It’s Christmas Day, so when is there a more perfect time after that big festive lunch to put your feet up and whack on a classic film?
Two underrated ones are on ITV4 this afternoon, starting with The Sea Wolves at 4pm.
Released in 1980, the movie stars Gregory Peck, and David Niven in the true story of Operation Creek.
The covert mission saw the British Indian Army’s Calcutta Light Horse (part of the Cavalry Reserve) sink a German merchant ship in neutral Portugal’s Goa territory back in 1943.
This vessel controlled a secret radio which was transmitting crucial information on Allied shipping to Nazi U-boats in the Indian Ocean.
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Gregory Peck and Roger Moore in The Sea Wolves (Image: GETTY)
Additionally, at 6:30pm today, there’s 1969’s Battle of Britain on afterwards, which saw ’s Goldfinger director Guy Hamilton and movie producer Harry Saltzman team up on this World War II epic. The film would recreate the 1940 British air campaign of the same name, during a crucial point in the fight against the Nazis. Hitler had conquered France and was seeking a peace settlement with Great Britain, following the Allied evacuation from Dunkirk. The German dictator sent in his Luftwaffe planes over the channel hoping to convince the new Prime Minister Winston Churchill to agree to this during their “darkest hour”.
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However, from July to October 1940, the Royal Air Force and the Royal Navy’s Fleet Air Arm defended the British Isles preventing Operation Sea Lion; Hitler’s planned invasion. Battle of Britain’s scale was unprecedented at the time, with incredible flying sequences ballooning the film’s budget. The movie starred Laurence Olivier as Air Chief Marshal Sir Hugh Dowding, Christopher Plumber, Robert Shaw and Michael Caine as Squadron leaders.