0:00:04 > 0:00:09100 years ago, a new kind of film burst onto British cinema screens.
0:00:09 > 0:00:13This sensational creation was the newsreel.
0:00:15 > 0:00:18Its inventors, a company called Pathe.
0:00:18 > 0:00:21They were groundbreakers. They were there first.
0:00:22 > 0:00:26For seven decades, British Pathe told our national story.
0:00:28 > 0:00:30Its films recorded everything from the pomp
0:00:30 > 0:00:36and pageantry of state occasions to gritty social-issue stories.
0:00:38 > 0:00:45From exotic foreign travelogues to the bizarre byways of British life.
0:00:48 > 0:00:52The cameramen who captured these images were a new breed,
0:00:52 > 0:00:55image-making buccaneers who would let nothing
0:00:55 > 0:00:58stand in the way of a good story.
0:00:58 > 0:01:01Bribery, espionage, outright larceny - they would do things
0:01:01 > 0:01:04that the worst tabloid journalists today do not dare to do.
0:01:06 > 0:01:10In an age of dizzying change, British Pathe crammed action
0:01:10 > 0:01:14and entertainment into brilliantly-packaged bulletins.
0:01:14 > 0:01:18With an unshakeable belief in itself and its audience,
0:01:18 > 0:01:21this was a company which helped define
0:01:21 > 0:01:23how a whole nation imagined itself.
0:01:24 > 0:01:26# Da, da, da! #
0:01:26 > 0:01:30It was important - "Take note, this is it, this is us."
0:01:35 > 0:01:37COCKEREL CROWS
0:01:48 > 0:01:52'The rooster is the oldest trademark in films.
0:01:52 > 0:01:56'He stands for experience and know-how in filmmaking.'
0:01:57 > 0:02:01Think British Pathe, and you think the crowing cockerel.
0:02:01 > 0:02:02COCKEREL CROWS
0:02:04 > 0:02:08The company's mascot gives a clue to its origins - not in Britain,
0:02:08 > 0:02:10but in France.
0:02:16 > 0:02:19Pathe started out as two brothers, Charles and Theophile,
0:02:19 > 0:02:22whose business began in fairgrounds,
0:02:22 > 0:02:24marketing phonographs.
0:02:28 > 0:02:33Then they branched out from sound recordings to film in 1896,
0:02:33 > 0:02:37and from the early 1900s started to build up production, distribution,
0:02:37 > 0:02:40exhibition, to become the world's largest film company.
0:02:41 > 0:02:46Amongst the earliest of Pathe's audience-grabbing innovations
0:02:46 > 0:02:48was a new format - the newsreel.
0:02:49 > 0:02:52What you had before were individual topical stories,
0:02:52 > 0:02:54what they called in the day actualites.
0:02:54 > 0:02:56When you had the newsreel,
0:02:56 > 0:03:01it was something which was regular,
0:03:01 > 0:03:06and you had a succession of these short stories within an eight-minute timeframe.
0:03:06 > 0:03:11And that gives us what we know, actually, as the news bulletin today.
0:03:12 > 0:03:17In 1910, Charles Pathe arrived in London to open new premises
0:03:17 > 0:03:19on Wardour Street in Soho.
0:03:20 > 0:03:25This would be the nerve centre of a British newsreel operation.
0:03:26 > 0:03:29Pathe began to recruit talent, gathering together
0:03:29 > 0:03:31a small band of intrepid young cameramen.
0:03:38 > 0:03:43My grandad, Frank Augustus Bassill, was one of the founding cameramen,
0:03:43 > 0:03:45cinematographers of Pathe News.
0:03:45 > 0:03:48He actually started as a projectionist, in a cinema
0:03:48 > 0:03:51where sometimes courting couples got under the platform
0:03:51 > 0:03:52where the screen was
0:03:52 > 0:03:55and courted so energetically that they would knock the screen over,
0:03:55 > 0:03:59and my grandfather would have to run out of the projection room
0:03:59 > 0:04:02and stand it up again and continue with the showing.
0:04:02 > 0:04:05This was in the days when cinema audiences were sprayed with
0:04:05 > 0:04:08eau de Cologne to make sure everybody smelled nice.
0:04:08 > 0:04:11It was not too big a leap into actually taking
0:04:11 > 0:04:15moving pictures himself, with very ancient, very, very heavy,
0:04:15 > 0:04:19very, very cumbersome tripod cameras, of course.
0:04:19 > 0:04:22My grandfather was in at the ground floor,
0:04:22 > 0:04:26and he stayed with Pathe News until the late 1940s.
0:04:34 > 0:04:39The first Pathe newsreel appeared in British cinemas in June 1910.
0:04:41 > 0:04:43Although the original edition hasn't survived,
0:04:43 > 0:04:47early stories included a suffragette demonstration in London
0:04:47 > 0:04:51and the first flight to take a passenger across the Channel.
0:04:54 > 0:04:58In an age when even the newspapers contained very few images,
0:04:58 > 0:05:02Pathe's animated gazette was a sensation.
0:05:08 > 0:05:11Just a few months after the first newsreel,
0:05:11 > 0:05:13Pathe's cameras were on the scene of one of the earliest
0:05:13 > 0:05:17terrorist incidents of the 20th century.
0:05:19 > 0:05:20In December 1910,
0:05:20 > 0:05:24a gang of Latvian revolutionaries attempted to rob a jewellery shop
0:05:24 > 0:05:27round the corner from here, Sidney Street, in the East End of London.
0:05:28 > 0:05:30The robbery went wrong.
0:05:30 > 0:05:33Three policemen were shot dead, two policemen were injured.
0:05:33 > 0:05:37Most of the Latvians were rounded up, but two of them escaped, to here.
0:05:37 > 0:05:41The terrorists had guns, they had Lugers and Mausers,
0:05:41 > 0:05:45they had a great deal of weaponry in the house.
0:05:45 > 0:05:48Armed police sealed off both ends of the street.
0:05:48 > 0:05:52The Scots Guards were brought in. Even Churchill turned up.
0:05:54 > 0:05:57Churchill was Home Secretary at the time,
0:05:57 > 0:05:59and he was far too excited and interested in action
0:05:59 > 0:06:03to sit in the office, so when he heard, he jumped out of his bath,
0:06:03 > 0:06:05he put on his coat, he put on his top hat,
0:06:05 > 0:06:09he brought his own shotgun and he turned up at the action.
0:06:09 > 0:06:12We have a film of him hiding behind the pub, directing operations.
0:06:16 > 0:06:18Finally, after a very long seige,
0:06:18 > 0:06:21an awful lot of ammunition being expended, the house caught fire.
0:06:21 > 0:06:24Churchill decided no-one else should get hurt,
0:06:24 > 0:06:27so he decided to let the building burn down.
0:06:28 > 0:06:32I was fascinated by the Sidney Street footage.
0:06:32 > 0:06:35They were right on the spot.
0:06:35 > 0:06:38There were people running around, there was crowd control,
0:06:38 > 0:06:40pretty brutal as well.
0:06:40 > 0:06:43And then there were shots fired, and they got it.
0:06:43 > 0:06:45It's jaw-dropping stuff.
0:06:47 > 0:06:49So rarely have I managed to be there.
0:06:49 > 0:06:54I have on a number of occasions been very lucky.
0:06:54 > 0:06:56The Iranian Embassy siege was one, in 1980.
0:07:01 > 0:07:05We were there because it was long-running - six, seven days.
0:07:05 > 0:07:11But it is not often, but when it happens, my goodness,
0:07:11 > 0:07:13you know you're seeing something
0:07:13 > 0:07:16which people will watch again and again.
0:07:19 > 0:07:23Pathe's coverage of the unfolding drama at Sidney Street
0:07:23 > 0:07:24was all the more extraordinary,
0:07:24 > 0:07:27given the difficulties of using early film technology.
0:07:27 > 0:07:30There were various limitations on Pathe that determined
0:07:30 > 0:07:32why we see the news that we see.
0:07:32 > 0:07:36There's cost - newsreels were shot on expensive film, 35 millimetre.
0:07:36 > 0:07:38There's the issue of the weather -
0:07:38 > 0:07:41it was very difficult to film in bad light.
0:07:41 > 0:07:43And there's very little that's indoors,
0:07:43 > 0:07:45certainly the early years,
0:07:45 > 0:07:48because the lighting just wasn't good enough.
0:07:48 > 0:07:51The challenges involved in filming news stories meant that
0:07:51 > 0:07:54Pathe usually relied on
0:07:54 > 0:07:56a predictable round of scheduled events.
0:07:56 > 0:07:59Royal engagements and sporting fixtures,
0:07:59 > 0:08:02such as the Epsom Derby, could be planned in advance.
0:08:06 > 0:08:09Even here, however, events could take a shocking turn.
0:08:11 > 0:08:13The day of the Derby, 1913,
0:08:13 > 0:08:17was the most important day in the Edwardian year.
0:08:19 > 0:08:23People made their way to the Derby by train, they walked there,
0:08:23 > 0:08:27they went in their motorcars, some went on motorbikes and sidecars,
0:08:27 > 0:08:31some went in carriages, some went on motorbuses.
0:08:31 > 0:08:33All converged for this very special race.
0:08:33 > 0:08:36One of the people who made their way to the Derby that day
0:08:36 > 0:08:38was Emily Wilding Davison.
0:08:38 > 0:08:44A radical suffragette and an advocate of direct action,
0:08:44 > 0:08:48Emily Wilding Davison travelled to Epsom to protest in front of
0:08:48 > 0:08:51the assembled British establishment, including King George V,
0:08:51 > 0:08:54whose horse Anmer was running in the race.
0:08:57 > 0:09:01The camera shows all these horses galloping towards the home straight,
0:09:01 > 0:09:05round Tattenham Corner, and Emily Wilding Davison bobs under the rail
0:09:05 > 0:09:08and she tries to grab the bridle of the King's horse.
0:09:08 > 0:09:13And we can see quite clearly her go up into the air and flop down,
0:09:13 > 0:09:17and she flops down on the ground, a little bit like a rag doll.
0:09:17 > 0:09:20And at first, the crowd rush onto the racecourse,
0:09:20 > 0:09:24intent to do her real harm, they're very, very angry with her,
0:09:24 > 0:09:27they're very annoyed that she has caused such offence to the king.
0:09:29 > 0:09:31But when they got up close to her,
0:09:31 > 0:09:33they could see that she was bleeding from the mouth,
0:09:33 > 0:09:37bleeding from the nose, and obviously she was in a pretty bad way.
0:09:37 > 0:09:38She dies four days later.
0:09:41 > 0:09:44About 20 feet of silver nitrate
0:09:44 > 0:09:48preserves this iconic moment in women's history.
0:09:55 > 0:09:57Pathe's commercial success encouraged
0:09:57 > 0:10:00several other newsreel outfits to set up in business.
0:10:03 > 0:10:05But just as the newsreels were taking off,
0:10:05 > 0:10:10they found themselves shut out of the most dramatic story so far.
0:10:11 > 0:10:14The beginning of the First World War.
0:10:19 > 0:10:23A problem for the newsreels is that at the outbreak of war,
0:10:23 > 0:10:27they're largely excluded from filming on the Western Front.
0:10:27 > 0:10:32It's not until the very end of 1915 that the War Office accepts
0:10:32 > 0:10:36cinematic cameramen to be attached to the front.
0:10:36 > 0:10:38Determined to get in on the action,
0:10:38 > 0:10:42Pathe sent its most experienced cameraman, Frank Bassill,
0:10:42 > 0:10:45to film the British Army in the field.
0:10:46 > 0:10:49My grandfather was an accredited war photographer,
0:10:49 > 0:10:53and he was at the Western Front in France.
0:10:53 > 0:10:55He had an enormous car and a driver
0:10:55 > 0:10:59which transported this very large camera and my grandfather,
0:10:59 > 0:11:03and he went up the line, leaving this car once, with his equipment.
0:11:03 > 0:11:07When he came back, the car had been cut into two neat halves
0:11:07 > 0:11:08by a German shell.
0:11:15 > 0:11:18The violence of the trenches has been well documented
0:11:18 > 0:11:20in art, photography and literature.
0:11:22 > 0:11:26But there were some things which contemporary newsreels
0:11:26 > 0:11:29like Pathe could not, or would not, show.
0:11:30 > 0:11:33You very seldom see dead bodies in the news of the First World War
0:11:33 > 0:11:37in newsreels at all. And where you do, it's very cautiously presented,
0:11:37 > 0:11:40and they're almost invariably German.
0:11:40 > 0:11:43I can't think of any example of where you see a British dead body.
0:11:45 > 0:11:49We know what horrors existed for the troops now in the First World War.
0:11:49 > 0:11:54The newsreels showed them all doing thumbs-up signs, looking cheerful.
0:11:54 > 0:11:57Some of the footage was actually faked. They even showed
0:11:57 > 0:12:00faked footage of men going over the top.
0:12:00 > 0:12:03When you look at the set-ups, there's no way that the cameraman
0:12:03 > 0:12:06could have been standing in no man's land, taking those shots.
0:12:08 > 0:12:12Today, I think we would describe these reconstructed sequences
0:12:12 > 0:12:14as being faked.
0:12:14 > 0:12:19I don't think it was really understood in that way at the time.
0:12:19 > 0:12:22The newsreels faced a demand from audiences who wanted
0:12:22 > 0:12:27dramatic footage, and reconstruction in the early newsreel industry
0:12:27 > 0:12:32was regarded as a legitimate means of visual representation.
0:12:37 > 0:12:41Although some newsreel footage of World War I was reconstructed,
0:12:41 > 0:12:44there are other images which are graphically authentic.
0:12:46 > 0:12:50Buried in the Pathe archive are remarkable films
0:12:50 > 0:12:53which bear witness to the brutal trauma of war
0:12:53 > 0:12:55on an industrial scale.
0:12:59 > 0:13:03The shellshock films are deeply disturbing and strange.
0:13:03 > 0:13:09Because you are seeing people who are in paroxysms of naked misery,
0:13:09 > 0:13:13being coldly watched by the camera.
0:13:22 > 0:13:26The films that were made of victims were not really intended
0:13:26 > 0:13:29for public consumption, but more as a historical record.
0:13:43 > 0:13:46I think they're fascinating historical documents that give us
0:13:46 > 0:13:49an insight into how shellshock was trying to be understood
0:13:49 > 0:13:52at the time by a society
0:13:52 > 0:13:55that still couldn't quite come to terms with it.
0:14:02 > 0:14:04THE LAST POST PLAYS
0:14:06 > 0:14:10Britain was convulsed by the First World War.
0:14:12 > 0:14:15More than 900,000 men had been killed,
0:14:15 > 0:14:17and over one and a half million wounded.
0:14:20 > 0:14:23It was obvious that nothing would be the same again.
0:14:30 > 0:14:33The country was entering an era of rapid change.
0:14:33 > 0:14:38Mass production was mirrored by mass communication.
0:14:39 > 0:14:44The moving image was emerging as a dominant force in British culture.
0:14:44 > 0:14:48What starts off as, basically, a working-class entertainment
0:14:48 > 0:14:52in the early 1910s, by the late teens to early '20s has become
0:14:52 > 0:14:55the entertainment for everyone, all sections of society,
0:14:55 > 0:14:58everybody goes to the cinema once or twice a week.
0:14:58 > 0:15:02With bigger audiences came bigger profits.
0:15:02 > 0:15:05Pathe vied with rival companies like Gaumont and Topical
0:15:05 > 0:15:08to get their films on to the cinema circuits.
0:15:08 > 0:15:14There was considerable rivalry between the newsreel companies.
0:15:14 > 0:15:19The companies would get exclusive rights over certain events
0:15:19 > 0:15:23and particularly over certain sporting events.
0:15:23 > 0:15:24If one has the exclusive rights,
0:15:24 > 0:15:27then the other one is going to try and pinch them
0:15:27 > 0:15:31and there are all kinds of methods by which they do that.
0:15:34 > 0:15:37They would have cameramen fly overhead in planes
0:15:37 > 0:15:39and take pictures from above or they would sneak
0:15:39 > 0:15:42on to the racecourse or into the cricket ground in disguise.
0:15:42 > 0:15:47My grandfather had an episode when he was sneaking on to
0:15:47 > 0:15:50the Grand National course, which was THE big event
0:15:50 > 0:15:51they all wanted to film.
0:15:51 > 0:15:54He hid under some straw so he wouldn't be detected
0:15:54 > 0:15:57till he could come out and film,
0:15:57 > 0:15:59but the straw was impregnated with horse manure
0:15:59 > 0:16:01and my grandfather fainted
0:16:01 > 0:16:04and it was only when someone saw a pair elastic-sided boots
0:16:04 > 0:16:06sticking out of the straw,
0:16:06 > 0:16:09he was dragged clear and he didn't die of asphyxiation.
0:16:11 > 0:16:17In 1923, Topical secured exclusive rights to the first FA Cup final
0:16:17 > 0:16:19played at the new Wembley stadium.
0:16:22 > 0:16:25But arch-rival Pathe refused to be thwarted.
0:16:25 > 0:16:30What they did was to hide the camera in a huge hammer,
0:16:30 > 0:16:32which is the mascot of West Ham.
0:16:34 > 0:16:38But what's more interesting about it is they filmed
0:16:38 > 0:16:40their cameraman Jack Cotter afterwards
0:16:40 > 0:16:43and showed the rest of the world how they managed to pinch it.
0:16:48 > 0:16:52By the 1930s, the rivalry between newsreels reached fever pitch.
0:16:52 > 0:16:56Big players like MovieTone, Universal
0:16:56 > 0:16:58and Paramount had arrived from America,
0:16:58 > 0:17:03bringing with them cutting-edge audio recording systems.
0:17:03 > 0:17:07One of the most familiar sounds of the 20th century was born,
0:17:07 > 0:17:09the newsreel commentary.
0:17:09 > 0:17:12'In spite of being denied the freedom of the press,
0:17:12 > 0:17:13'Pathe Gazette are out as usual,
0:17:13 > 0:17:15'to bring the match to millions
0:17:15 > 0:17:18'who wouldn't otherwise have the chance of seeing it.
0:17:18 > 0:17:22'Take your seat and see Wembley as you've never seen it before.
0:17:22 > 0:17:25'That's Mrs Jones, second from the left.
0:17:25 > 0:17:27'One of our cameramen is trying to get in
0:17:27 > 0:17:30'through the tradesman's entrance in disguise.
0:17:30 > 0:17:32'But he's a Pathe cameraman and they never say die.'
0:17:34 > 0:17:37The intense competition between the rival newsreels
0:17:37 > 0:17:40wasn't just confined to sporting events.
0:17:45 > 0:17:47There were sensational news scoops too.
0:17:49 > 0:17:54In 1934, Pathe covered a meeting between King Alexander of Yugoslavia
0:17:54 > 0:17:58and the French Foreign Minister, Louis Barthou.
0:17:58 > 0:18:00'Masked troops and vast crowds witnessed,
0:18:00 > 0:18:02'in a forest of flying flags,
0:18:02 > 0:18:04'the warmth and affection of the meeting
0:18:04 > 0:18:07'of these two great men on the Quai des Belges.'
0:18:07 > 0:18:11But what was expected to be a routine assignment for Pathe
0:18:11 > 0:18:14turned into one of the first political assassinations
0:18:14 > 0:18:17- ever captured by the cine camera. - 'The car in which His Majesty
0:18:17 > 0:18:20'and Monsieur Barthou were riding into the city
0:18:20 > 0:18:22'had hardly travelled 100 yards
0:18:22 > 0:18:24'when suddenly the murderer sprang from the crowds
0:18:24 > 0:18:28'to the running board and poured a hail of lead into its two occupants.'
0:18:30 > 0:18:32The camera goes haywire and everything cartwheels
0:18:32 > 0:18:34all over the place
0:18:34 > 0:18:38and you suddenly see a very, very close shot of the king's dead face.
0:18:38 > 0:18:42'Barely five minutes after landing on French soil,
0:18:42 > 0:18:44'Alexander of Yugoslavia was dead.'
0:18:44 > 0:18:48It's just chance that there's a camera so close.
0:18:48 > 0:18:50And it's a little bit like that
0:18:50 > 0:18:53that extraordinary assassination of Kennedy moment.
0:18:54 > 0:18:58The 1930s was a tumultuous decade.
0:18:59 > 0:19:03Political turmoil abroad was echoed by enormous social
0:19:03 > 0:19:06and economic upheavals at home.
0:19:08 > 0:19:12But Pathe was much more careful in how it presented domestic issues,
0:19:12 > 0:19:14such as mass unemployment.
0:19:15 > 0:19:16'It's final day at Wembley.
0:19:16 > 0:19:19'Unemployed men and lads from welfare clubs
0:19:19 > 0:19:22'meet for the London Occupational Shield.
0:19:22 > 0:19:24'One man got a job on the way so could not play
0:19:24 > 0:19:27'for the rule is that players must be workless.'
0:19:27 > 0:19:30Pathe's cheerful emphasis on national stability
0:19:30 > 0:19:33began to attract criticism.
0:19:33 > 0:19:36There certainly is a critical voice in the 1930s,
0:19:36 > 0:19:41particularly from the left, that the newsreels are conservative,
0:19:41 > 0:19:44pro-establishment and don't reflect
0:19:44 > 0:19:47the range of political opinion in Britain.
0:19:48 > 0:19:52The newsreels are keen to present a particular narrative,
0:19:52 > 0:19:56to downplay the potential revolutionary element
0:19:56 > 0:19:58in working-class protest.
0:19:58 > 0:20:01'Sir Noel Curtis-Bennett presents the shield and medals
0:20:01 > 0:20:03'after a rattling good game
0:20:03 > 0:20:07'of tiptop football and there are cheers all round.'
0:20:07 > 0:20:12Pathe, I think of all the newsreels are particularly risk-averse.
0:20:12 > 0:20:19They steer clear of anything which has the whiff of controversy.
0:20:19 > 0:20:23Even the Jarrow crusade, which has wide political support,
0:20:23 > 0:20:27even from the local Conservatives in Jarrow,
0:20:27 > 0:20:29Pathe don't cover it.
0:20:29 > 0:20:33MovieTone cover it, Gaumont cover it, but Pathe don't.
0:20:35 > 0:20:40Pathe's archive contains striking images of the 1936 Jarrow march,
0:20:40 > 0:20:43but it never screened these at the time.
0:20:43 > 0:20:46Pathe believed it had to perform a balancing act.
0:20:49 > 0:20:51Pathe was in the entertainment business.
0:20:51 > 0:20:54So if you look at the beauty parades, the ship launches,
0:20:54 > 0:20:57the Royals going here, there and everywhere,
0:20:57 > 0:21:01the endless horse races, the big issues at the time seemed buried.
0:21:03 > 0:21:05If you hone in on individual stories,
0:21:05 > 0:21:08then they give actually remarkably good coverage.
0:21:09 > 0:21:12You have cut down the war debt,
0:21:12 > 0:21:15you have done no end of wonderful things
0:21:15 > 0:21:23and trade still bears, still three million people out of work.
0:21:23 > 0:21:27The combination of harder news stories and lighter items
0:21:27 > 0:21:31in Pathe's newsreels can sometimes seem jarring to modern eyes.
0:21:31 > 0:21:35The thing with Pathe is they jump from one kind of story
0:21:35 > 0:21:38to something entirely different again and again.
0:21:38 > 0:21:41For example, you might have a very,
0:21:41 > 0:21:45very serious politically charged story about the Spanish Civil War
0:21:45 > 0:21:49right on the battlefield and you can see the tanks and so on.
0:21:49 > 0:21:51'Where once there were grapevines and flowers
0:21:51 > 0:21:54'now lie abandoned, twisted masses of steel.'
0:21:58 > 0:22:02And you cut from that to a very strange domestic story
0:22:02 > 0:22:06about a woman who's enthusiastic about dolls.
0:22:06 > 0:22:09'Our cameraman dropped in at an informal party
0:22:09 > 0:22:10'and here's what happened.'
0:22:10 > 0:22:14- Innit cold this morning? - Yes, but I like playing out, do you?
0:22:14 > 0:22:16- Yes.- Oh, hello, darling.
0:22:16 > 0:22:19Why do you move from hard stories to gentle stories?
0:22:19 > 0:22:25And I think ahead of broadcast news and all the rituals
0:22:25 > 0:22:27that have become associated with that,
0:22:27 > 0:22:29people simply watched these screens
0:22:29 > 0:22:32rather as they read newspapers, they jump from one story
0:22:32 > 0:22:35and your eyes caught another story, it's as simple as that.
0:22:35 > 0:22:38- ALL:- Bye-bye!
0:22:41 > 0:22:45By the 1930s, public demand for newsreels was so high
0:22:45 > 0:22:48that a new kind of cinema was invented to screen them,
0:22:48 > 0:22:50the newsreel theatre.
0:22:52 > 0:22:57Often situated in busy city centres and railway stations,
0:22:57 > 0:23:01these purpose-built cinemas provided a new way of consuming the news.
0:23:03 > 0:23:07Not only are audiences going to see a feature
0:23:07 > 0:23:11and part of that cinema programme is going to be the newsreel,
0:23:11 > 0:23:14but they're also going to newsreel theatres
0:23:14 > 0:23:16which only specialise in the news.
0:23:16 > 0:23:20You have a different way of viewing the news.
0:23:20 > 0:23:24People can come in, watch as much of the news as they want
0:23:24 > 0:23:26and leave again.
0:23:26 > 0:23:29This is the precursor to news on demand.
0:23:36 > 0:23:41Built in 1937, in the latest Art Deco style,
0:23:41 > 0:23:44Newcastle's Tyneside Cinema is the last surviving
0:23:44 > 0:23:46newsreel theatre in Britain.
0:23:47 > 0:23:49For three decades,
0:23:49 > 0:23:52it provided its customers with a vivid window on the world.
0:23:56 > 0:23:58It was a great treat to get on the train from Sunderland
0:23:58 > 0:24:01for a shopping expedition to Newcastle.
0:24:01 > 0:24:04And the big highlight for me was going to the newsreel theatre.
0:24:09 > 0:24:10Oh, it was wonderful.
0:24:10 > 0:24:14Into this dark place, different from an ordinary cinema.
0:24:14 > 0:24:19And there was the world, there were events and it was up on a big screen.
0:24:21 > 0:24:24You saw nothing moving on the newspapers.
0:24:24 > 0:24:26If you wanted to see things actually happening,
0:24:26 > 0:24:28you came to a place like this.
0:24:33 > 0:24:36There was up-to-the-minute Pathe news.
0:24:36 > 0:24:40As one reel finished, it set off again, all day, the same one.
0:24:43 > 0:24:45- It was all on a loop.- Yes.
0:24:45 > 0:24:49- So...- So if you were shopping and you fancied a rest...
0:24:49 > 0:24:52You used to go out where you came in,
0:24:52 > 0:24:55or stay if you like. Nobody seemed to care.
0:24:59 > 0:25:02If it was a fine summer's day, the place was half-empty.
0:25:02 > 0:25:06If it started to rain, you found everybody came in
0:25:06 > 0:25:08and it filled up. It was quite amazing.
0:25:08 > 0:25:09In ten minutes it just filled up.
0:25:09 > 0:25:13It would only be about sixpence in old money to get in.
0:25:13 > 0:25:14Yes, it was really cheap.
0:25:14 > 0:25:17- About half the price of the big cinemas.- Yes.
0:25:19 > 0:25:21For the price of a sixpenny ticket,
0:25:21 > 0:25:25British cinema-goers could get a front row seat
0:25:25 > 0:25:29to some of the most dramatic moments of the 20th century.
0:25:29 > 0:25:34In September 1938, tensions between Nazi Germany
0:25:34 > 0:25:36and Czechoslovakia were threatening
0:25:36 > 0:25:39to drag the whole of Europe into full-scale war.
0:25:39 > 0:25:43In a bid to defuse the situation, the British Prime Minister
0:25:43 > 0:25:48Neville Chamberlain travelled to Munich to meet with Hitler.
0:25:48 > 0:25:51What the Pathe newsreel shows you
0:25:51 > 0:25:56is the desperate enthusiasm that the team making the film
0:25:56 > 0:26:00shared with most of this country for there to be peace with Hitler.
0:26:00 > 0:26:05So you see Chamberlain driving through the crowds in Germany
0:26:05 > 0:26:09and Union Jacks and swastikas being waved side by side
0:26:09 > 0:26:11and great enthusiasm.
0:26:11 > 0:26:15And the script that's been put on to this film is the most
0:26:15 > 0:26:20extraordinarily assertive, over-the-top, it's finger-wagging.
0:26:20 > 0:26:24'Let no man say that too high a price has been paid for the peace of the world
0:26:24 > 0:26:28'until he has searched his soul and found himself willing to risk war
0:26:28 > 0:26:31'and the lives of those nearest and dearest to him.'
0:26:31 > 0:26:34This is very, very close to outright propaganda.
0:26:36 > 0:26:39Chamberlain made a deal with Hitler.
0:26:39 > 0:26:44To secure peace, he acceded to German occupation of the Czech Sudetenland.
0:26:46 > 0:26:48'And the Prime Minister comes home.
0:26:48 > 0:26:51'Home to an empire filled with joy and relief.
0:26:51 > 0:26:54'Home to a welcome that he will never forget.'
0:26:54 > 0:26:57Arriving back at a rain-soaked British airport,
0:26:57 > 0:27:01he made a speech that would go down in history.
0:27:01 > 0:27:06This morning, I had another talk
0:27:06 > 0:27:10with the German Chancellor, Herr Hitler,
0:27:10 > 0:27:14and here is the paper which bears
0:27:14 > 0:27:17his name upon it, as well as mine.
0:27:17 > 0:27:19These images of Neville Chamberlain
0:27:19 > 0:27:23waving his piece of white paper have become so iconic.
0:27:23 > 0:27:26The white paper is the white flag of surrender.
0:27:26 > 0:27:30But if we go back and give the context to this piece,
0:27:30 > 0:27:34we see something completely different.
0:27:34 > 0:27:37Pathe, in many respects, reflects the mood of the country.
0:27:37 > 0:27:43'Let the people themselves speak what is in their hearts.'
0:27:43 > 0:27:46When this story was first shown in the cinemas,
0:27:46 > 0:27:49people were cheering Neville Chamberlain,
0:27:49 > 0:27:52but a week afterwards, when Chamberlain came on the screen,
0:27:52 > 0:27:54there was just complete silence.
0:27:58 > 0:28:01Realisation was swiftly dawning.
0:28:04 > 0:28:08There would be no peace.
0:28:12 > 0:28:14Almost exactly a year
0:28:14 > 0:28:17after Chamberlain waved his piece of paper,
0:28:17 > 0:28:21British troops headed off to confront Hitler's war machine.
0:28:23 > 0:28:27And it wasn't just fighting men who were leaving for France.
0:28:29 > 0:28:31'The newsreels also have permission from the War Office
0:28:31 > 0:28:34'to send film units into the front line.
0:28:34 > 0:28:37'To bring back a living record of Britain's fight for the freedom
0:28:37 > 0:28:38'and peace of the world.
0:28:38 > 0:28:41'The representative of Pathe is Mr Charles Martin.
0:28:41 > 0:28:43'Will you tell us what you'll do there?'
0:28:43 > 0:28:47Well, I have great hopes of getting some authentic war pictures
0:28:47 > 0:28:49and I am working with my colleagues
0:28:49 > 0:28:52so that a very complete film record may be obtained
0:28:52 > 0:28:55of the tremendous activities
0:28:55 > 0:28:58of the British forces on the Western Front.
0:28:58 > 0:29:03And I hope soon you will see some of these pictures on this screen.
0:29:06 > 0:29:09Charles Martin's hopes for authentic war pictures
0:29:09 > 0:29:12were more than fulfilled.
0:29:12 > 0:29:16But probably not in a way that he, or anyone else, would have imagined.
0:29:21 > 0:29:23By late May 1940,
0:29:23 > 0:29:27German forces had driven the British back to the coast.
0:29:28 > 0:29:30Trapped on the beaches,
0:29:30 > 0:29:34their only hope was a hastily assembled rescue fleet.
0:29:38 > 0:29:42'As dawn breaks, Pathe Gazette's cameraman is on a tiny merchant ship.
0:29:42 > 0:29:45'He is risking his life to bring you the pictures.
0:29:45 > 0:29:47'He is on his way to Dunkirk.'
0:29:49 > 0:29:52Charles Martin had managed to get out of France
0:29:52 > 0:29:56and back to Britain ahead of the German onslaught.
0:29:56 > 0:29:58Tipped off about the Dunkirk evacuation,
0:29:58 > 0:30:03he hitched a ride on one of the vessels setting out from Dover.
0:30:03 > 0:30:08He was the only newsreel cameraman to film the epic rescue.
0:30:09 > 0:30:11On his return,
0:30:11 > 0:30:15Charles Martin told a BBC interviewer about his experiences.
0:30:15 > 0:30:20'I went there on an old Clyde paddle steamer that had already saved
0:30:20 > 0:30:21'hundreds of the lads.
0:30:21 > 0:30:24'We arrived off Dunkirk in the very early hours.
0:30:24 > 0:30:28'As dawn came, it revealed thousands of troops lining the water's edge.
0:30:28 > 0:30:32'Immediately, the fellows began to swim out towards us.
0:30:32 > 0:30:37'When we got to work rescuing these lads, there was a lot of stuff
0:30:37 > 0:30:40'I could have filmed, but one couldn't stand by
0:30:40 > 0:30:43'and see these things going on without giving a hand.
0:30:43 > 0:30:47'But I still feel that what pictures I did get,
0:30:47 > 0:30:50'which will be shown all over the world,
0:30:50 > 0:30:53'will convey to the world something of the truly great
0:30:53 > 0:30:56'things that were happening.'
0:30:56 > 0:31:00Only a few hours after the evacuation was completed,
0:31:00 > 0:31:03Martin's footage was being screened in British cinemas.
0:31:11 > 0:31:13'Here in pictures is the triumph
0:31:13 > 0:31:15'that turned a major military disaster
0:31:15 > 0:31:16'into a miracle of deliverance.'
0:31:18 > 0:31:22Skilfully edited and given a stirring commentary and music score,
0:31:22 > 0:31:26Pathe's report was a model of dramatic newsreel reportage.
0:31:26 > 0:31:28GUNFIRE
0:31:28 > 0:31:31'All the might of the German air force failed to stop them.
0:31:31 > 0:31:33'We beat them back. We got our armies away,
0:31:33 > 0:31:35'and the enemy paid fourfold for our losses.
0:31:35 > 0:31:38'And now we're on our way home.'
0:31:38 > 0:31:42What we see is a marvellous piece of propaganda.
0:31:42 > 0:31:48It's incredible, because what it does is it changes military defeat,
0:31:48 > 0:31:52a retreat from the continent, into an act of defiance,
0:31:52 > 0:31:55and I think that really lays the foundation
0:31:55 > 0:31:57of how we view Dunkirk today.
0:31:57 > 0:32:01MUSIC: "Land Of Hope And Glory"
0:32:01 > 0:32:04This was the newsreel's finest hour.
0:32:09 > 0:32:12At a time of national crisis, the public were hungry
0:32:12 > 0:32:16for their vivid, morale-boosting reports from the battlefront.
0:32:16 > 0:32:18There's evidence, in the Second World War,
0:32:18 > 0:32:22that more people relied on the newsreels
0:32:22 > 0:32:24than they did on newspapers
0:32:24 > 0:32:27for information about the world.
0:32:27 > 0:32:31'Now for the newsreel story of the three-day battle at sea.'
0:32:31 > 0:32:34I think what Pathe and the other newsreels did
0:32:34 > 0:32:36was to bring the news to life.
0:32:36 > 0:32:40They made it dynamic and exciting, packaged in a narrative form
0:32:40 > 0:32:42that cinema audiences could easily understand.
0:32:42 > 0:32:47'Eastward across the Mediterranean and Malta-bound.
0:32:47 > 0:32:50'The convoy which recently fought its way to the George Cross Island
0:32:50 > 0:32:52'sailed under the protecting guns
0:32:52 > 0:32:56'of British battleships and cruisers, aircraft carriers and destroyers.
0:32:56 > 0:32:58'When signals of trouble were exchanged,
0:32:58 > 0:33:00'the men leapt to action stations
0:33:00 > 0:33:03'and, with their anti-flash gear and helmets clamped on,
0:33:03 > 0:33:06'the gun crews fought off attack after attack.
0:33:06 > 0:33:10'The sky and sea and bomb alley was patterned with shell and bomb bursts.
0:33:10 > 0:33:13'The water boiled like molten lava
0:33:13 > 0:33:17'and the sky became pockmarked with acrid powder fumes and flying steel.'
0:33:17 > 0:33:22No single newsreel operation could hope to cover
0:33:22 > 0:33:25all aspects of war on a global scale.
0:33:27 > 0:33:31The solution was for the former rivals to declare a truce
0:33:31 > 0:33:33and share their material.
0:33:33 > 0:33:35'Since our last Malta convoy story,
0:33:35 > 0:33:37'other cameramen have returned,
0:33:37 > 0:33:41'bringing with them more pictures of the colossal sea and air fight
0:33:41 > 0:33:43'which went on, without pause, for three days.'
0:33:43 > 0:33:48The sharing of newsreel footage was a practical solution
0:33:48 > 0:33:50to covering a complex and fast-moving conflict.
0:33:52 > 0:33:54But it also had some drawbacks.
0:33:56 > 0:34:00There was a sense that all the newsreels were the same.
0:34:00 > 0:34:03They were using often the same footage
0:34:03 > 0:34:06because they had the pool of footage,
0:34:06 > 0:34:09and the only thing that was different
0:34:09 > 0:34:11was probably the commentary.
0:34:11 > 0:34:15'The sea boils under the hail of falling shrapnel
0:34:15 > 0:34:19'and spouts great columns of water, as bombs rain down from Stukas,
0:34:19 > 0:34:21'JU 87s and 88s.'
0:34:21 > 0:34:24Pathe wanted a more distinctive identity
0:34:24 > 0:34:29than even its characteristically gung-ho commentary could provide.
0:34:29 > 0:34:33As it shifted focus from the battlefield to the home front,
0:34:33 > 0:34:37it began to introduce new ways of reporting stories.
0:34:37 > 0:34:40One of the innovations we see during the Second World War
0:34:40 > 0:34:44is the introduction of what today we refer to as vox pops -
0:34:44 > 0:34:46interviews with people in the street.
0:34:46 > 0:34:48A good example of that
0:34:48 > 0:34:52is the reprisal interviews that we see with people
0:34:52 > 0:34:54who'd suffered during the blitzes
0:34:54 > 0:34:57on London, Coventry and other British cities
0:34:57 > 0:35:00which were carried out in 1940 and 1941.
0:35:00 > 0:35:04What do you think of us going over to Berlin and doing the same to them?
0:35:04 > 0:35:05I should think so, too.
0:35:05 > 0:35:09Bit worse than this, I hope, with a wicked bugger like he is.
0:35:09 > 0:35:11Pathe does start to experiment
0:35:11 > 0:35:13with the form of newsreels surprisingly early.
0:35:13 > 0:35:16It seems second nature to send someone out into the streets
0:35:16 > 0:35:18and find out what we're thinking.
0:35:18 > 0:35:22In 1940, it's a radical innovation.
0:35:22 > 0:35:24It's the beginning of TV news as we now see it.
0:35:24 > 0:35:27I'm sorry for the women and children of Berlin,
0:35:27 > 0:35:30but what about the women and children of this country?
0:35:30 > 0:35:35Pathe's wartime reporting marked a significant change
0:35:35 > 0:35:37in how it related to its audience.
0:35:37 > 0:35:39In another development,
0:35:39 > 0:35:43the company revealed how the news itself was made and delivered.
0:35:43 > 0:35:45I think there's a genuine public
0:35:45 > 0:35:49interest in how these images were being recorded
0:35:49 > 0:35:53and in the personalities who were bringing them back.
0:35:53 > 0:35:55'How does the newsreel get its news?
0:35:55 > 0:35:58'Here are intimate studies of Terry Ashwood
0:35:58 > 0:36:01'in conversation with General Montgomery,
0:36:01 > 0:36:05'receiving information from the Eighth Army's commander.'
0:36:05 > 0:36:07The classic example is Terry Ashwood of Pathe,
0:36:07 > 0:36:11who covers the war in the Western Desert, Italy and Europe.
0:36:11 > 0:36:14Ashwood has a number of films that focus on him as he records the news,
0:36:14 > 0:36:16rather than on the news themselves.
0:36:16 > 0:36:22'The successful wartime cameraman mingles the art of his profession
0:36:22 > 0:36:25'with that of a soldier and a journalist.'
0:36:25 > 0:36:29It's perhaps an early trend towards the celebrity news reporter.
0:36:29 > 0:36:32'A public relations van arrives at a rendezvous.
0:36:32 > 0:36:36'This is the travelling office of the newsreel man.
0:36:36 > 0:36:39'Terry Ashwood settles down to type his report.
0:36:39 > 0:36:43'This information helps your commentator to tell his story.
0:36:43 > 0:36:45'With the help of Jack Simons, the driver,
0:36:45 > 0:36:47'the tins of negative are made ready
0:36:47 > 0:36:49'for a rushed journey to base.'
0:36:49 > 0:36:53He was the most extraordinarily brave cameraman.
0:36:53 > 0:37:00Not very far in front of the camera there is a team searching for mines.
0:37:00 > 0:37:02I gasped when I saw that.
0:37:03 > 0:37:07'To render these deadly things inactive is no picnic.'
0:37:07 > 0:37:10I've filmed mine clearance, behind a tree,
0:37:10 > 0:37:15you know, absolutely squeaking with fear, et cetera.
0:37:15 > 0:37:18But these were mines that had been there for a long time
0:37:18 > 0:37:20and they had an idea where they might be.
0:37:20 > 0:37:22His are men walking down a road.
0:37:22 > 0:37:26What would he have done if one had gone up?
0:37:26 > 0:37:31Oh, you watch that... wow.
0:37:38 > 0:37:41'Never in the history of newsreels have such vast plans
0:37:41 > 0:37:46'been made for the coverage of the last great act of liberation.
0:37:46 > 0:37:49'To bring to the screen, from the first day of our assault
0:37:49 > 0:37:53'on the Western Seaboard of Europe, the history of Allied invasion.'
0:37:53 > 0:37:57D-Day was a precisely planned media event.
0:37:58 > 0:38:02The authorities understood the value of footage of the operation
0:38:02 > 0:38:06and in particular, images of the first troops going ashore.
0:38:06 > 0:38:09'This is it. They're on the beach.
0:38:09 > 0:38:12'Plunging waist-deep into the sea and threading their way
0:38:12 > 0:38:15'among the steel asparagus tops projecting from the water.
0:38:15 > 0:38:18'The anti-invasion barriers, with mines on their tips.'
0:38:18 > 0:38:22But despite their experience on the battlefield, newsreel cameramen
0:38:22 > 0:38:27were not allowed on the front line during the opening hours of D-Day.
0:38:27 > 0:38:30The closest the commercial newsreel cameramen got was
0:38:30 > 0:38:32they could film from the fleet.
0:38:32 > 0:38:36The privilege of filming the most exciting moments,
0:38:36 > 0:38:39right with the first troops, was given to the British Army
0:38:39 > 0:38:42or the US Army Signal Corps.
0:38:46 > 0:38:49'The first casualties are brought out to the waiting ships.
0:38:49 > 0:38:52'Men wounded in the dash inland are ferried to the nearest sick bays
0:38:52 > 0:38:54'aboard vessels standing off shore.'
0:38:54 > 0:38:58The one thing you don't get at D-Day is any sense of the British dead.
0:38:58 > 0:39:02Within British culture, even today, there's a reluctance to show
0:39:02 > 0:39:05dead people, whether they're civilians or soldiers.
0:39:05 > 0:39:09But there's an amazing sequence in a Pathe newsreel item
0:39:09 > 0:39:12shot by Sergeant Taylor, who was the US Signal Corps.
0:39:12 > 0:39:14He's up against the cliff
0:39:14 > 0:39:17and he takes some film of some US soldiers coming up the beach
0:39:17 > 0:39:20and they get shot as they're coming up the beach.
0:39:20 > 0:39:22This is significant. It indicates, firstly,
0:39:22 > 0:39:26the importance of D-Day and I suppose the fact that
0:39:26 > 0:39:30even Pathe couldn't resist something quite as powerful as that moment.
0:39:34 > 0:39:37Questions of what could and what should be shown on screen
0:39:37 > 0:39:43came into urgent focus during the final chapter of the war in Europe.
0:39:45 > 0:39:47When Allied forces entered
0:39:47 > 0:39:50the Belsen and Buchenwald concentration camps,
0:39:50 > 0:39:53they came across harrowing evidence of Nazi atrocities.
0:39:56 > 0:39:59To show this material was going to be a major change
0:39:59 > 0:40:02in all the coverage up until this point.
0:40:02 > 0:40:05In fact, one of the problems the newsreel companies had was,
0:40:05 > 0:40:09because this material was so shocking, was so different
0:40:09 > 0:40:10to anything shown before,
0:40:10 > 0:40:14newsreel heads were concerned that people wouldn't believe it.
0:40:14 > 0:40:17They would actually think that it was fake.
0:40:20 > 0:40:23So what they do is, they authenticate these scenes.
0:40:23 > 0:40:28The Pathe newsreel starts off with Mavis Tate speaking to camera.
0:40:28 > 0:40:31I, as a Member of Parliament, with nine others,
0:40:31 > 0:40:35visited Buchenwald concentration camp.
0:40:35 > 0:40:40Some people believe that reports of what happened there are exaggerated.
0:40:40 > 0:40:46No words could exaggerate. We saw, and we know.
0:40:46 > 0:40:50You will now see a few of the sights we saw.
0:40:50 > 0:40:53Much as they may shock you, do believe me when I tell you
0:40:53 > 0:40:58that the reality was indescribably worse than these pictures.
0:40:58 > 0:41:03Let no-one say these things were never real.
0:41:10 > 0:41:13'Judges from Britain, America, Russia and France
0:41:13 > 0:41:15'assemble in Nuremburg's courthouse,
0:41:15 > 0:41:19'empowered to impose sentence of death, or such punishment
0:41:19 > 0:41:20'as it may consider just,
0:41:20 > 0:41:24'the tribunal sits in judgement upon 20 leaders of the Nazi party.'
0:41:26 > 0:41:31In October, 1945, the world's media converged on the Bavarian city
0:41:31 > 0:41:36of Nuremburg, to report on the first war crimes trial in history.
0:41:36 > 0:41:40'Imagination sickens at the crimes laid upon the accused,
0:41:40 > 0:41:42'now stripped of the trappings of power.
0:41:42 > 0:41:47'The world's writ has run to Nuremburg and justice waits.'
0:41:49 > 0:41:52The year-long Nuremburg trial ended in guilty verdicts.
0:41:55 > 0:42:00Death sentences were pronounced for some of the defendants.
0:42:02 > 0:42:06Pathe, which had screened the graphic proof of Nazi war crimes,
0:42:06 > 0:42:08now had to decide whether to show
0:42:08 > 0:42:12the execution of some of those ultimately responsible.
0:42:12 > 0:42:14'For Pathe News,
0:42:14 > 0:42:18'the execution of 11 Nazis posed the year's most controversial issue.
0:42:18 > 0:42:21'Should we obtain and screen the official film of the hangings?
0:42:21 > 0:42:24'We are fully conscious of the responsibility
0:42:24 > 0:42:26'a newsreel bears in this grave matter.
0:42:26 > 0:42:29'In no other medium could such pictures be placed before you,
0:42:29 > 0:42:33'the men and women who finally condemned the Nazi chiefs.
0:42:33 > 0:42:36'So, in the nation's press and screens, we asked for your opinion.
0:42:36 > 0:42:40'Should we show the pictures of the hangings, or should we not?
0:42:40 > 0:42:45'Of 980 letters addressed to Pathe News, London, 950 said,
0:42:45 > 0:42:48' "You must not screen the execution pictures." '
0:42:50 > 0:42:54This was a striking form of audience participation.
0:42:54 > 0:42:56In a dramatic way,
0:42:56 > 0:43:01Pathe had asked the public to decide the content of its newsreels.
0:43:04 > 0:43:07It signalled a shift in how the company saw itself
0:43:07 > 0:43:09as a news organisation.
0:43:09 > 0:43:11Right at the end of 1945,
0:43:11 > 0:43:15Pathe effectively rebrand the newsreel.
0:43:19 > 0:43:23There's a whole new news team that is introduced to start
0:43:23 > 0:43:27to find a way of differentiating its product.
0:43:29 > 0:43:33They advertise an international network of news provision.
0:43:33 > 0:43:35'Three quite separate companies -
0:43:35 > 0:43:38'Pathe of London, Paris and New York -
0:43:38 > 0:43:41'have agreed to pool their resources and work in close partnership.
0:43:41 > 0:43:44'From now on, wherever news breaks,
0:43:44 > 0:43:47'a Pathe cameraman will be on the spot.'
0:43:47 > 0:43:51But also, the way that they approach some of the stories,
0:43:51 > 0:43:55some of the content, becomes more political.
0:43:55 > 0:43:58'British industry today employs more women
0:43:58 > 0:44:01'than ever before in a country at peace. For them,
0:44:01 > 0:44:06'controversy rages round their claims for equal pay for equal work.
0:44:06 > 0:44:10'Pathe News invites you to join the battle with this opinion poll.'
0:44:10 > 0:44:13Well, I think they're quite entitled to equal pay,
0:44:13 > 0:44:15providing they can do the job.
0:44:15 > 0:44:19Pathe had introduced vox pops as far back as 1940.
0:44:19 > 0:44:22Well, I agree with equal pay for women, because I really believe...
0:44:22 > 0:44:25But they now figured much more prominently,
0:44:25 > 0:44:27with reports constructed around the opinions
0:44:27 > 0:44:31of ordinary men and women on the street.
0:44:31 > 0:44:36Pathe's editorial agenda became more contentious, too,
0:44:36 > 0:44:39tackling issues like equal pay, fuel shortages, strikes,
0:44:39 > 0:44:42the repatriation of POWs.
0:44:44 > 0:44:47'These are German prisoners of war.
0:44:47 > 0:44:49'Their life bounded by a prison cage.
0:44:49 > 0:44:54'There are 385,000 of them in Britain today. Controversy rages around them.
0:44:54 > 0:44:57'Pathe News brings it to the screen.'
0:44:57 > 0:45:01For the first time in newsreel history, the burning issues
0:45:01 > 0:45:05of the day were being dissected and debated on screen.
0:45:05 > 0:45:08There's a period after the Second World War
0:45:08 > 0:45:10when Pathe is on top of the newsreel world.
0:45:10 > 0:45:14It's so slickly, professionally, and persuasively put together.
0:45:14 > 0:45:18It grasps the news agenda, it knows exactly what its audience want.
0:45:18 > 0:45:20It builds on a body of audience trust
0:45:20 > 0:45:22that it's built up over the Second World War.
0:45:22 > 0:45:26- That's what I say.... - Well, there you are!
0:45:26 > 0:45:28Then things slip.
0:45:32 > 0:45:35Many cinema owners didn't like Pathe's new brand
0:45:35 > 0:45:38of social engagement and stylistic experimentation.
0:45:40 > 0:45:43In grey, ration-book Britain,
0:45:43 > 0:45:48they thought their customers wanted to be cheered up, not challenged.
0:45:48 > 0:45:53By 1948, Howard Thomas, who's the producer in chief, is saying,
0:45:53 > 0:45:56"We have to change this, because exhibitors
0:45:56 > 0:46:00"are no longer buying our product, because it's too political."
0:46:00 > 0:46:04'Twice a week, London's rhythm enthusiasts of all ages
0:46:04 > 0:46:06'put on their zoot suits and go to town.'
0:46:14 > 0:46:17With politics and opinion off the agenda,
0:46:17 > 0:46:21Pathe reverted to a successful pre-war formula,
0:46:21 > 0:46:26dominated by fads, football, and film stars.
0:46:26 > 0:46:28'Arrivals at Heathrow.
0:46:28 > 0:46:31'Film star Ingrid Bergman and director, Alfred Hitchcock,
0:46:31 > 0:46:33'come in from Hollywood.
0:46:33 > 0:46:36'Pathe's reporter and Hitch swap jobs. Our reporter directs,
0:46:36 > 0:46:38'and Hitchcock puts the questions.'
0:46:38 > 0:46:41- Is it your first time in England? - No, no.
0:46:41 > 0:46:45- You'll be happy to know I spent my honeymoon in England.- Tell me...
0:46:45 > 0:46:50Pathe had a feel for glamorous stories with wide, popular appeal.
0:46:50 > 0:46:54In the early 1950s, there was one subject and one event,
0:46:54 > 0:46:56which obsessed them more than any other.
0:47:04 > 0:47:08Pathe loved royalty. And so the 1953 coronation
0:47:08 > 0:47:11was the apex of what they wanted to achieve.
0:47:11 > 0:47:14And they brought all the powers to bear on filming this great event.
0:47:14 > 0:47:18'Pathe News is ready for that historic occasion.
0:47:18 > 0:47:21'All set to film the full splendour of the momentous day.'
0:47:26 > 0:47:29'The world's finest equipment will be used,
0:47:29 > 0:47:32'including the largest telephoto lens in the world,
0:47:32 > 0:47:35'and the zoom lens, which cost over £1,000,
0:47:35 > 0:47:39'to bring the complete, magnificent spectacle to this theatre.'
0:47:39 > 0:47:40They filmed in colour,
0:47:40 > 0:47:43showing these events and their true pageantry.
0:47:46 > 0:47:48Pathe absolutely go to town on the coronation.
0:47:51 > 0:47:55The 1953 coronation was a high-water mark for Pathe.
0:47:57 > 0:48:00Its lavish colour film captures a moment
0:48:00 > 0:48:02not just of national importance,
0:48:02 > 0:48:05but of the newsreel's own self-confidence.
0:48:08 > 0:48:13ALL: Long live the Queen! Long live the Queen!
0:48:13 > 0:48:19But this triumph also contained the seeds of Pathe's downfall.
0:48:23 > 0:48:27The coronation marked the coming of age of a new technology - television.
0:48:27 > 0:48:33Sales of TV sets had boomed in the months leading up to the event.
0:48:33 > 0:48:37On the day itself, over half the British population
0:48:37 > 0:48:41watched the BBC broadcast from Westminster Abbey.
0:48:41 > 0:48:46The pictures might have been black and white, but they were live.
0:48:46 > 0:48:49The newsreels go into decline really from the 1950s.
0:48:49 > 0:48:51One of the reasons for this
0:48:51 > 0:48:54is the emergence of television as a rival news medium
0:48:54 > 0:49:00and, crucially, a medium that's able to report live from the scene.
0:49:00 > 0:49:05The coronation is a key event here, where the live television coverage
0:49:05 > 0:49:10trumped the newsreels which took a day or two to get into the cinemas.
0:49:14 > 0:49:17The newsreels weren't the only institution in decline.
0:49:17 > 0:49:20Britain itself was waking up to the fact
0:49:20 > 0:49:23that it was no longer a pre-eminent world power.
0:49:23 > 0:49:28The Suez Canal, never far from the news in its 87 years of history,
0:49:28 > 0:49:31hits the headlines like a bombshell, when without a hint of warning,
0:49:31 > 0:49:33Egypt's premier Colonel Nasser
0:49:33 > 0:49:36announces that his country is taking it over.
0:49:36 > 0:49:42In 1956, Egypt nationalised the British-owned Suez Canal.
0:49:42 > 0:49:45Britain secretly joined forces with France and Israel
0:49:45 > 0:49:48in a plot to seize it back.
0:49:48 > 0:49:52According to the plan, Israel would attack Egypt
0:49:52 > 0:49:55and thereby provide Britain and France
0:49:55 > 0:49:59with a pretext to move in as international peacekeepers.
0:49:59 > 0:50:01'After weeks of stalemate,
0:50:01 > 0:50:04'the Suez crisis bursts dramatically into the news again,
0:50:04 > 0:50:07'for Israel has invaded Egypt.
0:50:07 > 0:50:09'Britain and France have declared the canal in danger
0:50:09 > 0:50:13'and British and French troops are on the move.'
0:50:13 > 0:50:17The Pathe coverage of the Suez crisis is jaw-dropping.
0:50:17 > 0:50:19'Landing craft bring the army ashore
0:50:19 > 0:50:21'and there is little resistance.
0:50:21 > 0:50:23'The docks are soon in allied hands
0:50:23 > 0:50:27'and unloading goes on almost as smoothly as a peacetime exercise.'
0:50:27 > 0:50:32This is pretty much pure propaganda from Pathe.
0:50:32 > 0:50:37All ambiguities, all question marks pushed to one side.
0:50:37 > 0:50:41It absolutely states that the British, like the French,
0:50:41 > 0:50:44were going in to separate the combatants and bring peace.
0:50:44 > 0:50:46This was complete nonsense.
0:50:46 > 0:50:51MUSIC: "Land Of Hope And Glory" by Edward Elgar
0:50:51 > 0:50:54The Suez crisis ended in humiliation for Britain.
0:50:54 > 0:50:59It marked not just the end of an empire, but of an attitude.
0:51:00 > 0:51:05The newsreels and the patriotic certainties they'd always expressed
0:51:05 > 0:51:08suddenly felt drastically out of date.
0:51:08 > 0:51:11By the 1950s, with the decline of Britain,
0:51:11 > 0:51:14the disintegration of the British Empire,
0:51:14 > 0:51:19that narrative of Britishness, of British national achievement,
0:51:19 > 0:51:22that was very much a project of all the newsreels in the 1930s and 1940s,
0:51:22 > 0:51:25is really no longer so relevant to modern society.
0:51:28 > 0:51:33For Pathe and the other newsreels, this was a perfect storm.
0:51:33 > 0:51:36Their credibility was in question.
0:51:36 > 0:51:39Cinema-going was in freefall.
0:51:41 > 0:51:44TV had stolen the newsreel's audience.
0:51:47 > 0:51:51Pathe needed to find something, anything,
0:51:51 > 0:51:54that would catch the customer's eye.
0:52:02 > 0:52:06'This is Soho, catering for all tastes, low included.
0:52:06 > 0:52:07'Even the cats are a bit furtive.'
0:52:09 > 0:52:12An investigation into council licensing laws
0:52:12 > 0:52:16somehow involved showing a surprising amount of naked flesh.
0:52:16 > 0:52:20'The highlight of the show at most of these clubs is the striptease,
0:52:20 > 0:52:24'the item over which some councillors lift a doubting eyebrow.
0:52:24 > 0:52:27'Under existing regulations, it's all perfectly legal.'
0:52:30 > 0:52:32They did try to move with the times
0:52:32 > 0:52:36and were getting a bit more daring towards the end of the 1950s.
0:52:39 > 0:52:41'Don't copy this technique, girls,
0:52:41 > 0:52:44'unless you have central heating in your bedroom.'
0:52:44 > 0:52:47They were going in for a little bit of titillation,
0:52:47 > 0:52:51so they weren't immune to sex as something to sell the product.
0:52:51 > 0:52:55'There's a garage in East Ham
0:52:55 > 0:52:58'served by some of the fastest girls in the business.'
0:52:58 > 0:53:01Cheeky, cheerful Pathe found plenty of new material
0:53:01 > 0:53:04as the '60s began to swing,
0:53:04 > 0:53:06but it wasn't exactly hard news.
0:53:06 > 0:53:09TV had already put Universal,
0:53:09 > 0:53:12Paramount and Gaumont out of business.
0:53:12 > 0:53:13Ouch!
0:53:13 > 0:53:17For a while at least, Pathe just kept on smiling.
0:53:17 > 0:53:21'Trouble under the bonnet? They'll get to the root of the matter.'
0:53:21 > 0:53:26From the early '60s onwards, Pathe becomes far more magazine-oriented
0:53:26 > 0:53:29and it concentrates on different kinds of stories,
0:53:29 > 0:53:34stories for their visual attractiveness, their quirkiness.
0:53:34 > 0:53:38So newsreel comes to be associated with the oddities of life
0:53:38 > 0:53:40rather than its realities.
0:53:40 > 0:53:43Nobody has the heart to point out to the six-year-old mongrel
0:53:43 > 0:53:47that her tree-climbing exploits are not really what is expected of her.
0:53:47 > 0:53:49So, much to the chagrin of her chums,
0:53:49 > 0:53:52Bessie heads higher into the foliage
0:53:52 > 0:53:55for a look at the world from the bird kingdom.
0:53:55 > 0:53:59But Pathe hadn't completely given up on serious journalism.
0:53:59 > 0:54:02Despite the dominance of television
0:54:02 > 0:54:05and the rise of global news agencies,
0:54:05 > 0:54:08it still attempted to reflect the big issues of the day.
0:54:13 > 0:54:14In the late 1960s,
0:54:14 > 0:54:19shocking images of mass starvation appeared on British TV screens.
0:54:24 > 0:54:28Civil war in Nigeria had led to a humanitarian crisis.
0:54:32 > 0:54:36As the Biafra emergency lurched towards its agonising conclusion,
0:54:36 > 0:54:38cash-strapped Pathe
0:54:38 > 0:54:41tried to bring the story to the British cinema audience.
0:54:43 > 0:54:48If you were looking at the coverage of Biafra, January 1970,
0:54:48 > 0:54:54in television and within the cinema, what you would see from Pathe
0:54:54 > 0:54:57is a very short black and white item from RAF Lyneham.
0:54:57 > 0:55:00'An Air Force Hercules jet transporter plane,
0:55:00 > 0:55:04'loaded with life-saving drugs and equipment, stood ready for take-off.
0:55:04 > 0:55:08'Its destination was to have been Biafra.
0:55:08 > 0:55:10'Britain is ready to rush supplies
0:55:10 > 0:55:13'to that tragic, defeated land, but the plane remained grounded.'
0:55:15 > 0:55:19But that evening you would get, if you had a colour television set,
0:55:19 > 0:55:26colour reports from Biafra and there is no comparison between the two.
0:55:26 > 0:55:29Pathe is still pursuing the format
0:55:29 > 0:55:33of the commentator telling you how awful the situation is,
0:55:33 > 0:55:36but as far as television is concerned,
0:55:36 > 0:55:38you have a reporter out there,
0:55:38 > 0:55:42telling you about the situation on the ground.
0:55:42 > 0:55:461,000 tons of relief supplies stockpiled here already.
0:55:46 > 0:55:49Another 1,500 tons expected in the next few days.
0:55:53 > 0:55:55The emergency in Biafra
0:55:55 > 0:55:59exposed Pathe's limitations as a modern news organisation.
0:56:02 > 0:56:06No longer able to send its own news cameramen to international hotspots,
0:56:06 > 0:56:10it couldn't compete with television.
0:56:10 > 0:56:13The end was now in sight.
0:56:13 > 0:56:15COCKEREL CROWS
0:56:15 > 0:56:20In February 1970, British Pathe ceased newsreel production.
0:56:25 > 0:56:29Pathe had been in existence for 60 years,
0:56:29 > 0:56:31longer than any other newsreel company.
0:56:33 > 0:56:34During that time,
0:56:34 > 0:56:38it amassed an extraordinary library of film footage.
0:56:38 > 0:56:42With more than 90,000 individual items,
0:56:42 > 0:56:46the Pathe archive is one of the most important visual records
0:56:46 > 0:56:49of our shared national history.
0:56:49 > 0:56:51You have to hugely admire
0:56:51 > 0:56:55these pioneering cameramen and, indeed, reporters.
0:56:56 > 0:56:58They were the first to take these cameras
0:56:58 > 0:57:01and try to get them to where things were happening.
0:57:01 > 0:57:04They took big risks and worked very hard.
0:57:04 > 0:57:07They produced extraordinary films.
0:57:08 > 0:57:10Television may have superseded newsreels,
0:57:10 > 0:57:14but only by emulating the achievements and ingenuity
0:57:14 > 0:57:17of Pathe's pioneering production teams.
0:57:17 > 0:57:21TV news started with a lot of cameramen who had been on newsreels
0:57:21 > 0:57:23and boy, did they know how to do it!
0:57:25 > 0:57:27They were craftsmen
0:57:27 > 0:57:31and however hectic, however urgent, however difficult the circumstances,
0:57:31 > 0:57:36even under fire, a good number of them knew how to frame a shot.
0:57:36 > 0:57:38They knew what they were going for.
0:57:38 > 0:57:42They knew what the audience needed to concentrate on.
0:57:42 > 0:57:46Pathe's trailblazers invented visual news.
0:57:47 > 0:57:49I think it's impossible
0:57:49 > 0:57:53to understand the news that we see on our television screens today
0:57:53 > 0:57:56without an understanding of the newsreels.
0:57:57 > 0:58:00Pathe developed many of the techniques and formats
0:58:00 > 0:58:03that remain part of the grammar of all broadcast news.
0:58:05 > 0:58:09From vox pops to on-screen reporters
0:58:09 > 0:58:12to the multi-item bulletin itself,
0:58:12 > 0:58:16Pathe created the template for today's TV news.
0:58:16 > 0:58:18The Pathe people were groundbreakers
0:58:18 > 0:58:22and anybody involved in television news
0:58:22 > 0:58:24stands on their shoulders these days.
0:58:39 > 0:58:41Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd