On June 5th 2014, 89-year-old Bernie Jordan strolled out of the Hove care home he lived in with his wife, Rene, and set off on a 500-mile pilgrimage to France. After being denied a place on the official Royal Legion trip to commemorate the D-Day Landings, Jordan took matters into his own hands – while he let his wife know he wouldn’t be back in time for tea, his disappearance did cause a minor panic with the Suffolk police, until he was accounted for, travelling on a coach with his fellow veterans, having safely made it to Normandy.
It’s a surprise this stranger-than-fiction story took so long to make it to the big screen, given British cinema’s enduring love affair with the Second World War and high tolerance for the cheeky chappie archetype – apparently audiences simply can’t get enough.
