phenomenal

It tells the remarkable true story of a resistance hero and his courage in the face of terror during World War Two

There is no shortage of films about the Second World War, but this “masterpiece”, now streaming on Netflix, tells the long-forgotten tale of one man’s extraordinary bravery in the face of unimaginable terror.

The Norwegian film draws on the real-life experiences of resistance fighter Gunnar Sønsteby during the conflict. Starring Sjur Vatne Brean in the lead role and helmed by director John Andreas Andersen, Number 24 charts Sønsteby’s journey from 1940 through to the end of the Second World War.

Taking its title from Sønsteby’s most frequently used code name, Number 24 delves into how the Oslo Group carried out sabotage operations and assassinations throughout the war. The film is narrated by an elderly Sønsteby as he recounts his remarkable experiences to a group of students.

Both film fans and critics alike are utterly captivated by this raw and gritty war film, which currently holds a perfect score on the film review site Rotten Tomatoes.

One critic wrote: “Based on the real-life story of Norwegian hero Gunnar Sønsteby, director John Andreas Andersen delivers a gripping, often violent thriller that highlights the best and worst of humankind.”, reports Wales Online.

Another said: “This biopic about Gunnar Sønsteby, the most highly decorated citizen in Norway, explores the moral grey areas during war under brutal invading forces. Switching between the past and the present, the film sensitively contrasts justice and necessity.”

Meanwhile a third added: “The director crafts a mostly patriotic picture of a man solely dedicated to duty. It’s an uncompromising approach that often makes for a stirring watch even through a narrow lens.”

Fans were equally effusive in their praise. One wrote: “The lead actor is phenomenal. As a man of laser focus and few words, Gunnar commands the screen through the smallest, most restrained expressions and every one of them lands. It’s a masterclass in subtlety, and he delivers a gripping, believable performance.”

Another said: “Well worth watching! Makes me want to go and learn more about this incredible person. You will need a tissue at the ending. You will also need to use your pause button to read the subtitles at the end – they do contain useful information.”

While a third contributed: “Important WWII story of resistance in Norway. Thought provoking and moving. Different points of view from being in different positions when war comes into your life, your family and your country.”

And another wrote: “WOW! WOW! ! . Fantastic in every way My wife and I loved this. So realistic and well acted, directed,etc. Watch,enjoy and respect the Norwegian patriots.”

Number 24 is streaming now on Netflix.

“Tip Toe,” a fine new drama from Russell T Davies premiering Friday on Starz, begins at the end, with Leo Struther (Alan Cumming, phenomenally good), a gay Manchester bar owner, hanging dead from a streetlight outside his house, as a woman screams and his neighbor Clive Goss (David Morrissey) stands breathing heavily on his porch. Then, as so many series do nowadays, it goes back in time — 10 days here — to tell the tale that got them there.

And so you are prepared from the beginning for tragedy, though not everything that happens in its five episodes will be tragic — some of what we see will be sweet and even celebratory — and one might forget for a moment where this is all heading, and even believe that what we’ve already seen will turn out differently.

The series sets off in a comparatively light mood. Chasing a one-night stand who’s stolen his laptop, Leo finds he’s locked himself out of his house, and, dressed only in his underwear, goes next door to ask if he can borrow a phone to call his friend Stephanie (Elizabeth Berrington) to bring him a spare key; here we meet the Goss family, Clive, an out-of-work electrician; his wife, Marie (Pooky Quesnel), who doesn’t like Clive; 16-year-old son George (Jackson Connor), gay and closeted; and 25-year-old son Saul (Joseph Evans), an easygoing hunk who lives at home, secretly makes money on OnlyFans and accepts everyone for who they are. Leo and the Gosses have been living amicably at arm’s length for 14 years, though their lives are about to become closely entwined, with disastrous results.

In an act of something like willful, somewhat disturbing friendliness, or a desire not to have to deal with Leo the next time he’s locked out, Clive makes a copy of Leo’s key and installs a lock box by his door. (By the Chekov’s gun rule, a key copied in Episode 1 is bound to be turned in a lock in whatever later act Davies deems advantageous.) Then, Leo gives Clive work at his bar.

Alan Cumming and David Morrissey play neighbors whose relationship escalates to violence in “Tip Toe.”

(Ben Blackall / Starz)

Leo’s bar, Spit and Polish, sits on Canal Street in Manchester’s long-established “gay village.” It’s a safe space for his employees and regulars, including Zee (Iz Hesketh), who’s been sleeping hidden in the bar, frightened of new flatmates since coming out as a trans woman, and Melba (Paul Rhys, brilliant), a former drag performer who holds down the end of the bar like Norm from “Cheers” and carries a torch for Leo.

Things will go generally downhill from here, in a narrative of escalating misunderstanding — not in the sense of an innocent mistake, of simply getting the wrong end of the stick (though that’s part of it), but as a contemporary habit of mind, blinkered, closed to facts but open to conspiracies. (Clive, a consumer of social media disinformation, believes that AIDS and COVID are fake); he lives in fear.

Directed by Peter Hoar, it’s a rough watch, yet beautifully wrought and delicately performed, inspiring and depressing, hopeless and hopeful by turns Davies has points to make — hanging your protagonist is not subtle — but his dialogue carries a lot of weight lightly; long conversations ebb and flow and rise and fall like compressed playlets. If there is something schematic about the arc, the characters within it, Clive as much as Leo, are completely human. They stand for something bigger than themselves, but they also stand for themselves.

Davies brought gay life in its infinite variety to television with the 1999 series “Queer as Folk” (also set on Canal Street) and gender fluidity to “Doctor Who,” the series he revived in 2005 and returned to in 2023. (The Tardis is currently in limbo.) His “Cucumber,” about middle-age gay men, and “Banana,” about young LGBTQ+ people, are also set in Manchester, where Davies has lived since the late 1980s. “Tip Toe” has been crafted for an age of surging homophobia and anti-gay violence. “The president of America has given these men permission to attack us,” says Melba, as he sits with Leo late one night by the canal. The series’ dark prophet, he gives it its title.

“It’s a storm, it’s a tide, it’s a great big tsunami. We’re in the middle of it right now … If you’d asked me in 1996 what do you think 2026 will be like, I’d have said ‘glory days’ … But they tricked us didn’t they? They let us all come out, so now we’re standing in he open ready for them to shoot us down. I used to walk into a room and just go, ‘Ta-da!’ Now I tip toe, just in case.”