Turtle Diary (1985)

Turtle Diary is a story about two groups of living things with the desire to be set free - two people, one a book shop assistant and the other a failing children's book author, and three turtles, trapped in a small, glass box in the London Zoo aquarium. The two people, played by Glenda Jackson and Ben Kingsley, feel the turtles' pain without knowing each other at first and plan a heist to send them back into the ocean, which some people think is a daft idea, and some think is worse than daft. But this story is more than a turtle heist. Much more.

Directed by John Irvin and adapted by Harold Pinter from Russell Hoban's novel; also starring Michael Gambon and featuring a cameo by Peter Capaldi.

This film was given to me by a friend of my parents and has been uploaded to the internet because it has not yet received a DVD release, it has only been released on VHS once and never again. You won't find it on any shelf, which is a damn shame because it's an intelligent and emotional film that deserves far more attention. So enjoy until a distributor remembers this film and puts it on a full, widescreen DVD where it belongs.