BBC
GBH
Not part of a collection.
All the King's Men
Feature-length drama about the mystery of Sandringham Company, which disappeared in action at Gallipoli in 1915. Commanded by Captain Frank Beck, their estate manager, the men advanced into battle, were enveloped in a strange mist and never seen again.
- Original title
- All the King's Men
- Language
- EN
- Country
- GB
- Budget
- —
- Revenue
- —
CinemaSerf
Mar 19, 2025 · via TMDB
As the grandchildren of Queen Victoria all squared up against each other at the start of the Great War, and as the once powerful Ottoman Empire finally shut up shop, the staff at King George V’s Norfolk Residence at Sandringham formed their own regiment determined to train and do their part for the war effort. They are led by the fastidious estate manager “Beck” (David Jason) and with the blessing of their royal patron, Queen Alexandra (a rather unremarkable performance from Dame Maggie Smith) set off to the Turkish sphere of operations where incomplete history tells us they were in involved in the perilous and somewhat disastrous Gallipoli campaign. This story is told from a perspective of a search, instigated by the Queen, into just what did happen and there is a familiar collection of faces used to deliver a story of courage and of, frankly, enthusiastic ineptitude at just about every level. David Jason is what we in Britain call a “National Treasure” but mainly as a comedy actor. Here, he seemed rather miscast and for me he failed to really ignite this formidable character as he becomes more of a parody of the stiff upper lip mentality than an exponent of it. It was made by the BBC and though they have clearly thrown considerable resource at this, it still looks and feels like a television movie with little by way of grand-scale illustrative photography of the battle scenes or the scale of the operations, and it’s grasp of the horrors of war is just a little too tepid to deliver poignantly enough. That said, it’s still a good looking drama that tells an interesting story that could also probably be applied to so many towns and villages across the land who cobbled together their own troops of the ill-prepared, the frightened and the patriotic to go and fight a war about which they knew virtually nothing for officers who had quite possibly all but inherited their commands, and who didn’t know a great deal more.
User reviews courtesy of TMDB.
David Jason
Capt. Frank Beck
Maggie Smith
Queen Alexandra
William Ash
Sgt. Ted Grimes
Sonya Walger
Lady Frances
Stuart Bunce
2nd Lt. Frederick Radley
James Murray
Pvt. Will Needham
Tom Burke
Pvt. Chad Batterbee
Ben Crompton
Pvt. Davy Croft
Eamon Boland
Arthur Beck
Jo Stone-Fewings
Lieut. Alec Beck
James Hillier
Second Lieut. Evelyn Beck
David Troughton
King George V
Emma Cunniffe
Peggy Batterbee
Adam Kotz
Oswald Yeoman
Patrick Malahide
Capt. Claude Howlett
Gaye Brown
Queen Mary
Phyllis Logan
Mary Beck
Ian McDiarmid
Rev. Pierrepoint Edwards
Laurence Dobiesz
Luke Grimes
Jamie Beddard
Roland Adams
William Hoyland
Lt. Col Proctor Beauchamp
Heather Tobias
Mrs Batterbee
Francis Magee
Able Seaman
Nick Haverson
Private at Station
Darren Tighe
Corporal Lloyd
Roger Morlidge
Private in Pub
Jasper Jacob
German Doctor
Nick Powell
Stunt Coordinator
Rowley Irlam
Stunts
Julian Jarrold
Director
Jane Tranter
Executive Producer
Rebecca Eaton
Executive Producer
Gareth Neame
Producer
Adrian Johnston
Original Music Composer
Dominic Tuohy
Special Effects Supervisor
Islandia
Conquer: Lahad Datu
Prayers for Bobby
Newsies
Manslaughter
Gigi & Nate
Victim of Love: The Shannon Mohr Story
Random Love Story
The Best of Enemies
The Boys in the Boat
Milk
Taking Chance
Antarctica
Casualties of War
Boomerang!
Mary Kom
September 5
Saint Ralph
Bronson
The Sweet Hereafter
Sink the Bismarck!
Crime Story
The Spirit of St. Louis
Bride Flight
The Soloist
Rosewood
Age 13
A Tin Tale
Evelyn
Last Exit
The Boys Are Back
Little Pink House
Molokai: The Story of Father Damien
The Krays
Searching for a Serial Killer: The Regina Smith Story
Normal Life
The Gray Man
To Let
Wallflower
Something to Talk About
Any Mother's Son
Jánošík
Molokai: la isla maldita
Dahmer
Third Time
Only Cloud Knows
Freeway Killer
Poison Ivy: The Secret Society
Matar al Nani
Orders
Operation Thule
Billion Dollar Spy
Just Go!
The People v Gary McKinnon
The Mysterious Case of Rudolf Diesel
Skok
Les Héritières
Ryoma Sakamoto: Samurai Gunslinger
Schindler's List
Emancipation
Glory
Remember
Zulu
The Guns of Navarone
Conspiracy
Devotion
The Scarlet and the Black
Miss Marple: They Do It with Mirrors
Flags of Our Fathers
The Boy in the Woods
Outlaws - For Greater Glory
The One That Got Away
Danny Boy
Free State of Jones
The Assault
The Last Rifleman
Battleground
The Devil's Double
Puncture
Flyboys
Operation Mincemeat
Cloak and Dagger
The Kill Team
Play Dirty
Walking with the Enemy
Field of Lost Shoes
Ararat
The Monuments Men
Feb 20, 2000
