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<p><strong><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black">Episode No. 4, "The Summer Before the War"<o:p></o:p></span></strong></p>
<p><strong><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black"><img width="371" height="281" style="width:3.8645in;height:2.927in" id="Picture_x0020_4" src="cid:image001.png@01D4385B.FE5C7AC0"></span></strong><strong><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black"><o:p></o:p></span></strong></p>
<p><strong><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black">In terms of heightening the dramatic tension, “The Summer Before the War” is perhaps the most compelling of all the early episodes. It is really quite remarkable how many
significant events are happening, almost simultaneously, that will impact the entire run of the series. If the first three installments of “A Family at War” were necessarily introductory in nature, presenting viewers with essential character portraits that
will serve them throughout, then this fourth episode must be recognised as a vehicle for propelling the narrative forward in a wide array of creative directions. Just consider the succession of important plot developments that this single episode initiates:</span></strong><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:black"><br>
<br>
<strong><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">War is declared</span></strong><br>
<strong><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">John goes off to fight</span></strong><br>
<strong><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">Edwin’s managerial aspirations are dashed</span></strong><br>
<strong><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">David “lands” a second time (Peggy’s pregnancy)</span></strong><br>
<strong><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">Sheila decides against evacuating the children</span></strong><br>
<strong><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">Philip withdraws from Oxford</span></strong><br>
<br>
<strong><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></strong></span></b></p>
<p><strong><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black">Some other random thoughts…</span></strong><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:black"><br>
<br>
<strong><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">Again, as so often in the series, we are reminded of what a major role radio broadcasts played in the lives of people on the home front. In this case, the family hears Prime Minister Chamberlain’s solemn
pronouncement that England now is at war. The effective use of archival sound recordings adds a further touch of historical authenticity.</span></strong><br>
<br>
<strong><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">I thought the scene where Jean and Edwin are lying in bed was very well photographed. When the street lamps go off, Edwin asks his wife, “Who was it said, ‘The lamps are going out all over Europe’?” It
was nicely shot, seeing full lighting reduced to a half-light and then to rather dim when the street lamps outside are extinguished.</span></strong><br>
<br>
<strong><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">Two bits of dialogue serve to bring the nascent war home in chilling fashion. Freda says to Philip, “Have you been out in the gloom yet? It’s like the end of the world.” Later, also at the Ashtons’, Sheila
poses a rhetorical question: “Who’s going to drop bombs on children?”</span></strong><br>
<br>
<strong><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">There is one costuming oddity that caught my eye. In the pub, Peggy Drake seems to be wearing the same outfit—a lovely blue and green floral dress—that later will be seen adorning the character of Doris
Jackson in “Lend Your Loving Arms.” I have attached comparative jpeg images for purposes of illustration.</span></strong></span></b><o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" style="text-align:center"><img width="371" height="281" style="width:3.8645in;height:2.927in" id="Picture_x0020_2" src="cid:image002.jpg@01D4385B.FE5C7AC0" alt="http://afamilyatwar.com/04-Peggy%20(dress).jpg"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" style="text-align:center"><img width="371" height="281" style="width:3.8645in;height:2.927in" id="Picture_x0020_1" src="cid:image003.jpg@01D4385B.FE5C7AC0" alt="http://afamilyatwar.com/23-Doris%20(dress).jpg"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:black"><br>
<br>
<strong><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">“The Summer Before the War” is the only episode among the fifty-two in which there are two cast members who, much later in the series, will reappear—but in different roles:</span></strong><br>
<strong><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">(1) Actress Diana Davies appears, uncredited, as a despondent mother, tearfully embracing her child at the makeshift evacuation centre (Margaret’s school). Later, of course, she will have a recurring role
as Freda’s friend, Doris Jackson. It would be interesting to know whether her performance here inspired creation of the role of Doris, or whether Doris already was planned, and Diana Davies’s gripping portrayal of a heartbroken mother served as her audition
for a “call back.” </span></strong><br>
<strong><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">(2) Bill Dean is seen in this episode (and again in “The End of the Beginning” and “The Other Side of the Hill”) as the printing works pressman, Alan Mills. However, in Episode No. 47, “Under New Management,”
he plays the role of a Labour Party agent, espousing the socialist cause over a car-mounted loudspeaker. It could, of course, be argued that the later character too is Alan Mills, but this would seem most unlikely, in that the personalities are so dissimilar.</span></strong></span></b><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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