BBC Two - A Matter of Life and Death

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A British pilot survives a plane crash, meets a US servicewoman and falls in love. In heaven, however, a mistake is discovered.

Returning to England from a bombing run in May 1945, flyer Peter Carter's plane is damaged, and his parachute ripped to shreds. He has his crew bail out safely, but figures it is curtains for himself. He gets on the radio, and talks to June, a young American woman working for the USAAF, and they are quite moved by each other's voices.

Peter then jumps, preferring this to burning up with his plane. He wakes up in the surf. It was his time to die, but there was a mix-up in heaven. They couldn't find him in all that fog. By the time his 'conductor' catches up with him 20 hours later, Peter and June have met and fallen in love. This changes everything, and since it happened through no fault of his own, Peter figures that heaven owes him a second chance. Heaven agrees to a trial to decide his fate.

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1 hour, 44 minutes

Last on

Thu 28 Nov 202420:30

BBC Four

Role	Contributor
Peter D Carter	David Niven
June	Kim Hunter
Doctor Reeves	Roger Livesey
Conductor 71	Marius Goring
Bob	Robert Coote
An Angel	Kathleen Byron
An English Pilot	Richard Attenborough
An American Pilot	Bonar Colleano
Chief Recorder	Joan Maude
Producer	Michael Powell
Producer	Emeric Pressburger
Writer	Emeric Pressburger
Writer	Michael Powell
Director	Michael Powell
Director	Emeric Pressburger

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