24/09/2024 - The plot follows a small and disparate group of people sent to a remote Orkney beach and tasked with a top-secret mission: the making of pornographic films for the boys on the front line

l-r: Ronni Ancona, Ben Bela Böhm, Natalie Quarry, Ollie Maddigan, John McCrea and Oscar Hoppe in Think of England (© Vianney Le Caer)

Principal photography has wrapped on Think of England, a satirical World War II drama film helmed by BAFTA-nominated writer-director Richard Hawkins, best known for his features The Theory of Flight (1998) and Everything (2004). Filming recently took place at Shinfield Studios in Reading and on location on Anglesey in North Wales. The news was first reported by Variety.

In detail, the picture is set in the run-up to the Allied invasion of France, when two British film projects are commissioned at the very highest level. For one, Winston Churchill himself insists that Laurence Olivier immediately embark upon a lavish production of Shakespeare’s Henry V, securing a state-of-the-art, three-strip Technicolor camera and all of the available film stock for him.

Think of England is the story of the other commission, following a small and disparate group of people sent to a remote Orkney beach and tasked with a top-secret mission — the making of pornographic films for the boys on the front line. The group of would-be pornographic filmmakers includes a very war-damaged former movie star; a celebrated German film director; a munitions machinist-come-aspiring actress; an Etonian captain from the Ministry of Information; an ageing, alcoholic hair-and-makeup artist; and a young lad, as innocent as can be and right on the very threshold of war’s bloodbath. There’s also a half-starved and very ragged Luftwaffe pilot, watching on from afar.

The cast is led by Jack Bandeira (Lockwood & Co), Natalie Quarry (Call the Midwife), John McCrea (Cruella), Ronni Ancona (Big Impression), Ben Bela Böhm (Angels & Demons), Ollie Maddigan (The Olive Boy) and Oscar Hoppe (Munich: The Edge of War [+see also:
trailer
film profile]). 

Key creatives include DoP Sarah Cunningham (The Banishing), production designer Chris Richmond (The Amazing Mr Blunden), costume designer Nadia Dunn-Hill (Wimbledon), hair and make-up designer Alexis Arenas (Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan) and casting director Matt Sheppard (Boiling Point [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Philip Barantini
film profile]).

Think of England is being staged by father-daughter duo Nick and Poppy O’Hagan, of Giant Films (UK), which is also in charge of its sales. The executive producers are Geoffrey Freeman, of High Street Films (UK), Andrew Wood and Lucas Wood-Oliván. The project is also being made in collaboration with Amelia Price, of Sustainable Film, in order to promote carbon-conscious filmmaking.