Keith Mountain

The locations are as much the stars as the actors for they show a rural landscape largely unspoilt by progress. They would have been easily recognised by the inhabitants who had dwelt there seventy years before 1948. Today, seventy years on, so many of the landmarks have been torn down and the towns infested with jarring street furniture which makes one yearn for the quiet cobbled lanes and traffic free byways. Beyond the towns the lanes remain mostly unsullied and a study of comparison location photographs on the excellent "Reelstreets" website shows that it is still possible to pinpoint exact places where the scenes were filmed. To modern eyes the storyline might be dismissed as "twee" but it was, perhaps, a simpler and a gentler age, when thousands flocked to the cinemas to escape wartime memories or the deprivations of post-war austerity. Honor Blackman was achingly beautiful and the cast rose to the challenge to lift the spirits in difficult times.