British Feature Film Think of England, Inspired by a Wartime Myth, to Premiere at Glasgow Film Festival

Hinton Magazine
18 minutes ago
3 min read

The British feature film Think of England, inspired by a wartime urban myth that the UK government commissioned pornographic films to boost troop morale during World War II, will receive its UK premiere at the Glasgow Film Festival on 6th March. Directed by BAFTA-nominated filmmaker Richard Hawkins, the film will screen again at the festival on 7th March, before a further screening at Manchester Film Festival on 22nd March, marking the first opportunity for UK audiences to see the film in a public cinema setting.

Set in the summer of 1943 on the Orkney Islands, where the Normandy landings are fast approaching and troops on the front line are increasingly desperate, the film follows an eclectic group of characters, each selected for their own unique skillset, tasked with a top-secret mission: to make pornographic films intended to raise morale ahead of invasion. As each assignee struggles under the weight of conscience, coercion, and fear, the darkly satirical story examines who draws society’s moral lines, who enforces them, and what happens when they are crossed under extreme pressure.

Directed by BAFTA-nominated British writer-director Richard Hawkins, Think of England explores moral boundaries, power, and performance against the backdrop of war, at a moment in history when the stakes could not be higher. The film interrogates censorship and hypocrisy, asking what happens when deeply held values collide with the demands of survival.

The film, which was shot under the principles of Ted Hope’s NonDe movement, stars Ronni Ancona (Big Impression, EastEnders) as wardrobe and makeup artist Agnes Duprée, with leading lady Natalie Quarry (Rosalind Clifford in Call the Midwife) as Holly Spurring, and leading man Jack Bandeira (The Gold, Andor) as Corporal Evans, alongside and John McCrea (Olivier award-winner for playing the original title role in ‘Everybody’s Talking About Jamie’) as Captain Anthony Clune. The cast also includes Ben Bela Böhm (Better Call Saul), Oscar Hoppe (All the Light We Cannot See) and Ollie Maddigan (The Olive Boy).

Lead Natalie Quarry as wartime actress Holly Spurring delivers a bold performance that includes on-screen nudity, a brave evolution from Natalie’s work as Rosalind Clifford in Call the Midwife. The film treats this exposure with gravity rather than spectacle, using it to interrogate power, coercion, and vulnerability in wartime Britain. Occupying a pivotal position within the film’s provocative wartime narrative, Natalie’s character sits at the centre of its exploration of sexual performance, power, and moral compromise.

Similarly, Jack Bandeira, the film’s leading man, appears naked on screen as Corporal Evans, delivering a performance marked by PTSD, his striking and sometimes harrowing turn is rooted in volatility and loss of control, with moments of stark physical exposure that sit squarely within the film’s darker moral terrain.

Think of England, produced by father-daughter duo Nick and Poppy O’Hagan for Giant Films, is also a controversial film about cinema itself, about how moving images have historically tested, challenged, and redrawn the boundaries of what audiences are willing to see. Set firmly within its time, the film shines a light on the institutional misogyny and homophobia of the era while allowing its unlikely characters to gesture toward a more tolerant future, reminding us to continually question the sensibilities and censorship of any age, including our own.

The upcoming Glasgow Film Festival screening marks the first opportunity for UK audiences to see the film in a public cinema setting.

Think of England will receive its UK premiere at the Glasgow Film Festival on 6^th (and 7^th) March, 2026. Further details can be found at https://www.glasgowfilm.org/movie/think-of-england/.