Elevator Pitch
Shortly after WWII a successful author enters into a correspondence with a member of “The Guernsey Literary and PPP Society”, which results in her visiting the island and feeling the need to record the experiences of the group during the occupation of the Channel Islands by the Germans during the war. She encounters opposition from members of the group who do not wish to reveal why one of them is missing, and from her fiancee, an American soldier who she has left back in London.
Content
There are exchanges with the author’s publisher as he tries to help her with her life, and with her fiancee who is pressing her to marry him and move to America, then meetings with the group on Guernsey and scenes during her travels by ferry to the island. Lots of time spent on the coastline of the island, very scenic indeed. Very brief views of the Germans marching down the main street of St Peterport. Some reading of letters. Some drinking, people look soulfully at each other and just a bit of antiseptic snogging.
| A View | Quite a few critics liked this, but tellingly it is almost always described as “cosy”, and this may be its problem, the almost universal level of niceness. Even the Germans are nice, apart from the ones who shoot people off camera. You’d be surprised if there are any surprises, so you’d have to be a fan of tame romantic dramas to pay to see this. | ||
| Duration | 2h 4m | Rating (UK) | 12A |
| Source of story | A book of the same name by Mary Ann Shaffer, who had her manuscript picked up by a publisher in 2008. However they asked for serious rewrites, but she died before carrying them out. The work was done by her niece Annie Burrows. | ||
| Director | Mike Newell | ||
| Writers/Script | Don Roos, Kevin Hood, Thomas Bezucha | ||
| Starring | Tom Courtenay, Michiel Huisman, Katherine Parkinson, Matthew Goode, Lily James, Clive Merrison, Penelope Wilton | ||
| Additional Info | The coastal scenes including the port, take place in Devon and Cornwall. A DC3 takes off from a beach. I travelled as a passenger in one once – alarmingly – 40 years ago. | ||
A MOTION PICTURE LIST 
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