4 Star

For Freedom, Their Sacrifice.

Once again, Father and son team, Andrew Burn and Callum Burn (Lancaster Skies, Spitfire Over Berlin) bring us a cracking WWII film, this time concentrating on twenty-four hours in the life of a spitfire squad based in the South of the UK as Hitler starts his offensive to control the skies above Britain. #SupportIndieFilm

The Battle for France is over. I expect that the battle for Britain is about to begin.

Winston Churchill, 18th June 1940

With poignant footage from WWII, we get in the mood for what is about to come, as Nazi Germany’s Luftwaffe are attacking airfields, radar stations and factories, Britain is struggling, as fighter command is stretched to its limits.

The silence of the countryside is broken as B-Flight’s spitfires return to their airfield. Once again, less arrive back at the strip than went out to fight Nazi Luftwaffe determined to destroy Britain’s defences and infrastructure.

The squad is feeling down as Digby was foolhardy and got too close to a German Heinkel. Only one is chipper, the lead kill count scorer Nathan Walker (Vin Hawke, Spitfire Over Berlin, Original Gangster) as it is all part of the job. But B-Flight leader Michael Cochrane (Tom Gordon, Endeavour (TV Series), Lancaster Skies) is always at odds with Walker and his bullying attitude. He also knows that Britain is up against unsurmountable numbers of enemy planes, by four to one.

Before they have had a cup of tea, the shout goes up again, but the planes have not been turned around yet. It will be another twenty minutes before they can take to the air again, but Walker is already fast asleep.

Nancy White (Hannah Harris) flies in a replacement spitfire, but there is no one to fly it, until Lawrence Stanhope (Chris Clynes, Bismarck:24 Hours to Doom (TV Special), T.S. Eliot: Into ‘The Waste Land’ (TV Special)) turns up to take his place in B-Flight.

Richard Cooper (Micky David, King of Crime, Edge of Extinction) is happy to see Nancy as they are romantically involved but with all the things going on they don’t get to spend much quality time together, another thing that doesn’t get past Walker’s evil eye. But the one that gets the worst of Walker’s strange sense of humour is Andrew Sharp (Arnold Voysey) who is traumatized by everything around him.

Stanhope needs to get up to speed fast as the Germans are on the offensive, and never seem to rest as the skies are always full of dogfights, and now it is time to scramble.

The next twenty odd hours in the life of B-Flight is going to be hard on its pilots and on Britain as they battle to save the green and pleasant land that is the UK, the next few months are crucial for Britain’s survival.

A great war film with the feel of those old 1940s-50s homages to the few that did so much. The Burn brothers have brought us another cracker as they go from strength to strength. #SupportIndiependantFilm

Battle Over Britain will be available to Buy & Rent on Digital from 22nd January 2024
and on DVD and Blu-ray from 29th January 2024