Days of Hope (1975)

The history drama for anyone who wants politics instead of costumes. Days of Hope follows a working-class family from 1916 to the General Strike of 1926, and Jim Allen's scripts, Tony Garnett's production and Ken Loach's direction make it the decade's angriest look back. It began as a single feature film before the BBC expanded it into four feature-length parts, about 410 minutes in all. It started a row from the first episode, whose scene of conscientious objectors tied to stakes within range of enemy fire drew press criticism of how it showed the wartime army. Paul Copley, Pamela Brighton and Nikolas Simmonds lead as Ben, Sarah and Philip. It is unhurried and openly partisan, so come to it for the argument, not for comfort viewing.