If imitation really IS the sincerest form of flattery then Noel Coward is wallowing in it wherever he may be. Having pioneered the idea of telling a story of real people seen against the backdrop of changing times between the Boer War and 1930 in Cavalcade he refined it to tell the story of the Gibbons family of Clapham 'between' the wars'. taking in the Wembley Exhibition of 1924, the General Strike of 1926, the Abdication in 1936, Chamberlain's Peace In Our Time and the outbreak of World War Two. Against this backdrop the Gibbons', mother, father, their three children, Reg, Vi and Queenie, lived and loved, married, died, ran away from home, returned, all depicted by a master craftsman. Now Raymond Briggs 'borrows' the formula and employs it to tell the simple, yet tremendously affecting story of his own parents, from their meeting, courting, marriage, his own birth, evacuation, return, time in college, marriage and death of his parents. There will, of course, be those with no knowledge of Cavalcade or This Happy Breed who may credit Briggs with inventing this method of storytelling. No matter, Coward would probably not begrudge him his moment in the sun and it is a film choc full of both charm and sentiment, one that can stand multiple viewings.
Review of Ethel & Ernest
