Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Callum Turner, Caleb Landry Jones, Pat Shortt, David Thewlis, Richard E. Grant, Vanessa Kirby, Tasmin Egerton, Aimee-Ffion Edwards, Sinéad Cusack, David Hayman, John Standing, Brian F.O’ Byrne, David Michael Claydon, Julian Wadham, Tom Stuart, Alfie Stuart, Gerran Howell, Simon Paisley Day, Maria Flacau, Constantin Florescu.

The life of Bill Rohan was always going to be exceptional, especially when he is the alter ego of British film maker John Boorman, it just always seemed a shame that the account of his life seemed to stop in mid flight in the superb 1987 British film Hope and Glory.

Some cinematic lives are cut far too short and Bill Rohan was one of them and until the under the radar release of Queen and Country, it seemed the life of one of the most endearing youngsters to live through World War Two was never going to be continued.

You can keep the imagination down for too long and despite it being over a quarter of a century since audiences were allowed access into to the Rohan/Boorman mind, some things never fade, rather they tend grow with importance and send messages to the world that there is still life to be seen and tales to be told.

Hope and Glory was one of those surprise films that bound generations together. It brought those of whom had been around the same age of Bill Rohan when he thanked Adolf Hitler for destroying his school and those to whom being of teenage years during the film’s release saw the horrors of the blitz with new eyes, the talking point and connection between the generations made. Queen and Country might not have the simmering connections that its distinguished predecessor had, but the regimented lifestyle and chain of command felt in conscription is still enough to send shivers of fear down the spine of those who endured it and those who would not let their worst enemy go through the sadism and mental torture that goes cap in hand with military repercussions.

The dark humour in the film is enjoyable and there are moments of fantastic surrealism, of typical British endeavour that really capture the heart of life in the barracks and the post war delusions that peace was finally at hand, whilst allowing for war in the far east in the Korean conflict.

With terrific performances by Callum Turner as Bill Rohan, David Thewlis as Bradley, the delightful Aimee-Ffion Edwards as the Sophie Adams and the exceptional Caleb Landry Jones as Percy Hapgood, the film abounds with charm and carefully placed sentiment and with David Hayman returning as his character from the original film, there is a sense of full circle being put in place.

All any cinema goer and film buff needs now is for the trilogy to be completed, for any man who can bring Deliverance to the screen, surely still can finish the story of Bill Rohan.

Ian D. Hall