The Summer of British Film

What better summer has there been to stay in and watch films? The weather's been awful, you can't fly abroad without worrying about Jihadi Cherokees (that's not an American Football team, by the way, although that updated version of Alive will be reviewed next month), and even if you did, your carbon footprint will guilt-trip you when you got home and then make the weather worse next year, if that Live Earth guff's to be believed. Best stay in is what we're saying. Luckily enough, The BBC have organised a plethora of events relating to the theme of The Summer of British Film and not to be outdone (while jumping on the publicity bandwagon slightly), ITV are bringing out some of their Britflick catalogue onto DVD. Entitled, er… The Summer of British Film, it's an interesting, if eclectic, collection of movies brought together in two boxsets, but also available individually. Set one is full of big hitters, such as Orson Welles in The Third Man, Olivier's Henry V, David Lean's Brief Encounter, and the Powell and Pressburger masterpiece, The Red Shoes. Set two has Lean providing his masterpiece, this time with Great Expectations, and P&P providing the romance with A Matter Of Life and Death. The second set also contains some smaller cult hits like Billy Liar and The Wicker Man. By far the most controversial choice – actually, the only one – is Mike Winterbottom's 9 Songs, an experimental mix of concert footage (including Franz Ferdinand and Super Furry Animals) and graphic love scenes, which makes Set two not the one to give your granny for her birthday. Other than that, it's hard to fault this assortment although, since every film the BBC2 is showing this summer is British, chances are each of these will be on telly at some point. Nevertheless, most of these are ones to keep, with many in this edition containing special DVD extras, so there really hasn't been a better time.