The Dambusters, Carve Her Name with Pride and Dunkirk, celebrating these films not only in their own right but also for their depiction of the changing world of post-war Britain. 

Producer: Beaty Rubens.

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Historian and writer Simon Heffer celebrates British military films made in the 1950s

Historian and writer Simon Heffer discusses British military films made in the 1950s, celebrating their individual qualities and their depiction of the changing world of post-war Britain

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