Queen and Country

John Boorman’s follow up to Hope and Glory finds 18-year-old Bill called up for National Service against the backdrop of the Korean War.

John Boorman’s spirited film memoir of his National Service days picks up the story of Hope and Glory, his much-loved 1987 account of boyhood life in London during the Blitz. Bill is now 18 years old and is called up for service against the backdrop of the Korean War.

Assigned to teach typing to soldiers who will soon be on the frontline in Korea, Bill and his fellow recruit Percy (Caleb Landry Jones) have little time for the pomp and hierarchy of military life, hilariously embodied by David Thewlis as their rules-obsessed sergeant. Besides, Bill has more serious matters to attend to, such as a beautiful older woman (Tamsin Egerton) and – in what feels like the film’s most unabashedly personal touch – his burgeoning obsession with cinema.