Sergeant Peter King of the Army Dental Corps has been passed over for active service and bitterly watches a younger man go in his stead.  Later King finds Private Leslie Cuthbertson, a trainee dental mechanic in the Corps, in the armoury handling a grenade and excitedly playing at war.  Recognising the lad’s passionate desire to see active service, King wakes Cuthbertson the next morning with an order to get full kit and meet at the gate. Armed with just two revolvers and a dozen grenades, King persuades Cuthbertson to join him on a mission to occupied France.

In a letter to Winston Churchill, King explains their intention to invade France and fight the Germans.  They are an unlikely pair, King ferocious in his intent not to be rumbled, and Cuthbertson in his innocence, unable not to draw attention to himself.  After a number of close calls and bungled attempts to steal a boat, they finally arrive in France.  They cut telephone cables and derail a train full of Germans but Cuthbertson is anxious to see real action.  They stumble across a German radar station and succeed in blowing-up what they believe to be the main Operations Room.  When the entire compound unexpectedly erupts with gunfire and explosions, they manage incredibly to escape and get back to the boat.

A stray mine in the Channel explodes, wounding them.  Picked up by the British, they are interrogated as spies.  
Deemed to be deserters, they are returned to barracks to be court marshalled.  At the eleventh hour King and Cuthbertson are saved by the arrival of Major Merton, Churchill’s Chief Intelligence Advisor. Their letter was received in Whitehall and Merton corroborates their heroic story, explaining that King and Cuthbertson’s attack on the radar signals occurred at precisely the same time as a special British mission on another part of the radar station, so providing a diversion and ensuring success.

Exonerated of lying, King and Cuthbertson are nevertheless reprimanded by the Court, but receive an invitation to tea with the Prime Minister should they ever be in Whitehall.  This hilarious, moving and engrossing film is only believable because it is true.

Official Selection – Hollywood Film Festival 2003

Running time – 109 minutes

Starring
Kenneth Cranham
Leo Bill
Derek Jacobi
Phyllida Law
James Fleet,
Julian Glover
Anthony Valentine
David Ryall
Rosanna Lavelle

Directed by
John Henderson

Screenplay by
Richard Everett and
Christopher Villiers

A Little Wings presentation of an Ira Trattner production.