The Falklands Play

Apr 10, 2002

1h 30m

★ 7.4

Overview

The Falklands Play is a dramatic account of the political events leading up to, and including, the 1982 Falklands War. The play was written by Ian Curteis, an experienced writer who had started his television career in drama, but had increasingly come to specialise in dramatic reconstructions of history. It was originally commissioned by the BBC in 1983, for production and broadcast in 1986, but was subsequently shelved by Controller of BBC One Michael Grade due to its alleged pro-Margaret Thatcher stance and jingoistic tone. This prompted a press furore over media bias and censorship.The play was not staged until 2002, when it was broadcast in separate adaptations on BBC Television and Radio.

Genres

War

Drama

TV Movie

Production Companies

BBC

The Falklands Play Trailers

No Trailers found.

Cast

Rt. Hon Margaret Thatcher (Prime Minister)

Patricia Hodge

Rt Hon William Whitelaw CH MC MP (Home Secretary)

John Standing

Rt Hon Nicholas Ridley MP (Financial Secretary to the Treasury)

Michael Cochrane

Rt Hon Peter, 6th Baron Carrington KCMG MC (Foreign Secretary)

James Fox

Alexander Haig (US Secretary of State)

Colin Stinton

Robin Fearn (Head of Falkland Islands Department, Foreign Office)

Anthony Calf

Rt Hon Francis Pym MC MP (Foreign Secretary)

Jeremy Child

Tom Enders

Richard Cordery

Sir Anthony Parsons

Robert Hardy

Adm. of the Fleet Sir Terence Lewin

John Woodvine

Sir Robert Armstrong (Cabinet Secretary)

Rupert Vansittart

Richard Luce MP (Minister of State, Foreign Office)

Jonathan Coy

Based on actual accounts, this film portrays the days and hours before and during the invasion of the Falkland Islands by Argentina, which eventually lead to the Falklands War. As the Argentine forces land on the main island and make their way towards Government House, the handful of British defenders batten down the hatches and prepare to defend Governor Rex Hunt, his family, and their fellow islanders from the invaders.

6.4

The Iron Lady

Dec 26, 2011

A look at the life of Margaret Thatcher, the former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, with a focus on the price she paid for power.

6.7

Blessed by Fire

Sep 8, 2005

Argentine film about the experiences of conscripts in the Malvinas Islands War.

No Image Available

5.0

The Exact Shape of The Islands

Nov 3, 2012

For many, the name Malvinas/Falklands evokes an absurd war between England and Argentina in 1982. For Julieta Vitullo, the protagonist of this film, this tragic history becomes deeply personal 25 years later when she suffers a loss associated with her search to uncover that past, unfolding into a life-affirming struggle for renewal and rebirth. This film tells the story of two trips, one made in 2006 and the other in 2010. In the space between one trip and the next, between past and present, between the public and the private, between what can and cannot be told, the movie reflects on the possibilities of conveying extreme life experiences, presenting landscapes and sounds that suggest subtle contours of that shape, 'The Exact Shape of the Islands.'

5.6

Tumbledown

May 29, 1988

The film centers on the experiences of Robert Lawrence MC, an officer of the Scots Guards during the Falklands War of 1982. While fighting at the Battle of Mount Tumbledown, Lawrence is shot in the head by an Argentine sniper and left paralyzed on his left side. He then must learn to adjust to his new disability.

4.7

The Ploughman's Lunch

May 30, 1983

As England begins its military engagement in the Falklands, a BBC news journalist attempts to climb up from his working-class roots, at any cost, lying to those around him to get what he wants, only to discover that he is the recipient of a deception far more clever than his own.

7.4

The Debt

Aug 4, 1988

The drama tells the story of an Argentine elementary-school teacher sent by the government to a rural hamlet located in the northwestern province of Jujuy. It shows how he touches the lives of the villagers, especially the young and impressionable boy Verónico, whose mother died and father left to seek work when he was an infant. The film is based on a non-fiction book written by Fortunato Ramos, a rural teacher in northwest Argentina, that discusses his teaching experiences.

0.0

El visitante

Apr 1, 1999

Pedro, a Falklands veteran, cannot forget the days when he was in the trenches, nor can he forget Raúl, his best friend, who stayed forever in that desolate place of nightmares.

7.5

Rule Britannia

Apr 25, 1996

A detailed account of each of the details of the Malvinas War based on interviews, dramatic scenes, maps and other elements of historical roots without ignoring the historical antecedents from the 18th century that ended in this confrontation.

8.0

The Falklands War: The Untold Story

Apr 1, 1987

Five years after the war in the Falklands between Britain and Argentina, many facts were still wrapped in red tape. Many of the key figures had remained silent. No-one had been to Argentina to tell the other side of the story. For the majority of the British people, the war was another glorious chapter in their history. With flags waving and bands playing, British troops had sailed away to repel the invaders. Patriotic emotions were stirred as they returned victorious. Government MPs tried to get the film banned, but Yorkshire TV's telephones were jammed with messages of support from wives and mothers of those who died in the conflict. Called 'the documentary to end all documentaries about the Falklands War' in the British press, it was also described as 'more poem than polemic - a hymn against war'.

0.0

Tumba sin nombre

Sep 8, 2014

No overview available.

8.0

Regimiento 7 regresa a casa

Sep 8, 2014

A former soldier reunites with his comrades, who are unaware that they are dead.

0.0

Una tarde en la vida de dos niños kelpers

Sep 8, 2014

No overview available.

0.0

¿Qué hacemos?

Sep 8, 2014

No overview available.

0.0

Locos de la bandera

Jul 28, 2005

The story of the relatives of the 649 Argentine fallen in the Malvinas War, who as soon as the military conflict ended, found themselves alone with their pain and prevented from approaching the grave of their loved ones, either because their bodies were left in the Cemetery of Darwin, in the Malvinas, or because they disappeared without being identified.

0.0

Broken Token

Oct 19, 2024

A single female voice sings of waiting in her garden for her ‘dark-eyed sailor’ to return from war, bearing the other half of their token, a gimmel ring. Three veterans pass on the road as she waits, and she asks them: “When you were fighting in distant lands, did you think of the home you left?” In reply the veterans relate their recollections. The garden images in the accompanying film represent ‘home’, but also stand for a more general possibility of redemption, of the potential of the past to return at any time, disguised and changed, to renew the present: “Each moment of time is a garden gate,” the song goes, “Through it my love may walk.”

4.2

The Falklands Legacy

Apr 1, 2012

Thirty years after the Falkland's War, journalist and military historian Max Hastings explores the conflict's impact and its legacy. Hastings, who sailed with the Task Force in 1982 and reported on the Falklands campaign first-hand, looks at how victory in the South Atlantic revived the reputation of our armed forces and renewed Britain's sense of pride and its image abroad after years of decline as an imperial and military power. Hastings examines how the Falklands provided a model of a swift and successful war that was matched by other conflicts Britain fought at the end of the 20th-century. In contrast, the long campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan have left the British public sceptical about sending our armed forces in large numbers to war again. The Falklands could well be the last popular war Britain fights, and certainly the country's last imperial hurrah.

5.5

Falklands War: The Untold Story

Mar 27, 2022

On the 40th anniversary of the conflict, senior commanders and ground troops reveal how a series of mistakes nearly cost Britain its hard-won victory over Argentina in the South Atlantic.