The Last of the Blonde Bombshells **** (2000, Judi Dench, Ian Holm, Leslie Caron, Cleo Laine, Joan Sims, June Whitfield, Billie Whitelaw, Olympia Dukakis) – Classic Movie Review 2689

A marvellous cast is assembled for director Gillies MacKinnon’s treasurable, heart-warming 2000 made-for-TV comedy drama, starring Judi Dench, Cleo Laine, Ian Holm, Joan Sims, June Whitfield, Billie Whitelaw, Olympia Dukakis and Leslie Caron.

It is securely based on a superb script by Alan Plater about the reuniting of a female dance band formed in 1944. It focuses on saxophonist Elizabeth (Dench), whose husband dies and she tries to reunite the Blonde Bombshells, the swing band she played with during World War Two.

Joan Sims explains: ‘I play Betty, the band’s pianist, and in one scene Judi Dench (the saxophonist) and Ian Holm (who had dressed up in drag in order to be the drummer) have tracked me down to the end of Hastings pier, where I’m playing piano in a bar.’

Sadly, it proved to be Sims’s last work before her death on 27 June 2001, aged 71. She entered hospital in November 2000, and complications of a routine operation caused her to slip into a coma.

It also features Thelma Ruby, Millie Findlay, Felicity Dean, Nicholas Pallister, Valentine Pelka, Carla MacKinnon, Dom Chapman, John Warnaby, James Cosmo, Romola Garai and Saskia Vale.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2689

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