British Transport Fims Unit

[Boro Nut]

Inspired by the recent documentary on Channel 4 cataloguing the work of the BTF unit I went looking for examples on Youtube. They were shown as trailers at cinemas and schools, and seemed rather mundane at the time. They were essentially propoganda pieces of a socialist government intended to encourage the population to make use of an ailing nationalised industry. But what a fascinating piece of social commentary they have become since, and are endearingly nostalgic, not least because many of them tap in to Britain's enduring love of steam trains. I was amazed how many of the clips they covered I actually remembered. This one in particular:

Snowdrift at Bleath Gill (http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9Mllh1seHo)

As the documentary points out, we no doubt sat through these trailers with a feeling that they were something to endure before the eagerly awaited main feature. But now I can't recall a single thing about which film followed, yet the image of that snow plough thundering through the drift (4:00), lost in billows of steam and plumes of snow in the clinical winter sunlight has endured, as I suspect it will for all who sat through it with me. It's not just that the Upper Teesdale setting is a familiar one to me now. It is every childhood winter memory, of adventures in seas of pristine moorland snow, closed schools, undelivered mail, and milk frozen on the doorstep, no matter how rare they were in reality. And conveniently forgetting how we actually cried with the bone splitting cold, yet cried to return to it the instant our frigid limbs had thawed by fire.

It's also fascinating to discover how many of the film unit went on to further award winning success, directing and photographing Oscar winning Hollywood films and suchlike. Something to ponder next time you watch Michael Jackson's Thriller video for instance.

Boro Nut

[DMB]

That was lovely. When was it made? I remember the doughty Liverpudlian Derek Guyler, who was one of the narrators. I vaguely remember him in ITMA (http://www.bbc.co.uk/liverpool/localhistory/journey/stars/tommy_handley/itma.shtml), although I was very young when that was broadcast.

ETA More on ITMA (http://www.britishcomedy.org.uk/comedy/itma.html).

[Boro Nut]

That was lovely. When was it made? I remember the doughty Liverpudlian Derek Guyler, who was one of the narrators. I vaguely remember him in ITMA (http://www.bbc.co.uk/liverpool/localhistory/journey/stars/tommy_handley/itma.shtml), although I was very young when that was broadcast.

ETA More on ITMA (http://www.britishcomedy.org.uk/comedy/itma.html).I think it must be 1963 vintage.

I can't see Derek Guyler as anything other than the pompous caretaker Potter from Please Sir, or (the exact same character) the policeman in Sykes. I think he's the posh sounding one in that clip, not the one with the dodgy northern accent, which sounds a little too contrived.

They weren't beyond using strategic actors either, as the documentary showed. Take this example Terminus (http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=xmxoqpihE5s) - from Terminus - directed by John Schlesinger no less. How fortunate of them to find a lost boy on the platform - dumped there for the very purpose by his actress mother.

PS - it was BBC4 not Channel 4. I feel such a fool. You can't imagine how embarrassed I feel about it. Well now you know. I watch BBC4.

Boro Nut

[DMB]

I think Guyler was the second one to speak on the film. He was a genuine Liverpudlian, and his character in ITMA was Frisby Dyke, who had a strong scouser accent. I think his catch phrase may have been, "If you haven't been to Liverpool, you haven't lived", but I could be wrong on that.

I'm surprised that film could have been as late as 1963. IT has a definite 40s/50s feel to it.

[Boro Nut]

You're right, it was 1955 (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00f2ksz). I guessed 1963 because that was a proper winter that was, if beyond my recollection. It just goes to show how behind the times they were in our local cinema to be still showing it. It doesn't surprise me. They were interspersed with blandishments to visit long closed local restaurants, a call to arms by Kitchener, and rumours of the invention of the printing press. Still, none of that mattered to us once the latest Charlie Chaplin film started.

Boro Nut

[Febble]

I remember winter 1963. The river Tweed froze right across, and everyone in the Borders learned to skate. It was cool skating down the frozen caulds.

I remember those films too.

Eek. I'm old.

[DMB]

Ahhh. I remember the winter of 1962-3. I was living in London and working in Birdcage Walk. I used to walk to work every day across Green Park and St James's Park. It wasn't just perishing cold, it was also horribly smoggy. Still, when the winter was over, our lives were brightened by the Profumo scandal-- a gift for That was the Week that Was and Private Eye. Funny to think that David Frost was once involved in the cutting edge of "satire".

[Nialler]

I remember "Cathy Come Home" with considerable reluctance. That was one of the most deeply moving pieces of film ever made, and for a child was devastating. I'm glad that I saw it, but, boy, was that a lifechanging experience.

That and a very noirish documentary about Edith Piaf which I saw when I was seven; Those two things had changed my life before I watched The World At War and that deeply moving opening sequence. Dark memories.

[DMB]

Looking back to the 40s and 50s, they seem very drab. I saw a Calvin and Hobbes cartoon once where the father was explaining to Calvin why old films were in BW, and he said it was because in those days the world was in BW. I thought, "How true".

[Boro Nut]

Looking back to the 40s and 50s, they seem very drab. I saw a Calvin and Hobbes cartoon once where the father was explaining to Calvin why old films were in BW, and he said it was because in those days the world was in BW. I thought, "How true".That's right. I saw 'Nazis In Colour' once and it looked just like Butlins. I'd never really understood the little moustache thing until then.

Boro Nut

[Febble]

Looking back to the 40s and 50s, they seem very drab. I saw a Calvin and Hobbes cartoon once where the father was explaining to Calvin why old films were in BW, and he said it was because in those days the world was in BW. I thought, "How true".

It's literally true. Children in western societies learn their "colour names" much earlier than they used to, because there is so much colour around.

I remember fawn, and grey, and camel, and navy blue. Even the reds weren't very red (Meccano?). Oh and white. Pre-polyester, linens where white. ish.

[Nialler]

A lot of that must come from the simple fact that so many recorded memories were in black and white. The greater part of my family's photos are in B&W. It sort of informs your on memories of those times, laking it difficult to fill in the colours.

[hecaterin]

New chemical dyes have much to do with this. The bright colours that people inadvisably wore in the 80s simply didn't exist in the 50s.

[DMB]

Well of course during the years immediately after the war there was bomb damage everywhere, food-rationing was savage, clothes were rationed and the country was bankrupt. It was a difficult time.

I particularly remember the winter of 1946/47 when we had terrible snow, and coal (also rationed) was almost unobtainable. The miserable food rations didn't help to keep people warm. It was my job as a small child to go out and collect firewood.

One day our cat caught a rabbit. He used to bring them home alive and get my father to kill and skin them. (He wasn't too keen on the skin.) We were so hungry that my father decided to keep back one leg of the rabbit for us, thinking that the cat wouldn't notice. The bugger did notice and made a hell of a fuss until the leg was returned to him.