SS CHANNEL ISLANDS
– Captives: Susan Hampshire, Izzy Meikle-Small and Jenny Seagrove in Another Mother’s Son.
Intro: The gripping true story of how a mother risked her life to save a PoW as the Nazis’ jackboots trampled over Jersey in WWII.
THE BBC1 drama SS-GB which recently concluded, was an eerie vision of what a German-occupied Britain might have looked like in 1941. It was undermined slightly by the sound quality – ‘ve haf vays of making you mumble’.
Arriving on the silver screens now is an accurate and absorbing account of what it was actually like for British citizens to hear the stamp of Nazi jackboots on their own streets.
The German occupation of the Channel Islands has had surprisingly little cinematic attention down the years. Another Mother’s Son is a hugely welcome redress of that oversight. Moreover, it tells an extraordinary true story, that of Louisa Gould (Jenny Seagrove), a middle-aged shopkeeper in a rural Jersey village.
Shortly after receiving the devastating news that one of her own two boys had been killed at sea, she took an escaped Russian prisoner-of-war into her home, and, even as the Gestapo closed in, lavished on him the protective love of a mother for a son.
Apart from the tear-jerking human dimension of this story, it also offers a valuable history lesson. Who knew that there were barbaric labour camps for Russian PoWs in the Channel Islands? I certainly didn’t. Nor had I realised the moral depths to which a handful of the islanders sank, settling petty jealousies and grievances by writing anonymously to the occupiers, telling tales of hidden wireless sets, or worse, hidden prisoners.
As far as one can gather, and albeit with Somerset standing in convincingly for Jersey, the film sticks staunchly to the facts. Ably directed by Christopher Menaul, it is written by Gould’s great-niece Jenny Lecoat, who of course had a vested interest in getting the details right. Her remarkable kinswoman would be proud. Yet there was nothing conspicuously remarkable about Louisa. Seagrove plays her splendidly, as an ordinary, decent, careworn woman appalled by German brutality.
A fine supporting cast includes Sherlock’s Amanda Abbington as Louisa’s sister and the ever-watchable John Hannah as her brother-in-law, both very good at conveying the anxiety of people with much to be anxious about.
That eternal English rose Susan Hampshire, wearing her 79 years with ineffable elegance, pops up, too. In an oddly inspired casting choice, the Irish singer Ronan Keating plays Louisa’s brother Harold, and a caption at the end testifies to his own singular part in history.
BUT if the film belongs to anyone other than Seagrove, it is Bulgarian actor Julian Kostov. He is tremendously affecting in the part of the terrified, emaciated escapee, whose complicated Russian name is conveniently anglicised, in one of the film’s more light-hearted moments, to Bill.
Gradually, as Bill’s command of the English language improves and he acquires forged papers, Louisa becomes more brazen at hiding him in plain sight. He accompanies her to St Helier, and even helps out in her shop. This seems like folly, yet it’s another example of Louisa’s innate goodness; she instinctively trusted people.
Whether she was right to, I will let you find out for yourselves, but I do urge you to see a film which chronicles such an overlooked chapter of World War II. Hats off to another Bill, producer Bill Kenwright, for bringing this amazing story to public attention.
Another Mother’s Son (12A)
Verdict: Compelling war story ★★★★
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