0:00:03 > 0:00:07- NARRATOR:- 'Name the faraway place and Pathe pictorial's been there.
0:00:07 > 0:00:10'You can't get much farther away than this,
0:00:10 > 0:00:14'the Jhelum River in remote Kashmir, Punjab country,
0:00:14 > 0:00:17'where the only road that exists is this waterway,
0:00:17 > 0:00:19'this is the country's floating marketplace.'
0:00:20 > 0:00:23For more than 60 years the newsreel company Pathe
0:00:23 > 0:00:27captivated British cinemagoers by distributing film travelogues
0:00:27 > 0:00:32that featured ravishing images from all over the world.
0:00:34 > 0:00:37There was no question many people's window on the world
0:00:37 > 0:00:40was what they saw in the cine-magazines and in the newsreels.
0:00:40 > 0:00:44It must have given them this kind of visual encyclopaedia of the world.
0:00:46 > 0:00:53Throughout its history, Pathe's intrepid cameramen captured how people lived, worked and played.
0:00:53 > 0:00:57Their anthropological films and sumptuous travelogues
0:00:57 > 0:00:59represent a unique record
0:00:59 > 0:01:01of everyday life across the globe.
0:01:03 > 0:01:07It was very exotic, it was very different.
0:01:07 > 0:01:11The cinema was a place of adventure and imagination
0:01:11 > 0:01:13and a place of magic, we mustn't forget that.
0:01:13 > 0:01:16The films conjured up a world
0:01:16 > 0:01:19of remoteness such as you read about in Kipling.
0:01:22 > 0:01:25At the heart of Pathe's output was their portrait of the British Empire.
0:01:25 > 0:01:28Recording the pomp and pageantry of Royal tours
0:01:28 > 0:01:31as well as the intimate detail of everyday life,
0:01:31 > 0:01:33their films offer fascinating insights
0:01:33 > 0:01:36into British attitudes to the outside world.
0:01:36 > 0:01:42There was a very great attachment to Britain and a sense of pride, you know.
0:01:42 > 0:01:47They were imbued with British and English culture, so where else to go
0:01:47 > 0:01:50but the mother country, the centre of the Empire?
0:01:50 > 0:01:54Pathe's cameras captured the turning points of a tumultuous century,
0:01:54 > 0:01:57bringing to British audiences dramatic pictures
0:01:57 > 0:02:01of events that were transforming lives and changing history.
0:02:07 > 0:02:10It is very important to document what you've done,
0:02:10 > 0:02:12these wonderful moments in people's lives.
0:02:36 > 0:02:38Early cinema audiences
0:02:38 > 0:02:41were fascinated to see images of faraway lands,
0:02:41 > 0:02:44and for Pathe, the travelogues quickly became
0:02:44 > 0:02:47a mainstay of the company's early output.
0:02:52 > 0:02:56Before the cinema was invented, those intrigued by foreign cultures
0:02:56 > 0:02:58would attend lectures illustrated
0:02:58 > 0:03:02with colour slides projected by a device known as a magic lantern.
0:03:04 > 0:03:07Magic lanterns were the biggest form of entertainment
0:03:07 > 0:03:11all over the world in the late 19th century.
0:03:11 > 0:03:13You could pop round to your local church hall
0:03:13 > 0:03:16or theatre and you could see a journey,
0:03:16 > 0:03:18you could be taken on a journey by somebody you knew.
0:03:18 > 0:03:23It's not very different from travel today where you get a guide showing you round.
0:03:23 > 0:03:27The appetite for this kind of armchair travel shouldn't be underestimated.
0:03:27 > 0:03:31I mean, there were hundreds of thousands of homes that had their own lanterns.
0:03:31 > 0:03:33So, in a way,
0:03:33 > 0:03:37early cinema had to prove that it could do the job as well.
0:03:40 > 0:03:44But the pioneers of cinema had an advantage over
0:03:44 > 0:03:47the rudimentary projection of the magic lanterns.
0:03:47 > 0:03:49The film camera's ability to capture movement
0:03:49 > 0:03:54made Pathe's early travelogues irresistible for audiences.
0:04:10 > 0:04:12They are like a series of picture postcards.
0:04:12 > 0:04:16That's very much the instructions the cameraman would have been given.
0:04:16 > 0:04:19Go to such and such city, here are the four or five highlights,
0:04:19 > 0:04:22make sure that you actually got the views.
0:04:22 > 0:04:25A lot of it is about what was most visually significant,
0:04:25 > 0:04:28that people would say, oh, Paris, it's the Eiffel Tower,
0:04:28 > 0:04:30it's London, it's Buckingham Palace.
0:04:30 > 0:04:33A more common subject, really,
0:04:33 > 0:04:38was the lure of the exotic East, or somewhere in the colonies.
0:04:38 > 0:04:41Pathe of course were producing for a worldwide audience,
0:04:41 > 0:04:44they had a network of branches around the world.
0:04:44 > 0:04:47So very often they could hire a local cameraman to go and shoot something
0:04:47 > 0:04:51that would then be sent back to head office and turned into a film,
0:04:51 > 0:04:54which could be shown in Britain or in America.
0:04:54 > 0:04:57From its inception, Pathe was an ambitious company.
0:04:57 > 0:05:01Surprisingly early in its history and ahead of its competitors,
0:05:01 > 0:05:04its founders pushed the boundaries of cinematic technology,
0:05:04 > 0:05:06to achieve astonishing results.
0:05:11 > 0:05:18As early as 1905, Pathe adapted methods that had been used to produce images for magic lanterns,
0:05:18 > 0:05:20and brought colour to moving pictures.
0:05:20 > 0:05:22Often, their choice of subject was ideal
0:05:22 > 0:05:26for creating groundbreaking special effects,
0:05:26 > 0:05:31as with this adaptation of the exotic tale, Ali Baba And The Forty Thieves.
0:05:40 > 0:05:45Colour was one of the things that early film really lusted after.
0:05:45 > 0:05:50Now, this isn't colour that comes through the emulsion on the film, it's applied - painted colour.
0:05:50 > 0:05:55It was incredibly expensive, you had to pay somebody to colour each frame.
0:05:55 > 0:05:59It's quite bright, could be very bright indeed.
0:05:59 > 0:06:01And of course it didn't pick out all the details,
0:06:01 > 0:06:03but it was very striking,
0:06:03 > 0:06:06so what people were seeing when they saw a Pathe coloured film
0:06:06 > 0:06:09was a very vivid representation of the world, moving and in colour.
0:06:12 > 0:06:14In the first two decades of its operations,
0:06:14 > 0:06:16Pathe steadily expanded its repertoire,
0:06:16 > 0:06:20bringing a wonderful array of vibrant images to British audiences,
0:06:20 > 0:06:24showing everything from the lives of weavers in Spain
0:06:24 > 0:06:27and fishermen in Sicily, to the traders
0:06:27 > 0:06:29plying wares in the bustling bazaars of the East.
0:06:29 > 0:06:34But experiments with special effects and colour were costly,
0:06:34 > 0:06:37and the bulk of Pathe's output remained in black and white.
0:06:39 > 0:06:44In the early years, there was one subject which dominated the British newsreels.
0:06:46 > 0:06:49Cinemagoers avidly consumed news of the Royal Family,
0:06:49 > 0:06:52in particular, their activities abroad.
0:06:55 > 0:07:01In 1911, Pathe followed the Royals to India when they were attending the Delhi Durbar,
0:07:01 > 0:07:04a celebration of the coronation of King George V.
0:07:05 > 0:07:11Thousands turned out to catch a glimpse of Britain's King and Queen, the Emperor and Empress of India.
0:07:15 > 0:07:18It showed the East as this sort of exotic place
0:07:18 > 0:07:21where bizarre and wonderful things happened,
0:07:21 > 0:07:24and there's really no attempt to explain this
0:07:24 > 0:07:25but it just looked great.
0:07:25 > 0:07:30The Royals themselves saw the potential of the newsreel camera and journalism
0:07:30 > 0:07:35and how it could extend their authority as rulers of the British Empire.
0:07:37 > 0:07:40This was the beginning of a long-standing relationship
0:07:40 > 0:07:43between the Pathe cameras and the British monarchy.
0:07:43 > 0:07:47From the deserts of Africa to the snows of Canada,
0:07:47 > 0:07:51generations of Royals would be filmed as they traversed Britain's global Empire.
0:07:55 > 0:08:01Pathe followed the Prince of Wales on a worldwide tour that began in 1919.
0:08:01 > 0:08:06Wherever he went, he was faced by cheering crowds and elaborate ceremonies.
0:08:08 > 0:08:11There's a wonderful irony - we see the Prince of Wales
0:08:11 > 0:08:15being greeted and welcomed everywhere, and with great enthusiasm,
0:08:15 > 0:08:18he shakes so many hands that he is unable to use his right hand.
0:08:18 > 0:08:22You can see him shaking hands with his left hand frequently.
0:08:22 > 0:08:25But actually, he's loathing this experience.
0:08:25 > 0:08:27We know from his diaries how much he disliked these tours
0:08:27 > 0:08:30and tried to get out of them as far as possible.
0:08:32 > 0:08:36Such expeditions created a vogue among the well-heeled
0:08:36 > 0:08:39to follow in the footsteps of the Royals, and travel abroad.
0:08:42 > 0:08:44At the same time, advances in aviation
0:08:44 > 0:08:48opened a world of new possibilities for the enthusiastic tourist.
0:08:51 > 0:08:55There is this sense that the world becomes a smaller place
0:08:55 > 0:08:59because the technology, particularly with aeroplanes, allows you
0:08:59 > 0:09:01to go far greater distances.
0:09:01 > 0:09:06You get pictures that you wouldn't have seen before.
0:09:09 > 0:09:14One of the most exclusive destinations visited by the early jetsetters
0:09:14 > 0:09:18was well within reach - the French seaside resort of Deauville.
0:09:32 > 0:09:38Deauville was a very elite, selective area in which you could do horse racing
0:09:38 > 0:09:39and visit the beach.
0:09:39 > 0:09:43So it was very exclusive. This was saying to the audience,
0:09:43 > 0:09:48this is how a certain sector of our own society spends its time
0:09:48 > 0:09:52and it isn't in this country, it's in another country.
0:09:59 > 0:10:04Interest in foreign travel was by no means the sole preserve of the wealthy.
0:10:04 > 0:10:10A new generation of adventurers took advantage of the increased mobility of the age
0:10:10 > 0:10:14by journeying into the wilds by car, boat or even motorcycle.
0:10:14 > 0:10:18Pathe's cameras followed these two bikers as they ascended 8,000 feet
0:10:18 > 0:10:22to the summit of Mount Brevent near Chamonix, in southern France.
0:10:22 > 0:10:26When you think about how long ago these clips were made
0:10:26 > 0:10:31and the shock at some of the places and things these adventurers were looking at
0:10:31 > 0:10:35and sharing with the audience, it must have been fascinating to watch.
0:10:35 > 0:10:40What's lovely about all these old Pathe films is how they must have inspired people.
0:10:40 > 0:10:42You can imagine how many hordes of people
0:10:42 > 0:10:44must have travelled because of watching these clips.
0:10:44 > 0:10:47That's kind of exciting, isn't it?!
0:10:50 > 0:10:56People are interested that you have a camera so they come and talk to you, so it opens up doors.
0:10:56 > 0:10:59There's a real inquisitiveness there and, in a lot of places,
0:10:59 > 0:11:02they are just interested in what's going on in the village before,
0:11:02 > 0:11:07so if you are a traveller, you need to be able to spread a little gossip with you.
0:11:10 > 0:11:15In 1924, Pathe followed the exploits of an even more intrepid adventurer,
0:11:15 > 0:11:19when the writer and soldier Major Francis Forbes-Leith
0:11:19 > 0:11:22embarked on an expedition by car from Britain to India.
0:11:22 > 0:11:28A seasoned traveller who'd journeyed extensively throughout Persia during the First World War,
0:11:28 > 0:11:31Forbes-Leith took along a cameraman and a diarist
0:11:31 > 0:11:34as he drove across Europe, Turkey and Persia,
0:11:34 > 0:11:39before finally arriving at Quetta, in modern-day Pakistan.
0:11:41 > 0:11:44Major Forbes-Leith really does experience the whole spirit of adventure,
0:11:44 > 0:11:49right from people helping him to drag him out, to donkeys,
0:11:49 > 0:11:51over mountains, deserts,
0:11:51 > 0:11:55to go off on his adventure and come back and tell the world.
0:12:26 > 0:12:31When you see his adventures, they are not that far away from what people like to do now,
0:12:31 > 0:12:34programmes like Top Gear and the Dakar Rally.
0:12:34 > 0:12:38People like to get down and dirty and have their adventure
0:12:38 > 0:12:42and maybe not wash for a couple of days - that's always nice.
0:12:42 > 0:12:49It certainly makes the shower you have three or four days later much nicer. You certainly appreciate it.
0:12:58 > 0:13:05Forbes-Leith covered 8,527 miles in just over five months.
0:13:05 > 0:13:09According to his diary, the car suffered only two punctures.
0:13:16 > 0:13:19Pathe's camera crews travelled ever further
0:13:19 > 0:13:23as they sought to satisfy the appetites of British cinemagoers
0:13:23 > 0:13:25for images of unfamiliar people and places.
0:13:25 > 0:13:29In 1929, audiences were gripped by this film,
0:13:29 > 0:13:33recording a journey through the island of Borneo.
0:13:33 > 0:13:37The expedition brought the film crew into close contact with a then unknown tribe,
0:13:37 > 0:13:42a people inaccurately described in the film as "pygmy cannibals".
0:13:44 > 0:13:46Some of those images are incredibly ethnographic,
0:13:46 > 0:13:48the actual raw footage is fantastic.
0:13:48 > 0:13:51They really were the explorers of the 20th century.
0:13:51 > 0:13:54They were going there intrepidly,
0:13:54 > 0:13:58getting the shots and finding ways of getting it back to Europe.
0:13:58 > 0:14:00They are very rare and valuable images now,
0:14:00 > 0:14:04even though they might have been compounded into something
0:14:04 > 0:14:06which is a bit crass in the way it's presented.
0:14:06 > 0:14:09Let's say you're seeing a tribal group sitting down
0:14:09 > 0:14:14to an unappetising-looking meal and the title would say something like, not quite like tea at the Ritz.
0:14:14 > 0:14:18But it is a way of making a connection with audience.
0:14:19 > 0:14:23These intriguing and occasionally shocking images were very different
0:14:23 > 0:14:26from what people had grown to expect to see at the cinema.
0:14:26 > 0:14:30The appeal of ethnographic films encouraged Pathe's film-makers
0:14:30 > 0:14:33to journey to ever more remote corners of the world.
0:14:33 > 0:14:37In the early 1930s, they travelled into the Australian outback,
0:14:37 > 0:14:40to study the lives of the Aboriginal peoples.
0:14:40 > 0:14:42Entitled The Stone Age Men Of Australia,
0:14:42 > 0:14:47this film follows the work of a group of anthropologists from the University of Adelaide.
0:14:47 > 0:14:50'Many of these natives have never seen a white man,
0:14:50 > 0:14:53'and bolted when the aeroplane landed.
0:14:54 > 0:14:58'Little do they realise they are going to be measured and studied
0:14:58 > 0:15:02'to satisfy the ends of science the world over.
0:15:02 > 0:15:08'To create a friendly atmosphere, a glossary of names is taken by means of signs.
0:15:08 > 0:15:13'He now becomes a numbered specimen and measurements are taken of his head.
0:15:13 > 0:15:17'The skin having been washed, very necessary, is then matched for colour.
0:15:17 > 0:15:21'No this is not the fingerprint department. Impressions of the hand
0:15:21 > 0:15:25'are being taken in an endeavour to place the Aboriginal's position
0:15:25 > 0:15:28'in a relative scale of human development.
0:15:28 > 0:15:32'The Abo's ability to draw is not even elementary,
0:15:32 > 0:15:35'but on the other hand, being born trackers,
0:15:35 > 0:15:39'they are able to copy tracks in the sand with a few deft movements of the fingers.'
0:15:39 > 0:15:42It makes you cringe now when you see these films
0:15:42 > 0:15:45and you hear them these terms like "Abo" being used about peoples.
0:15:45 > 0:15:47You hear they can't draw and yet
0:15:47 > 0:15:51Aboriginal art today is highly prized.
0:15:51 > 0:15:54Crude assessments.
0:15:54 > 0:15:56You might almost call it colonialism by camera.
0:15:56 > 0:16:00You can see the camera capturing subject peoples.
0:16:00 > 0:16:03Equally disquieting is a Pathe film that followed
0:16:03 > 0:16:07the work of missionaries on Australia's Bathurst Island.
0:16:07 > 0:16:10Belonging to series called Antipodes Calling,
0:16:10 > 0:16:14it features a commentary that reveals much about some of the attitudes of the time.
0:16:14 > 0:16:18'A jewel set in Australia's northern seas is Bathurst Island.
0:16:18 > 0:16:22'It's inhabited by a people who's instincts are not far removed from the lower animals.
0:16:22 > 0:16:25'White missionaries have come among the coloured Aboriginals
0:16:25 > 0:16:29'and are doing noble work in saving the blacks from themselves.
0:16:29 > 0:16:33'Where once fear and superstition reigned, there's hope and a new purpose.
0:16:33 > 0:16:36'The youngsters are beginning to live.'
0:16:36 > 0:16:40It's all to do with the feeling of racial superiority,
0:16:40 > 0:16:43which was at the nub of our imperial life,
0:16:43 > 0:16:48in which the white man was bearing his burden,
0:16:48 > 0:16:54fulfilling his role, as a bearer of civilisation to the benighted heathen.
0:16:54 > 0:16:57We had, we thought, a kind of God-given gift
0:16:57 > 0:17:01for governing lesser breeds without the laws, as Kipling called them.
0:17:05 > 0:17:10'A tinkling summons to the mission church rings out on the sun-drenched tropic air
0:17:10 > 0:17:13'and the children whose lives have been diverted
0:17:13 > 0:17:17'from the strange practices of the heathen come to worship.
0:17:17 > 0:17:22'The darkness of ignorance has been banished by the bright light of faith.'
0:17:24 > 0:17:27By contrast, on the other side of the world,
0:17:27 > 0:17:33Pathe took a more enlightened approach to their portrayal of the Inuit people of the Arctic circle.
0:17:34 > 0:17:39'I am captain Bob Bartlett, owner and skipper of the Little Morrissey.
0:17:39 > 0:17:43'She's now getting ready to shove off for a trip to the Arctic region,
0:17:43 > 0:17:49'to gather scientific data and to show the strange life in this mysterious land.'
0:17:51 > 0:17:55The Canadian explorer and navigator Captain Robert Bartlett
0:17:55 > 0:17:58spent most of his life mapping and studying the Arctic.
0:17:58 > 0:18:02He led more than 40 expeditions to the region,
0:18:02 > 0:18:05spanning more than half a century.
0:18:05 > 0:18:09In the 1930s, Bartlett ventured into documentary film-making.
0:18:09 > 0:18:13Pathe's cameras accompanied him aboard his ship, the Little Morrissey.
0:18:13 > 0:18:16In the new age of sound cinema
0:18:16 > 0:18:20his charming character was perfectly suited to the role of presenter.
0:18:20 > 0:18:24'Soon, we'll be in the Arctic's best hunting ground,
0:18:24 > 0:18:27'the north-east coast of Greenland.
0:18:27 > 0:18:33'When we get there, we will see some real wildlife in the far north.
0:18:33 > 0:18:35'Come aboard for the trip.'
0:18:35 > 0:18:41The expedition film-makers like Bob Bartlett found that sound cinema was a gift
0:18:41 > 0:18:44because instead of this succession of mute images
0:18:44 > 0:18:47more or less accompanied by the orchestra or pianist,
0:18:47 > 0:18:50they could actually personalise them, tell a story.
0:18:50 > 0:18:51'We anchor off the beach
0:18:51 > 0:18:55'where the Eskimo had hauled in a couple of unlucky narwhal.
0:18:55 > 0:18:59'The meat tastes just like chicken.
0:18:59 > 0:19:04'The natives are so hungry that they are rolling the fattest one up
0:19:04 > 0:19:09'to where they can cut themselves a nice helping of raw narwhal steak.
0:19:09 > 0:19:14'Even the kiddies are wild about it. Look at that knife!
0:19:14 > 0:19:19'That explains why all Eskimo have small noses!'
0:19:20 > 0:19:25Its fascinating to watch, the Bob Bartlett clips. He's got this great voice,
0:19:25 > 0:19:28and he leaves each clip on a cliff-hanger so that you want to go back.
0:19:28 > 0:19:32'My little schooner Morrissey is jammed fast in the ice pack.
0:19:32 > 0:19:38'We are now making our last attempt to force the barrier by using dynamite.
0:19:38 > 0:19:41'If it works, we will reach the Greenland coast.
0:19:41 > 0:19:43'If it doesn't, it is just too bad.
0:19:44 > 0:19:47'My men run to safety!
0:19:47 > 0:19:52'I give the signal and off go 25 plugs of dynamite.
0:19:52 > 0:19:56'The ice cracks and we start moving through the lee.'
0:19:56 > 0:20:03No-one remembers the easy days, but everybody remembers the bits where you had to go through rivers
0:20:03 > 0:20:06and you crashed, and that's the same for Bob Bartlett.
0:20:06 > 0:20:09That's what people want to see.
0:20:09 > 0:20:15'On our way, we run smack into a storm of wind which rips the ocean into fury.
0:20:15 > 0:20:20'My staunch Little Morrissey buries her gunnels as she heels over.
0:20:20 > 0:20:23'Sailing closed haul with my rails awash,
0:20:23 > 0:20:26'I keep her headed for Reykjavik, our only haven.'
0:20:29 > 0:20:35By 1933, Pathe had established a global network of distribution agencies.
0:20:35 > 0:20:39This allowed the company to produce a series entitled Round The World,
0:20:39 > 0:20:43made in conjunction with a cruise liner, the Empress of Britain.
0:20:43 > 0:20:47'Well, we're off on a world cruise now, bound across the Atlantic
0:20:47 > 0:20:52'to the Mediterranean ports through the Suez Canal to India
0:20:52 > 0:20:56'then on to Java, China, Japan.
0:20:56 > 0:20:59'Across the Pacific, back to the American continent,
0:20:59 > 0:21:02'through the Panama Canal, returning to New York.
0:21:02 > 0:21:04'And I know we are going to have a jolly fine time.'
0:21:06 > 0:21:09Pathe's film crews stopped off at destinations along the route,
0:21:09 > 0:21:15making films that offered audiences at home sights and sounds from across the globe.
0:21:17 > 0:21:24A single episode could introduce the audience to dancers performing a tarantella in Italy...
0:21:24 > 0:21:27and men worshipping at the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem.
0:21:27 > 0:21:31To keep their audiences excited about future instalments,
0:21:31 > 0:21:32at the end of each episode,
0:21:32 > 0:21:36Pathe offered viewers a taste of where their cameras were going next.
0:21:36 > 0:21:40This film concluded with footage from Egypt, showing the dance of the whirling dervish.
0:21:40 > 0:21:42'Banned by the authorities of Egypt
0:21:42 > 0:21:47'the dancing dervishes often perform the dkihr ceremony, their famous whirling dance
0:21:47 > 0:21:50'in the seclusion of the desert. It's their main ceremony,
0:21:50 > 0:21:55'an emotional chant and movement which continues until the chief dancer
0:21:55 > 0:21:57'works himself into sort of a cataleptic state.
0:21:57 > 0:22:02'The dance is approaching his climax and if the dancer is disturbed now it's likely to mean his death!
0:22:06 > 0:22:10'It's a great life if you don't weaken or slip!'
0:22:13 > 0:22:16The series enabled Pathe to thrill audiences
0:22:16 > 0:22:20with previously unheard sounds from far-off places,
0:22:20 > 0:22:23and allowed them to show off the technical skills of their camera crews,
0:22:23 > 0:22:27as with this daring footage of acrobatic surfers in Hawaii.
0:22:37 > 0:22:40Being a film cameraman was a pretty dangerous business.
0:22:40 > 0:22:45I mean, you really were out there with equipment which was quite rugged
0:22:45 > 0:22:49but it needed looking after, and you had to be absolutely self-contained.
0:22:49 > 0:22:53It was a small, tight unit, and the cameraman did everything.
0:22:58 > 0:23:03Pathe's film-makers often tried to find innovative and playful approaches to their stories,
0:23:03 > 0:23:09such as in this 1937 film from the Solomon Isles.
0:23:09 > 0:23:13'Shush, someone comes. He's a tribal chief in full war paint,
0:23:13 > 0:23:15'one of the fiercest and bravest of dusky warriors.
0:23:15 > 0:23:20'He wants to say something, but of course you won't understand the language.'
0:23:20 > 0:23:22How do you do everybody?
0:23:22 > 0:23:3135 years ago, my grandfather was one of the great head-hunters in the islands, and also my father.
0:23:31 > 0:23:37By the coming of the Methodist missionaries in the Solomon Islands 35 years ago,
0:23:37 > 0:23:41they show us a new life of civilisation
0:23:41 > 0:23:47and we are able to sing and to play games
0:23:47 > 0:23:49and also to play musical instruments.
0:23:53 > 0:24:00In the 1930s, when these films were made, the British Empire covered a quarter of the globe.
0:24:00 > 0:24:03For the most part, Pathe's film-makers
0:24:03 > 0:24:06were enthusiastic champions of Britain's imperial ambitions.
0:24:06 > 0:24:11Several films show how the Empire imposed British culture and values on the colonies,
0:24:11 > 0:24:17and demonstrate how commercial opportunities were being exploited by British settlers.
0:24:18 > 0:24:20# Picture me upon your knee
0:24:20 > 0:24:24# Tea for two and two for tea
0:24:24 > 0:24:27# Me for you and you for me
0:24:27 > 0:24:29# Alone! #
0:24:30 > 0:24:35Produced in 1931, a silent film entitled The Story Of India Tea
0:24:35 > 0:24:39describes the process of growing, harvesting and exporting
0:24:39 > 0:24:42one of the nation's favourite beverages.
0:24:42 > 0:24:45But when they examined the lives of India's tea-pickers,
0:24:45 > 0:24:48the film-makers were economical with the truth.
0:24:50 > 0:24:57The British tried their best to demonstrate that, whereas other empires were exploitative and so on,
0:24:57 > 0:25:00the British Empire really stood for freedom,
0:25:00 > 0:25:04it was the greatest thing since the Roman Empire
0:25:04 > 0:25:08and it was going to go on in perpetuity.
0:25:12 > 0:25:14The films give the impression that it's all marvellous
0:25:14 > 0:25:18and the white overseers and the black workers live in perfect harmony,
0:25:18 > 0:25:21which gave a very misleading impression of the reality.
0:25:21 > 0:25:23This is indentured labour.
0:25:23 > 0:25:27People called coolie-catchers were sent out to round up poor people
0:25:27 > 0:25:31to have them sign up to documents they don't understand
0:25:31 > 0:25:35and then they're transported almost like slaves to the tea plantations,
0:25:35 > 0:25:38which is one of the great scandals of the British Empire.
0:25:38 > 0:25:41I don't think there's any realisation from the cinema audience
0:25:41 > 0:25:45that what they are seeing is anything but what appears on the screen.
0:25:45 > 0:25:48They're unaware of the reality of this exploitation.
0:25:48 > 0:25:51By the time Pathe's film on the tea industry was made,
0:25:51 > 0:25:53opposition to Empire was intensifying,
0:25:53 > 0:25:59and Mahatma Gandhi's campaign for civil disobedience was gaining ground.
0:25:59 > 0:26:03Everything changes with the arrival from South Africa
0:26:03 > 0:26:06of this young Indian lawyer Mr Gandhi,
0:26:06 > 0:26:10the man that Churchill will call the half-naked, seditious fakir.
0:26:10 > 0:26:15This is the man who will energise protest movement
0:26:15 > 0:26:20and turn it away from violence in a quite remarkable, unique way.
0:26:20 > 0:26:23The British authorities had no idea how to handle Mahatma Gandhi,
0:26:23 > 0:26:26they simply saw him as a subversive agitator
0:26:26 > 0:26:29and so every so often they put him into prison,
0:26:29 > 0:26:33and he would spend four or five years in prison, he'd come out and start all over again.
0:26:33 > 0:26:37But films of these protests were seldom shown in British cinemas.
0:26:37 > 0:26:42All we see from Pathe are perhaps the meeting of the Chamber of Princes,
0:26:42 > 0:26:44we see delegations from London.
0:26:44 > 0:26:48We do not see what's actually happening in the streets.
0:26:48 > 0:26:52We do not see the authority of the British Raj is being wonderfully subverted.
0:26:52 > 0:26:59The only hints we get of it is when we do see Gandhi surrounded by enthusiastic followers.
0:26:59 > 0:27:05Eventually we get the British admitting they are no longer going to be able to rule India for ever
0:27:05 > 0:27:11and they agree to start giving Indians shared government from 1935 onwards.
0:27:11 > 0:27:15So the writing there clearly is on the wall, India will have independence but not yet.
0:27:15 > 0:27:18Then the Second World War comes and everything changes.
0:27:20 > 0:27:23When war was declared on Germany in 1939,
0:27:23 > 0:27:28Britain's colonial forces, including the Indian army, were mobilised.
0:27:28 > 0:27:33The focus of Pathe's overseas operations shifted dramatically.
0:27:33 > 0:27:37Beautiful images of exotic travelogue destinations
0:27:37 > 0:27:41were replaced by scenes of violence, devastation and destruction.
0:27:41 > 0:27:45'From the four corners of the Earth they come,
0:27:45 > 0:27:49'men from the far-flung British Empire upon which the sun never sets,
0:27:49 > 0:27:54'African troops of the desert lands are in the frontline in the defence of democracy.
0:27:54 > 0:27:56'They are not conscripts but volunteers
0:27:56 > 0:28:01'who have found the Union Jack worth living under and worth fighting for.
0:28:01 > 0:28:07'They join the people of the other colonies and dominions in the great march towards a free world.'
0:28:07 > 0:28:11From the frontline in France, to the battlefields of Burma,
0:28:11 > 0:28:15the colonial forces played a crucial role in Britain's defence.
0:28:15 > 0:28:20The Indian army was the largest volunteer force ever assembled,
0:28:20 > 0:28:24with more than 2.5 million Indian troops fighting for the Allies.
0:28:24 > 0:28:27But after six years of fighting, the loyalty that was shown
0:28:27 > 0:28:30to Britain by these volunteer soldiers was wearing thin.
0:28:30 > 0:28:38It was a terrific blow to Britain. Even though we came out victorious,
0:28:38 > 0:28:40many people who fought came back
0:28:40 > 0:28:44and found that what they'd thought they were fighting for,
0:28:44 > 0:28:48which was freedom and independence and so on, was being denied them.
0:28:48 > 0:28:53There's not only Indians, there's West Africans and other people from the colonies,
0:28:53 > 0:28:56all supported the British war effort at great cost to themselves.
0:28:56 > 0:29:00They also expected some sort of reward for this.
0:29:00 > 0:29:04With the war over, British rule in India was unsustainable
0:29:04 > 0:29:07and independence was back on the agenda.
0:29:07 > 0:29:15In 1947, Britain's Labour Government agreed to relinquish its grip on the jewel in its imperial crown.
0:29:15 > 0:29:16The end of Empire is about
0:29:16 > 0:29:20a decline in British power in Britain's world role,
0:29:20 > 0:29:23but if you watch Pathe newsreels, you'd never guess that.
0:29:23 > 0:29:26They're all very, very upbeat about independence.
0:29:28 > 0:29:31In Delhi, tumultuous crowds fill the streets,
0:29:31 > 0:29:33celebrating, singing and laughing.
0:29:33 > 0:29:36Police were called out many times to restore order
0:29:36 > 0:29:38where everyone ran wild with joy.
0:29:38 > 0:29:44Part of the message is that this is been long planned, it's like the culminating moment,
0:29:44 > 0:29:49and there's little reference to the anti-British resistance in India, the nationalist movement.
0:29:49 > 0:29:53It's almost like the newsreels present this as a British initiative,
0:29:53 > 0:29:55rather than that countries fought to get independence.
0:29:55 > 0:29:59We couldn't hang onto India, that was the truth of the matter,
0:29:59 > 0:30:04so the newsreels, in portraying it as a triumph, they were misleading.
0:30:04 > 0:30:09With independence came the partitioning of British India along religious grounds,
0:30:09 > 0:30:14creating a new Indian state predominantly populated by Hindus and Sikhs,
0:30:14 > 0:30:19and establishing East and West Pakistan as largely Muslim states.
0:30:19 > 0:30:24But the process was rushed, and amid fears of communal violence,
0:30:24 > 0:30:27there was mass displacement of people across the continent.
0:30:27 > 0:30:34What the newsreels hardly show is this agony that went on for about nine months.
0:30:34 > 0:30:38You had a vast movement of peoples crossing and, alas,
0:30:38 > 0:30:41it just took one spark in one particular area
0:30:41 > 0:30:45and you would have massacre and counter-massacre and then massacre again,
0:30:45 > 0:30:48this process went on and on,
0:30:48 > 0:30:53and the numbers lost, possibly as much as two million people,
0:30:53 > 0:30:55some would say three million people.
0:30:55 > 0:31:00Stirred by intense religious passion, communal strife has shed much blood.
0:31:00 > 0:31:01It still continues.
0:31:01 > 0:31:05But India's future welfare largely depends upon communal harmony.
0:31:06 > 0:31:09Can Hindus and Muslims live peacefully together?
0:31:09 > 0:31:13During the past 200 years, the British gave India law and order.
0:31:13 > 0:31:17They built roads and railways, they irrigated the lands.
0:31:17 > 0:31:19Britain has fulfilled her mission.
0:31:19 > 0:31:22It is for India herself now to make her destiny.
0:31:22 > 0:31:26As Britain began its long retreat from Empire,
0:31:26 > 0:31:32and entered into new relationships with its former colonies with the establishment of the Commonwealth,
0:31:32 > 0:31:35Pathe's foreign coverage began to change.
0:31:35 > 0:31:38By the late 1940s, the company tried to cheer up audiences
0:31:38 > 0:31:42in a Britain of ration books and austerity.
0:31:42 > 0:31:47Light-hearted travelogues were Pathe's response to the country's postwar gloom.
0:31:47 > 0:31:52One of their films featured the work of a new company which used converted military aircraft
0:31:52 > 0:31:55to ferry passengers and their vehicles across the Channel.
0:31:55 > 0:32:00Europe was once again a holiday destination rather than a war zone.
0:32:00 > 0:32:03No need to thumb a lift in these motor scooter days,
0:32:03 > 0:32:06especially when a girl's heading for something really uplifting.
0:32:06 > 0:32:10Jill, June, Jane and Jean, like all jays, are migrating birds.
0:32:10 > 0:32:13They're scooting off for a half-day holiday in France.
0:32:15 > 0:32:18Neat little models, eh? 12 stone - that's all they weigh -
0:32:18 > 0:32:22and what a chassis to delight the eye. The scooters, we mean!
0:32:22 > 0:32:26More motorcyclists are going for a spin across the briny than ever before.
0:32:26 > 0:32:30It's an idea which appeals to a girl who's slender in the purse as well.
0:32:30 > 0:32:35Under a fiver is all it will cost each of these lovelies to take a scooter to the Continent and back.
0:32:37 > 0:32:39For many people watching in the cinema,
0:32:39 > 0:32:45a trip to the Continent costing a week's wages was beyond their means.
0:32:45 > 0:32:50Even so, films featuring young and attractive people
0:32:50 > 0:32:54and a relentlessly upbeat commentary offered a welcome escape from ordinary life.
0:32:54 > 0:32:57It's one thing for a girl to go places fast,
0:32:57 > 0:33:01it's quite another for her to make up her mind just where to go,
0:33:01 > 0:33:03but all ways in France are pretty inviting.
0:33:03 > 0:33:07They're not due to return home for five hours, so if it's touring they want,
0:33:07 > 0:33:12they'll be able to cover 180 miles at a steady 45, and still have time for a stroll along the plage.
0:33:16 > 0:33:19With the advent of charter flights in 1950,
0:33:19 > 0:33:22it was the French island of Corsica in the Mediterranean
0:33:22 > 0:33:26that became the destination for Britain's first package holidays.
0:33:28 > 0:33:32In the same year, Pathe produced a film entitled Corsica Holiday,
0:33:32 > 0:33:36a travelogue with dramatised sequences that tells the story
0:33:36 > 0:33:40of a young British woman swept up in a holiday romance.
0:33:42 > 0:33:46' "What do you do?" Michel asked in comic English.
0:33:46 > 0:33:50'I tired to demonstrate that I was a secretary but he couldn't get it,
0:33:50 > 0:33:55'so out came my phrase book, and after that, we got along fine.
0:33:55 > 0:33:57'Ours was a perfect holiday friendship.
0:33:57 > 0:34:01'We talked a lot, went for long walks in the eucalyptus forest
0:34:01 > 0:34:03'and made plans to meet again some time.
0:34:05 > 0:34:07'Yes, we were becoming fond of each other.
0:34:09 > 0:34:12'Perhaps that was the best day of all.
0:34:12 > 0:34:15'The sea roared and the sun shone.
0:34:15 > 0:34:18'We seemed to be the only people left in the world.'
0:34:20 > 0:34:25Another romantic couple featuring prominently in Pathe's films at this time
0:34:25 > 0:34:27was the newly crowned Queen Elizabeth II
0:34:27 > 0:34:29and the Duke of Edinburgh.
0:34:29 > 0:34:32From November 1953 until May 1954,
0:34:32 > 0:34:37the young couple embarked on a Royal tour of 12 Commonwealth nations.
0:34:38 > 0:34:42Pathe's cameras recorded in radiant colour the Royal couple's progress,
0:34:42 > 0:34:45as they received rapturous welcomes everywhere.
0:34:48 > 0:34:53Newsreels go in for spectacles, and there's nothing like a celebration
0:34:53 > 0:34:56or a centenary or an anniversary or something of that kind,
0:34:56 > 0:35:00with the flags and the drums, all that colourful spectacle.
0:35:00 > 0:35:04The Queen was the best advertisement for Britain that you could have,
0:35:04 > 0:35:09particularly because she didn't look like an advertisement. She looked like herself.
0:35:09 > 0:35:14She gave a positive impression, she was wholesome.
0:35:14 > 0:35:19Royalty reinforced both local patriotism, British patriotism,
0:35:19 > 0:35:23but it reinforced Commonwealth patriotism.
0:35:23 > 0:35:28It's a very youthful, fresh kind of image and the idea is that Britain is being rejuvenated.
0:35:28 > 0:35:31There's been a long period of austerity following the war,
0:35:31 > 0:35:33but now we're moving beyond that...
0:35:35 > 0:35:42..and the spectacles that get laid on for her - military spectacles, horse racing, dancing -
0:35:42 > 0:35:46it looks like the Royal tours had looked before the Second World War,
0:35:46 > 0:35:52and there's a kind of confidence. It's called the New Elizabethan Age,
0:35:52 > 0:35:54so it's brilliant publicity.
0:35:57 > 0:36:00Since the first Elizabethan Age,
0:36:00 > 0:36:03when British eyes first saw Caribbean waters lapping these sands,
0:36:03 > 0:36:08a reigning British sovereign had come for the first time to the shores of Jamaica.
0:36:08 > 0:36:14I remember, as a child, when the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh
0:36:14 > 0:36:17visited Montego Bay and all the schools were mobilised
0:36:17 > 0:36:20to line the streets and wave flags.
0:36:23 > 0:36:25Down from the Blue Mountains people's coming,
0:36:25 > 0:36:29from the sugar plantations, from the jungle,
0:36:29 > 0:36:32from the swamps.
0:36:32 > 0:36:35It was a morning none of us will ever forget,
0:36:35 > 0:36:42that bright morning when we come to greet our own reigning sovereign on our own soil.
0:36:48 > 0:36:51There are about a million-and-a-half of us in Jamaica,
0:36:51 > 0:36:53mostly coloured people,
0:36:53 > 0:36:58but many of us are from England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland.
0:36:58 > 0:37:04Also Jewish people, people from Europe, from Spain and many from Africa.
0:37:04 > 0:37:10But for all of us here in Jamaica, there is but one Queen -
0:37:10 > 0:37:13the Young Missus, Queen Elizabeth.
0:37:16 > 0:37:20There was in fact a very great attachment to Britain
0:37:20 > 0:37:23and a pride, a sense of pride, you know.
0:37:23 > 0:37:27There was a feeling of mother country.
0:37:27 > 0:37:31So there was that great link to Empire.
0:37:31 > 0:37:35At a time when Britain was suffering severe labour shortages,
0:37:35 > 0:37:38workers from the Commonwealth countries the Queen visited
0:37:38 > 0:37:41were actively encouraged to come to Britain
0:37:41 > 0:37:44and help the mother country recover from ravages of war.
0:37:44 > 0:37:48The Empire Windrush brings to Britain 500 Jamaicans.
0:37:48 > 0:37:53In Jamaica, they couldn't find work. Discouraged but full of hope, they sailed for Britain.
0:37:53 > 0:38:00This was probably the first documentation of postwar Caribbean migration to Britain.
0:38:00 > 0:38:05A ship called the SS Windrush was taking back demobbed West Indian servicemen
0:38:05 > 0:38:08who had fought during the Second World War.
0:38:08 > 0:38:12They arrived in the Caribbean realising that the conditions there
0:38:12 > 0:38:14were worse than here,
0:38:14 > 0:38:15and they came back to Britain.
0:38:15 > 0:38:17They were imbued with British culture,
0:38:17 > 0:38:22so where else to go but the mother country, the centre of the Empire?
0:38:22 > 0:38:25- Now, may I ask you your name? - Lord Kitchener.- Lord Kitchener.
0:38:25 > 0:38:29- I am told that you are the king of calypso singers. Is that right?- Yes.
0:38:29 > 0:38:31- Will you sing for us? - Right now?- Yes.
0:38:31 > 0:38:34# London is the place for me
0:38:34 > 0:38:36# To-a-to-to-ombo
0:38:36 > 0:38:40# London, this lovely city... #
0:38:40 > 0:38:44- Now, why have you come to England? - To seek a job. - And what sort of job do you want?
0:38:44 > 0:38:47Any type, so long as I get a good pay.
0:38:47 > 0:38:50MICHAEL MCMILLAN: Postwar Britain was in a bad way.
0:38:50 > 0:38:54A lot of these people had been invited, so you had a government
0:38:54 > 0:38:58who needed migrant labour, yet it hadn't really dealt with it
0:38:58 > 0:39:02in terms of its electorate, about these people were arriving,
0:39:02 > 0:39:05they had fought for us and died for us in the war,
0:39:05 > 0:39:08but now they wanted to come back as immigrants.
0:39:08 > 0:39:11"Oh, no, we can't have that." So there was a lot of racial tension.
0:39:11 > 0:39:16There were Government initiatives to help integrate migrants into their new homeland.
0:39:16 > 0:39:23In 1955, Pathe's news cameras captured couples attending a dance that was open to everyone,
0:39:23 > 0:39:31and in subsequent newsreels, their commentaries often emphasised the positive aspects of integration.
0:39:31 > 0:39:35There's no colour problem at Ring Cross infant school.
0:39:35 > 0:39:41Mrs Yvonne Conolly has to be thanked for that, but there's an awful lot of love, most of it for her.
0:39:41 > 0:39:47When Jamaican migrant Yvonne Conolly became Britain's first black female head teacher,
0:39:47 > 0:39:52Pathe covered the story but left out the racist threats that followed her appointment.
0:39:52 > 0:39:58I think I was about the only head teacher who had a minder to take me into the school on the morning,
0:39:58 > 0:40:01because they had threatened to burn the school down.
0:40:01 > 0:40:05Then I had racist letters from the, the National Front,
0:40:05 > 0:40:11with photographs cut out of the newspaper, crossed through with racist things which said,
0:40:11 > 0:40:13"You are taking up a place in England.
0:40:13 > 0:40:17"Why don't you go back to your country? We don't need you here."
0:40:17 > 0:40:23But at that same time, I also had letters from Black Power,
0:40:23 > 0:40:27sort of saying, "Now, you just remember you're appointed only and only for black kids."
0:40:27 > 0:40:33But I saw my role as being a head teacher for all the children in the school,
0:40:33 > 0:40:37whether they were white or of mixed race or black.
0:40:37 > 0:40:39Since she took over the headship of the school,
0:40:39 > 0:40:42she has brought a new vitality to it,
0:40:42 > 0:40:47her children from many parts of the world mix happily, unaware of prejudice.
0:40:47 > 0:40:49We could learn a lot from them.
0:40:49 > 0:40:54While its newsreels were recording the lives of new arrivals to Britain,
0:40:54 > 0:40:56Pathe's travelogues followed
0:40:56 > 0:40:59the increasing numbers of Britons travelling overseas,
0:40:59 > 0:41:03often to the very places that the migrants had left behind.
0:41:03 > 0:41:06Everywhere the beauty and brilliant sun of the tropics,
0:41:06 > 0:41:11that bid us linger at every stage of the world's most perfect island-hopping holiday.
0:41:11 > 0:41:16Blue skies, sun-warmed seas, scenery of incredible beauty -
0:41:16 > 0:41:19these are the unspoilt charms of the Caribbean isles.
0:41:19 > 0:41:23To tour these islands, to explore their landscapes and coral reefs
0:41:23 > 0:41:27is to enjoy an unforgettable experience.
0:41:27 > 0:41:34Throughout the '50s and '60s, Pathe produced scores of short, colour travelogues
0:41:34 > 0:41:39presenting the tourist destinations now available in an era of mass air transit.
0:41:39 > 0:41:41From Acapulco to the Alps,
0:41:41 > 0:41:48Pathe's cameramen tried to capture every distinctive quirk or curiosity.
0:41:48 > 0:41:52One cable railway can take you to the very summit of the ice-clad Stockhorn,
0:41:52 > 0:41:55but without needing to walk or climb a tricky step.
0:41:55 > 0:42:00You can go even further by snow cat, and all you need is a nose shield.
0:42:05 > 0:42:07There are other attractions on the Continent.
0:42:07 > 0:42:12For example, the food. Here, in the lovely Dutch town of Alkmaar, we find a gourmet's paradise -
0:42:12 > 0:42:16the Friday cheese market. But don't mention it to a mouse!
0:42:16 > 0:42:22Song, wine and women, wine, women and song - that's the Vienna story.
0:42:22 > 0:42:25Anton Karas and his zither might still be here.
0:42:25 > 0:42:27Anton Karas? What have I said?
0:42:29 > 0:42:35These colourful films helped to popularise foreign travel.
0:42:35 > 0:42:40By the late '60s, the number of Britons going abroad each year had soared to five million,
0:42:40 > 0:42:47and 1967 was named the International Year of the Tourist.
0:42:47 > 0:42:50Our visit now is to the island of Grand Cayman,
0:42:50 > 0:42:53but with another camera to keep an eye on our cameraman,
0:42:53 > 0:42:56for this romantic setting is known as the island of women.
0:42:56 > 0:43:02After cribbing some of their trade secrets, we thought it only fair to pass on some of ours.
0:43:02 > 0:43:09As foreign holidays became more accessible, Pathe's travelogues expanded.
0:43:09 > 0:43:14Many became thinly disguised adverts, after Pathe offered high-profile businesses
0:43:14 > 0:43:18the chance to promote themselves on the big screen in return for sponsoring their films.
0:43:18 > 0:43:23This one, made for the British Motor Corporation,
0:43:23 > 0:43:26extols the joy of a driving holiday through Switzerland
0:43:26 > 0:43:27in a Wolseley 1500.
0:43:27 > 0:43:31We were soon ascending the Schwagalp Pass which, long as it is,
0:43:31 > 0:43:33was no trial for the Wolseley 1500,
0:43:33 > 0:43:35which swept up it.
0:43:35 > 0:43:42Many multinationals and industrial corporations were seeing film as a means of public relations,
0:43:42 > 0:43:44and every firm in Britain,
0:43:44 > 0:43:48from the big nationalised companies to small companies,
0:43:48 > 0:43:50feel that they should have
0:43:50 > 0:43:52their own little cine-magazine.
0:43:53 > 0:43:57With a similar emphasis on escape, this film, made for P&O,
0:43:57 > 0:44:02captures the delights of a family cruise around the Mediterranean.
0:44:02 > 0:44:03To any normal person,
0:44:03 > 0:44:07there is nothing in the world quite so fascinating as a great ship.
0:44:07 > 0:44:11The 30,000-ton Arcadia is one of several giant liners
0:44:11 > 0:44:14cruising regularly from London or Southampton.
0:44:14 > 0:44:17All cruising liners have a lot of decks -
0:44:17 > 0:44:21the boat deck, the promenade deck and a whole lot of just deck decks,
0:44:21 > 0:44:26but, undoubtedly, one of the most popular is the games deck.
0:44:26 > 0:44:30But not all of Pathe's sponsored travelogues were about holidays and escape.
0:44:30 > 0:44:35Many of these films don't stress so much the production
0:44:35 > 0:44:39but stress the history of the place that they are in
0:44:39 > 0:44:42and the progress
0:44:42 > 0:44:47that industrialisation is bringing to that place.
0:44:47 > 0:44:54Ageless Iraq is no longer a remote, isolated country.
0:44:54 > 0:44:58Today, she is a main junction linking the East and West.
0:44:58 > 0:45:04This film was made by Pathe in the 1950s for the Iraq Petroleum Company,
0:45:04 > 0:45:08part owned by Anglo-Iranian Oil, which became BP in 1954.
0:45:09 > 0:45:14Iraq's actual wealth is oil, untapped until this century,
0:45:14 > 0:45:18but now her oilfields are being continuously developed,
0:45:18 > 0:45:25and the revenue from this new wealth is being used to create more wealth for the betterment of the country.
0:45:25 > 0:45:30The film is 20 minutes long, but only 30 seconds are devoted to the oil industry.
0:45:30 > 0:45:34Instead, it focuses on Iraq's people and antiquities,
0:45:34 > 0:45:38while telling the story of its transformation into a modern country.
0:45:38 > 0:45:45For all these young people, there is the chance of a good education and a good health.
0:45:45 > 0:45:49Their fathers had to tramp for miles through the dust of summer and the winter's mud
0:45:49 > 0:45:52to the few primitive schools of their day.
0:45:52 > 0:45:57Now new schools and colleges are giving the youth of the country a proper start in life.
0:45:57 > 0:46:00Oil is what it's all about and oil is hardly mentioned.
0:46:00 > 0:46:01Now we can only look
0:46:01 > 0:46:05on that film with a sense of irony of what's happened since,
0:46:05 > 0:46:08because there are scenes there that are lost forever
0:46:08 > 0:46:12which wouldn't have been preserved but for that film.
0:46:14 > 0:46:16This was the great Ottoman Empire,
0:46:16 > 0:46:20which itself was the descendent of the great Arabic empires.
0:46:20 > 0:46:24It was the Muslim heartland and the British and the French
0:46:24 > 0:46:29and to some extent the Americans move in and they set up their own puppet rulers.
0:46:29 > 0:46:32Remember, at this time, Saudi Arabia had not yet discovered its oilfields.
0:46:32 > 0:46:36Saudi Arabia is not in the picture. It's Iraq and Iran,
0:46:36 > 0:46:38two countries that the Americans and the British
0:46:38 > 0:46:42are determined to rule over and control.
0:46:49 > 0:46:54Within a few minutes' flying time of Basra is a strangely different world.
0:46:54 > 0:46:56You're back in another age.
0:46:56 > 0:47:03Here, amid lakes and marshes, water has created a way of life all its own.
0:47:03 > 0:47:07It's made with some respect for the local culture and history and tradition.
0:47:07 > 0:47:12This was the seat of Western civilisation and the scene of the Garden of Eden.
0:47:12 > 0:47:18The Marsh Arabs, a culture that was utterly destroyed by Saddam Hussein
0:47:18 > 0:47:22because the local peoples opposed his rule, so he drained,
0:47:22 > 0:47:28he literally drained the Tigris or the Euphrates so there was no more water there.
0:47:30 > 0:47:37This outstanding footage is believed to be the earliest surviving colour film of the Marsh Arabs.
0:47:37 > 0:47:39Whatever the film's original purpose,
0:47:39 > 0:47:44it now represents a unique record of a traditional aspect of Iraqi culture.
0:47:44 > 0:47:50There's a strong emphasis on the exotic, on travel, on how marvellous it is
0:47:50 > 0:47:52to see our varied world and to see it in colour.
0:47:52 > 0:47:56This is why people were excited by motion pictures in the first place.
0:47:56 > 0:47:59There's wonderful things going on in the world, and look,
0:47:59 > 0:48:02I've been able to capture motion pictures. Just look at it!
0:48:09 > 0:48:13Pathe's film-makers invariably captured wonderful images,
0:48:13 > 0:48:18but their reporting of pressing political issues was far more uncertain.
0:48:18 > 0:48:23In some films, even questions of national security were overlooked,
0:48:23 > 0:48:27as in this 1964 travelogue on Rhodesia,
0:48:27 > 0:48:31which was made when the country stood on the brink of civil war.
0:48:31 > 0:48:35Forget for a moment any controversy there is about Southern Rhodesia,
0:48:35 > 0:48:39and see it as an exciting holiday land where patrol boats watch over game reserves
0:48:39 > 0:48:42and where you can see the shape of our earliest yesterdays
0:48:42 > 0:48:48within calculated distance of the great, new driving force that has come about.
0:48:48 > 0:48:51Like many postwar struggles for independence in Africa,
0:48:51 > 0:48:55the root of the problem was the takeover of land by white British settlers.
0:48:55 > 0:48:59This is where the British officers were given territory and told that,
0:48:59 > 0:49:04as a reward for their part in World War I, they could go there and farm there.
0:49:04 > 0:49:08And it's so bizarre that you have a film made at this time,
0:49:08 > 0:49:11when the realities of the situation are barely mentioned.
0:49:11 > 0:49:16Just weeks before this film was released, the murder of a white farmer triggered the civil war
0:49:16 > 0:49:22that would continue until 1980, when Rhodesia finally became the Republic of Zimbabwe.
0:49:22 > 0:49:26But the travelogue simply highlights the attractions for holidaymakers,
0:49:26 > 0:49:28and the conflict is entirely ignored.
0:49:28 > 0:49:31These tribesmen live on the tourist trade, in villages,
0:49:31 > 0:49:36some of which were only built when the Kariba Dam flooded 2,000 square miles of their jungle.
0:49:36 > 0:49:40He's the man who makes the jungle drums, chipping them out of solid logs,
0:49:40 > 0:49:42but that's a craft that'll never be lost,
0:49:42 > 0:49:47because the drum is something the Africans have given to the whole grateful world.
0:49:47 > 0:49:51The drums and the most ancient modern rhythm of the dance.
0:49:51 > 0:49:54I think the films companies had lost their way at this time.
0:49:54 > 0:49:57I don't think they knew quite what their role was.
0:49:57 > 0:50:00Was it to represent reality in all its harshness,
0:50:00 > 0:50:02or was it some kind of fantasy land,
0:50:02 > 0:50:08that they were really there to entertain and amuse the Saturday afternoon movie audience?
0:50:08 > 0:50:13Perhaps it's too easy for us now. We look back and we can criticise the film-makers and say,
0:50:13 > 0:50:18"Surely they could have done a better job?" But perhaps they were kidding themselves.
0:50:18 > 0:50:21Escapism is always the easy way out.
0:50:23 > 0:50:26Looking for new ways to boost their popular appeal,
0:50:26 > 0:50:33Pathe had started making travelogues that put the experience of ordinary British travellers centre stage.
0:50:33 > 0:50:36Many were produced by seasoned film-maker Terry Ashwood, who'd made his name
0:50:36 > 0:50:39behind and in front of the camera during the war,
0:50:39 > 0:50:44when he filmed on the frontline with the Eighth Army in North Africa.
0:50:47 > 0:50:51After the war, Ashwood continued to travel,
0:50:51 > 0:50:55but in his peacetime adventures, he was joined by his family.
0:50:55 > 0:50:59From 1956 onwards, he made a series featuring his daughter Gaye.
0:50:59 > 0:51:03In the years ahead, Gaye starred in a dozen Pathe travelogues,
0:51:03 > 0:51:06making her debut in a film entitled A Schoolgirl In Egypt.
0:51:08 > 0:51:11For little Gaye, it's going to be an exciting day.
0:51:11 > 0:51:14In a few hours she will be in Egypt, the air hostess tells her,
0:51:14 > 0:51:19seeing for herself all the famous sights and buildings from her picture book at school.
0:51:21 > 0:51:23Gosh!
0:51:23 > 0:51:27My father had this big fascination with Egypt,
0:51:27 > 0:51:30because of his war time,
0:51:30 > 0:51:33and he always wanted to go back to the desert,
0:51:33 > 0:51:35and he wanted to take his wife and daughter
0:51:35 > 0:51:38to show part of what he'd... he'd seen.
0:51:38 > 0:51:43And he decided that it would be a nice touch
0:51:43 > 0:51:46to have his daughter growing up, seeing the world,
0:51:46 > 0:51:49and it progressed from there.
0:51:49 > 0:51:54We went to places that, normally, a child of that age wouldn't go to.
0:51:54 > 0:51:57Egypt is all things to all men, it has been said,
0:51:57 > 0:52:03but for a little schoolgirl, this strange, ancient country is three lessons rolled into one -
0:52:03 > 0:52:07zoology, geography and history.
0:52:09 > 0:52:15I remember going to places where they hadn't seen a young girl with long blonde hair.
0:52:15 > 0:52:20When we went to North Africa, walking down the sort of souks and things,
0:52:20 > 0:52:23and they just used to stare.
0:52:24 > 0:52:28Morocco today is a land of contrasts but in marketplaces like this,
0:52:28 > 0:52:32time seems to have stood still for over a 1,000 years.
0:52:32 > 0:52:36Oh, I remember that... Oh, dear.
0:52:36 > 0:52:42In the film A Schoolgirl In Italy, the young explorer was equipped with her very own camera.
0:52:43 > 0:52:45That was my father's idea,
0:52:45 > 0:52:50for me to be seen photographing to take back for school to show friends.
0:52:50 > 0:52:57Next stop, the romantically famous - in film and song - Trevi Fountain of modern Rome.
0:52:57 > 0:53:02I remember the Trevi Fountain very well, and I remember my father telling me to flick the coin
0:53:02 > 0:53:04and flip round and look in.
0:53:04 > 0:53:07According to legend, a traveller departing from Rome
0:53:07 > 0:53:10who throws a coin in the fountain is bound to return.
0:53:10 > 0:53:15We don't know whether that's true or not, but there's no harm in Gaye wishing!
0:53:15 > 0:53:19It became the norm. It was natural, it was just normal to do,
0:53:19 > 0:53:24and father would say, "Right, well, this year we're going Caribbean," or wherever.
0:53:24 > 0:53:26It just became part of my life.
0:53:26 > 0:53:28Israel is a palm tree paradise.
0:53:28 > 0:53:33Here, in this Mediterranean-washed land of sunshine, there's every opportunity
0:53:33 > 0:53:37for the sun-soakers to enjoy themselves, but not all attractions are on land.
0:53:37 > 0:53:41At Eilat, Israel's southern-most point, the mask and flipper brigade
0:53:41 > 0:53:45have found a new and colourful world to explore...underwater.
0:53:45 > 0:53:48When we went to Israel, a year after the Six-Day War,
0:53:48 > 0:53:52my father was approached by the Israeli Tourist Board.
0:53:52 > 0:53:56Israel desperately wanted tourists to come back.
0:53:56 > 0:53:59He said to them, "Would you like us to help?"
0:54:04 > 0:54:07Ride out with the Bedouin tribesmen for a desert gallop
0:54:07 > 0:54:10that will remain an indelible holiday memory.
0:54:10 > 0:54:14When we went to the Negev Desert, the guide we had was fully armed,
0:54:14 > 0:54:20still, even a year later, and we couldn't come off this particular track all the way through the desert,
0:54:20 > 0:54:23because there was still mines left from the war.
0:54:23 > 0:54:26Israel's coastline has become a holiday playground -
0:54:26 > 0:54:32modern hotels have sprung up all along the Mediterranean seashore, offering something for everyone.
0:54:32 > 0:54:37I think we did help to bring back a bit of confidence in what had been,
0:54:37 > 0:54:40you know, a bit of a war-torn country.
0:54:40 > 0:54:44This is the place to soak up your final memories of Israel,
0:54:44 > 0:54:47and perhaps it's significant that you leave Israel in jet-age luxury,
0:54:47 > 0:54:53because though the past is important, so is the present and the future.
0:54:53 > 0:54:58Gaye's journey to Israel turned out to be her last filming trip for Pathe.
0:54:58 > 0:55:02By the end of the '60s, the company needed fresh approaches
0:55:02 > 0:55:04to combat rising competition from television.
0:55:04 > 0:55:07They used widescreen and Technicolor film
0:55:07 > 0:55:12to cover major events, such as Pope Paul VI's pilgrimage to Jerusalem,
0:55:12 > 0:55:17and the maiden flight of one of the great icons of European engineering.
0:55:17 > 0:55:21For Concorde 001, this was the chance to prove she was the super bird
0:55:21 > 0:55:26everyone had hoped and worked for. This was it!
0:55:26 > 0:55:29But it wasn't enough to arrest Pathe's decline.
0:55:29 > 0:55:34They've got an assured market and they are making a lot of money from it,
0:55:34 > 0:55:36so they start losing touch with their audience
0:55:36 > 0:55:41and by the time they are regaining that touch,
0:55:41 > 0:55:44things have moved on. You've got television.
0:55:44 > 0:55:50So you don't have that monopoly any more, and it was no longer financially viable.
0:55:50 > 0:55:52Before television became a mass medium
0:55:52 > 0:55:55there was no question that many people's window on the world
0:55:55 > 0:55:58was what they saw in cine-magazines and newsreels,
0:55:58 > 0:56:01and it gave shape to the world, and it massively shaped TV,
0:56:01 > 0:56:05because so much of what we see on TV, the programme formats,
0:56:05 > 0:56:09really do come out of the formats that were developed cinema.
0:56:11 > 0:56:14It's very interesting to look at the last few years of Pathe.
0:56:14 > 0:56:19To think back to the earliest years, it's almost like they've come full circle.
0:56:19 > 0:56:23They've shed the imperative to report on news at all,
0:56:23 > 0:56:25and it's the image for its own sake.
0:56:25 > 0:56:30British Pathe's last foreign report was shown in February 1970.
0:56:30 > 0:56:35Aptly titled Final Edition, Prelude To A Royal Journey,
0:56:35 > 0:56:41the film showed life in Australia and New Zealand, prior to a visit by the Queen.
0:56:41 > 0:56:48This is a land of natural beauty and charm. It needs no further embellishment to welcome its Queen.
0:56:48 > 0:56:54The film reached back to those key elements for which Pathe had been known from the very beginning -
0:56:54 > 0:56:58travel to exotic places, a fascination with cultures and rituals,
0:56:58 > 0:57:02and uncovering the treasures of Empire.
0:57:02 > 0:57:06It was a fitting swansong by a celebrated company.
0:57:06 > 0:57:09Yes, they were uncritical. Yes, they were very superficial.
0:57:09 > 0:57:13Yes, they were patronising. But they played their part
0:57:13 > 0:57:18not only in entertaining but also, to some degree, to educating us.
0:57:21 > 0:57:27Although the cinema newsreels withered away, in our digital age, Pathe's legacy lives on.
0:57:27 > 0:57:30The 90,000 films in British Pathe's archive
0:57:30 > 0:57:36give us an important and enduring record of life in the 20th century,
0:57:36 > 0:57:39both at home and far beyond Britain's shores.
0:57:39 > 0:57:45It's probably going to be hard to underestimate how influential Pathe newsreels and cine-magazines were
0:57:45 > 0:57:50on people's view of the world, particularly the world outside their shores,
0:57:50 > 0:57:55but just because the cameras were there, often in places where the camera had never been before,
0:57:55 > 0:57:57that's an extraordinary thing.
0:58:02 > 0:58:05Oh, Pathe doesn't end. Newsreels don't end.
0:58:05 > 0:58:10Cine-magazines don't end. They just get recycled!
0:58:32 > 0:58:36Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:58:36 > 0:58:39E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk