Shetlandsgjengen

This post-war, low-budget film portrays the 'Shetland Bus' service which transported agents and weapons from the Shetland Islands off the coast of Scotland to Norway, the other side of a stormy and hazardous sea. Initially, trawlers were used, crewed by Norwegians (the film simply refers to them as 'Vikings').

Leif Larsen, who was involved in the actual service, plays himself, and the events of the film appear to be fairly closely based on fact. While Michael Aldridge, playing the RNVR officer commanding the base, is a familiar face, most of the actors are amateurs, like Larsen.

For me, the amateur cast is less of a problem than the script: Larsen is actually really good, the commanding presence that he was (by all accounts) in real life, and the other Vikings are also excellent - especially the cheerful crewman whose unconventional headgear raises the eyebrows of a visiting Admiral. The dialogue is poor, a mix of exposition of Downton Abbey proportions and tepid banter.

The film's US title was 'Suicide Mission', but the film makers (the director was the little-known Michael Forlong, who wrote the screenplay with Sidney Cole from a novel by David Howarth) opted for a lighthearted tone. The dangers the Vikings faced were considerable: attack from the air German planes, betrayal by Quislings in Norway, and the North Sea itself.

All of these threats are played out in the storyline, and the action sequences of the film - and the shots of trawlers contending with massive waves - are the best part. Larsen completed more than 40 missions and was decorated more times than any other non-British person and any other merchant seaman.