Mrs Miniver

Hollywood's multi-Oscared tribute to the home front in wartime Britain. See Mrs Miniver disarm a German parachutist and hide his gun behind the teacups. See gallant hubby stiffen the old upper lip before sailing off to help with the Dunkirk evacuation. An average English couple, practising their little economies but housed in gracious splendour, they live in an England which may be at war but where the local flower show soldiers on. Classic soap opera in which good old British understatement has a field day, everybody is frightfully nice, and sentimentality is wrapped up in yards of tasteful gloss.