Introduction: Film, Television, and the Second World War — The First Fifty Years

Britishness and otherness: Representing and constructing identity in BBC’s Land Girls

“…When the Land Girls do come together, it is to prove themselves to their male competitors (who are physically weaker than the women) or to conservative women who doubt their skills and abilities (Webster, 2007: 12). Ultimately, the series celebrates women’s contributions to the war but stops short of advocating women’s liberation from the patriarchal structures of the period (Webster, 2007: 13).…”

“…Filmic representations of the Second World War have been growing in number since 1989, especially in combatant countries, but also as the gap between the 70th anniversary of the war and its centenary narrows (Paris, 2007: 1–9). Remembrance and commemoration are part of the public’s attraction to the war, but in many ways the war itself has become a public event; the re-dramatisation of events has not only increasingly commercialised the war, but modern audiences have reclaimed the war as part of our collective memory (Cannadine, 2004: 1–4).…”