James Walton

Riveting documentary about a remarkable man: Harry Birrell Presents Films of Love and War reviewed

Plus: watching Mel and Sue playing hired killers in Sky One’s Hitmen is confusing viewing

Harry Birrell with his theodolite, map-gridding India in 1941. Image Credit: BBC Scotland / Hopscotch Films 
issue 28 March 2020

First shown on BBC Scotland, Harry Birrell Presents Films of Love and War (BBC4, Wednesday) was the documentary equivalent of a William Boyd novel, showing us a 20th-century life shaped by 20th-century history. The programme was made by Harry’s granddaughter Carina, who’d been eight when he died, and known him only as ‘a lovable, frail, blind old man’.

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