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Hugh Bonneville and Gillian Anderson play the Mountbattens in Gurinder Chadha cheekily Downtonised but watchable version of history

‘Our time frame for leaving won’t work!” exclaims Lady Mountbatten, for a moment overwhelmed by the task of quitting India in 1947. Something familiar about that? As well as an enjoyably soapy and cheekily Downtonised view of history, director Gurinder Chadha could be offering a satirical stab at what Indexit meant to a country about to split into two as a punitive condition of liberty; maybe the UK will also have to contemplate partition of its own, north and south. With co-screenwriters Moira Buffini and Paul Mayeda Berges, Chadha creates a watchable costume drama from India’s birth agonies. And with its streak of subversive humour, it even reminded me weirdly of Spike Milligan’s Puckoon, about the division of Ireland.

Hugh Bonneville plays Mountbatten of Burma, brought in to oversee the...

Richard Attenborough is back in front of the cameras in a movie version of Spike Milligan's comic novel Puckoon. The British author's surreal tale focuses on a pub split by the new border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic in 1922. The romp, which is being backed by the Arts Council Of Northern Ireland, also includes Irish comic Sean Hughes and American star Elliott Gould, and will be directed by Les Blair. Attenborough and Gould are long-standing pals of Milligan and have agreed to work "for the price of a pint", according to friends. A colleague of Milligan says, "Getting this film underway has been a dream for Spike. He says it may be the last dream he ever has as he is now 82 and not in the best of health. But he is just so proud that he will be seeing Puckoon on the Silver Screen. He has told Les Blair, 'No hold-ups. I may pop off at any time'!"...