It is fortunate for me, that the era I choose to write about is well-covered by some wonderful documentary films, as the genre was really taking off between the wars. Many of these films have been remastered and released on DVD by the British Film Institute, in boxed sets accompanied by substantial booklets full of valuable information. The photo shows just some of those I have bought - I'm a sucker for a booklet.
For most of the period between the wars, the General Post Office (GPO) was by far the largest employer in Britain. Besides sorting and delivering letters and parcels, it regulated the BBC, rolled out the expanding telephone network and sponsored a great deal of scientific and technological research. So naturally, it had a hand in film production as well.
The GPO Film Unit, under Scottish film maker John Grierson and later his successor, the Brazilian Alberto Cavalcanti, helped pioneer the documentary. Grierson may not have invented the genre, but he is credited with coining the word. The unit produced a series of short films designed to inform the public, rather than feed it propaganda, and which employed for words and music, such talents as J B Priestly, Benjamin Britten and W H Auden.
Besides the messages, many of the films are enjoyable for artistic reasons. Real thought was put into finding innovative approaches to conveying information. They have the look and feel of an exciting time - the clothes, the vehicles, the telephones, the trappings of many industries and professions. In several, members of the public are interviewed, which helps give an idea of the language and accents of the day, even though they knew they were being recorded and so tended to mind their p’s and q’s.
The GPO Film Unit’s legacy includes Harry Watt and Basil Wright’s iconic Night Mail(1936) with words by Auden and music by Britten - the British band Public Service Broadcasting based a song around it on their 2013 album Inform-Educate-Entertain. Also iconic, Humphrey Jennings’ London Can Take It (1940) was narrated by Collier’s Weekly correspondent Quentin Reynolds, propaganda for distribution by Warner Brothers throughout the United States. Public Service Broadcasting based a song on that too.
For my writing, some of the films I’ve found most useful are:
Housing Problems (1935) which shows what living conditions were like for many families in the East End and graphically exposes the lie that the poor conditions were in some way their fault. One can see why the deck access blocks that some turn their noses up at today, were once the stuff of dreams for many. The planners model for Quarry Road estate in Leeds, offered as an ideal solution, with hindsight shows that those dreams could turn out to be nightmares. Some Stepney residents are interviewed, detailing their grievances and exposing their living conditions to the camera. Their delivery may seem stilted, but they are commendably restrained, and they get their message across in a dignified manner that lacks the mawkish appeal to the emotions which seems to be encouraged by television journalists today.
Today We Live (1937) and Eastern Valley (1937), for the sake of authenticity, use real people from South Wales and Gloucestershire to re-enact scenes from their lives. They mostly can’t act of course, but they get the message over effectively about some of the, dare I say, socialist schemes that the unemployed were encouraged to adopt - note ‘encouraged’ not forced. Each film is complimented by some very stirring Welsh singing too. (I have no links for these I'm afraid).
I haven’t written anything set in wartime yet, but just as the Great War cast a shadow over the 1920s, by the 1930s the next war loomed large. If War Should Come (1939) was meant to prepare the public for a conflict, but at the same time reassure them that all was in hand. Much of the noise you’d hear in an Anderson shelter, it claims, would be the sound of our own guns ‘dealing with’ the enemy. It doesn’t take much imagination to appreciate how terrifying it must have been and with hindsight we know what was coming to them.
Five Towns (1947) is a post war documentary I'd like to mention even though it has so far had no bearing on what I write. It deals with The Potteries and shows what the landscape of the Stoke-on-Trent area looked like when there were many more bottle kilns fired than there are today and smoke was considered a feature of the area. My brother and his family live in the area today - although not technically in 'the five towns' (six really). My father used to be an amateur potter - I was forever being sent to adjust the temperature of his kilns or to switch them on or off. In the film, watching a man forge a pot on the potters' wheel was quite evocative for me. The only drawback of the documentary is that it doesn't once mention a saggar maker's bottom knocker, which has to be my favourite job title.

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