Alan Bates Michael Caine Sean Connery Tom Courtenay Albert Finney Richard Harris Peter O Toole Robert Shaw and Terence Stamp They are the most formidable acting generation ever to tread the boards or stare into a camera whose anti-establishment attitude changed the cultural landscape of Britain.This was a new breed many culled from the working class industrial towns of Britain and nothing like them has been seen before or since. Their raw earthy brilliance brought realism to a whole range of groundbreaking theatre from John Osborne s Look Back in Anger to Joan Littlewood and Harold Pinter and the creation of the National Theatre. And they ripped apart the staid middle-class British film industry with kitchen-sink classics like Saturday Night and Sunday Morning This Sporting Life The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner A Kind of Loving and Billy Liar before turning their sights on international stardom Connery with James Bond O Toole as Lawrence of Arabia Finney with Tom Jones and Caine in Zulu.Don t Let the Bastards Grind You Down brings alive the trail-blazing period of theatre and film from 1956-1964 through the vibrant energy and exploits of this revolutionary generation of stars who bulldozed over austerity Britain and paved the way for the swinging 60s. What Peter Biskind s Easy Riders Raging Bulls did for American cinema writing so Don t Let the Bastards will do for the British cinema.