It was the golden age of British cinema – but many can barely be recalled. A British Film Institute initiative aims to remedy that, shedding light on life in post-war Britain.
It was a golden age of British cinema, with classics such as The Dam Busters, A Matter of Life and Death and Reach for the Sky making stars of the likes of Richard Todd, David Niven and Kenneth Moore. Yet there were many more movies that thrilled audience but are barely recalled.
A British Film Institute season of films made between 1945 and 1960 aims to remedy that and shed light on life in post-war Britain. Ehsan Khoshbakht, the curator of Great Expectations: British Postwar Cinema 1945-1960, says: “In some ways this is the least known era of British cinema, a kind of lost period, yet it saw some of the finest films being made. The films portray a country coming out of war, reconstructing itself, but facing a real question of identity. The British Empire had collapsed, the conflict was over and now it’s every man for himself – so how does the country deal with that? This work mirrors the daily life of the British; it’s a window into the past.”
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That past, according to Dr David Geiringer, London’s Queen Mary University’s senior lecturer in public history and heritage, saw a pivotal change which laid the foundations of modern Britain. He says: “The period is characterised as Britain moving from austerity to a more affluent time – the 1950s, like a drab neighbour, to the sexy swinging 60s.
“But it’s more complex. The class system had been blown to pieces and there was political optimism about Britain becoming a more equal society – we saw the NHS established in 1948. At the same time, people still looked for conformity and familiarity; there was a retreat back to tradition. Women were forced back into roles in the home and church-going went through the roof.” While the British stiff upper lip was still in evidence – both in life and on screen – beneath the surface was the imminent arrival of the teenager.
Mark Glancy, Queen Mary’s professor of film history, says: “There was real anxiety about the effect the war and the Blitz had had on children. That fed into fears about juvenile delinquency, especially with the emergence of ‘teddy boys’.” But, adds Dr Geiringer, people also wanted more from life, for themselves and the next generation. With the arrival of television people gained access to new ideas and there was a sense of looking more for personal fulfillment rather than simply adhering to duty.”
That concern for childhood is echoed in one BFI film choice, A Diary for Timothy – a 1945 documentary narrated by Michael Redgrave, taking the form of a letter to a newborn baby, exploring what the future may hold. Popular with critics and audiences, they recognised its air of optimism, mixed with apprehension.
The theme of childhood is also present in Ehsan’s BFI selection, Mandy, starring Jack Hawkins and Phyllis Calvert as the parents of a deaf girl, showing their efforts to help her connect with the world. The 1952 film was shot at Ealing Studios and nominated for a clutch of Baftas.
Iranian-born Ehsan, says it’s a metaphor for a traumatised nation learning to communicate again in peace time. Hawkins himself served in the war, in India and Asia. Ehsan recalls: “I grew up watching these films on TV. When I saw Mandy, years later, I could remember every scene. It’s very moving.“ In Hunted, Dirk Bogarde stars as a fugitive murderer who takes a war- orphaned boy on the run with him – forming an unlikely bond – after the child witnesses his crime.
The 1952 film won critical acclaim for its gritty approach to the austerity still facing Britain – the end of rationing was still two years away. Bogarde had been among the first Allied officers to enter the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp at the end of the war. Praised for his performance in Hunted, he struggled with the aftermath of conflict, once saying: “First there was the war, and then the peace to cope with.”
Dr Geiringer says: “We talk today about ‘broken Britain,’ but post war that was a literal phrase; you could actually see how broken it was just by the bombsites on streets and on screen. The Suez Crisis happened in 1956 and Britain had an identity crisis; suddenly we didn’t have so much power on the world stage.”
Ehsan, who originally curated the programme for the prestigious Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland, choose movies concentrating on the realities of everyday life. He says: “These are all movies that people would have seen at their local cinema. Movies of the era have a reputation of being mild and very conservative but many have their own edge.”
He highlights Turn The Key Softly, a 1953 drama which follows Joan Collins, as one of three women released from prison into a cold and dismal 50s London.
Critics called the actress’s performance “lush and brassy” but it was her co-star Kathleen Harrison who, according to one review, made ‘the loneliness of the poor and unwanted strikingly real’. Mark Glancy says it was a “challenging time” for many with those difficulties, which is reflected in the film. He says: “When I see people in movies from this period I always think how thin they look; they sit down to a meal of two boiled potatoes, a tiny slice of roast beef and some cabbage. But that’s how it was – there were few luxuries.
There were a lot of British films about ordinary people at this time because ordinary people were heroes.” The question of capital punishment was being explored in public life during the 50s – a theme reflected in the 1957 thriller Time Without Pity. Starring Michael Redgrave and Ann Todd, the story follows a father trying to save his son from execution.
Less than a decade later The Murder Act suspended the death penalty for murder in Great Britain. But while life’s meagre joys continued to be rationed, the search for escapism continued. One of the cheapest forms of entertainment remained going to the cinema – according to the UK Cinema Association, there were 1.64 billion cinema attendances in 1946.
Audiences flocked to see the comedy The Happiest Days of Your Life with Alastair Sim and Margaret Rutherford navigating a gender mix-up, as female students are inadvertently evacuated to an all boys school. Released in 1950, it was a commercial success although one critic noted the two leads were ‘decisively upstaged’ by supporting actress Joyce Grenfell.
Despite the movies featured in the festival being decades old, Dr Geiringer believes we can still draw relevance from them today. He says: “Post war Britain was trying to find its identity – there was a debate about what ‘Britishness’ really was. When resources are short that question of who we are – and who we are not – often arises. We’re seeing a similar thing here in 2026.”
*Great Expectations: British Postwar Cinema 1945-1960 is on at the BFI Southbank until May 30
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