War Movie Theatre

What films do we wish were war films? What has most surprised us over the course of 100 war movies? Do British people watch different war films from Americans? Which battles really need a film?Yes, for one week only, we're answering your questions. Next week, normal service resumes with The Charge of the Light Brigade (1936).

In a war movie so classic that it informed much of what came after it, David Niven is given the job of turning raw recruits into fighting men. Released in 1944, The Way Ahead is like a Rosetta stone for understanding much of what came afterwards in British film and TV, from Dad's Army to, arguably, Are You Being Served? It was written by Eric Ambler and Peter Ustinov, and directed by Carol Reed, a dream team that turns this army propaganda film into something special. Joining Rob to discuss it are Mark Wallace of the Total Politics Group and culture journalist George Cochrane.Next week, it's our mailbag episode.

Fan Service Month continues with a second look at a 1942 British film that was largely ignored at the time but has since come to be regarded as a stone cold classic. The inspiration for The Eagle Has Landed, it sees English villagers fight off Nazis disguised as British soldiers. Can there be anything more fun that watching Thora Hird pick up a rifle? We're joined by Prof Jonathan Boff of Birmingham University, to talk about what the film reveals about Britain, then and now.Next week: The Way Ahead.

Fan Service Month continues with the film that Winston Churchill said was worth its weight in battleships, Mrs Miniver was intended by director William Wyler to be propaganda, but good. Incredibly popular on release, it told America about the British home front from the point of view of Greer Garson's upper middle-class housewife. But the real Mrs Miniver's life was far more complicated, and Garson herself made a surprise bid for the Dam Buster's Dog Prize For Most Problematic Moment.Next week: Went The Day Well? - Again!

As classic a war movie as classic war movies get! For what people are already calling "Fan Service Month", Rob and Duncan are parachuting into occupied France to help the resistance, in this much-loved retelling of the true story of Violette Szabo, who won a posthumous George Cross for her courage. The poem from the film became famous, but the real author was kept secret for decades. Will we be sobbing by the end?Next week: Mrs Miniver.

As Happy Birthday America Month draws to a close, Rob and Duncan take on the job of instilling discipline in a podcast that's got sloppy as they watch Clint Eastwood directing and starring in Heartbreak Ridge. The year was 1986, Reagan was in the White House, and audiences were ready to see their military kick some butt. They were rewarded with the stirring tale of the Marine Corp's against-the-odds invasion of - have we got this right? - Grenada. Has a bigger movie ever been made about a smaller war? Did the Marines hope to get a Top Gun recruitment effect? Had they misunderstood their appeal to young men? Next week, Fan Service Month kicks off with Carve Her Name With Pride.