Hello everyone! 🙂

Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and I’m Tim Bradley!

Last Friday, I saw the film ‘Young Woman and the Sea’, which has been released on Disney+. The film stars Daisy Ridley, well-known for playing Rey in the ‘Star Wars’ sequel trilogy, as Trudy Ederle, an American competitive swimmer. She became the first woman to swim across the English Channel. 🙂

I found this an enjoyable film to check out, especially as I’d never heard of Gertrude ‘Trudy’ Ederle before. It was fascinating to see how the film portrayed Trudy being a swimmer and wanting to achieve swimming across the English Channel, despite all the opposition and tribulations involved. 😐

This is the kind of historical drama biographical film I’d like to see now and again, especially when you discover news things about people you never came across before, even when you studied history in school. Daisy Ridley is excellent playing Trudy and all the struggles he faced as a swimmer.

What amazes me about this film is that it was produced by Jerry Bruckheimer Films. Yes! The same Jerry Bruckheimer who produced the ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ movies. The film itself was directed by Joachim Rønning, who co-directed the fifth film – ‘Dead Men Tell No Tales’ or ‘Salazar’s Revenge’.

Apparently, ‘Young Woman and the Sea’ is a film based on the 2009 book of the same name by Glenn Stout, which was published in 2009. Not that I’m expecting you to know that, but it was pretty fascinating to uncover that this film is based on a book that details Trudy Ederle’s life as a swimmer.

As well as Daisy Ridley, there’s also Christopher Eccleston (Wow! The Ninth Doctor from ‘Doctor Who’ is in this! 😀 ) as Jabez Wolffe, who becomes Trudy’s trainer in France and failed to swim the English Channel on multiple attempts. In some respects, Jabez Wolffe is the sort-of villain in this tale.

This is especially when he sabotaged Trudy’s efforts to swim the English Channel by giving her alcohol instead of tea when she was out swimming. It was amusing to hear Chris Eccleston put on a Scottish accent to play Jabez Wolffe, since I have been used to his Northern accent over the years. 😀

There’s Stephen Graham (You’ve probably seen him in ‘Venom: Let There Be Carnage’ and ‘Matilda the Musical’) as Bill Burgess, who happens to be Trudy’s hero as he successfully swam the English Channel and inspires her. He also assists Trudy when she makes one last effort to swim the Channel.

There’s Tilda Cobham-Hervey as Margaret ‘Meg’ Ederle, Trudy’s sister (Lilly Aspell, who plays Young Meg, played Young Diana in the ‘Wonder Woman’ films, in case you didn’t know). There’s also Kim Bodnia as Henry Ederle, Trudy’s father. It’s interesting how Trudy’s father develops in the film itself.

At first, he seems to be someone who’s stuck in the past and doesn’t take Trudy’s career as a swimmer very seriously. But as the film progresses, he accompanies Meg and Bill Burgess to help Trudy when she makes a last attempt to swim the English Channel, even when he’s raising his concerns.

There’s Jeanette Hain as Gertrude Anna Ederle, Trudy’s mother, who happens to be German, I believe. There’s Glenn Fleshler as James Sullivan, the man sponsoring women swimmers to the 1924 Paris Olympics and whom Trudy tries to convince to support her attempt to cross the English Channel.

And there’s Sian Clifford as Charlotte, Trudy’s swimming trainer at the Women’s Swimming Association (WSA) in America. As ever, the cast is excellent in this film, but of course, it’s Daisy Ridley who steals the show. It’s no surprise, considering she’s one of the executive producers of this film. 🙂

‘Young Woman and the Sea’ is a film that was certainly worth my time in checking it out on Disney+. I enjoyed the performances of the cast, including Daisy Ridley, Christopher Eccleston and Stephen Graham, and it was good to learn about Trudy Ederle and her swimming across the English Channel.

Thanks for reading!

Bye for now!

Tim 🙂