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The threat of nuclear war is something people lived with if they grew up in the 1980s and earlier. As a child of the era there was of course no memory of the Cuban Missile Crisis but 1983 was one of the most dangerous years in terms of the prospect of the bomb being used. Greenham Common protests mixed with skirmishes in the Middle East and cultural icons like Threads [didn’t watch!] and When The Wind Blows [Plenty harrowing enough, please and thank you!]. And obviously “ Two Tribes ” by Frankie Goes To Hollywood. The reality of the nuclear bomb from its discovery to the beginning of its impact, especially on America in the 1940s onwards, is told in Christopher Nolan’s new biopic of “The father of the bomb” Oppenheimer. Cillian Murphy takes the role of a young man steeped in physics and in love with the world which it underpins. Also he was in love with another scientist, with Communist links, as well as with his wife, played by a steely, wary looking Emily Blunt —a necessarily for...

It’s a simple premise, and it’s not really a part of Cold War movies or even spy movies: Learning that we are fundamentally the same in spite of political difference is the take that’s most compelling in Dominic Cooke’s enjoyable espionage drama. British businessman Greville Wynne ( Benedict Cumberbatch —on fine form) was recruited in 1960 by the British Intelligence Services to make contact with Oleg Pentovsky ( Merab Ninidze ), who as we’ve seen is doubting the sanity of Khrushchev and thinking about ways to avert nuclear war—even as he sees how traitors are dealt with. The movie is at its best when Pentovsky and Wynne are together. They seem to match each other from their separate world-views and it’s not long before Wynne is questioning the ruthless amorality of MI6, with Angus Wright playing spy-handler Dickie Francis with joyful stiff-upper lip. His CIA aide ( Rachel Brosnahan ) is more passionate and possibly has the most conventional cinematic moments: in one scene she expl...