Glorious 39

Better known for such TV dramas as The Lost Prince and Perfect Strangers, Stephen Poliakoff returns to the big screen for the first time in almost two decades with Glorious 39, a Hitchcockian thriller about a political conspiracy to keep Britain out of World War Two. Romola Garai stars as promising young actress Anne, the adopted eldest daughter of Bill Nighy’s aristocratic politician, and the plot kicks off when she stumbles upon some secret recordings stored in the family's country house. As she digs deeper, she uncovers a plot to keep Britain out of a war with Hitler's Germany at all costs. Poliakoff’s film has provocative ideas about appeasement and a few truly chilling sequences, but some surprisingly clumsy dialogue and occasionally awkward acting suggest he hasn’t fully got a grip on his material. Garai, though, is stunning.

View the trailer on the film's official site.

On general release from 27th November.

A film critic for over 25 years, Jason admits the job can occasionally be glamorous – sitting on a film festival jury in Portugal; hanging out with Baz Luhrmann at the Chateau Marmont; chatting with Sigourney Weaver about The Archers – but he mostly spends his time in darkened rooms watching films. He’s also written theatre and opera reviews, two guide books on Rome, and competed in a race for Yachting World, whose great wheeze it was to send a seasick film critic to write about his time on the ocean waves. But Jason is happiest on dry land with a classic screwball comedy or Hitchcock thriller.