BBC2 Playhouse (TV Series) The Brylcreem Boys (1979) User Reviews

The Brylcreem Boys

[sea_dog-1 · 9/10 · 19 March 2011]

I saw this when it was first broadcast back in 1979. It concerns a young man at an RAF base during the Second World War who is ordered to guard duty and spends an unpleasantly cold night trying to stay warm in the sentry box. He falls asleep and wakes up the next morning to find that he has a permanent smile due to frostbite. His superiors send him to recuperate at a nearby hospital which is actually a psychiatric hospital, as no other is available. There he encounters various aircrew who are all suffering from post traumatic stress with whom he has to share a ward. In the night they wake him and coerce him to join an imaginary bombing raid over Germany which turns all too real.

I remember that this particular story stayed with me for some days afterwards. I've not seen it since but would like to watch it again.

Absolutely legendary

[temporalcoldwar24 · 10/10 · 6 June 2022]

Not a coincidence that i'm writing this on 6th of June 2022. Took me 40 years to find what I must have watched as a 10 or 11 year old. I was riveted. This is epic WW2 drama, basically, on a stage with chairs and actors. The Lancaster bomber crew have been badly mauled and limp home not even sure if they are flying in the right direction. The radio operator is dead and his blood has obliterated all their maps. In an epitome of desperation this piece somehow depicts what could be impossible to put into words. See key Aero forum for an amazing thread about the production.