It's a Lovely Day Tomorrow (1975 TV Movie) User Reviews

Excellent find on Talking Pictures TV

[kvqkfcxk · 8/10 · 3 June 2023]

I had recorded this on Talking Pictures TV (my favourite TV channel) thinking from the title that it was a sci fi programme and was surprised to find it was a historic world war 2 documentary drama about an incident I wasn't aware off - an underground disaster not involving trains! The Bethnal Green Underground diaster.

Great cast and great quality for a TV movie, also highlights the horror of living during war, having your home and belongings disappear in an instant, but with the immense gratitude that everyone in the family survived. Quite relevant for the horrific situaton in Ukraine today.

Another Gem deserving a Reappraisal

[nigel_hawkes · 8/10 · 12 May 2023]

Caught this May 2023 on UK's Talking Pictures channel. From the title I thought it was a musical! However, it's a very moving "docu-drama" that-in places-reminds one slightly of some of Dennis Potter's TV works.

The performances by a largely unknown cast are outstanding; the director should be complimented for conjuring up a totally convincing realistic atmosphere. Anyone coming into the movie after the opening titles would be forgiven for thinking that it was a real-life WW2 event that was captured by a film crew that had happened to be caught up in it.

One can't say that it's an enjoyable film; it's too heart-wrenching for that, particularly with the knowledge that it's based on a 1943 Home Front tragedy.

A humbling watch.

Reminded me of Threads

[Leofwine_draca · 6/10 · 6 January 2023]

A low budget period piece telling of a true-life disaster that happened in WW2 London. This one chimed with me thanks to its understated, realistic, documentary-style approach that has much in common with the later likes of THREADS et al. A different kind of disaster here, familiar to anyone who lived thorugh Hillsborough, but no less effective as a result. The familiar faces from television, Liz Smith and Gwyneth Strong among them, add to the cosy appeal and really this is a character piece, the depth adding gravitas to the climax. I particularly liked the extensive use of music from the era to bring it to life.

"It's a lovely day tomorrow"

[bwhitloc-1 · 10/10 · 3 August 2007]

This was a terrific film. I have only ever seen it once on TV when it was first released.It's a terribly sad event and follows the daily lives of a regular London family during the war, and some of the conditions they had to deal with. A typical cockney family with wit and staying power. If I remember rightly, they were also bombed out of their house. They made their way along the street with a pram (stroller) stacked high with what was left of their belongings. The tragedy of the film of course is heart wrenching.It was very authentic both in character and scenery. the casting was perfect. Have tried in vain to buy the film. Anyone out there have it?? I would very much like to have any leads.

Tragedy in a tragic world

[steve-butten · 8/10 · 1 March 2024]

The perceived amateurish nature of the acting in this movie, whether intended or not, does serve to provide an air of realism to this story of a sad moment in the wartime life of London's East End. A family, bombed out of their home, is forced to move to the home of a relative. The narrator, a teenage boy within that family relates the story of a crowd surge at a London tube station that killed so many who were trying to shelter from the bombs of the Luftwaffe, including his sister. It's a heart rending tale made real by the scenes of claustrophobic tube platforms and realistic Cockney accents. The acting award would have to go to Liz Smith. Whilst she would be a figure of fun in The Royle Family towards the end of her life, here she would return her uncanny ability to portray bleak stoicism in the face of adversity as Vi, the grandmother. A few years earlier she displayed to that same brave character in Mike Leigh's Bleak Moments. News real scenes of the time and the music of the day round out the atmosphere that people enjoyed and endured during the Blitz. It's not a perfect film, but it reminds us that panic can cause immense hurt, so horribly experienced later at Hillsborough.

heart-wrenching drama about a World War II catastrophe

[myriamlenys · 9/10 · 13 April 2024]

"It's a lovely day tomorrow" is a dramatization of a real-life catastrophe, to wit the 1943 Bethnal Green tube disaster. It is a respectful dramatization, in the sense that it examines the disaster without exploiting it. There's no cheap sensationalism to be found here, only a careful, sensitive recreation of events. Made with great attention to details concerning clothing, music, social habits and the like, "It's a lovely day tomorrow" rings deeply, painfully true.

The movie begins with a London family losing its house due to German bombing. The family moves in with the old grandmother, who is kind though set in her ways. This new neighborhood too suffers badly, what with the poor inhabitants getting frightened out of their wits by frequent air raids and alarms. The opening up of the Bethnal Green tube facilities seems to answer the neighborhood's prayers for a large, deep and well-equipped shelter, but a terrible danger lies in wait. Eventually many members of this close-knit community will find not safety, but death.

In my humble opinion "It's a lovely day tomorrow" should be made into required viewing for all people tasked with designing, maintaining and managing access facilities to large-scale public structures. But most of all the movie should be made into required viewing for all pundits and politicians foolish enough to speak about war with jolly optimism. Here, one sees an example of the true price to be paid during wartime : scores and scores of civilians, many of them women and children, who die of suffocation amidst a gargantuan tangle of limbs.

For a long time the Bethnal Green tragedy did not get a lot of official recognition, probably as a result of wartime secrecy prolonging itself through the decades. Recently a simple but moving monument has been erected. Called "Stairway to heaven", it perpetuates the names of the deceased.

Not a great watch.

[plan99 · 5/10 · 16 May 2023]

Filmed in the style of a WWII film so a bit grainy and dark which didn't really add anything to it. If this had not been based on a real tragedy the review scores would be a lot less as it's not a very good film. I spotted "Cassandra" from Only Fools very quickly who seems to have had the same hairstyle her whole life. Life in the underground could have been portrayed a lot better and given more screen time as it it must have difficult sleeping down there although there were very strict rules about being noisy etc. Not worth watching even as a record of the tragedy so I'm not sure why it was made at all.