The opening sequence shows a Spitfire in cloud and the radio is out. Struggling just to keep the plane upright the pilot literally stumbles into a German bomber which he takes a shot at.Flash forward to 88 year old Geoffrey Wellum standing on a small pier telling it like it was. "Of course I remember what it was like - how could you forget" Flashback to May 1940 and reporting to the Adjutant: "My name is Mac - fought in the last mess - how EXACTLY old are you son?" "Almost 19 sir" "Exactly how old?" "18 years and 9 months sir" After a hellish night at the pub getting hazed with booze by the other squadron members the next morning finds 'Boy' Wellum performing cockpit drill with the fitters who strap him in and let him take a first flight in a Spitfire.The adjutant and squadron leader watch the take off."God help us" The docudrama then follows Wellum - beautiful aerial footage cut with shots of the 88 year old Wellum describing how it felt.With minimal training the squadron leader calls him in and announces "You are to report for ops at First Light" - knowing that unless Wellum is extremely lucky - he has just handed out a death sentence "If you could survive three weeks - you had a chance of making it to six or longer". Casualties are wiped off the chalk board without comment. Mac the adjutant writes a letter.As ever - footage from the 1969 Battle of Britain movie is used for the mass aircraft scenes - but some digital remastering and new special effects give it some verisimilitude.On his first op Wellum gets a German bomber but only just makes it home with the remains of his Spitfire after getting jumped when fixating on his target.The constant strain of fighting through the summer of 1940 - smoking aircraft, the constant ring of the scramble bell, overturned chairs and chess pieces, his roommate slowly cracking under the strain are portrayed against the backdrop of period music.Based on Wellum's own book - a very personal account of his feelings, fears and a desperate desire not to let anyone down.

I'm not much for war movies. I watched this because I wanted to see some of Heughan and Lewis's earlier works. I was impressed with both actors performance. The movie wasn't so much about Spitfires as it was on the affects the fighting had on the pilots. It was well produced for a TV movie. Heughan does a great job playing the part of a young inexperienced Spitfire pilot. Lewis also performs well as the "father" to all the pilots. I like the voice-over inserted into the film of the actually pilot Heughan played. All in all it was a good TV movie. There s strong language so I would not recommend it for children under 16. It would be a good film for a hight school history class.

I have always had a thing for Spitfires. They are my all time favourite plane. I'm lucky enough to live quite near a small airfield and one flies over quite regularly. The sound of the engine is so recognisable - even to a total non expert like me. The pilots of these amazing planes were heroes, no getting away from that, and although I've seen war films before,(Reach for the Sky being one I have watched many times!) I found this film to be a bit of an eye opener. Having seen it was based on the journal of the pilot himself - makes it all more realistic. Thought Mr Heughan did a first class job playing Wellum. And the rest of the supporting cast were good too. Would liked to have seen a little more of what happens to the characters after he left, but at least there was a small write up on this before the credits go up! An enjoyable film.

very old school TV movie, slow pacing, contemplative bio pic of spitfire pilots during ww2. nothing we haven't seen or heard before and other than this is the story of from one mans point of view one wonders why this story needs to be told again and in this way. stiff upper lip, British heroes and bad bad Germans, it's like noting has changed in how we tell stories so we're left with a remake of what a TV movie about ww2 spitfire pilots might look like in the 50's or 60's. The good news is the spitfires look fantastic. I'm assuming some of them are CGI and they're really well done. In the old days these would be real but it's impossible to tell so well done to the fx and props crew.This film was OK, nothing more than a Sunday afternoon TV movie, but with the amount of films being made today perhaps we do have a right to expect something better.