Alan Bates plays Henry Sitchell, a colonial stuffed shirt who arrives back in 1950 England for the funeral of his wife, after five years of separation.

Their 12 year old son Clive (Ben Holden) has been left in the care of kind Mrs Dewey (Geraldine James). He is a bright, sensitive boy who finds his father's bombastic manner and obsession with model railways appalling.

Both man and boy seem doomed to suffer their grief in dreadful isolation. Writer Roger Eldridge has created a portrait of the tightly buttoned emotional climate of post-war Britain. Jim Lee directs gently, and Alan Bates is marvellous.

Difficult not to find yourself weeping freely at the end. |||