Reach For The Sky Review

Ask Mike Myers what his favourite film is and you might be surprised by his answer. A die-hard fan of British comedy in general and Peter Sellers in particular, you could be forgiven for thinking the Anglo-Canadian would plump for, say, an early Ealing offering or one of the Pink Panther pictures. But it's not the auld country's comedy the Austin Powers star craves but Reach For The Sky, the WWII biopic of Douglas Bader, the British airman who, in the immortal words of Derek Trotter, "didn't let a little thing like having no legs" stop him contesting the crucial chuckers of the Battle Of Britain.

Familiar to millions owing to this picture's constant presence on British television since its release, the details of Bader's story have lost none of their power. A gifted rugby player and cricketer, the cocksure Bader lost his limbs in a flying accident in 1931. Given no hope of recovery, he stubbornly fought against the doctor's diagnosis, his pig-headedness leading him to return to the air within a decade of his near-fatal crash. A key contributor to Britain's successes against the Luftwaffe in 1941, Bader's never-die-spirit was so great that, upon being captured by the Nazis, he promptly escaped, so forcing his captors to confiscate his legs. Along the way, Bader met and romanced his future wife, received a knighthood for his public work for the disabled and became a talented golfer.