Even 80 years on, it would be tough to top Thora Hird gunning down Nazis as a sight guaranteed to boost British patriotic morale. Went the Day Well? is ostensibly WW2 propaganda, but its mordant black humour and frankness about the arbitrary horrors of war are utterly enthralling. This is a bleak story, full of violence and self-sacrifice for the greater good, but its tale of all echelons of society, from the Just William-like evacuee to the lord of the manor’s wife, pulling together in the nation’s darkest hour, and sometimes paying the ultimate price, is rousing stuff.

I am of Finnish descent and, because Finland sided with Germany during the Winter War, my family were treated with great suspicion as enemy aliens during the early years of the Second World War, despite essentially seeing themselves as British. I sometimes feel a bit unrepresented by WW2 films for this reason, but the fear of fifth columnists expressed so powerfully in Went the Day Well? is exactly why my family were treated as they were, and I found watching it a surprisingly cathartic experience. 

I like that the focus is on the plucky villagers, with the invasion seemingly coming out of nowhere. There is a hint of “Dad’s Army” in the coay set-up, which makes the gut punch of the third act all the more striking. We know from the silly framing device that the villagers are successful—and that Britain sees off a full invasion, too—but the price they pay is a terrible one. The bravery shown by the lord of the manor’s wife, in particular, had me in tears. 

Went the Day Well? wears its propaganda lightly. It works just as well as a biting satire on seemingly respectable rural life. It really is astonishing how, after a turbulent weekend, everyone is merrily firing Tommy guns, barricading buildings and screaming their heads off, and the upper middle-class squire is happily selling out everyone and everything he knows to his new far-right friends. Plus ça change. This is both a historical artefact, opening a window on a very particular moment in British history, and a striking comment on the hidden depths of selfishness and altruism hiding within us all, waiting to be revealed at our most trying hour.