Went the Day Well?
The story is told in flashback by a villager, played by Mervyn Johns, as though to a person visiting after the war. He recounts: one Saturday during the Second World War, a group of seemingly authentic British soldiers arrive in the small, fictitious English village of Bramley End. It is the Whitsun weekend so life is even quieter than usual and there is almost no traffic of any kind. At first they are welcomed by the villagers, until doubts begin to grow about their true purpose and identity. After they are revealed to be German soldiers intended to form the vanguard of an invasion of Britain, they round up the residents and hold them captive in the local church. The vicar is shot after sounding the church bell in alarm.
In attempts to reach the outside world, many of the villagers take action. Such plans include writing a message on an egg and giving them to the local paper boy for his mother, but they are crushed when Mrs Fraser's cousin runs over them. Mrs Fraser then puts a note in Cousin Maude's pocket, but she uses it to hold her car window in place; her dog, Edward, then chews it to shreds after it blows onto the back seat. Mrs Collins, the postmistress, manages to kill a German with an axe used for chopping firewood, and tries to telephone elsewhere. The girls on the exchange see her light and decide that she can wait. Mrs Collins waits until she is killed by another German who walks into the shop moments afterwards. The girl at the exchange then picks up the phone, getting no reply.
The civilians attempt to escape to warn the local Home Guard, but are betrayed by the village squire, who is revealed to be collaborating with the Germans. Members of the local Home Guard are ambushed and shot by the Germans. They begin to bow in until a young boy, George, succeeds in escaping; despite being shot in the leg, he alerts the army. British soldiers arrive, and – aided by some of the villagers, including a group of Women's Land Army girls, who have managed to escape, barricade themselves in, and arm themselves – defeat the Germans after a short battle. The squire is shot dead by the vicar's daughter, who had discovered his treachery, as he attempts to let the Germans into the barricaded house. During the battle, many of the villagers who left to fight are wounded or killed; Mrs Fraser is blown up by a grenade and Tom's father wrenches his ankle. The British troops then arrive at Bramley End and all ends well.
The villager retelling the story to the camera shows the Germans' grave in the churchyard and explains proudly that "this is the only bit of England they got".
tragedy, suspenseful, murder