CLASSIC FILM CHOICE

Now, Voyager (1942) PG Monday, 9.15am, BBC2

A rollercoaster ride of high drama and emotion, drenched in angst, frustration and sacrifice, Now, Voyager is the story of Charlotte Vale (Bette Davis), a meek, dowdy spinster who has had her self-esteem all but destroyed by her despotic, controlling mother. To her rescue comes Claude Raine’s kindly psychiatrist, who sets her on the road to transformation from ugly duckling to swan – but it’s Charlotte who must truly find herself, and that’s what she does. Taking a cruise, the sophisticated young woman meets and falls in love with an unhappily married man (Paul Henreid, above with Davis) who has his own tragic back story. Kindred spirits they may be, but theirs is anything but a conventional love story. Dismissed at the time as a ‘weepy’, this sweeping, soaring tale knocks the socks off any frothy, contemporary romance. SA