Two Men Went to War

Two Men Went to War - 2002 | 109 mins | Comedy, War | Colour

The Production Team

Director: John Henderson.
Producer: Pat Harding and Ira Trattne.
Script: Richard Everett and Christopher Villiers. (from the book Amateur Commandos by Raymond Foxall)
Cinematography: John Ignatius.
Editing: David Yardley.
Production Design: Sophie Becher and Steve Carter.
Art Direction: Sam Stokes.
Costume Design: Jill Taylor.
Makeup Department: Graham Johnston.
Sound Department: Rory Farnan, Hugh Johnson and Ian Voigt.
Original Music: Richard Harvey.

The Cast

Kenneth Cranham - Sgt. Peter King
Leo Bill - Pvt. Leslie Cuthbertson
Derek Jacobi - Maj. Merton
Rosanna Lavelle - Emma Fraser
Phyllida Law - Faith
Paul Bayfield - Mike
James Fleet - Maj. Bates
Julian Glover - Col. Hatchard
David Ryall - Winston Churchill
Anthony Valentine - SM Dudley
Mossie Smith - Mrs. Fraser

Plot Synopsis

A comic wartime thriller based on bizarre true events. John Henderson’s whimsical tale Two Men Went To War tells their outrageously irresponsible, yet eccentrically heroic story for the first time. With an all star cast in a sumptuous, funny and moving dramatisation of derring-do feels like an extended television drama at times, but still contains bags of charm.

Army dentists Sergeant Peter King (Kenneth Cranham) and Private Leslie Cuthbertson (Leo Bill) decide to go AWOL and mount an unofficial two-man invasion of occupied France in 1942. They stole a bag of hand grenades, two revolvers and a set of the best dental equipment that money could buy and went off to France in a stolen fishing boat. The bumbling duo succeeds in blowing up a radar station, much to the bemusement of Churchill’s intelligence chief (Derek Jacobi).