REEL LIFE

From bouncing bombs to pirate radio and tales of Wessex love to an 19th-century romp, Dorset has played an important supporting role in some classic films

- Helen Stiles

IN WHICH WE SERVE (1942)

Directed by Noel Coward and David Lean, this was a patriotic film to stiffen the British upper lip. Made with the assistance of the Ministry of Information, Coward based his screenplay on the dashing exploits of Lord Louis Mountbatten in the Battle of Crete the previous year. The story revolves around Captain Kinross and the crew of HMS Torrin. The naval station at Portland provides one of the locations, quite something when you consider there was a war on.

THE DAM BUSTERS (1954)

This epic British war film starring Richard Todd and Michael Redgrave was inspired by the RAF’s 617 Squadron attack on dams in Nazi Germany using the bouncing bomb invented by Barnes Wallis. Filmed in and around Weymouth, The Fleet was used for the testing site sequence. Just 12 years earlier Chesil Beach had been where the prototype for the real bouncing bomb was filmed in 1942, dropped by aircraft from RAF Warmwell.

TOM JONES (1963)

This adaptation of the Henry Fielding’s 1749 novel, directed by Tony Richardson, featured Albert Finney as the titular hero who romps his way through 18th century society. Nominated for 10 Oscars and landing four including Best Picture, Cranborne Manor and its glorious gardens provided the location for Squire Allworthy’s estate. The manor house at the end of Abbey Street in Cerne Abbas was the house of Squire Western and his daughter Sophia (Susannah York) who eventually becomes Tom’s wife.