The dynamics of continuous thin film flow over flexible substrate is explored. Lubrication theory is employed to model the flow, resulting in a system of coupled equations for film thickness, pressure and substrate deflection which are solved numerically subject to appropriate boundary conditions. This is achieved accurately and efficiently using an automatic time and space adaptive multigrid strategy. Of particular interest are the dynamics that occur as a consequence of pulsing the inlet flow over substrate that is either uniformly flexible or contains localised regions of uniform and varying flexibility. Results are presented for the free-surface disturbances and corresponding substrate deflections that arise, with conclusions drawn concerning how substrate flexibility affects the practical issue of free-surface planarisation. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.