The Great Escaper

Date: 20/02/2024 Times: 7:30 pm - 9:05 pm

This is Glenda Jackson’s last film at the end of a highly distinguished career in the theatre, television and the cinema, during which she won two Oscars, not to mention her other career as an MP. She is joined, playing her husband by Michael Caine, another actor who is probably bowing out of performing. So come and see two really great British actors in a quintessentially British true story about the consequences of the Second World War.

In the summer of 2014, the 70th Anniversary of the D-Day Landings, octogenarian Bernie Jordan (Michael Caine) made global headlines. He had staged a ‘great escape’ from his care home to join fellow war veterans on a beach in Normandy, commemorating their fallen comrades. It was a story that captured the imagination of the world; Bernie seemed to embody the defiant, ‘can-do’ spirit of a generation that was fast disappearing. But of course, it wasn’t the whole story. It was the story we all tell ourselves to make war and old age bearable. The bitter-sweet script explores the reality with wit and a very big heart. Bernie’s adventure, spanning a mere 48 hours, also marked the culmination of his 60-year marriage to Irene (Glenda Jackson); the story celebrates their love without sentimentality.

Venue: William Loveless Hall