Dirk Bogarde

Cleared for Take-off Dirk Bogarde

On his many reconnaissance missions in Europe and the Far East, the young Bogarde experienced the terror of enemy attack and the horror of its aftermath, together with the intense camaraderie and bitter humour of the battlefield. He also had, like countless others, a feeling of utter hopelessness at the war's end, when, as suddenly as the fighting had stopped, these youthful, but hardened comrades-in-arms were dispersed to find their feet in a traumatised world.

Less than a year after demob no one could have been more astonished to find himself starring in his third feature film with car and chauffeur and a five-storey house in Chester Row. He had somehow 'arrived' in the movies.