This is one of the finest "we're in this together" flag-wavers produced in Britain during the Second World War. From Eric Ambler and Peter Ustinov's script, director Carol Reed, who had earned a reputation for social realism in the mid-1930s and had spent part of the war making army documentaries, creates a totally believable world in which a squad of raw recruits becomes an integral part of the local community as they go through basic training. David Niven is top-billed, but he generously enters into the ensemble spirit that makes this beautifully observed drama as uplifting today as it was in 1944.

A mismatched collection of conscripted civilians find training tough under Lieutenant Jim Perry and Sergeant Ned Fletcher when they are called up to replace an infantry battalion that had suffered casualties at Dunkirk.