Gemma’s game but Bill deserves a medal

MAYBE you like the sound of Dunkirk, the forthcoming blockbuster about the rescue of 330,000 Allied troops by a flotilla of ships, big and small.

or maybe you are a fan of Harry Styles, who appears in the film, prompting some of his one Direction fans to go on Twitter to ask ‘what’s a Dunkirk?’

From the end of this week there’s another option: a chance to ease yourself into the Second World War with a jaunty period picture called Their Finest.

Gemma Arterton, pictured left, stars as a gutsy Welsh girl who stumbles into a job churning out morale-boosting movies, and is put on a team tasked with reworking a minor true story of two sisters who join the Dunkirk flotilla into a major hit. Unfortunately, since most of the acting profession is in uniform, all that’s left are vain old luvvies such as Ambrose Hilliard, once voted third most popular British film star of 1924.

This is the sort of role Bill Nighy usually plays, so he does – and steals the picture.

I caught an early screening in Glasgow, and the combination of a plucky proto-feminist heroine, her jaded boss, a fleet of distinguished English character actors and a perky dog adds up to a chipper comedy with flashes of inspiration.

If you still yearn for blokey jaw-jutting, or the squeal of a boy band fan, Dunkirk will be along in a month, but for now you could do worse than Their Finest’s hour and a half.