We'll Meet Again

Rating:
Summary: A nice look back...
Review: "We'll Meet Again" is a British series which nostagically looks back at an English town when the Yanks came over to begin their European assault. It is a romantic piece, with a great cast.

Rating:
Summary: Yanks don't have the monopoly on meritless soaps
Review: WE'LL MEET AGAIN is a thirteen-episode TV miniseries that aired in the UK in 1982. Basically, it's a soap opera built around the presence of the U.S. Eighth Air Force's 525 Bomb Group in the small English village of Market Wetherby beginning in 1943. You know those Yanks - over paid, over sexed, and over here.

I must admit right off that I only lasted into the first third of the second episode. My wife bailed out even sooner. It could be argued that I didn't give the production a fair shake. However, since it only lasted 3 months on the British telly, perhaps I'm prescient.

The first thing that struck me was the poor video quality. The pastel colors indicated to me the DVD is a faithful copy of a faded film. And the occasional interjection of faded color file footage of B-17 bombers obviously filmed during the war years only adds to the unevenness of the entire affair. Perhaps the director was trying to match the video quality of the new to the old. For close-ups, the creators of the series apparently dragged one old B-17 out of some air museum to lend a thin patina of realism to the project.

My wife's main observation was that the actors playing the Yanks didn't look like Americans. I agree, but can't quite myself put my finger on the reason. Perhaps they look too much like British soap stars doing albeit credible American accents. To me, the hair styles seemed wrong, and the age of the air crew members too old. After all, these were ostensibly boys barely out of high school.

The only actor of note is Susannah York as Dr. Helen Dereham, a local physician. I last saw Ms. York as Thomas More's daughter in the most excellent MAN FOR ALL SEASONS (1966), and I was gratified to hear that she still has her sexily husky voice.

WE"LL MEET AGAIN isn't a comedy, or at least that small part that I saw wasn't. And, as a dramatic piece, it was absolutely flat. While it's not an overtly bad production, I saw nothing in 90 minutes to recommend it. As an alternative, rent the 1949 Gregory Peck film TWELVE O'CLOCK HIGH, or the more recent DARK BLUE WORLD (2001), for a more interesting depiction of Allies flying from England against Hitler's Fortress Europe.

Rating:
Summary: Yanks don't have the monopoly on meritless soaps
Review: WE'LL MEET AGAIN is a thirteen-episode TV miniseries that aired in the UK in 1982. Basically, it's a soap opera built around the presence of the U.S. Eighth Air Force's 525 Bomb Group in the small English village of Market Wetherby beginning in 1943. You know those Yanks - over paid, over sexed, and over here.

I must admit right off that I only lasted into the first third of the second episode. My wife bailed out even sooner. It could be argued that I didn't give the production a fair shake. However, since it only lasted 3 months on the British telly, perhaps I'm prescient.

The first thing that struck me was the poor video quality. The pastel colors indicated to me the DVD is a faithful copy of a faded film. And the occasional interjection of faded color file footage of B-17 bombers obviously filmed during the war years only adds to the unevenness of the entire affair. Perhaps the director was trying to match the video quality of the new to the old. For close-ups, the creators of the series apparently dragged one old B-17 out of some air museum to lend a thin patina of realism to the project.

My wife's main observation was that the actors playing the Yanks didn't look like Americans. I agree, but can't quite myself put my finger on the reason. Perhaps they look too much like British soap stars doing albeit credible American accents. To me, the hair styles seemed wrong, and the age of the air crew members too old. After all, these were ostensibly boys barely out of high school.

The only actor of note is Susannah York as Dr. Helen Dereham, a local physician. I last saw Ms. York as Thomas More's daughter in the most excellent MAN FOR ALL SEASONS (1966), and I was gratified to hear that she still has her sexily husky voice.

WE"LL MEET AGAIN isn't a comedy, or at least that small part that I saw wasn't. And, as a dramatic piece, it was absolutely flat. While it's not an overtly bad production, I saw nothing in 90 minutes to recommend it. As an alternative, rent the 1949 Gregory Peck film TWELVE O'CLOCK HIGH, or the more recent DARK BLUE WORLD (2001), for a more interesting depiction of Allies flying from England against Hitler's Fortress Europe.