Six Minutes To Midnight: Eddie Izzard as Thomas Miller and Dame Judi Dench as Miss Rocholl Damon Smith 15 July, 2021 01:00
Peter Rabbit 2: Mopsy (voiced by Elizabeth Debicki), Flopsy (Margot Robbie), Benjamin (Colin Moody), Peter Rabbit (James Corden) and Cottontail (Amy Horn)
FILM OF THE WEEK
SIX MINUTES TO MIDNIGHT (Cert 12, 96 mins, Lionsgate Home Entertainment UK Ltd/Sky Cinema, Thriller/War, available now on NOW TV, available from July 19 on Amazon Prime Video/BT TV Store/iTunes/Sky Store/TalkTalk TV Store and other download and streaming services, available from July 26 on DVD £19.99)
Starring: Eddie Izzard, Dame Judi Dench, Carla Juri, David Schofield, Nigel Lindsay, Maria Dragus, Jim Broadbent, James D Arcy.
Just because someone has a great reputation as an actor doesn’t mean that every one of his/her movies is going to be a good movie. Actors work for several reasons.
Thomas Miller (Eddie Izzard) though, throws himself into his role with gusto, more than happy to start sing-a-longs and take the girls for their daily dip in the sea. Even his predecessor’s body washing up on the beach doesn’t seem to faze him. However, as war inches closer, he notices a perceptible difference in the behaviour of the school’s German and PE teacher Ilse Keller (Carla Juri). The curriculum appears to take a troubling turn – less finishing school and more indoctrinating them with the Third Reich’s reasoning for finishing off “non-Aryans”. Miller knows he needs to act, but how best to alert the authorities without tipping his hand to Keller? And is it already too late?
An extraordinary tale combining Nazi ideals and an English all-girls finishing school, you would be forgiven for thinking Six Minutes To Midnight s premise was entirely fictitious. Created by and starring award-winning writer and comedian Eddie Izzard, in partnership with Man Hunt and Submergence actor Celyn Jones, the thriller s factual underpinning is every inch the material great spy thrillers are based upon. The blazer badge kind of says it all, remarks Izzard, 59, of the school s distinctive logo. Now, a lot of people went to school and had uniforms; you d have a blazer, maybe you d have a badge on your blazer, it would have said the school.
(PG-13)
A most curious school sat on the shores of the English Channel during the 1930s.
Augusta Victoria College, located in Bexhill-on-Sea, was, for the most part, a finishing school which taught 16 to 21 year old girls the accoutrements needed to enter British society. With their training in hand, they would be well positioned to attract a man of a certain stature.
OK, fine, weâve all heard of finishing schools, a somewhat regressive educational model.
But this one was unique because of the pedigree of its students, many of whom were from the families of the Nazi High Command during Hitlerâs reign. The school included Nazi salutes, and a badge that featuring two symbols the Union Jack opposite a Swastika.