A Matter of Life and Death (film) afterward. David Niven was a fan of chess. Peter and June play chess while they await Dr Reeves. Then Conductor 71 "borrows" a chess book Peter has accidentally knocked off the table, Alekhine's "My Best Games of Chess". After the trial is won, Conductor 71 throws the book from the stairway; June finds it in his jacket pocket "to serve the 'was it a hallucination or did it really happen?' motif of the film", according to Mig Greengard. He also noted, "Lots of chess in movies past and present, but I can't recall another prominent appearance of a real chess
A Matter of Loaf and Death of Loaf and Death" ("Sacré pétrin" in French) was shown – dubbed into French – on Christmas Eve 2008, on M6. In Germany, one version, entitled "Auf Leben und Brot" was broadcast on the Super RTL network, the title is a play on "Auf Leben und Tod" meaning a matter of life and death. In a similar style to "A Close Shave", Wallace and Gromit became the theme for BBC One's Christmas presentation for 2008, to promote the showing of "A Matter of Loaf and Death". The programme was watched by the most viewers of any programme on Christmas Day,