Hand in Hand

Michael and Rachel are seven years old. The two of them are close friends. They do everything together. They have made each other a promise. They will stay friends for ever and never be parted. But the society they live in does not look kindly on that friendship. There is religious intolerance around them. Michael is an Irish Catholic. Rachel is Jewish. That difference is a problem for almost everyone. The children have trouble understanding it. The account runs from their point of view. Philip Needs and Loretta Parry take the leads, with Kathleen Byron and Finlay Currie also in the cast, in Philip Leacock’s British film of 1961.