Although this film can be enjoyed as a an old-fashioned adventure of empire in the tradition of 'Lives of a Bengal Lancer' (a sense heightened by John Addison's percussion-heavy score), the 1962 novel by Roger Holles was set in the present day, and the trauma suffered by the British both at home and abroad as the Wind of Change swept Africa a very contemporary one.
Even as he was accepting his BAFTA for his incisive performance here as as a stiff-necked representative of the old empire, Richard Attenbrough had already embarked on his twenty year mission to raise money for a film about Mahatma Gandhi.
Even as he was accepting his BAFTA for his incisive performance here as as a stiff-necked representative of the old empire, Richard Attenbrough had already embarked on his twenty year mission to raise money for a film about Mahatma Gandhi.