During the 17th century, Gerrard Winstanley, a bankrupt English merchant and social reformer, organizes one of the first communes to be established in the Western world along with a small band of followers known as the Diggers. Filmed in black and white, and using a cast made up mainly of amateurs, including real life activist Sid Rawle who plays a Ranter (English Revolution period anarchist-type group). it is based on the 1961 David Caute novel Comrade Jacob, and the armour used was actual armour from the 1640s, borrowed from the Tower of London. An influential film that has inspired modern day films such as A Field in England.