Brian McFarlane

"The career of Charles Crichton is one of the most remarkable in British film history. Starting as an editor for Alexander Korda in the 1930s, he went on to direct several much-loved Ealing comedies, including 'The Lavender Hill Mob', 'Hue and Cry' and 'The Titfield Thunderbolt', before moving into television work in the 1960s. At the age of seventy-seven he made a sensational return to film with 'A Fish Called Wanda', an international box-office hit that was nominated for multiple Academy Awards. This is the first book to offer a full account of Crichton's career, which can be seen as a microcosm of the British film industry itself. It shows that, rather than being an out-of-control comedy director, Crichton was a tremendously versatile filmmaker, whose skills extended to wartime dramas and film noir. This adaptability was to serve him well when the indigenous industry began to falter at the end of the 1950s, allowing him to make a smooth transition into primetime television, where he worked on such popular shows as 'The Avengers', 'Space : 1999' and 'The Adventures of Black Beauty;'. The unlikely success of 'A Fish Called Wanda', which Crichton co-wrote with John Cleese, brought him briefly back into the limelight, but he continued working to the end, directing droll corporate training films for Cleese's Video Arts company. Featuring first-hand testimony from colleagues ranging from Dame Judi Dench and Petula Clark to John Cleese and Sir Michael Palin, this riveting account of Crichton's fascinating life in film will appeal to film scholars and general readers alike."--taken from back cover.

This is a comprehensive history of the British film industry from its inception to the present day, with minute listings of the producers, directors, actors and studios behind a century of great British cinema.