Grantchester

Poet Rupert Brooke is brought to life in a whimsical interpretation of his classic 'The Old Vicarage, Grantchester', shot by the great Freddie Francis

Fans of WWI poet Rupert Brooke will be intrigued by this attempt to film his 1912 poem in the Cambridgeshire village he once called home. Brooke (or a 'poetic' looking actor) meanders round scenic Grantchester while a narrator recites his verse. Viewers will judge for themselves whether the version of Brooke here lives up to Yeats' assessment of him as "the handsomest young man in England"...

But this curio - a slice of no-budget whimsy for the cinema supporting programme - merits one historical footnote. Noted cinematographer/director Freddie Francis, a camera operator since the 1930s, gets his first credit for principal photography here. It makes an odd fit in a career that ran from the 1960s British new wave to Hammer horror and collaborations with the likes of Jack Cardiff, David Lynch and Martin Scorsese.