There will be a propagandist's agenda behind any film made in and concerning WWII Britain but, where others use a shovel, 'Millions Like Us' lays it on with a velvet glove. It finds no need to make a hero of everyone in British uniform or to chest-thump over every patriotic act. Instead, it warms us to real and ordinary people – people like "us" in the factories, dance halls and Dad's Army – each playing his or her usually unremarked role during the siege of Britain.Here is the writer/director pairing of Sidney Gilliat and Frank Launder at its best. Their dialogue is wonderfully natural, and they allow their expert cast to play for authenticity, with only as much commotion and comedy as will keep us involved in their characters.The evolution of Celia (the delightful Patricia Roc) is particular engaging: the mousy member of an otherwise colourful family becomes our romantic lead while changing believably and almost imperceptibly. With air gunner Fred (Gordon Jackson, wonderful as always) complementing her honesty and shyness, we find a couple about whom we soon care greatly. Any foreigner who would comprehend how Britons relate to each other need merely study Celia's "I don't mind" in answer to both to the most mundane questions and to the longed-for proposal of marriage: this is the level of nuance and understatement from which we come in only a couple of generations.Bigger characters provide a light in which to notice how unassuming Celia and Fred matter to us. Jennifer (Anne Crawford) and Charlie (Eric Portman) play out a side-story, asking what role this war will have in breaking down the classes as the Great War had before it and, with strange prescience, it is the aspiring, salt-of-the-earth Charlie who will not commit to girl-about-town Jenny, foreshadowing the real-world Labour landslide two years later when the have-nots established themselves. While I could mention of any of the supporting players, I shall finish with the low-key comedy of Celia's father Jim (Moore Marriott) and the forever train-travelling double-act of Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne, keeping austere Britain from being sombre.That this story of quite ordinary people turns out to be so compelling while still delivering to the propagandist's brief is a great tribute to all involved. (8.5/10)

I rated this film 7/10 and in my opinion is Patricia Roc's best film as Celia Crowson.She gives a sensitive performance of an every day girl caught up in WWII who must do her bit for the war effort.While waiting for her assessment interview she sees a poster and fantasises being accepted into the WRAF/Wrens/Womens army corps/Land Girls or nursing assisting good looking officers, only to be asked to prosaically help out in a factory as "Mr Bevan needs a million women" to make the weapons, aeroplanes and assorted war material.At the heavy engineering factory she finds camaraderie in similarly placed women and romance with an air gunner in the RAF Sgt.Fred Blake (a very young Gordon Jackson).With all his daughters helping the war effort in different jobs and living away from home, Celias father Mr Crowson has to fend for himself and as he has no women to care for him, he has to survive in rather hand to mouth fashion after doing his duty in the Home Guard.There is sadness in store for Celia but the film ends on a hopeful note as the producers realised many families lost members of their family but the fight must continue in 1943.This is almost the same today for forces families whose sons and daughters are helping with the NATO presence in Afghanistan.

This is one of those old wartime movies that sucks you in with reasonable casting and a nice script, all coming together to give you a very pleasant viewing experience. There are no heroes, it's all about ordinary folk who are caught up in extraordinary times, and the film projects this theme well from start to finish.Gordon Jackson looked young enough in Whisky Galore but in this one he's almost cherubic.There's no teeth grinding patronising propaganda, this film went straight for the jugular and basically told audiences that in the interests of survival we all have to get the heck on with it, a message suitably softened by a nice human interest script, the characters are genuinely different and interesting.If you get the chance, this is definitely one to sit back with, relax and enjoy.

To modern sensibilities the title may sound patronising, but if you're tempted to dismiss this as standard WWII propaganda fare, think again. Set among the female workforce of a heavy engineering factory, this perceptive and thoughtful screenplay explores the disruptive effect of Total War upon family life, established behavioural norms and, crucially, the class distinctions that were still dominating British society at this time. As Time Out critic Nigel Floyd put it: "Raises pertinent questions about what exactly was being fought for: the restoration of the old order, or the foundation of a new one? Intelligent entertainment at its best."It is also unusual for the era in its unabashed portrayal of young women as actively sexual beings with a healthy, even predatory, interest in men. The sole - and glaring - exception to this model is the central heroine, Celia. Patricia Roc's portrayal of her is so overwhelmingly timid, self-effacing and prudish, it comes as little less than miraculous that she manages to bag Fred: a young Airman in the shape of Gordon Jackson. Mind you, he's no firebrand either: together, they make an infuriatingly ineffectual couple.Far more interesting is the spiky relationship of social opposites Jennifer (Anne Crawford) - privileged/haughty/indolent - and no-nonsense factory foreman Charlie (Eric Portman). In this pair's uneasy mutual attraction and verbal sparring we see echoes of Shakespeare's Beatrice & Benedick.N.B.: Watch out for a lovely cameo by Irene Handl as the newlyweds' landlady.