Richard Attenborough once said that the only reason he became a film director was in order to direct Gandhi (1982). That film perfectly exemplifies the way in which, with Attenborough, content invariably wins out over style.

Attenborough began acting at the age of 12. In 1942 he got the part of the cowardly seaman in In Which We Serve, a role that would see him typecast for decades –with the exception of his memorable turn as fresh-faced psychopath gangster Pinky Brown in the noir thriller Brighton Rock (1947). In 1959 he set up a production company with director Bryan Forbes. Producing Whistle Down The Wind (1961) and The L-shaped Room (1962), Attenborough seemed to forge a link between the 1940s realism of his youth and a realist post-war new wave then in the ascendant. In 1969 he turned to directing with a mannered adaptation of Joan Littlewood’s symbolist account of World War I, Oh! What A Lovely War. This inaugurated a preoccupation with historical moments and men that has drawn crowds of occasional filmgoers but elicited only dutiful critical plaudits. Young Winston (1972) was a dull portrait of Churchill’s adventures in the Boer War. A Bridge Too Far (1977) championed British grit in the face of American bravado and Nazi might during the fateful Arnhem raid of 1944. Like the sprawling war movies of the 1960s, it sported a stellar Anglo-American cast and ranged reverently over events like a school primer. As a film, it was unambiguous and flat, failing to prepare audiences for the interesting chiller Magic (1978) or the triumphant success of 1982’s Gandhi.

At a time when the contradictions of its imperial heritage were erupting in riot-torn cities across Thatcher’s Britain, Attenborough’s Cry Freedom (1987) brought liberal conviction to bear on the fate of black South African Steve Biko. Yet the focus remained on white interlocutor Donald Woods. Chaplin (1992) saw Robert Downey Jr faithfully rehearsing the filmmaker’s life, though nothing of the madness and ambivalence that made Chaplin a genius shone through. Since Shadowlands (1993), Attenborough has remained a British institution: conventional and dependable.

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