Well Meet Again Series the Plow
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Clichéd and utterly predictable, but still...a solid-enough yarn for soap fans. Acorn Media has released We'll Meet Again, the single-season British television series from 1982 that tells the story of Market place Wetherby, a modest Eastward Anglia village suddenly "invaded" by American military forces in 1943. Starring Susannah York, Ronald Hines, Michael J. Shannon, June Barry, and Ray Smith among the large ensemble cast, Nosotros'll Meet Again never meets a stereotype information technology doesn't like, and telegraphs all its melodramatic plotlines hours in accelerate, while offering zip new in terms of exploring the cultural clashes that occurred when the Yanks set up housekeeping all over England during the concluding years of World War 2. However, those viewers who tin can't become enough of television from over the pond--particularly those stories that deal with one of British Idiot box'due south favorite subjects, WWII--will observe a comfortable nostalgia in We'll Meet Once more's themes and execution. Simply that'due south all. Suffolk, England, in April of 1943. As the village'southward shops open and the citizens of Market Wetherby brainstorm the business organization once again of getting through another day under the threat of war, the sudden, unannounced arrival of American Air Force personnel is met with a wide range of emotions by the locals, from marvel to jealousy to open hostility. Even-tempered bar possessor (The Plough) Jack Blair (Patrick O'Connell), will no doubt welcome the Americans who are non only fighting for his country's freedom, but bringing plenty of military script to purchase upwards his liquor, as well. His two daughters' reactions couldn't exist more different from each other's: lush, almost slutty brunette Rosie (Lynne Pearson) can't wait to cord along as many wealthy Chiliad.I.s every bit she possibly can, while tranquility, pretty blonde Vi (Kathryn Pogson) is reluctant to encourage any of the brash soldiers in chat. Next-door-neighbor--and rival of Jack's--Albert Mundy (Ray Smith), a blustering, controlling grocery store owner, is even more harsh in his cess of the Yanks: he hates them near as much as he seems to disdain his ain family. His attractive married woman Vera (June Barry) has long-since resigned herself to her husband's anger, while naïve girl Letty (Natalie Ogle) and sensitive son Peter (Patrick Pearson) keep as much distance from their father every bit possible. Separated by form distinctions and "breeding," village bigwigs Major Ronald Dereham (Ronald Hines) and his beautiful wife, Dr. Helen Dereham (Susannah York), can beget to be more than circumspect in their cautious disapproval of the uncouth, rowdy American G.I.s. And what a grouping of flyboys they are, as well. Among the enlisted men and non-coms who make up the 525 Bomber Grouping of the 8th Air Force, cuddly harmonica-playing Sergeant Elmer Jones (James Saxon), wise-cracking Sergeant Hymie Stutz (Lou Hirsch), and New Yawk hustler Sergeant Mario Bottone (David Baxt) are the most noticeable trouble makers, always "on the brand" for a willing date whenever they can scrounge up a Saturday nighttime pass into town. Elmer and Hymie become embroiled in a playful game of one-upmanship trying to score with the flirty, flighty Rosie, while Mario will soon become involved with the troubled Letty...when he has time away from his black market activities with Letty's shifty Uncle Sid (Stuart Wilson). Sensitive Master Sergeant Chuck Ericson (Joris Stuyck) saves serenity Vi's life during a strafing run, and they soon fall in love, while iron-jawed, outset-rate mechanic Master Sergeant Joe "Mac" McGraw (Christopher Malcolm) finds solace with lonely housewife Emerge Bilton (Carolyn Pickles) and her two small children...while her husband Stan (David Sadgrove) is away fighting on the continent and her mean mother-in-law Ruby (Julia McCarthy), looks on with contempt. Capt. "Red" Berwash (Gavan O'Herlihy) keeps things simple--available women and no sentimentality when he loses ane of his men--while base commander Major Jim Kiley (Michael Shannon) has the dicey, diplomatic responsibility of not just maintaining civil discourse between his rambunctious men and the disapproving, staid village, but also his warrior's duty to send his men to nigh certain death with the punishing, ruinous bombing runs that must be made from the Wetherby base, day afterwards 24-hour interval. Add to that the fact that adversaries Major Kiley and Dr. Dereham become...closer, and the pressures that drive both of these professionals become infinitely more complex under the weight of the state of war'due south cruel fates. SPOILERS Alert! You're savvy TV watchers out at that place--I'll bet there's non one of you (among the 7 people actually reading this review) that couldn't predict, just from my cursory synopsis to a higher place, where all of those subplots were going to wind upwardly at the stop of We'll Come across Again. And that'south Nosotros'll See Again's biggest drawback...and ironically, probably information technology's only modest betoken of interest: information technology'due south entirely predictable. "Predictable" won't win whatever awards from someone expecting an original drama that challenges them, but "predictable" is good enough if y'all're looking to wile away some time in front of the tube. Certainly, there's an amusing comfort level in watching a long story unfold when you already know exactly where information technology'south going...provided information technology's a good story to begin with, of course. And We'll Encounter Again is interesting the way a cheap novel that flogs hoary old chestnuts of character and state of affairs keeps you turning the folio to see if all your predictions about the volume's outcome are proven true. That'due south where We'll Come across Again works best (or at least works), when it gathers together a compendium of stock situations and characters from countless other films and novels about WWII, and presents them over again in an agreeably-paced lather opera. Created and co-written by David Butler, Nosotros'll Meet Again may accept consciously strove to re-create a romanticized, nostalgic war-time atmosphere reminiscent of older, ameliorate WWII dramas similar Waterloo Span or D-Twenty-four hour period: The Sixth of June, and to a caste, it succeeds in reminding us of all the other films nosotros've seen on that subject...but that'due south non much of a compliment for a drama that may besides have had serious ideas on its listen. Anyone looking to Nosotros'll Come across Again for historical accuracy should know right up forepart that this lather opera isn't for you. Unlike say, Foyle'southward War, which makes a witting attempt to go the details of homefront England during WWII scrupulously correct, a lot of what is shown here seems fishy at best...and if those details are truthful, they're presented in such a fumbling way that nosotros suspect they're phoney. I thought in that location was going to be trouble with Nosotros'll Run across Again right at the commencement, during the opening scene, where the English language villagers selection up knives in a menacing fashion when they kickoff see Thousand.I. Joe curlicue into town on his Jeep. Did that really happen in English villages during the war? Was their enmity for American soldiers then great and unthinking at the very first sight of them? If it was that mode during the war, couldn't We'll Meet Again take laid downward a little context to explain that extreme reaction? Luckily, as the film progressed, "pic sequence short hand" took over, equally I was treated to recycled moments from a myriad other war movies. And with that pap, my business organization over the series' fidelity to the truth, evaporated. Did the filmmakers really have insubordinate Red buzz the field on his first inflow, something right out of Abbott & Costello's Keep 'Em Flying and countless other Air Force films? Did they deliberately gear up out to make Major Ronnie's billboarding speech communication about the Yanks destroying the English way of life seem so stiff, with his bromide delivered straightfaced (and hilariously) correct into the photographic camera? And what about the cantankerous-cutting between Letty celebrating her pregnancy and her lover'south bombing raid, giving even the well-nigh movie retentiveness-bereft viewer out there a signpost that declared somebody was going to die...and information technology ain't gonna be Letty (at the end of the film, they become ane step further with this graphic symbol'south nonsense, having her wander effectually the woods at night, in a thunderstorm no less, like Ophelia looking for the nearest fishing hole). All of this and more plays on like a one-half-remembered dream because we've seen it all and then many times earlier, in other, meliorate films. And the same goes for the characters here in We'll See Again. I tin't say I was surprised when the invading Yanks were basically portrayed as baboons with poor grammar and chronic erections (that'due south the usual stereotype for these types of films), until nosotros're introduced to the other Thousand.I.s similar Chuck and Major Kylie, helping everyone in Market Wetherby to realize they haven't been overrun by refugees from a Bowery Boys moving-picture show. Nor was I disappointed to see that the English language characters, true to grade, fell along thoroughly conventional lines, too--particularly Dr. Dereham, who's outwardly chilly and remote (and yet passionate and fiery at the touch of her crude-and-tumble American lover), and her insufferably noble, humble, self-sacrificing hubby, who's and so self-effacing that he willingly lets his wife commit infidelity, apparently, and then as non to have a loud argument about information technology. What unique, novel, imaginative English toffey-nosed twits these 2 character are! I've never seen their similar before in a picture. Add to them the hustling New York con human, the small-minded English shop keeper, the square-jawed, skillful-guy mechanic, the romantic, mysterious Captain of the squadron, the timid English rose, the sultry English rose, so on and then on, and you lot haven't got one original graphic symbol, with even i distinctive characteristic or quirk or twist or annihilation resembling a complexity of human emotion outside established melodramatic conventions, in the bunch. That's quite an accomplishment, and it's a loss for anyone looking for something inventive hither in Nosotros'll Come across Once more. Still, as the episodes pile up, it becomes apparent that the series isn't really reaching for "serious drama," but rather middle-forehead lather, and to that stop, it works, considering we already know the players and the set-ups, and we merely have to lookout them get through their paces. It doesn't even affair that the serial ends on an unresolved note (plain, no ane was interested in a second "series" for the show); nosotros tin can fill in the blanks well enough for what happens to Major Jim and Dr. Helen, because nosotros've seen them, and their story, endless times before. The DVDs: The Video: The Sound: The Extras: Final Thoughts: 
The full-screen, i.33:1 video transfer for the video-shot (for the interiors, which dominate the screen time) is well-nigh what you'd expect for British tv set at that time: dingy colors and a soft epitome. Anyone who has watched British television receiver from that time period volition recognize that wait correct off the bat.
The Dolby Digital English language mono audio track is awful at times (near probably from the original recordings, non the transfer), with squelchy, screeching levels that so bury themselves down in the mud. Likewise bad subtitles or shut-captions weren't available--they would have helped.
Text filmographies for some of the major cast members are it.
Old-as-the-hills and twice as familiar back in '82, and none the better for vesture in 2010, We'll Encounter Again should take been titled, I've Already Met You...Over and Over Again. Stock situations and clichéd characters (or vice versa, if you please) add together cipher to this facile look at the clash betwixt staid villagers and horny, rowdy G.I.s in WWII England. All the same...a long-form narrative with some rudimentary movement (no matter how speedily we've sussed-out its intentions) can all the same cater to our basic need to take a story told to us, and on that unproblematic level, Nosotros'll Meet Once again works well plenty as a rental for devoted British TV fans.
Paul Mavis is an internationally published motion picture and television receiver historian, a fellow member of the Online Film Critics Society , and the writer of The Espionage Filmography .
Source: https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/43289/well-meet-again/
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