0:00:02 > 0:00:04GENTLE PIANO MUSIC
0:00:04 > 0:00:07While children dance...
0:00:08 > 0:00:10..tanks roll down the street.
0:00:13 > 0:00:16A mother spring-cleans in the slums.
0:00:20 > 0:00:22Fishermen cast their nets.
0:00:24 > 0:00:26In the 1930s and 40s,
0:00:26 > 0:00:29a small group of British artists and film-makers
0:00:29 > 0:00:32were inspired by an extraordinary vision.
0:00:34 > 0:00:36They believed they could change the country
0:00:36 > 0:00:39with films about real life.
0:00:39 > 0:00:44To fund their radical cinema, they made an unlikely alliance
0:00:44 > 0:00:47with the government and big business.
0:00:47 > 0:00:51This programme tells the story of that prolific relationship...
0:00:53 > 0:00:56..and reveals how the British documentary was born.
0:01:02 > 0:01:05WIND ROARS SOFTLY
0:01:09 > 0:01:13WIND ROARS, STATIC ON SOUNDTRACK
0:01:16 > 0:01:19AIRCRAFT ENGINES ROARING
0:01:25 > 0:01:29Made in 1941, Listen To Britain is acknowledged
0:01:29 > 0:01:32as an early masterpiece of the British documentary industry.
0:01:40 > 0:01:44Very simply made, without voiceover telling you what to think,
0:01:44 > 0:01:47it presents itself as authentic truth.
0:01:47 > 0:01:50DANCE-HALL MUSIC
0:02:03 > 0:02:06But Listen To Britain was a government propaganda film.
0:02:06 > 0:02:10Its intent was to encourage the country to stick together
0:02:10 > 0:02:13for the fight.
0:02:13 > 0:02:15Somehow this remarkable film
0:02:15 > 0:02:19defies a seemingly unsolvable paradox.
0:02:19 > 0:02:22It's both beguiling wartime propaganda
0:02:22 > 0:02:25and an honestly made documentary.
0:02:33 > 0:02:36Listen To Britain is one of the works
0:02:36 > 0:02:39of the British Documentary Movement.
0:02:39 > 0:02:43They were a small band of young men and women filmmakers
0:02:43 > 0:02:47who worked in the years just before and then during the Second World War.
0:02:48 > 0:02:52They were full of contradictions, as one wit among them admitted.
0:02:52 > 0:02:57A documentary director must be a gentleman,
0:02:57 > 0:02:59a socialist...
0:03:00 > 0:03:03..have a university education...
0:03:05 > 0:03:07..a private income...
0:03:08 > 0:03:11..his own car...
0:03:12 > 0:03:14..a nasal voice,
0:03:14 > 0:03:18and have made some sort of film.
0:03:18 > 0:03:23A well developed nasal voice has been known to excuse the other requirements.
0:03:24 > 0:03:27Except being a gentleman and a socialist, of course.
0:03:28 > 0:03:31But perhaps the contradictions within the Documentary Movement
0:03:31 > 0:03:34made them ideally suited to the challenge they faced
0:03:34 > 0:03:37during the Second World War.
0:03:39 > 0:03:42MALE-VOICE CHOIR SINGING "MEN OF HARLECH"
0:03:44 > 0:03:48As the bombs rained down and the young men marched off to fight,
0:03:48 > 0:03:52the documentarists kept their focus on the life of ordinary people.
0:03:54 > 0:03:57But these films also carry a message.
0:03:57 > 0:03:59They lift hearts.
0:04:06 > 0:04:07THEY CHATTER
0:04:12 > 0:04:15This was an art it had taken them years to learn.
0:04:15 > 0:04:20For the documentary, the war was the end of a long, hard journey
0:04:20 > 0:04:23which began almost 20 years earlier.
0:04:25 > 0:04:28WIND WHISPERS
0:04:37 > 0:04:40The founding father of the British Documentary Movement
0:04:40 > 0:04:43was a young Scot called John Grierson.
0:04:44 > 0:04:48He was a former political activist and street preacher
0:04:48 > 0:04:51who wanted to use films to change Britain for the better.
0:04:52 > 0:04:55I want to use the cinema as a pulpit.
0:04:57 > 0:05:00In 1927, Grierson approached the government
0:05:00 > 0:05:03seeking funds for one of his film sermons.
0:05:08 > 0:05:11The civil servant who took this meeting, Stephen Tallents,
0:05:11 > 0:05:14later told a BBC television reporter about it.
0:05:14 > 0:05:16One morning in February 1927,
0:05:16 > 0:05:21a young Scotsman named John Grierson came into my office.
0:05:21 > 0:05:24I took to him at first sight. He poured out his ideas
0:05:24 > 0:05:28with so much enthusiasm and so much conviction.
0:05:31 > 0:05:34Today, all that remains of the West London office block
0:05:34 > 0:05:37where Grierson met Tallents is Queen's Tower.
0:05:40 > 0:05:43This once rose above the vast headquarters
0:05:43 > 0:05:45of the Empire Marketing Board.
0:05:45 > 0:05:49Known as the EMB, it had been created by the Tory government
0:05:49 > 0:05:52to manage public relations for the British Empire.
0:05:54 > 0:05:58The EMB's mission was to do more than sell Jamaican bananas
0:05:58 > 0:06:01or Indian tea.
0:06:01 > 0:06:04Tallents told Grierson the government had asked him
0:06:04 > 0:06:07"to bring the empire alive".
0:06:08 > 0:06:11Grierson replied that a documentary about everyday life
0:06:11 > 0:06:14within the empire would do precisely that.
0:06:17 > 0:06:19By the end of this meeting, John Grierson,
0:06:19 > 0:06:23the former street preacher, had a strategically vital ally
0:06:23 > 0:06:25deep inside the British Civil Service.
0:06:27 > 0:06:30Through the Empire Marketing Board,
0:06:30 > 0:06:34Stephen Tallents could apply to the government for the funds to make a documentary.
0:06:43 > 0:06:4680 years ago, about a thousand boats landed herring
0:06:46 > 0:06:49at the Great Yarmouth quayside.
0:06:49 > 0:06:52This was where the empire got its breakfast kippers from.
0:06:54 > 0:06:58Tallents believed a film about this profitable British export industry
0:06:58 > 0:07:01was sure to appeal to the money men at the Treasury.
0:07:04 > 0:07:07Also he knew that the man who would green-light the film,
0:07:07 > 0:07:10financial secretary of the Treasury, was a herring nut
0:07:10 > 0:07:15who'd been writing a book about the role of herring in British history.
0:07:15 > 0:07:18In 1928, the Treasury assigned Tallents the money
0:07:18 > 0:07:21to commission Grierson to make a documentary.
0:07:21 > 0:07:24SEAGULLS CRY
0:07:29 > 0:07:32A year later, Grierson delivered Drifters,
0:07:32 > 0:07:37a feature-length silent documentary about the herring fishing business.
0:07:40 > 0:07:43It shows real people in their everyday lives.
0:07:47 > 0:07:51Unlike other films of the 1920s, there is no handsome hero,
0:07:51 > 0:07:54no love story, and no thrilling plot.
0:07:55 > 0:07:58Throughout its 80 long minutes,
0:07:58 > 0:08:00nothing out of the ordinary happens.
0:08:01 > 0:08:06For impact, Grierson just filmed real fishermen on real boats,
0:08:06 > 0:08:09at one point lashing his camera to the wheelhouse roof
0:08:09 > 0:08:12to film the boat's prow crashing into the surf.
0:08:16 > 0:08:18CINEMA ORGAN MUSIC
0:08:20 > 0:08:23The government put Drifters on general release.
0:08:24 > 0:08:27In an age where the cinema never showed reality,
0:08:27 > 0:08:29it was a sensation.
0:08:29 > 0:08:32INSPIRING ORGAN MUSIC
0:08:35 > 0:08:37One critic described the film as...
0:08:37 > 0:08:42..a masterpiece of simple sincerity and sterling humanity.
0:08:46 > 0:08:50Drifters was a PR coup for an important British export industry.
0:08:51 > 0:08:56It's now regarded as the first film of the British Documentary Movement.
0:09:04 > 0:09:06Following the success of Drifters,
0:09:06 > 0:09:10in 1930 the Empire Marketing Board was given a new sub-department,
0:09:10 > 0:09:12number 45.
0:09:13 > 0:09:15It was called the EMB Film Unit.
0:09:15 > 0:09:19Its brief from the government was to produce more documentaries
0:09:19 > 0:09:22about the dynamic industries of Britain and her empire.
0:09:22 > 0:09:25John Grierson became a civil servant.
0:09:25 > 0:09:28He was now the boss of his own government sub-department,
0:09:28 > 0:09:31and he set about building a documentary film industry here.
0:09:31 > 0:09:34He put an ad on the front page of the Times newspaper.
0:09:46 > 0:09:48During 1931,
0:09:48 > 0:09:52the EMB Film Unit filled up with would-be documentarists.
0:09:52 > 0:09:54They were all young and keen,
0:09:54 > 0:09:56and knew next to nothing about film.
0:09:58 > 0:10:01Basil Wright had made a couple of self-financed shorts,
0:10:01 > 0:10:04and wanted to work on a larger canvas.
0:10:04 > 0:10:08Edgar Anstey was a scientist looking for a creative outlet.
0:10:08 > 0:10:11Arthur Elton was an heir to a baronet,
0:10:11 > 0:10:14and had his own butler.
0:10:14 > 0:10:16Women also joined,
0:10:16 > 0:10:19such as Grierson's schoolteacher sister Ruby.
0:10:19 > 0:10:23Stuart Legg had just left Cambridge University
0:10:23 > 0:10:25when he sat at Grierson's knee.
0:10:26 > 0:10:29Grierson presided over a school.
0:10:29 > 0:10:32He was doing something new. We all were.
0:10:32 > 0:10:35We were a school,
0:10:35 > 0:10:37a body of men.
0:10:37 > 0:10:39By the end of 1931,
0:10:39 > 0:10:42in a sub-department of the Empire Marketing Board
0:10:42 > 0:10:46was assembled the founding members of the British Documentary Movement,
0:10:46 > 0:10:48although they didn't know it yet.
0:10:53 > 0:10:55Only in his early 30s himself,
0:10:55 > 0:10:58Grierson was about ten years older than his recruits,
0:10:58 > 0:11:01who looked up to him like disciples to a prophet.
0:11:03 > 0:11:05They talked about his natural charisma,
0:11:05 > 0:11:08his mesmeric eyes.
0:11:08 > 0:11:11Grierson told the would-be directors not to regard the film unit
0:11:11 > 0:11:14as a factory for churning out documentaries about the empire,
0:11:14 > 0:11:18nor were they to waste taxpayers' money
0:11:18 > 0:11:21experimenting in a new cinema aesthetic.
0:11:21 > 0:11:25Stuart Legg had one very odd conversation with Grierson.
0:11:25 > 0:11:28Legg, are you interested in films?
0:11:28 > 0:11:29Yes.
0:11:29 > 0:11:32Well, forget about that, because that's not the point!
0:11:32 > 0:11:36Grierson told recruits to the film unit
0:11:36 > 0:11:39they'd been specially chosen to develop a form of the documentary
0:11:39 > 0:11:41that would change the world...
0:11:43 > 0:11:45..as one of them, Edgar Anstey, later recalled.
0:11:47 > 0:11:49Grierson tended to choose people...
0:11:51 > 0:11:55..who had a social awareness,
0:11:55 > 0:11:59er, and who wanted to do something
0:11:59 > 0:12:03about helping build our society.
0:12:03 > 0:12:05He saw the documentary film
0:12:05 > 0:12:08as an instrument
0:12:08 > 0:12:13for the analysis and further development of society.
0:12:16 > 0:12:20This pub in London's West End was the film unit's favourite local.
0:12:20 > 0:12:23Attendance here was almost compulsory.
0:12:24 > 0:12:28Over beers and whiskies, the former street preacher explained in detail
0:12:28 > 0:12:31the social purpose that inspired him.
0:12:31 > 0:12:35Grierson believed the documentary would help unify the country.
0:12:38 > 0:12:42He was concerned that Britain had taken a wrong turn.
0:12:42 > 0:12:45It was divided between rich and poor,
0:12:45 > 0:12:48and the working class were held in contempt
0:12:48 > 0:12:51by all other social classes.
0:12:53 > 0:12:56Documentaries would build respect between the classes
0:12:56 > 0:13:00by revealing how much different people relied on each other,
0:13:00 > 0:13:04especially on the hard labour of the working class.
0:13:05 > 0:13:09Documentary outlines the patterns of interdependency
0:13:09 > 0:13:12more distinctively than any other medium whatsoever.
0:13:15 > 0:13:18Grierson believed that Britain genuinely was interdependent,
0:13:18 > 0:13:20and people needed to be made aware of it.
0:13:20 > 0:13:24THEY SHOUT AND LAUGH
0:13:24 > 0:13:27He told his disciples that, to achieve this social purpose,
0:13:27 > 0:13:30all a documentary had to do was reveal the truth
0:13:30 > 0:13:32about British life.
0:13:36 > 0:13:39The high ideals that motivated the Documentary Movement
0:13:39 > 0:13:42were of little interest to government.
0:13:42 > 0:13:45Britain was in the grip of the Great Depression
0:13:45 > 0:13:47at the start of the 1930s.
0:13:47 > 0:13:50Following a worldwide stock-market crash,
0:13:50 > 0:13:54British exports had fallen by half. Factories were closing.
0:13:54 > 0:13:58The government's first major direction to the film unit
0:13:58 > 0:14:00was to produce a PR film
0:14:00 > 0:14:03celebrating the glories of British industry.
0:14:05 > 0:14:07INSPIRING MUSIC
0:14:12 > 0:14:14Industrial Britain, made in 1931,
0:14:14 > 0:14:17was a crucial breakthrough for the Movement.
0:14:17 > 0:14:20It pioneered a form of the documentary
0:14:20 > 0:14:23that eloquently served their social purpose.
0:14:25 > 0:14:29It finds an epic beauty in the smoke of industry.
0:14:33 > 0:14:36These images are set to stirring music.
0:14:38 > 0:14:41And, a documentary first,
0:14:41 > 0:14:44there is voiceover commentary...
0:14:44 > 0:14:48Black countries of belching furnaces and humming machinery...
0:14:48 > 0:14:52..well spoken by an actor with appropriate gravitas.
0:14:52 > 0:14:55Ask anybody in the glass industry,
0:14:55 > 0:14:58and they will tell you, "This is Bill Forsyth,
0:14:58 > 0:15:01the man who fills the glory hole up in Smethwick."
0:15:01 > 0:15:05He works a trade as old as the Pyramids.
0:15:05 > 0:15:07STIRRING MUSIC
0:15:11 > 0:15:13Their methods have not changed much either.
0:15:13 > 0:15:16The Movement's message is unmistakeable
0:15:16 > 0:15:18in Industrial Britain.
0:15:18 > 0:15:22It turns ordinary working men into screen heroes.
0:15:23 > 0:15:27Sam Hustleby is called a chairman in the glass world.
0:15:27 > 0:15:29He is the senior craftsman.
0:15:29 > 0:15:33His three helpers are called the servitor, the foot-blower
0:15:33 > 0:15:36and the taker-in, and great dignity is still attached
0:15:36 > 0:15:39to each degree of seniority.
0:15:39 > 0:15:41Harry Watt joined the EMB Film Unit
0:15:41 > 0:15:44soon after they completed Industrial Britain.
0:15:44 > 0:15:47We were putting the British working man,
0:15:47 > 0:15:49the backbone of the country, onto the screen.
0:15:49 > 0:15:54Before that, he was the comic relief in these ghastly British films.
0:15:54 > 0:15:56You see? Ghastly films!
0:15:56 > 0:15:58They always started with the butler and the maid,
0:15:58 > 0:16:02and then the funny gardener or a funny taxi driver.
0:16:02 > 0:16:05We knocked all that down.
0:16:05 > 0:16:08Although only 20 minutes long,
0:16:08 > 0:16:11Industrial Britain was picked up by distributors,
0:16:11 > 0:16:14who then showed films in packages and multiple bills.
0:16:14 > 0:16:16It was given a nationwide release,
0:16:16 > 0:16:19so British cinema audiences could now see
0:16:19 > 0:16:23how the country relied on the hard labour of the working class.
0:16:23 > 0:16:25One review said it was...
0:16:25 > 0:16:28..beautiful, and certainly expressive.
0:16:28 > 0:16:31It's only spoilt by the voiceover commentary.
0:16:34 > 0:16:37The government also had reason to be pleased.
0:16:37 > 0:16:39Its message was getting out too,
0:16:39 > 0:16:43promoting the business of Great Britain plc.
0:16:46 > 0:16:49In the years following Industrial Britain,
0:16:49 > 0:16:51the economic crisis deepened.
0:16:51 > 0:16:55Unemployment reached 30 percent in some parts of the country.
0:16:55 > 0:16:57There were wage cuts and strikes.
0:16:58 > 0:17:02The government wanted its film unit to make more documentaries
0:17:02 > 0:17:05publicising the glories of British industry -
0:17:05 > 0:17:08but there could be no reference to the economic crisis.
0:17:09 > 0:17:14Grierson didn't want to talk about unemployment and strikes anyway.
0:17:15 > 0:17:17His command to his directors was...
0:17:17 > 0:17:20Don't accentuate the negative.
0:17:20 > 0:17:22Grierson told his disciples
0:17:22 > 0:17:26the Documentary Movement would help the country get back on its feet
0:17:26 > 0:17:29by presenting Britons as involved in a great communal effort
0:17:29 > 0:17:32of industry.
0:17:33 > 0:17:36The uplifting films the government wanted from the film unit
0:17:36 > 0:17:40were just what the Documentary Movement was eager to make.
0:17:46 > 0:17:48Between 1931 and '33,
0:17:48 > 0:17:52the Empire Marketing Board Film Unit made over a hundred films.
0:17:52 > 0:17:56Nearly all were produced by the energetic Grierson.
0:17:56 > 0:17:58They were directed by his disciples...
0:17:59 > 0:18:03..like Basil Wright. He later spoke about working for Grierson.
0:18:03 > 0:18:06I suppose everybody has their own recollections
0:18:06 > 0:18:08of working with him, or for him.
0:18:08 > 0:18:13He was a very, very hard taskmaster, there's no question of that,
0:18:13 > 0:18:16and one had to get used to doing without sleep
0:18:16 > 0:18:18and other unnecessary things.
0:18:21 > 0:18:25The documentarists created many new working-class heroes.
0:18:25 > 0:18:28Potters,
0:18:28 > 0:18:31shepherds...
0:18:31 > 0:18:35and fishermen were all brought to the screen,
0:18:35 > 0:18:38and with their consistently optimistic outlook,
0:18:38 > 0:18:41these documentaries were more good publicity
0:18:41 > 0:18:43for the EMB and the British government.
0:18:50 > 0:18:54But in September 1933, it suddenly ended.
0:18:54 > 0:18:57The government introduced massive cuts,
0:18:57 > 0:19:00and the Empire Marketing Board, in which the film unit was based,
0:19:00 > 0:19:02was closed down.
0:19:02 > 0:19:05At the height of its work for the Commonwealth,
0:19:05 > 0:19:08the EMB was - well, butchered.
0:19:08 > 0:19:11The documentarists had done nothing wrong.
0:19:12 > 0:19:15But with the entire Empire Marketing Board gone,
0:19:15 > 0:19:17the film unit was doomed too.
0:19:25 > 0:19:29The unlikely saviour of the Movement was a Conservative politician.
0:19:29 > 0:19:33Sir Kingsley Wood sat in the Cabinet as Postmaster General.
0:19:37 > 0:19:41His brief was to manage all the mail, phone and telecommunications in Britain,
0:19:41 > 0:19:45which the government had bundled up into a single nationalised company,
0:19:45 > 0:19:48the General Post Office, or GPO.
0:19:49 > 0:19:53Wood snapped up the now homeless film unit.
0:19:53 > 0:19:58He set them to work on films promoting the activities of his government department...
0:20:00 > 0:20:03..like encouraging people to buy telephones...
0:20:04 > 0:20:07These thieves have been apprehended
0:20:07 > 0:20:12by the judicious use of the Post Office telephone!
0:20:12 > 0:20:15One of these.
0:20:19 > 0:20:23..or celebrating a new stamp design.
0:20:23 > 0:20:27You see that your design will have to be six times the size
0:20:27 > 0:20:29of the finished stamp each way.
0:20:29 > 0:20:31Thank you.
0:20:32 > 0:20:36Are there any particular conditions in the designing of the stamp?
0:20:36 > 0:20:39Yes. You must keep to the head of the king
0:20:39 > 0:20:41which appears on present stamps.
0:20:41 > 0:20:43- Otherwise I have a free hand? - Absolutely.
0:20:45 > 0:20:48The GPO Film Unit was given its own offices,
0:20:48 > 0:20:51here at 21 Soho Square.
0:20:52 > 0:20:56In their smart new headquarters, Grierson reminded his disciples
0:20:56 > 0:21:00of the social purpose that had first inspired the documentary.
0:21:00 > 0:21:04It remained fundamental, even though they were now making films
0:21:04 > 0:21:06for the Post Office.
0:21:08 > 0:21:11Can we imagine a world without letters?
0:21:11 > 0:21:15Does anyone appreciate the postman? We take him for granted,
0:21:15 > 0:21:19like the milkman, the engine driver, coalminer, the lot of them.
0:21:19 > 0:21:24We must acknowledge them, and pay respect and gratitude to one another.
0:21:24 > 0:21:28This is what documentary is all about.
0:21:28 > 0:21:31Like a parasite,
0:21:31 > 0:21:35the Movement was burrowing its way inside a new government department.
0:21:44 > 0:21:50In 1935, the GPO gave the film unit its first significant commission.
0:21:51 > 0:21:53It would be a celebration of the postal special
0:21:53 > 0:21:56that delivered mail along the railway line
0:21:56 > 0:21:58between London and Glasgow.
0:21:58 > 0:22:01TRAIN WHISTLE BLARES
0:22:04 > 0:22:06The film was called Night Mail.
0:22:06 > 0:22:10Released in 1936, it's a landmark in the history of the documentary.
0:22:11 > 0:22:14This is the Night Mail crossing the border,
0:22:14 > 0:22:16Bringing the cheque and the postal order,
0:22:16 > 0:22:18Letters for the rich, letters for the poor,
0:22:18 > 0:22:20The shop at the corner and the girl next door.
0:22:20 > 0:22:23Pulling up Beattock, a steady climb,
0:22:23 > 0:22:25The gradient's against her but she's on time.
0:22:28 > 0:22:31Night Mail's splendid soundtrack, which still enthrals today,
0:22:31 > 0:22:35was mostly the work of two recent recruits
0:22:35 > 0:22:37to the GPO Film Unit.
0:22:39 > 0:22:42The poem was written by a scruffy assistant director
0:22:42 > 0:22:45called WH Auden,
0:22:45 > 0:22:48and set to music by the film unit's in-house composer,
0:22:48 > 0:22:50Benjamin Britten.
0:22:50 > 0:22:56These two titans of 20th-century art left the GPO soon after Night Mail,
0:22:56 > 0:22:58but thanks to their contribution,
0:22:58 > 0:23:01it's now one of the best-known works of the film unit.
0:23:03 > 0:23:05Past cotton-grass and moorland boulder
0:23:05 > 0:23:07Shovelling white steam over her shoulder,
0:23:07 > 0:23:09Snorting noisily as she passes
0:23:09 > 0:23:11Silent miles of wind-bent grasses.
0:23:11 > 0:23:14Birds turn their heads as she approaches,
0:23:14 > 0:23:16Stare from the bushes at her blank-faced coaches.
0:23:16 > 0:23:18Sheepdogs cannot turn her course,
0:23:18 > 0:23:21They slumber on with paws across.
0:23:21 > 0:23:23In the farm she passes no-one wakes,
0:23:23 > 0:23:25But a jug in the bedroom gently shakes.
0:23:25 > 0:23:27DRAMATIC MUSIC
0:23:34 > 0:23:36Night Mail also throbs with the social purpose
0:23:36 > 0:23:39of the Movement.
0:23:39 > 0:23:43The railways were the information superhighways of Britain in the '30s.
0:23:44 > 0:23:48In Night Mail, the documentarists portrayed the hardworking posties
0:23:48 > 0:23:52as the men who operated Britain's high-tech communications network.
0:23:57 > 0:24:00It was directed by Harry Watt.
0:24:00 > 0:24:03He was an ambitious young filmmaker.
0:24:03 > 0:24:05- Is this the mail train, mate? - It is, yes.
0:24:05 > 0:24:11In 1983, the BBC invited Watt and cameraman Chick Fowle
0:24:11 > 0:24:13on a train journey along the route north.
0:24:13 > 0:24:16THEY LAUGH
0:24:16 > 0:24:18WHISTLE BLOWS
0:24:23 > 0:24:26You must remember, in the GPO Film Unit, that, you know,
0:24:26 > 0:24:29we weren't long-haired people going around
0:24:29 > 0:24:33saying, "Oh, I think I might make a film about something."
0:24:33 > 0:24:36We were taken into Grierson's office and stood at attention,
0:24:36 > 0:24:39and he called you Watt. He didn't call you Harry.
0:24:39 > 0:24:42"Watt, you're going to make a film about a train."
0:24:42 > 0:24:47- And you said, "Yes, Mr Grierson." Isn't that right?- Exactly right.
0:24:49 > 0:24:51- All right now?- No, no.
0:24:51 > 0:24:54You want two bridges and 45 beats.
0:24:54 > 0:24:57Night Mail has a gripping sense of being there
0:24:57 > 0:25:00as the action takes place on the postal special.
0:25:00 > 0:25:02One...
0:25:03 > 0:25:05One, two...
0:25:05 > 0:25:08HE COUNTS SILENTLY TO BEAT OF TRAIN ENGINE
0:25:15 > 0:25:19Night Mail's realism was an extraordinary achievement.
0:25:19 > 0:25:22In the 1930s, to film a scene like this
0:25:22 > 0:25:27aboard a fast-moving train required ingenuity and nerve.
0:25:29 > 0:25:32- TRAIN WHISTLE BLARES - Like that!
0:25:32 > 0:25:34OK.
0:25:34 > 0:25:39- Yeah.- I held your legs, and I was more frightened than you were!
0:25:39 > 0:25:42- I was not scared at all. - You weren't scared?- No.
0:25:42 > 0:25:45- Because you were doing a job. - That's right.
0:25:45 > 0:25:48Yes. But you were right out to your waist.
0:25:50 > 0:25:52Stick the camera up now.
0:25:57 > 0:25:59Now!
0:25:59 > 0:26:03If that part came through, I was lost.
0:26:03 > 0:26:06That was the end of that.
0:26:08 > 0:26:11Watt threw everything at Night Mail,
0:26:11 > 0:26:15but this film is not always quite what it seems.
0:26:15 > 0:26:17For months before shooting began,
0:26:17 > 0:26:20one of Watt's colleagues, Basil Wright,
0:26:20 > 0:26:23had travelled up and down on the postal special
0:26:23 > 0:26:26making detailed notes, as he later explained.
0:26:26 > 0:26:30I don't know how many times I went up and down on that train.
0:26:31 > 0:26:33It became my second home.
0:26:33 > 0:26:37From the scraps of dialogue that he'd noted down,
0:26:37 > 0:26:39Wright wrote a script.
0:26:39 > 0:26:41The whole object of the operation
0:26:41 > 0:26:45was that I should, er, be there
0:26:45 > 0:26:47and make sure that, er,
0:26:47 > 0:26:50anything which was said
0:26:50 > 0:26:54by the workers on the travelling post office,
0:26:54 > 0:26:57er, was accurate,
0:26:57 > 0:27:00and wasn't messed about with.
0:27:02 > 0:27:04The central scene of Night Mail,
0:27:04 > 0:27:07inside the travelling sorting office, was entirely scripted.
0:27:07 > 0:27:12- Bill, first division coming over. - And again, Bill.- Second division!
0:27:12 > 0:27:14It wasn't even shot on board the train,
0:27:14 > 0:27:17but in a studio in South London...
0:27:19 > 0:27:23..where there was room to park the GPO's sound-recording apparatus,
0:27:23 > 0:27:26which filled a large truck.
0:27:26 > 0:27:28Inside the studio was a set that replicated
0:27:28 > 0:27:31the interior of the postal special.
0:27:31 > 0:27:35This is exactly the same floor, the real old floor,
0:27:35 > 0:27:38that we built our sets on. It's quite extraordinary.
0:27:38 > 0:27:41You can see the marks, the holes in the floor,
0:27:41 > 0:27:43where the sets were built.
0:27:44 > 0:27:47The sorting-office set was staffed with real posties.
0:27:47 > 0:27:51They performed the script written from their own words.
0:27:51 > 0:27:53- Anybody know Dalgarret?- What?
0:27:53 > 0:27:55- Dalgarret.- Not on this division.
0:27:55 > 0:27:58Thanks to their inventiveness, the GPO film unit
0:27:58 > 0:28:01had taken the documentary into rich new territory.
0:28:01 > 0:28:05Up till now, ordinary life had only been seen.
0:28:05 > 0:28:07Now it could be heard too.
0:28:07 > 0:28:10- Well, what's the trouble? - Badly addressed.
0:28:11 > 0:28:15- Dalgarret? It's in the files. - Thanks.
0:28:17 > 0:28:21Night Mail was put on general release in 1936.
0:28:21 > 0:28:23One critic called it...
0:28:23 > 0:28:27..more exciting than any confected drama.
0:28:28 > 0:28:31It was shown in over 600 cinemas across Britain.
0:28:31 > 0:28:35This was excellent PR for the GPO.
0:28:36 > 0:28:38But the documentarists had the last word.
0:28:38 > 0:28:41The film ends with a powerful reminder
0:28:41 > 0:28:44of the critical role of the postman in British lives.
0:28:45 > 0:28:48It was written by Auden, and voiced by Grierson himself.
0:28:52 > 0:28:56Asleep in working Glasgow, asleep in well-set Edinburgh,
0:28:56 > 0:28:59Asleep in granite Aberdeen,
0:28:59 > 0:29:00they continue their dreams
0:29:06 > 0:29:08but shall wake soon and long for letters.
0:29:08 > 0:29:11And none will hear the postman's knock
0:29:11 > 0:29:13without a quickening of the heart.
0:29:13 > 0:29:16For who can bear to feel himself forgotten?
0:29:21 > 0:29:24After Night Mail, John Grierson was at the peak of his powers
0:29:24 > 0:29:27as leader of the documentary movement.
0:29:27 > 0:29:31But some of his behaviour was considered inappropriate
0:29:31 > 0:29:32for a civil servant.
0:29:35 > 0:29:37It had come to the notice of the Government
0:29:37 > 0:29:40that Grierson had been hiring out the film unit
0:29:40 > 0:29:43to organisations outside the GPO.
0:29:45 > 0:29:49Such as the Ceylon Tea Propaganda Board, Shell and the BBC.
0:29:52 > 0:29:56There's no evidence Grierson used the film unit for personal profit.
0:29:56 > 0:30:00He regarded non-GPO documentaries as further opportunities
0:30:00 > 0:30:03to spread the message of the movement.
0:30:06 > 0:30:09ON FILM: 'The 7½ hour shift begins.
0:30:12 > 0:30:16'The miner works in a cramped position.
0:30:16 > 0:30:20'Often he has scarcely room to swing his pick.'
0:30:20 > 0:30:26Coalface of 1935 was a promotional film for the British coal industry.
0:30:26 > 0:30:28It reveals how the country's comforts
0:30:28 > 0:30:31relied on the backbreaking toil of miners.
0:30:31 > 0:30:34'He works along the seam, hewing out the coal.
0:30:37 > 0:30:42'His average output is 22 hundred weights per shift.'
0:30:44 > 0:30:48At meetings with senior civil servants,
0:30:48 > 0:30:53Grierson had his knuckles rapped for operating outside his remit.
0:30:53 > 0:30:59Grierson argued that his film unit earned extra income for the GPO.
0:30:59 > 0:31:02But he was politely informed that it was absolutely taboo
0:31:02 > 0:31:07for a Government department to hire itself out like a private company.
0:31:07 > 0:31:13In 1937, the slow wheels of the state finally rolled over Grierson.
0:31:13 > 0:31:17An influential civil servant wrote:
0:31:17 > 0:31:22"The Post Office unit has given an incredible amount of trouble."
0:31:23 > 0:31:30Grierson was moved away from his post as head of the GPO film unit.
0:31:30 > 0:31:33He promptly resigned from the civil service.
0:31:41 > 0:31:47The documentary movement barely missed a step with Grierson's resignation.
0:31:48 > 0:31:52Many of his disciples had already left the GPO film unit,
0:31:52 > 0:31:55and were now scattered across Soho in small production houses.
0:32:00 > 0:32:05They sold their services to various private companies.
0:32:12 > 0:32:15The Orient Shipping Company...
0:32:25 > 0:32:28..engineering giant Vickers Armstrong...
0:32:31 > 0:32:36..BP, and Shell... all commissioned documentaries
0:32:36 > 0:32:39from the former members of the GPO film unit.
0:32:43 > 0:32:46These documentaries were made outside the GPO,
0:32:46 > 0:32:48but inside the movement.
0:32:49 > 0:32:51The documentarists had been trained to celebrate
0:32:51 > 0:32:53the ordinary lives of working class people.
0:32:58 > 0:33:01The private sector provided them with new opportunities
0:33:01 > 0:33:03to spread this message.
0:33:04 > 0:33:07Grierson was no longer the documentarists' boss,
0:33:07 > 0:33:09but he was still their prophet.
0:33:09 > 0:33:12The disciples had become apostles.
0:33:15 > 0:33:21In 1935, a privately sponsored film made here in London's East End,
0:33:21 > 0:33:26led to a crucial advance in the documentary.
0:33:26 > 0:33:3080 years ago, this was one of the world's most miserable slums.
0:33:32 > 0:33:36The British Commercial Gas Association funded a documentary
0:33:36 > 0:33:41that would explain why the slums should all be knocked down.
0:33:41 > 0:33:45The gas company would do well out of the rebuilding programme.
0:33:45 > 0:33:48- ON FILM:- 'A great deal of thought from architects, engineers
0:33:48 > 0:33:50'and other experts, has gone into the design
0:33:50 > 0:33:52'of buildings for rehousing.
0:33:52 > 0:33:54'Here is a model of a block of flats
0:33:54 > 0:33:57'prepared by the British Steelwork Association.'
0:33:57 > 0:33:59Housing Problems is a bit like a corporate video.
0:33:59 > 0:34:02It doesn't hold back
0:34:02 > 0:34:05as it celebrates the achievements of its sponsor.
0:34:05 > 0:34:08'The gas industry has designed suitable appliances
0:34:08 > 0:34:11'for cheap cooking, and for room and water heating,
0:34:11 > 0:34:13'especially to meet the needs of slum clearance schemes.'
0:34:13 > 0:34:16But in the middle of Housing Problems,
0:34:16 > 0:34:18a new form of documentary bursts forth.
0:34:18 > 0:34:20The interview.
0:34:20 > 0:34:23Now I've got a nice little place of my own.
0:34:23 > 0:34:27Three bedrooms, a lovely scullery, a living room and a bathroom.
0:34:27 > 0:34:31The bathroom is the best of all, what we wanted.
0:34:33 > 0:34:38It was John Grierson's sister Ruby who pioneered the interview.
0:34:38 > 0:34:42She was the uncredited assistant producer on Housing Problems
0:34:42 > 0:34:44and she wrote to her brother saying...
0:34:44 > 0:34:47"I'm going to put up a camera and a microphone
0:34:47 > 0:34:49"and I'm going to ask them questions.
0:34:49 > 0:34:50"I'm going to tell them,
0:34:50 > 0:34:53" 'The camera is yours and the microphone is yours.' "
0:34:53 > 0:34:58Ruby Grierson was undaunted by the cumbersome equipment she needed.
0:34:58 > 0:35:02She planned to take a sound truck and a lighting crew
0:35:02 > 0:35:04deep into the slums.
0:35:04 > 0:35:08"I'm going down to the East End and I'm going to love it there,
0:35:08 > 0:35:10"and get to know the people well."
0:35:10 > 0:35:13It's rumoured that what Ruby Grierson
0:35:13 > 0:35:15said to the people she filmed was...
0:35:15 > 0:35:17Here's the camera and the microphone.
0:35:17 > 0:35:19Now it's your chance to tell the bastards
0:35:19 > 0:35:22what it's really like to live in a slum.
0:35:22 > 0:35:24It gets on your nerves, everything is filthy.
0:35:24 > 0:35:28Dirty, filthy walls and the vermin in the walls is wicked.
0:35:28 > 0:35:31So I'll tell you, we're fed up.
0:35:31 > 0:35:34In Housing Problems, people aren't just witnessed,
0:35:34 > 0:35:36they provide their own testimony.
0:35:36 > 0:35:38Thanks to the documentary movement,
0:35:38 > 0:35:42even those at the bottom of the pile now had a voice.
0:35:42 > 0:35:45I don't suppose people realise what it really is
0:35:45 > 0:35:49to be tied up in the one room and can't get anything any better.
0:35:49 > 0:35:52I'm only hoping the council will line their ideas up
0:35:52 > 0:35:55and get their minds made up to get the flats ready
0:35:55 > 0:35:58so that every working class man will have a hygienic flat to live in.
0:35:58 > 0:36:03In Housing Problems, slum dwellers, the lowest of the low,
0:36:03 > 0:36:05the dregs of society, speak.
0:36:05 > 0:36:08It turns out they're just like everyone else.
0:36:08 > 0:36:11Coming into these rooms, I've had no luck since I've been in them.
0:36:11 > 0:36:12First I lost one youngster in one,
0:36:12 > 0:36:15and then I lost another youngster in another one seven-weeks-old.
0:36:19 > 0:36:23Housing Problems shows how, outside the Government film unit,
0:36:23 > 0:36:26the movement continued to pursue their social purpose.
0:36:28 > 0:36:31In promotional films for private industry,
0:36:31 > 0:36:33they gave ordinary people a voice.
0:36:35 > 0:36:36I couldn't open the windows to let any air in.
0:36:36 > 0:36:39We like to open all the windows now and let the nice fresh air in
0:36:39 > 0:36:41in the morning for the children,
0:36:41 > 0:36:45and my children are ever so much healthier and better.
0:36:54 > 0:36:57You cad!
0:36:57 > 0:37:00Meanwhile, back at the GPO Film Unit,
0:37:00 > 0:37:02things were getting rather silly.
0:37:06 > 0:37:07Ha! I'll tell you.
0:37:10 > 0:37:12What?!
0:37:12 > 0:37:15The Glorious Sixth of June was put out in 1934
0:37:15 > 0:37:19to announce that the GPO charges were about to be reduced.
0:37:19 > 0:37:21You don't say!
0:37:21 > 0:37:25There seems little social purpose in this hokey cokey nonsense.
0:37:27 > 0:37:32But the film stars a key player in the future of the movement.
0:37:32 > 0:37:35The hero, the determined postie...
0:37:35 > 0:37:38I'll serve for the honour of the GPO.
0:37:38 > 0:37:41..Is played by the man who would go on to become
0:37:41 > 0:37:43the most influential documentary maker in Britain.
0:37:43 > 0:37:45Humphrey Jennings.
0:37:45 > 0:37:48- Give them to me!- Never.
0:37:53 > 0:37:56Humphrey Jennings was first and foremost an artist
0:37:56 > 0:38:01who had been introduced to the GPO Film Unit by his friend Stuart Legg.
0:38:01 > 0:38:05He was constantly searching for juxtapositions
0:38:05 > 0:38:07which would mean something.
0:38:07 > 0:38:10Very curious pictures, some of them.
0:38:10 > 0:38:13Obviously a great streak of his surrealist interest
0:38:13 > 0:38:15was there but a lot of his pictures have
0:38:15 > 0:38:20this sort of smack about them, of searching for juxtaposition.
0:38:24 > 0:38:25As well as being a painter,
0:38:25 > 0:38:29Jennings had been involved in mass observation.
0:38:29 > 0:38:33He had made a painstaking study of the everyday habits of British life.
0:38:36 > 0:38:41Jennings' observational experience, accompanied with his surrealist eye,
0:38:41 > 0:38:46would prove a potent mix when he began to direct documentaries.
0:38:47 > 0:38:54He'd reveal ordinary life as it had never been seen on film before.
0:38:58 > 0:39:02'The mills open at eight and close at five.
0:39:02 > 0:39:05'Saturday afternoons and Sundays off.'
0:39:09 > 0:39:13Humphrey Jennings directed Spare Time in 1939.
0:39:13 > 0:39:15It was commissioned by the Government,
0:39:15 > 0:39:19which wanted something light-hearted to be shown at the World's Fair.
0:39:19 > 0:39:20It's a film about the fun
0:39:20 > 0:39:23ordinary British people have on their days off.
0:39:27 > 0:39:31Jennings assembled a series of striking images to create
0:39:31 > 0:39:33a touching documentary portrait
0:39:33 > 0:39:37of ordinary life in Britain at the end of the 1930s.
0:40:04 > 0:40:08In Spare Time, Britain has an ambiguous beauty.
0:40:08 > 0:40:11It's an awkward country of small pleasures.
0:40:17 > 0:40:21This didn't go down well with the hard core of the movement.
0:40:21 > 0:40:24Some documentarists accused Jennings of...
0:40:24 > 0:40:27'A patronising, sometimes almost sneering attitude
0:40:27 > 0:40:30'towards the efforts of low-income groups.'
0:40:30 > 0:40:33- And...- 'Laughing at the plebs.'
0:40:34 > 0:40:37The movement became caught up in an argument
0:40:37 > 0:40:39about how to portray ordinary life.
0:40:41 > 0:40:43But in 1939,
0:40:43 > 0:40:47the future course of the documentary was out of their hands.
0:40:50 > 0:40:55'This morning, the British ambassador in Berlin
0:40:55 > 0:40:57'ended the German government...
0:40:57 > 0:41:01'That no such undertaking has been received,
0:41:01 > 0:41:06'and that consequently this country is at war with Germany.'
0:41:09 > 0:41:13The Second World War, which began in September 1939,
0:41:13 > 0:41:16started badly for the documentarists.
0:41:16 > 0:41:20Flogging phones and the postal service was no longer a priority
0:41:20 > 0:41:22for the British government.
0:41:23 > 0:41:26All the war effort required from film production
0:41:26 > 0:41:29was propaganda for the home front.
0:41:31 > 0:41:34The man in charge of commissioning propaganda films
0:41:34 > 0:41:36was Sir Joseph Ball.
0:41:36 > 0:41:38An extreme right-wing spy master,
0:41:38 > 0:41:42he was deeply suspicious of the lefties in documentaries.
0:41:42 > 0:41:45Ball refused to meet with anyone from the movement.
0:41:50 > 0:41:52For the first few months of the war,
0:41:52 > 0:41:55the GPO Film Unit did absolutely nothing.
0:41:58 > 0:42:01Basil Wright wrote to the newspapers.
0:42:01 > 0:42:05"When are we going to start?"
0:42:05 > 0:42:09Harry Watt was bursting with frustration.
0:42:09 > 0:42:14'We sat on our backsides, terribly anxious to work,
0:42:14 > 0:42:16'and did nothing at all.
0:42:16 > 0:42:18'We were given nothing to do.'
0:42:18 > 0:42:20I'm going mad.
0:42:20 > 0:42:27A highly-skilled, eager unit with lots of gear and lots of film.
0:42:27 > 0:42:29We'd stored up gear and film ready for the war
0:42:29 > 0:42:31because it was obviously coming.
0:42:33 > 0:42:36The GPO Film Unit reminded each other
0:42:36 > 0:42:40they could make the kind of films the country needed.
0:42:40 > 0:42:43The documentary movement's ultimate goal
0:42:43 > 0:42:46was to create a sense of unity in Britain.
0:42:46 > 0:42:50Up till now, this message had been hidden
0:42:50 > 0:42:54in promotional films for British industry or the postal service.
0:42:54 > 0:42:56With the country at war,
0:42:56 > 0:43:01it was time for their message of unity to become explicit.
0:43:01 > 0:43:04They decided to show the Government what they could do.
0:43:09 > 0:43:12With no official funding or support,
0:43:12 > 0:43:17the GPO Film Unit went out into the world with loaded cameras.
0:43:17 > 0:43:21They would demonstrate the power of documentary.
0:43:26 > 0:43:29ON FILM: 'London is calling.
0:43:29 > 0:43:31'London calling to the world.
0:43:31 > 0:43:34'The Monday morning workers left their tube trains
0:43:34 > 0:43:37'to face a new world where everything seemed strange.'
0:43:37 > 0:43:41First Days of 1939 is a remarkable snapshot of Britain
0:43:41 > 0:43:43as the country stands on the brink of apocalypse.
0:43:43 > 0:43:48'The shining facades of the West End put up barricades.'
0:43:48 > 0:43:51It's a vivid record of how this historic moment
0:43:51 > 0:43:53was playing out in the street.
0:43:53 > 0:43:55It's also uplifting.
0:43:55 > 0:43:57'Three-quarters of a million children
0:43:57 > 0:44:01'had been moving out of the London region during the weekend.'
0:44:01 > 0:44:04The documentarists had been trained to have an optimistic outlook.
0:44:04 > 0:44:08'For this was a city of children.
0:44:08 > 0:44:11'London has many monuments to the dead past,
0:44:11 > 0:44:14'but the real London is its young life, its future.'
0:44:15 > 0:44:18First Days celebrates Britons' stiff upper lips -
0:44:18 > 0:44:21their determination to keep on.
0:44:21 > 0:44:23It gives heart.
0:44:23 > 0:44:28'Back in the West End, life is flowing by in the old channel.'
0:44:28 > 0:44:32BIG BEN TOLLS
0:44:32 > 0:44:35As soon as it was complete, a copy of First Days
0:44:35 > 0:44:38was sent direct to the Houses of Parliament.
0:44:43 > 0:44:46So the Government could see for themselves how the documentarists
0:44:46 > 0:44:49would contribute to the war effort.
0:44:52 > 0:44:56In 1940, the film unit was moved out of the GPO
0:44:56 > 0:45:00and into a new government department - the Ministry of Information.
0:45:00 > 0:45:06The MOI had been established to control propaganda in wartime.
0:45:06 > 0:45:10It named its new film unit the Crown Film Unit
0:45:10 > 0:45:14and immediately set the documentarists to work.
0:45:17 > 0:45:19AMERICAN MALE: 'It is late afternoon
0:45:19 > 0:45:22'and the people of London are preparing for the night.
0:45:22 > 0:45:24'Everyone is anxious to get home
0:45:24 > 0:45:28'before darkness falls, before our nightly visitors arrive.'
0:45:30 > 0:45:33London Can Take It was made in 1940.
0:45:33 > 0:45:35Britain then stood alone.
0:45:35 > 0:45:37America was not yet in the war.
0:45:37 > 0:45:41The British Government commissioned a documentary
0:45:41 > 0:45:46about how the capital was bearing up under German bombing raids.
0:45:46 > 0:45:49It was hoped this might sway US public opinion
0:45:49 > 0:45:51towards an alliance with Britain.
0:45:51 > 0:45:53'Now they're going into the public shelters.
0:45:53 > 0:45:57'This isn't a pleasant way to spend the night but the people accept it
0:45:57 > 0:46:00'as their part in the defence of London.'
0:46:00 > 0:46:03Apart from the American drawl of the voiceover,
0:46:03 > 0:46:07London Can Take It is a classic work of the British documentary movement.
0:46:07 > 0:46:10'There's the wail of the banshee.' SIREN WAILS
0:46:10 > 0:46:14'A nightly siege of London has begun.
0:46:14 > 0:46:17'The city is dressed for battle.'
0:46:19 > 0:46:23All classes of Britons are shown suffering together.
0:46:23 > 0:46:28It feels like an authentic picture of ordinary life in the Blitz.
0:46:28 > 0:46:31'These are not Hollywood sound effects,
0:46:31 > 0:46:35'this is the music they play every night in London -
0:46:35 > 0:46:36'the symphony of war.'
0:46:36 > 0:46:41AIRCRAFT HUM AND RUMBLES OF EXPLOSIONS
0:46:44 > 0:46:47London Can Take It was also released in Britain
0:46:47 > 0:46:49while the Blitz was still raging.
0:46:51 > 0:46:55The MOI put observers in the audience who noted that:
0:46:55 > 0:46:58"The audience enjoyed it as part of their own experience."
0:46:58 > 0:47:02- '..it is true that the Nazis...' - When released in the US,
0:47:02 > 0:47:07it was a massive hit and got nominated for an Oscar.
0:47:07 > 0:47:10'They will drop thousands of bombs
0:47:10 > 0:47:16'and destroy hundreds of buildings and they'll kill thousands of people,
0:47:16 > 0:47:19'but a bomb has its limitations.
0:47:19 > 0:47:23'It can only destroy buildings and kill people,
0:47:23 > 0:47:26'it cannot kill the unconquerable spirit
0:47:26 > 0:47:29'and courage of the people of London.'
0:47:29 > 0:47:34MOURNFUL MUSIC
0:47:34 > 0:47:38At its worst, during that terrible winter of the Blitz,
0:47:38 > 0:47:41the Germans bombed London for 76 consecutive nights.
0:47:44 > 0:47:49A similar hell was visited on many other major British cities.
0:47:50 > 0:47:53Over 40,000 Britons were killed.
0:47:59 > 0:48:03By the summer of 1941, the Blitz was over.
0:48:04 > 0:48:09Britain and her allies were now bombing Germany in return.
0:48:09 > 0:48:13Mildenhall Airfield in Suffolk was then a major base
0:48:13 > 0:48:17for the operations of RAF Bomber Command.
0:48:17 > 0:48:22A documentary was made here about that ruthless campaign.
0:48:23 > 0:48:28The film was the brainchild of the Crown Film Unit's Harry Watt.
0:48:28 > 0:48:33He called it the best idea he ever had.
0:48:33 > 0:48:36He convinced the Government to fund a film about how the RAF
0:48:36 > 0:48:39was hitting back against the Germans.
0:48:44 > 0:48:48Made in 1941, Target For Tonight was the most successful
0:48:48 > 0:48:51documentary in the history of the movement.
0:48:57 > 0:48:59C for Charlie, airborne, sir.
0:48:59 > 0:49:01- 19 hours 35 minutes.- Thank you.
0:49:01 > 0:49:03Translate, please.
0:49:03 > 0:49:08Hello, control. Hello, control. C for Charlie took off 19.35.
0:49:10 > 0:49:13On Target For Tonight, Watt used techniques he had pioneered
0:49:13 > 0:49:16on Night Mail.
0:49:16 > 0:49:19First he did meticulous research,
0:49:19 > 0:49:23then he wrote a script describing in detail one night's mission
0:49:23 > 0:49:25against a German fuel dump.
0:49:26 > 0:49:30Place names were changed for security purposes.
0:49:30 > 0:49:34It was partly filmed on set in a studio.
0:49:34 > 0:49:36But authenticity was guaranteed
0:49:36 > 0:49:40because all the characters in the film, from the wing commander
0:49:40 > 0:49:43to aircraft hand, were played by the real people
0:49:43 > 0:49:45who actually did the job.
0:49:52 > 0:49:54MEN WHISTLE AND CHATTER
0:49:54 > 0:49:57Ah, just the man I want. You owe me half a crown.
0:49:57 > 0:50:01- Listen, I can't pay my mess bill, let alone you.- Well, neither can I.
0:50:01 > 0:50:03All right. See me after the trip.
0:50:03 > 0:50:05- Righto.- You would remember that.
0:50:05 > 0:50:09Hey, some klutz pinched my boots.
0:50:09 > 0:50:12Come on, pull your finger out. Where's my boots?
0:50:16 > 0:50:19Target For Tonight strikes an almost perfect balance
0:50:19 > 0:50:24between documentary and drama. One more twist of the dial
0:50:24 > 0:50:27and Watt would have lost more than he gained.
0:50:32 > 0:50:35- Bomb doors open.- Bomb doors open.
0:50:35 > 0:50:38Harry Watt's film was much more than a triumph of technique.
0:50:38 > 0:50:40Steady!
0:50:40 > 0:50:43Documentarists had learned how to make screen heroes
0:50:43 > 0:50:47- out of ordinary people.- Bomb's gone.
0:50:54 > 0:50:58Target For Tonight works in the same direct but understated way.
0:50:58 > 0:51:00It celebrates the everyday courage
0:51:00 > 0:51:02of the young fliers of Bomber Command.
0:51:02 > 0:51:05I got a bull's-eye with the last one.
0:51:05 > 0:51:08Good man. Bag of nuts or a cigar?
0:51:10 > 0:51:14Target For Tonight was a huge hit in the cinemas.
0:51:14 > 0:51:16It was so popular
0:51:16 > 0:51:18that it became a catchphrase.
0:51:18 > 0:51:21A young man talking about his dinner date would call her
0:51:21 > 0:51:23"the target for tonight".
0:51:24 > 0:51:27One reviewer called this Crown Film Unit production:
0:51:27 > 0:51:31"The greatest story of the war."
0:51:34 > 0:51:38Target For Tonight now stands as a moving commemoration.
0:51:38 > 0:51:41Many of the aircrew Harry Watt filmed
0:51:41 > 0:51:43died in action during the war.
0:51:58 > 0:52:01Go and get an ambulance, will you? The operator has copped it.
0:52:01 > 0:52:04SWING MUSIC PLAYS
0:52:04 > 0:52:07It was hard to escape Government propaganda films
0:52:07 > 0:52:10during the Second World War.
0:52:10 > 0:52:14The 20 million Britons who never went to the cinema
0:52:14 > 0:52:18were ushered into church halls and village halls for free screenings.
0:52:25 > 0:52:29In the days before TV, this was the only way they could be reached.
0:52:29 > 0:52:34They were shown films explaining how best to behave
0:52:34 > 0:52:37in every aspect of life on the home front.
0:52:37 > 0:52:40From driving in traffic to good nutrition.
0:52:44 > 0:52:45By the end of the war,
0:52:45 > 0:52:48the MOI had a fleet of over 100 projector vans,
0:52:48 > 0:52:52which laid on some 60,000 screenings a year.
0:52:54 > 0:52:57All of this propaganda onslaught was made for the Government
0:52:57 > 0:52:59by the documentarists.
0:53:02 > 0:53:05The Crown Film Unit was the main supplier
0:53:05 > 0:53:07and the small production houses
0:53:07 > 0:53:10established by the members of the documentary movement worked hard
0:53:10 > 0:53:13for the Ministry of Information.
0:53:16 > 0:53:20In just six years of conflict, the small band of documentarists
0:53:20 > 0:53:24produced over 700 films for the British Government.
0:53:33 > 0:53:36The culmination of the struggle of the documentary movement
0:53:36 > 0:53:40came as the war ended in 1945.
0:53:40 > 0:53:44The Government was already planning for the coming peace.
0:53:44 > 0:53:47The Crown Film Unit was ordered to produce a film
0:53:47 > 0:53:49that would set a hopeful tone for this future.
0:53:49 > 0:53:52BABY GRIZZLES
0:53:54 > 0:53:56BABY GRIZZLES
0:53:56 > 0:54:02'And it was on 3rd September, 1944, that you were born.
0:54:03 > 0:54:07'The label on your cot said, "Timothy James Jenkins."'
0:54:07 > 0:54:10Diary For Timothy uses the storytelling device
0:54:10 > 0:54:12of a soldier's letter to a newborn child.
0:54:12 > 0:54:15'Thousands of babies were born on the same day
0:54:15 > 0:54:17'and you are one of the lucky ones.'
0:54:17 > 0:54:20It passes on the lessons the country has learned
0:54:20 > 0:54:22during the Second World War.
0:54:22 > 0:54:25'When you joined us, we had been fighting for exactly five years.'
0:54:25 > 0:54:30It shows how Britain was unified by a common sense of purpose.
0:54:30 > 0:54:34'And you didn't know, and couldn't know, and didn't care.
0:54:34 > 0:54:36'Safe in your pram.'
0:54:36 > 0:54:40This was the truth the documentary movement had been established
0:54:40 > 0:54:42to expose. In Diary For Timothy,
0:54:42 > 0:54:45it's revealed with compelling emotion.
0:54:45 > 0:54:47'About five kilometres to the west of Arnhem
0:54:47 > 0:54:51'in a space of 1,500 yards by 900 on that last day,
0:54:51 > 0:54:54'I saw the dead and the living.
0:54:54 > 0:54:58'Those who fought a good fight and kept the faith with you at home,
0:54:58 > 0:55:00'and those who still fought magnificently on.
0:55:00 > 0:55:03'They were the last of the few.'
0:55:04 > 0:55:09Diary For Timothy was directed by Humphrey Jennings.
0:55:09 > 0:55:13He was inspired by seeing Britons join together during the war.
0:55:13 > 0:55:15He described sensing:
0:55:15 > 0:55:20"A glowing warmth of love and comradeship for each other."
0:55:20 > 0:55:25His faith in the spirit of Britain seems to have given Jennings
0:55:25 > 0:55:29the confidence to reveal the country as he genuinely saw it.
0:55:30 > 0:55:34At times, its honesty makes Diary For Timothy uncomfortable to watch,
0:55:34 > 0:55:36but all the more powerful.
0:55:37 > 0:55:40This is what documentary is all about.
0:55:42 > 0:55:47BAND PLAYS SWING NUMBER
0:55:54 > 0:55:57Diary For Timothy was the last significant work
0:55:57 > 0:55:59of the British documentary movement.
0:56:15 > 0:56:20After the Second World War, the movement petered out.
0:56:22 > 0:56:24Within five years, Jennings was dead.
0:56:24 > 0:56:28He fell off a cliff scouting locations.
0:56:30 > 0:56:34Ruby Grierson, the bright young woman who had pioneered
0:56:34 > 0:56:36the interview in the slums, died in the war.
0:56:36 > 0:56:43She was filming on a boat which was torpedoed by a German submarine.
0:56:43 > 0:56:45John Grierson, who had started it all,
0:56:45 > 0:56:49remained abroad for much of the rest of his life,
0:56:49 > 0:56:55founding still-thriving documentary industries in Canada and Australia.
0:56:55 > 0:57:00Harry Watt of the popular hits Night Mail and Target For Tonight
0:57:00 > 0:57:04quit documentaries and began a new career directing commercial movies.
0:57:08 > 0:57:10Some of Grierson's old disciples
0:57:10 > 0:57:12stayed on in the post-war documentary industry,
0:57:12 > 0:57:15but none lasted into the age of television.
0:57:23 > 0:57:28The British documentary movement had flourished for about 15 years.
0:57:30 > 0:57:33It had begun with a political idea to unify the country
0:57:33 > 0:57:39through films about the real lives of the people who live here.
0:57:39 > 0:57:42To do this, they developed a new craft.
0:57:42 > 0:57:45They'd become expert at making uplifting portraits
0:57:45 > 0:57:47of ordinary life.
0:57:49 > 0:57:51During the Second World War,
0:57:51 > 0:57:54the British public had become used to watching reality.
0:57:54 > 0:57:58Britons had learned to enjoy looking at themselves.
0:58:01 > 0:58:04The movement had set out to reveal ordinary life.
0:58:05 > 0:58:10By 1945, the documentary had become part of it.
0:58:35 > 0:58:38Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd.
0:58:38 > 0:58:41E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk