Testament of Youth (2014 James Kent)

Solemn and sincere big screen version of Vera Brittain's 1933 memoir, written by Juliet Towhidi (Death Comes to Pemberley, Love Rosie). Alicia Vikander is Vera, Taron Egerton her brother, Kit Harington the fiancee and Colin Morgan the other friend. With Dominic West, Emily Watson, Joanna Scanlan, Miranda Richardson, Daisy Waterstone (Q knew she recognised her - The Durrells), Nicholas Le Prevost, Anna Chancellor - and Hayley Atwell in a splendid cameo as a nurse with alacrity in the abattoir of a field hospital.

It's perhaps a little light on the feminism/ independent woman side of things and Alicia comes off as rather surly in the first sections, and is it all slightly at arm's length? But the end-as-beginning and the numerous little flashbacks all add something. That crowd scene (shot at the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich) which frames it has a completely different resonance when you see it repeated at the end.

Diffused Panavision photography by Rob Hardy, music Max Richter, editor Luchia Zucchetti (Boy A, The Queen), production design Jon Henson, costumes Consolata Boyle. Produced by BBC Films.

As far as I can tell, the great line 'All of us are surrounded by ghosts - now is the time to learn how to live with them' is not from the book.