- Home
- Seasons
- O Dreamland! Lindsay Anderson’s Dark British Cinema
- Britannia Hospital
Britannia Hospital
A film for our times? Mark E. Smith’s favourite film sees Lindsay Anderson providing a sharp, wild, gallows-humour riposte to the contemporaneous transatlantic jingoism of Chariots of Fire and all the rest.
![](/ArticleMedia/Images/WhatsOn%20images/20240405/britannia-hospital-01.jpeg)
-
Director
Lindsay Anderson
-
With
Malcolm McDowell, Leonard Rossiter, Graham Crowden, Joan Playwright
-
UK 1982. 116min
-
35mm
-
Certificate
15
With its sights set on Thatcher’s deathbed Britain, the third in Anderson and Sherwin’s trilogy sees McDowell’s Mick Travis infiltrate the ‘Britannia Hospital’, a place plagued by striking workers, private and NHS patients and even a royal visit. Increasingly absurd and littered with rip-roaring British character actors, it’s little surprise that The Fall’s Mark E. Smith called it his favourite film. Screening with a revealingly contrasting extract from a documentary by one of Anderson’s key influences.
Screening with:
A Diary for Timothy
-
Director
Humphrey Jennings
-
UK 1945. 7min (extract)
Britannia Hospital contains scenes of racism.
Total running time 123min
![](https://whatson.bfi.org.uk/ArticleMedia/Images/lff21/misc/bacurau-01.jpg)
BFI Membership
Become a BFI Member from £39 to enjoy priority booking as well as other great benefits all year round.
Join today![](/content/Images/WhatsOn%20images/202402/25-and-under-560x315-2024-02.jpg)
![](/content/Images/features/bfi-imax-bond-wrap-september-2021.jpeg)
![](/ArticleMedia/Images/WhatsOn%20images/20231011/scrapper-01.jpg)