0:00:18 > 0:00:21'It's 7am on Monday 28th March. The news headlines this...'
0:00:21 > 0:00:25Another Monday morning and I've got nothing to look forward to
0:00:25 > 0:00:28except Mr Humphrys on the radio
0:00:28 > 0:00:31and another threatening letter from the bank,
0:00:31 > 0:00:35what I'd give for one little pleasant surprise.
0:00:38 > 0:00:41Does no-one want to write to me?
0:00:41 > 0:00:43A love letter from afar, perhaps.
0:00:43 > 0:00:45Something.
0:00:45 > 0:00:46Anything!
0:00:49 > 0:00:51Oh, hello.
0:00:51 > 0:00:53Now, what have we here?
0:00:58 > 0:01:04the Rowland Hill Retired Men's Club. Touting for members, no doubt.
0:01:04 > 0:01:09Hang on. they want me to give a talk on the picture postcard.
0:01:09 > 0:01:13Why me? What do I know about the picture postcard?
0:01:13 > 0:01:15Damn!
0:01:15 > 0:01:16Hold on, Nigel.
0:01:16 > 0:01:19There's dinner and a fee.
0:01:19 > 0:01:23Ah. So what is there not to learn? I'll Google "postcards"
0:01:23 > 0:01:25and this questing vole
0:01:25 > 0:01:29will uncover the definitive story of the postcard.
0:01:29 > 0:01:33I've got just a week to get this ready, so I need a plan of campaign.
0:01:33 > 0:01:36I need to find out when the picture postcard started,
0:01:36 > 0:01:37when it was popular.
0:01:37 > 0:01:41I need to find out why people sent postcards,
0:01:41 > 0:01:44and talk about the different types of card -
0:01:44 > 0:01:49people, portraits, saucy postcards, places.
0:01:49 > 0:01:52I'll find out if people collect postcards,
0:01:52 > 0:01:55and if so, how much a good postcard goes for.
0:01:55 > 0:02:00And most of all, I need some good stories on the way.
0:02:02 > 0:02:05But basically it's pictures on the front,
0:02:05 > 0:02:07writing on the back, this should be a piece de cake.
0:02:07 > 0:02:10So what shall we call this masterpiece?
0:02:12 > 0:02:16Yep, Kisses On The Bottom, oh, no, that's far too fruity.
0:02:18 > 0:02:22A bit of poetic alliteration should do it so...
0:02:22 > 0:02:27The Picture Postcard World of Nigel Walmsley.
0:02:35 > 0:02:37As Mary Poppins once famously said,
0:02:37 > 0:02:41let's begin at the beginning, or something like that.
0:02:41 > 0:02:47Guy Atkins is a collector of early picture postcards, nice house.
0:02:48 > 0:02:53Guy, tell me when did the picture postcard really take off?
0:02:53 > 0:02:58The golden age of postcards was between 1902 and 1914.
0:02:58 > 0:03:011902 is particularly important
0:03:01 > 0:03:05because that was the first year when divided backs were issued.
0:03:05 > 0:03:11Up until that point, you'd either have an official postcard,
0:03:11 > 0:03:16which had the address on the front and then a message on the back,
0:03:16 > 0:03:19or you had simply a picture on the front
0:03:19 > 0:03:21and then an address on the back.
0:03:21 > 0:03:241902, the postcard was divided
0:03:24 > 0:03:27such that you could have a picture on the front,
0:03:27 > 0:03:32a message on the left-hand side and then the address on the right,
0:03:32 > 0:03:35and that suddenly became a really attractive
0:03:35 > 0:03:37form of communication for people.
0:03:37 > 0:03:44It took off. From 1902 there were 350 million cards sent,
0:03:44 > 0:03:46by 1906 there were double that,
0:03:46 > 0:03:49so 700 million cards being sent each year.
0:03:49 > 0:03:51The postal system was a key factor
0:03:51 > 0:03:56in why the cards were so useful to communicate through.
0:03:56 > 0:04:00So rather than today where you've just got one post arriving each day,
0:04:00 > 0:04:03they had up to seven posts arriving and that meant
0:04:03 > 0:04:06that you could send a postcard in the morning
0:04:06 > 0:04:10and it would arrive in the evening, so you could actually arrange
0:04:10 > 0:04:13to meet up with someone that evening via postcard,
0:04:13 > 0:04:16much as you do with a text message or e-mail today.
0:04:18 > 0:04:20The golden age is so interesting
0:04:20 > 0:04:23because people were using them for everyday life.
0:04:23 > 0:04:28They're such fantastic insights into how life was in that period.
0:04:32 > 0:04:35Some of your cards look pretty incomprehensible.
0:04:35 > 0:04:39Yeah, this one is mostly written in code,
0:04:39 > 0:04:41in some kind of Masonic cipher,
0:04:41 > 0:04:44and that's quite common because, after all,
0:04:44 > 0:04:48this is a form of communication that is public.
0:04:48 > 0:04:51People are sending quite intimate messages, sometimes,
0:04:51 > 0:04:55and they know that the card might be seen by the postman,
0:04:55 > 0:04:58by their relatives before they arrive,
0:04:58 > 0:05:01the people in the sorting office,
0:05:01 > 0:05:06and so the Edwardians did adapt to this and used all sorts of codes.
0:05:11 > 0:05:14Guy, did the Edwardians get up to any other tricks?
0:05:14 > 0:05:17Well, this next card is one
0:05:17 > 0:05:21that really plays with the form of postcards.
0:05:21 > 0:05:25This is a card from Dorothy to her grandma
0:05:25 > 0:05:31and the front is a picture of the Albert Memorial in Kensington,
0:05:31 > 0:05:34but Dorothy's written it on the Tube,
0:05:34 > 0:05:38she says, "I hope you will excuse this scribble as I am in the Tube."
0:05:38 > 0:05:41It's a good example of the tilted stamp,
0:05:41 > 0:05:44this was something that the Edwardians did
0:05:44 > 0:05:49to show affection between the sender and the recipient.
0:05:49 > 0:05:54So whilst we can't be sure that Dorothy wrote the card on the Tube,
0:05:54 > 0:05:58we can be pretty sure that she loved her grandma.
0:05:59 > 0:06:03Stone the crows, I think I might start using that code,
0:06:03 > 0:06:07but where shall I put my stamp to the bank manager?
0:06:08 > 0:06:11- LAUGHS:- Top right, "have you forgotten me."
0:06:11 > 0:06:14If only.
0:06:15 > 0:06:20This next card is possibly my favourite.
0:06:20 > 0:06:23It's actually the first card that I bought
0:06:23 > 0:06:26specifically for the message.
0:06:27 > 0:06:31It's sent in 1904 December 21, so just before Christmas,
0:06:31 > 0:06:35and it reads, "Come home at once, all is forgiven.
0:06:35 > 0:06:38"We have not had any news from Father,
0:06:38 > 0:06:42"there is heaps of m---y waiting for you to spend.
0:06:42 > 0:06:46"Surely after that you could not stay away."
0:06:49 > 0:06:53I don't think I've come across a card with more intrigue than this one.
0:06:54 > 0:06:58It's impossible, it's impossible to know what was going on.
0:06:58 > 0:07:01Was there money? Is it a joke?
0:07:01 > 0:07:06What's the relationship between Miss Emerson and Mr Bollen
0:07:06 > 0:07:09who the card has been sent care of.
0:07:11 > 0:07:15Yes, sent just before Christmas, is it a desperate attempt
0:07:15 > 0:07:17to get the family back for Christmas Day?
0:07:19 > 0:07:23And then on the front, I think we get the sense
0:07:23 > 0:07:26that this is quite a solemn message,
0:07:26 > 0:07:30it's an image of the cross on Front Street in Rothbury.
0:07:30 > 0:07:34There are bits of information here and there on the census,
0:07:34 > 0:07:37but it doesn't really give you any kind of idea
0:07:37 > 0:07:41as to what happened before or after this message.
0:07:41 > 0:07:45So did Miss Emerson go home? No idea.
0:07:48 > 0:07:51Do the messages affect the value of the cards?
0:07:51 > 0:07:54The value of the card, of course, is what's on the front.
0:07:54 > 0:07:56If it's an early photograph,
0:07:56 > 0:08:00if it's a photograph of something rare, or a popular subject,
0:08:00 > 0:08:04then those cards will have more value than others
0:08:04 > 0:08:07but the ordinary messages which I'm most interested in,
0:08:07 > 0:08:10yes, they carry no value apart from for myself.
0:08:14 > 0:08:17"Ruby, will you please meet me on the corner of Holbeck Row
0:08:17 > 0:08:21"on Sunday morning and give you a suck my toffee apple.
0:08:21 > 0:08:24"Dear, Nell, what the deuce does Mrs K know about my doings,
0:08:24 > 0:08:27"whether I have what you say or not.
0:08:27 > 0:08:31"I never said the things accused of about Hall,
0:08:31 > 0:08:36"it is entirely faked up, and as to the whisky, in the extreme.
0:08:36 > 0:08:42"I am coming home tomorrow and may call, especially if there's any...
0:08:42 > 0:08:45"I'm surprised at not having a letter from you.
0:08:45 > 0:08:48"Don't you think you ought to write to me? I do.
0:08:48 > 0:08:51"Will you please keep your feet out of my house in my absence
0:08:51 > 0:08:54"and return the scarf pin which belongs to my husband."
0:08:57 > 0:09:01A postman's life must have been far more fun in those days.
0:09:03 > 0:09:05I want to know more.
0:09:05 > 0:09:09First of all, where did the Edwardians buy their cards?
0:09:10 > 0:09:11They would go to shops,
0:09:11 > 0:09:14there were special postcard shops in those days.
0:09:14 > 0:09:18An they stocked a massive range of cards,
0:09:18 > 0:09:20often thousands of cards,
0:09:20 > 0:09:25and people would go through and pick out what they wanted.
0:09:25 > 0:09:27But then they'd also send them to their friends.
0:09:27 > 0:09:31Their friends would say, I collect this subject or that subject
0:09:31 > 0:09:33and so when they sent them a card they had to send one
0:09:33 > 0:09:36on that subject in order to please their friend.
0:09:36 > 0:09:40And that's when the craze really took off.
0:09:44 > 0:09:48This is a favourite because it shows the old bathing hut
0:09:48 > 0:09:51that used to be in vogue in Edwardian days.
0:09:51 > 0:09:54So we just take the lever down
0:09:54 > 0:10:00and we reveal the lady in her Edwardian bathing costume.
0:10:00 > 0:10:04You just poke your finger through the hole
0:10:04 > 0:10:08to give the nose of the lady for a comic effect.
0:10:08 > 0:10:11This postcard is what is called "a hole to light"
0:10:11 > 0:10:15which means that the windows and various other features
0:10:15 > 0:10:20have been picked out so that when it's held up with a light behind it,
0:10:20 > 0:10:22you can see these windows
0:10:22 > 0:10:26as if they were all lit up and illuminated at night.
0:10:26 > 0:10:30These cards, remember, were still sold at the time
0:10:30 > 0:10:36for about a penny each and the postage in Britain was just a ha'penny.
0:10:36 > 0:10:40So it encouraged people to be able to collect postcards
0:10:40 > 0:10:43and it became an absolute craze.
0:10:43 > 0:10:49Especially as the first years of the decade came up, 1905, six, seven, eight.
0:10:49 > 0:10:53Postcard publishers came up all over the place in Britain.
0:10:53 > 0:10:57And as a result people would send postcards to each other purely,
0:10:57 > 0:11:00"Here is a postcard for your album."
0:11:00 > 0:11:03And they would be able to collect them
0:11:03 > 0:11:06and they'd have their albums like this one here
0:11:06 > 0:11:09and they'd be able to put these collections together.
0:11:09 > 0:11:13So on the next page here we have what's called
0:11:13 > 0:11:15a composite set of three postcards
0:11:15 > 0:11:18which, as you can see shows, a dachshund,
0:11:18 > 0:11:21and the person sending the three cards
0:11:21 > 0:11:24would send each one a separate week.
0:11:24 > 0:11:27Maybe they'd send the middle one the first week,
0:11:27 > 0:11:31the end one the second week, and then they'd send the first one the last week,
0:11:31 > 0:11:35so that the recipient could put all three of them together
0:11:35 > 0:11:37to make a composite.
0:11:41 > 0:11:44Those cards of Tony's were gorgeous.
0:11:44 > 0:11:48Now I need to enlist the help of a favourite old cove of mine, Ronnie Barker,
0:11:48 > 0:11:54who I recall used to refer to himself as a deltiologist,
0:11:54 > 0:11:56posh for postcard collector.
0:11:56 > 0:11:59Must have him on tape somewhere.
0:12:01 > 0:12:03First of all, we are very honoured today
0:12:03 > 0:12:06by the presence of a distinguished delta...
0:12:06 > 0:12:09deltiologist Ronnie Barker, I nearly got it wrong.
0:12:09 > 0:12:12You nearly got it wrong. How are you? Nice to be here.
0:12:12 > 0:12:17I remembered your name though. How long have you been collecting postcards now?
0:12:17 > 0:12:20I'm afraid I have been collecting them about 20 years now.
0:12:20 > 0:12:23I was just thinking back, it's about '57 I started.
0:12:23 > 0:12:25How did you start?
0:12:25 > 0:12:28I was with an actor called Peter Bull and he collected cards,
0:12:28 > 0:12:31he sent cards to other people, and I went out one day
0:12:31 > 0:12:34and saw a lot of cards at a penny each in those days.
0:12:34 > 0:12:38I bought about 100 and I looked through them and thought, "I must give these to Peter."
0:12:38 > 0:12:40I looked through them again and thought,
0:12:40 > 0:12:44"Perhaps I'll give him half of them," and that's how I started. I picked the best half.
0:12:44 > 0:12:48The cards that you've got there in your hand, they're all trains.
0:12:48 > 0:12:51A lot of people specialise in just one subject, don't they?
0:12:51 > 0:12:53Yes, these are very sought after.
0:12:53 > 0:12:56They're London and North Western Railway Company.
0:12:56 > 0:12:59You see Crewe Junction looking north.
0:12:59 > 0:13:03Looking south probably looks exactly the same.
0:13:03 > 0:13:05When did postcards actually start?
0:13:05 > 0:13:08They started actually in 1870 in Germany,
0:13:08 > 0:13:12but people didn't really collect them very much I think.
0:13:12 > 0:13:16They became very popular, they became a craze in about 1903.
0:13:16 > 0:13:18From 1903, 1908 is the absolute height
0:13:18 > 0:13:21where everyone sent cards to everyone else.
0:13:21 > 0:13:24Is he throwing her in or pulling her out?
0:13:24 > 0:13:26- I don't know. - HE LAUGHS
0:13:26 > 0:13:28I don't think he's made up his mind.
0:13:29 > 0:13:33What else have we got, yes, I've got her, yes.
0:13:33 > 0:13:36People were bigger in those days, even the small ones.
0:13:36 > 0:13:39What have we got... Oh, yes, that looks German.
0:13:39 > 0:13:41That looks German. That's wonderful.
0:13:41 > 0:13:43You pull that and she gets a smack.
0:13:43 > 0:13:46Yes, look at that.
0:13:46 > 0:13:49End of day one and I'm warming to my theme.
0:13:49 > 0:13:54Before I turn in, I think I'll see if the postcard is alive and well.
0:13:55 > 0:13:58I'll write to some of my all time heroes
0:13:58 > 0:14:01and see if I can get a postcard back.
0:14:01 > 0:14:05I can pass round on the night of the talk.
0:14:09 > 0:14:11ALARM BEEPS
0:14:15 > 0:14:16What next.
0:14:16 > 0:14:19Tom Phillips the artist seems to have written
0:14:19 > 0:14:22the definitive book on postcards.
0:14:22 > 0:14:25He'd be a good person to ask why people collect cards.
0:14:28 > 0:14:32Postcard collecting is democratic, you can enter at any level you like
0:14:32 > 0:14:34and stay that level if you like,
0:14:34 > 0:14:37but most people are tempted upwards all the time.
0:14:37 > 0:14:41They get every postcard of Piccadilly Circus except one
0:14:41 > 0:14:43and then they're after that.
0:14:43 > 0:14:46All the dealers know they're after that,
0:14:46 > 0:14:48so if they get this very special postcard
0:14:48 > 0:14:49of Piccadilly Circus in the war
0:14:49 > 0:14:52with Eros covered up and no traffic around,
0:14:52 > 0:14:54then that's worth a lot of money.
0:14:54 > 0:14:58So if you have a postcard that was posted on the Titanic,
0:14:58 > 0:15:02not on the Titanic but with the Titanic on it,
0:15:02 > 0:15:04posted by one person that actually was just on it,
0:15:04 > 0:15:07and sent postcards right from the beginning of the trip,
0:15:07 > 0:15:12which was possible on a little boat that went back to the shore.
0:15:12 > 0:15:16I mean, they've got something with the writing on it saying,
0:15:16 > 0:15:19"I'm on the Titanic looking forward to a wonderful time,"
0:15:19 > 0:15:23and you've got something that's worth £1,000, £2,000, £3,000.
0:15:23 > 0:15:26So people, they crave rarity.
0:15:26 > 0:15:29I'm almost the opposite. I crave the commonplace.
0:15:29 > 0:15:32The thing that's the most ordinary, that's what interests me.
0:15:46 > 0:15:51But what was really interesting and sometimes not properly discussed,
0:15:51 > 0:15:56is the postcards when you could get them made of yourself.
0:15:56 > 0:16:01Go into a studio, you pay a shilling and you get 12 postcards of yourself.
0:16:01 > 0:16:04Right in the very early years of the century,
0:16:04 > 0:16:09was often the first representation of yourself that you had had.
0:16:09 > 0:16:12In fact, it was a democratisation of portraiture
0:16:12 > 0:16:15because the portrait before then
0:16:15 > 0:16:18was only allowed to the gentry or the upper gentry.
0:16:18 > 0:16:23And they had pictures of themselves and you had no pictures
0:16:23 > 0:16:26of your family in the past, if you were an ordinary bloke.
0:16:26 > 0:16:29But now, of course, you existed on a postcard
0:16:29 > 0:16:33and you had a portrait of yourself, so this was an amazing thing.
0:16:40 > 0:16:44I bought this one for about 20p.
0:16:44 > 0:16:49It's not in very good condition, but what interests me here
0:16:49 > 0:16:53is it's got everything that I require from a postcard.
0:16:53 > 0:16:57It's got a narrative of why these people are there.
0:16:57 > 0:17:00It's two people in Aberdeen in 1911,
0:17:00 > 0:17:02obviously off the fishing fleet in some way.
0:17:02 > 0:17:05And they've gone into a postcard studio, are they friends?
0:17:05 > 0:17:09What do they say? What happened before this? What made them go in?
0:17:09 > 0:17:13What was their relationship? What happened to them afterwards?
0:17:13 > 0:17:15Everything is contained in the moment
0:17:15 > 0:17:17and I just think that's incredibly intriguing.
0:17:17 > 0:17:20What happened to the guy afterwards? The black guy.
0:17:20 > 0:17:23He's obviously a West African.
0:17:23 > 0:17:28There was a record of somebody taking up farming not far from Aberdeen in 1915
0:17:28 > 0:17:30who might have retired from the sea.
0:17:30 > 0:17:32So the surroundings of that,
0:17:32 > 0:17:35the emotional surroundings, the social surroundings,
0:17:35 > 0:17:38the historic surroundings, the racial surroundings.
0:17:38 > 0:17:41It vibrates with all that for me.
0:17:41 > 0:17:45So that's why I find certain postcards incredibly rich.
0:17:45 > 0:17:48I'd never have thought of that.
0:17:48 > 0:17:52The picture postcard is the first democratisation of portraiture.
0:17:52 > 0:17:56Great card and a great quote, I'll soon sound like an expert.
0:18:08 > 0:18:12Now, I must look up a picture postcard magazine.
0:18:14 > 0:18:16Ah, here's the one.
0:18:18 > 0:18:20PHONE RINGS
0:18:22 > 0:18:26Good afternoon, Reflections, Brian speaking.
0:18:26 > 0:18:28- 'Is that Reflections?'- It is indeed.
0:18:28 > 0:18:31- 'You publish the postcard magazine?' - We do, yes.
0:18:36 > 0:18:41Many of the postcards that were published in the 1900-18 period,
0:18:41 > 0:18:44the golden age, showed photographs,
0:18:44 > 0:18:47showed scenes of towns or scenes of events
0:18:47 > 0:18:51that just weren't replicated anywhere else in photos.
0:18:51 > 0:18:57And often they're the only source of a particular event or a particular day in time.
0:18:57 > 0:19:01They are massively important and I think they're often underrated.
0:19:06 > 0:19:11Lots of Edwardian politicians were real personalities.
0:19:11 > 0:19:13Joseph Chamberlain particularly.
0:19:13 > 0:19:16And one of the elections of the Edwardian period in 1906
0:19:16 > 0:19:19was covered massively on postcards.
0:19:19 > 0:19:21Many candidates had election cards,
0:19:21 > 0:19:24there were cards detailing the results,
0:19:24 > 0:19:26there were photographic cards
0:19:26 > 0:19:29showing the results in a particular town being announced.
0:19:30 > 0:19:34Postcards did reflect politics just as they reflected
0:19:34 > 0:19:37all other areas of social and cultural life.
0:19:43 > 0:19:48If there was, for example, a train crash in a particular location,
0:19:48 > 0:19:52then a local photographer would be on hand to publish a postcard of the event.
0:19:52 > 0:19:56And people would send these to their friends and relatives
0:19:56 > 0:20:00to show them what was actually happening in their particular area.
0:20:00 > 0:20:03This happened very fast as well.
0:20:03 > 0:20:09I have a postcard of a train crash at Croydon on 10th July 1909.
0:20:09 > 0:20:14This event was on a postcard postmarked the same day as the accident, which is amazingly fast.
0:20:14 > 0:20:17So this means the crash happened in the morning,
0:20:17 > 0:20:19a photographer took a picture,
0:20:19 > 0:20:22it was printed as a postcard in the afternoon,
0:20:22 > 0:20:24and somebody mailed it in the evening.
0:20:24 > 0:20:27It's got a Croydon postmark on the same day,
0:20:27 > 0:20:30so all this was happening amazingly quickly.
0:20:30 > 0:20:32So postcard photographers
0:20:32 > 0:20:36were almost a 24-hour news provider.
0:20:58 > 0:21:01So what killed off the golden age of postcards?
0:21:01 > 0:21:06It was a variety of reasons. At the end of the First World War,
0:21:06 > 0:21:09the Royal Mail doubled the price of postage so postcards
0:21:09 > 0:21:14that had previously cost of halfpenny to send suddenly cost a penny, and then very quickly
0:21:14 > 0:21:21afterwards in 1921, they went up to three-halfpence so the cost had virtually trebled in three years.
0:21:21 > 0:21:27Also at the end of the First World War there wasn't as much money around,
0:21:27 > 0:21:31there wasn't the appetite that people had to go on holidays.
0:21:31 > 0:21:37Families had broken up, husbands had been killed, fathers had been killed,
0:21:37 > 0:21:43there just wasn't the same sort of cultural phenomenon around as had been pre-1914, the same atmosphere.
0:21:43 > 0:21:50Also more people were having telephones installed in the 1920s and therefore the whole
0:21:50 > 0:21:57function of postcards declined and postcards survived as either
0:21:57 > 0:22:01view cards of touristy places or as comic cards.
0:22:05 > 0:22:11End of a beautiful day, I think the Rowland Hill mob are in for a treat.
0:22:11 > 0:22:14Up to seven deliveries a day,
0:22:14 > 0:22:19they'd never have guessed that instant messaging started a century ago.
0:22:19 > 0:22:24And that Croydon train crash story, you'd be amazed if that happened today.
0:22:24 > 0:22:29Ah nice drop of vino plonko.
0:22:29 > 0:22:34Tomorrow I'll look for a couple of big names to add weight to my thesis.
0:22:52 > 0:22:57Now I love the way a postcard photograph fixes a place, a locality in print.
0:22:57 > 0:23:04It's a chronicle of costumes, events, adverts, people through times of peace and times of war.
0:23:04 > 0:23:10I can time travel to any location and see it develop through the decades,
0:23:10 > 0:23:13this is becoming quite addictive.
0:23:13 > 0:23:18And then we come to Wolverton Station...
0:23:18 > 0:23:24That old buffer John Betjeman knew a thing or two about visiting tourist destinations.
0:23:24 > 0:23:32There are no posters on Wolverton Station and you'll notice how the signal box is made to fit in
0:23:32 > 0:23:35with the style of the cottage to which it is attached...
0:23:35 > 0:23:40On arrival at a new place, Betjeman wrote, "I take a walk to the biggest stationers
0:23:40 > 0:23:43"and consult one of the revolving stands of views.
0:23:43 > 0:23:47"There I generally find postcards taken by a local photographer." Brilliant.
0:23:47 > 0:23:52If you need an instant shortcut to the best views of any town,
0:23:52 > 0:23:55just go and buy all the local postcards.
0:23:55 > 0:23:58Of course this station is much more spick and span
0:23:58 > 0:24:02than any other, it's won 30 prizes in the Eastern Region for doing so.
0:24:02 > 0:24:08I'm not surprised and it's not just the outside, I mean look here at
0:24:08 > 0:24:11the public waiting room and booking office.
0:24:11 > 0:24:16It looks to me from the carving and the style of it generally
0:24:16 > 0:24:20as though it was done in the time of King Edward VII.
0:24:20 > 0:24:22Thank you, John!
0:24:24 > 0:24:29By the time the Second World War had ended, and with the telephone becoming more common,
0:24:29 > 0:24:35I suppose the picture postcard just morphed into the modern holiday postcard.
0:24:35 > 0:24:38With the new generation starting to travel, the cliches of this is where
0:24:38 > 0:24:43we're staying and wish you were here became common currency.
0:24:46 > 0:24:52So I really need to speak to a tame telly don in order to examine the nature of this discourse
0:24:52 > 0:25:01to inject a more intellectual tone to my upcoming after-dinner lecture.
0:25:06 > 0:25:11- Hello.- Is that Prof John Sutherland? - None other.
0:25:11 > 0:25:14I understand you're always up for doing something on television or radio.
0:25:14 > 0:25:18Yes, and if you got any donkeys I'll talk the hind legs off them.
0:25:18 > 0:25:22OK, I'll be straight round"
0:25:22 > 0:25:29John, I'm doing a talk on postcards. Tell me, do they have their own special language?
0:25:29 > 0:25:32You'd write things which
0:25:32 > 0:25:35didn't contain any kind of information content at all,
0:25:35 > 0:25:39they were just what linguists call "phatic communion."
0:25:39 > 0:25:44That is to say they just established a relationship of community
0:25:44 > 0:25:48with the person you were... Just as in a railway carriage, you might say, "Nice weather."
0:25:48 > 0:25:51That is not information for the person sitting opposite,
0:25:51 > 0:25:54it's a way of just a way of creating a short-term relationship,
0:25:54 > 0:25:58saying wish you were here, having a lovely time, weather good,
0:25:58 > 0:25:59bad, indifferent and so on.
0:25:59 > 0:26:02The kinds of things would really be saying,
0:26:02 > 0:26:07"I'm not lost, I may be off your immediate radar but I shall be back."
0:26:07 > 0:26:11I don't thing that happens any more, I think the world has shrunk
0:26:11 > 0:26:14so in fact you might make a phone call or send an e-mail
0:26:14 > 0:26:18but in those days it was a big deal to travel
0:26:18 > 0:26:23and part of that big deal package was sending back your picture postcards.
0:26:23 > 0:26:26"Dear Win and Louis, thanks for your lovely card.
0:26:26 > 0:26:29"As you will see, we are on holiday and enjoying every minute of it
0:26:29 > 0:26:33"after an enjoyable ride in the coach. Love Ivy and Bill."
0:26:33 > 0:26:38"Dear Mother, we're having a lovely hol and the weather is really nice for a change.
0:26:38 > 0:26:41"Hope you are feeling better and that you have got the pot off.
0:26:41 > 0:26:43"All our love Mary and Frank."
0:26:43 > 0:26:49"Dear Roy and Dorothy, having a good time, supped some stuff last night, dancing tonight.
0:26:49 > 0:26:53"Twin beds here, nice to relax away from it all.
0:26:53 > 0:26:55"Love Frank and Mary."
0:26:55 > 0:26:59One of the interesting aspects of postcards was they were,
0:26:59 > 0:27:03in a very small but interesting way, taboo-breaking,
0:27:03 > 0:27:09that's to say the early 20th century there was repression on
0:27:09 > 0:27:13things which were considered saucy and naughty,
0:27:13 > 0:27:16or to go one step further - obscene.
0:27:16 > 0:27:19Postcards largely escaped that because they were fugitive things,
0:27:19 > 0:27:23they would just be on a stand if you went to a newsagents.
0:27:23 > 0:27:26It was very hard to actually oppress them
0:27:26 > 0:27:31in the same way that cinema was oppressed or radio.
0:27:31 > 0:27:35There was an area of freedom, together with certain other things because
0:27:35 > 0:27:38when you sent postcards it was because you were away from home,
0:27:38 > 0:27:42when morals were relaxed of course, so to some extent there was
0:27:42 > 0:27:48this feeling of an immoral break out associated with some postcards.
0:27:48 > 0:27:52Of course, famously was the one that Orwell wrote about
0:27:52 > 0:27:55at great length, the Donald McGill postcard.
0:27:55 > 0:27:59Donald McGill is the king of the double entendre -
0:27:59 > 0:28:03he knew how to pull it off! Ha, ha!
0:28:03 > 0:28:08So I must pack my suitcase and travel back to the land that time forgot,
0:28:08 > 0:28:13this is the bit I'm looking forward to, the saucy postcard.
0:28:13 > 0:28:17Some McGill cards are guaranteed to perk up my talk.
0:28:30 > 0:28:34Mr McGill sees every angle, he is seeing the female angle,
0:28:34 > 0:28:36he is seeing the child's angle,
0:28:36 > 0:28:39and he's just literally doing a raspberry at everybody.
0:28:46 > 0:28:53Donald McGill was perhaps the most renowned comic seaside postcard artist of all time.
0:28:53 > 0:29:00McGill really invented the whole genre, I don't think it's too strong an exaggeration to say.
0:29:00 > 0:29:03He was in right at the beginning of
0:29:03 > 0:29:05the postcard boom
0:29:05 > 0:29:09and he in fact was the first full-time postcard artist.
0:29:09 > 0:29:14He invented that genre, he had a huge output he worked
0:29:14 > 0:29:18for almost 60 years
0:29:18 > 0:29:20and
0:29:20 > 0:29:23produced over 12,000 postcards.
0:29:35 > 0:29:37Most postcards
0:29:37 > 0:29:43ran into trouble as a result of local busybodies or puritans
0:29:43 > 0:29:46getting awfully worked up and complaining.
0:29:46 > 0:29:50And when they complained, the police had to take action,
0:29:50 > 0:29:55and then cards were confiscated from retailers
0:29:55 > 0:30:00and the retailers found themselves in the magistrates courts and sometimes
0:30:00 > 0:30:02even in the Crown Courts.
0:30:11 > 0:30:18The Isle of Man and Blackpool, they set up very studious censoring committees where they would have
0:30:18 > 0:30:26all postcard artists sending their designs before the season started and those cards would be stamped
0:30:26 > 0:30:28approved or disapproved so that they would know
0:30:28 > 0:30:33that those cards were acceptable or not acceptable in their town.
0:30:42 > 0:30:48McGill was prosecuted and appeared in court at Lincoln Quarter Sessions in 1954.
0:30:48 > 0:30:5521 of his cards were prosecuted and he was advised by his defence counsel
0:30:55 > 0:30:59to plead guilty on four counts,
0:30:59 > 0:31:02probably to achieve a more favourable outcome.
0:31:02 > 0:31:07Bernard, what effect did the prosecutions have on the postcard trade?
0:31:07 > 0:31:13Well, it's often felt that the prosecutions did damage the postcard industry.
0:31:13 > 0:31:17Opinion differs and there is an argument which says
0:31:17 > 0:31:21that the prosecutions actually gave the industry a boost.
0:31:27 > 0:31:33Now for my celebrity surprise, the irrepressible Michael Winner.
0:31:33 > 0:31:37Michael, do you think the McGill humour is quintessentially British?
0:31:37 > 0:31:42Donald McGill was archetypally British, he shows the British
0:31:42 > 0:31:47bravado during the war, he shows wonderful pictures of children,
0:31:47 > 0:31:52the pictures were very beautiful, and he shows the British
0:31:52 > 0:31:56as what they still are and people pretend they are not,
0:31:56 > 0:31:59which is a cheerfully vulgar race.
0:31:59 > 0:32:05They're quite earthy, and McGill summed up that British spirit of fun
0:32:05 > 0:32:07and laughter.
0:32:07 > 0:32:10He was a great social commentator of the times.
0:32:10 > 0:32:14But Mr Winner, Michael, George Orwell said that
0:32:14 > 0:32:19the McGill cards had ever present obscenity and a lowness of mental...
0:32:19 > 0:32:22George Orwell was an idiot. It's quite simple, he was an idiot,
0:32:22 > 0:32:24I mean these were very fine drawings.
0:32:24 > 0:32:26People decried the Impressionists,
0:32:26 > 0:32:30there was a riot when the Impressionists first had an exhibition.
0:32:30 > 0:32:35George Orwell wasn't an art critic, he had his qualities somewhere else,
0:32:35 > 0:32:37I'm not sure where, in the toilet maybe.
0:32:37 > 0:32:42But what does he know about art, it was impertinent of him.
0:32:42 > 0:32:45He can have a view of course, he's a human being, but it's a rubbish view.
0:32:45 > 0:32:49Lot 159, first of the McGill postcards.
0:32:51 > 0:32:55- £50?- But in those days I did go to the option, I think
0:32:55 > 0:32:59quite a few came up in Sotheby's Belgravia, which no longer exists,
0:32:59 > 0:33:03- and I stood there among the motley... - 280... 300.
0:33:03 > 0:33:08And I bought two or three and then I just kept buying them endlessly.
0:33:08 > 0:33:11I ended up with about 180 of them.
0:33:11 > 0:33:13Sold at 450 then.
0:33:15 > 0:33:16Yours.
0:33:16 > 0:33:20But if the McGill cards were so lovely, why did you sell them?
0:33:20 > 0:33:24I sold mine because I have about 700 pictures up in my house
0:33:24 > 0:33:29and I had no wall space for them, there's a limit of space.
0:33:29 > 0:33:33I mean in my toilets I've got seven, eight, nine important pictures.
0:33:33 > 0:33:38I couldn't build another house to put them up, so I flogged 'em!
0:33:38 > 0:33:41Well, this is coming along very nicely for my talk.
0:33:41 > 0:33:45I've got history, messages, a prof with phatic communion, and
0:33:45 > 0:33:52saucy postcards with Michael Winner. Must work in a, "calm down, dear" joke.
0:33:52 > 0:33:57Now I need the post-war stuff and some people who do curious things with postcards.
0:34:05 > 0:34:08Time for a quick trip to Phil, the Demon Barber.
0:34:08 > 0:34:14He has his own collection of cards, every one of them a barber's shop.
0:34:14 > 0:34:15Hi, Phil.
0:34:15 > 0:34:17Hello, how are you?
0:34:17 > 0:34:20Yes, yes, good. Now you collect cards of barbershops, don't you?
0:34:20 > 0:34:24Yes, I do. People send them from all over the world.
0:34:24 > 0:34:26That one's from India,
0:34:27 > 0:34:30There's a few here actually from India.
0:34:32 > 0:34:39Over here, I think that's in Puerto Rico, that's France,
0:34:39 > 0:34:40and this one
0:34:40 > 0:34:44they're suggesting I should get a bit more modern.
0:34:44 > 0:34:48It says, "Isn't it about time you brought your shop into the 20th century?".
0:34:48 > 0:34:53Well, I suppose he's right really, what do you think?
0:34:53 > 0:34:57- Well, it's hardly the cutting edge. - Thank you, goodbye.
0:34:57 > 0:35:03Ha, ha, ha. Actually, I think this trade bit can be quite colourful and charming whether it's beer,
0:35:03 > 0:35:08holidays, or a bank that not only could you withdraw from,
0:35:08 > 0:35:11you can tow it away - caravans.
0:35:11 > 0:35:17Caravans, holidays, didn't Brian have something to say on that?
0:35:17 > 0:35:22Postcards really came into their own again in the '60s, '70s, 'and 80s.
0:35:22 > 0:35:28I think it was fuelled by enthusiasm of people in Britain for package holidays abroad and also for
0:35:28 > 0:35:34holidaying at the various Butlins holiday camps and other camps around this country.
0:35:34 > 0:35:38Butlins themselves published thousands and thousands
0:35:38 > 0:35:44of different designs and so you get an absolute mountain of postcards available now that people sent
0:35:44 > 0:35:49during that period detailing their experiences at Butlins holiday camps.
0:35:49 > 0:35:53These have become incredibly collectable again now.
0:35:54 > 0:35:58I need to find out more on the post-war holiday era,
0:35:58 > 0:36:00I need an expert.
0:36:00 > 0:36:03Ah, here he is, the Butlins bloke.
0:36:12 > 0:36:18Martin Parr, why are you fascinated by Butlins postcards?
0:36:18 > 0:36:20When I was at college I used to go and work
0:36:20 > 0:36:22at Butlins holiday camp, Filey,
0:36:22 > 0:36:25and it was there that I discovered the postcards of John Hinde.
0:36:25 > 0:36:29I was really taken with these brightly-coloured, brash postcards
0:36:29 > 0:36:33and started to collect them and got really fascinated by the whole history.
0:36:33 > 0:36:38I discover that these were done a few years earlier when Butlins had commissioned John Hinde to completely
0:36:38 > 0:36:43update their postcard stock and I started to collect these.
0:36:43 > 0:36:48They were a fantastic social document of this time at Butlins
0:36:48 > 0:36:50so for me they hit all the nails on the head.
0:36:50 > 0:36:52They're social history, they're great to look at,
0:36:52 > 0:36:57and they tell us about the clothes and the interiors that people
0:36:57 > 0:37:01were exploring and using in the late '60s and early '70s.
0:37:01 > 0:37:06John Hinde decided to employ German photographers because technically they were a lot better.
0:37:06 > 0:37:08They were all shot on 5x4s so big cameras,
0:37:08 > 0:37:12they would then collaborated with the Redcoats and arrange people
0:37:12 > 0:37:15literally within the photograph, so they're all entirely staged
0:37:15 > 0:37:19and they're super-staged and that's how these postcards would come together.
0:37:19 > 0:37:23So they spent a lot of time maybe shooting one or two per day,
0:37:23 > 0:37:27fixing them up, getting everything right, wham-bam shooting them.
0:37:27 > 0:37:30Then the saturations and the separations for these
0:37:30 > 0:37:34postcards were made in Italy to give this very bright, intense colour,
0:37:34 > 0:37:37which is all part of the secret as to why John Hinde
0:37:37 > 0:37:40was such a successful postcard manufacturer.
0:37:40 > 0:37:44I've chosen here are couple to show you which are from Filey, the very place that I worked at.
0:37:44 > 0:37:48Here's the French Bar, the fantastic interior.
0:37:48 > 0:37:50Look at the way they've been arranged,
0:37:50 > 0:37:52the people being set up, fantastic colours.
0:37:52 > 0:37:55Look at the clothes that people are wearing.
0:37:55 > 0:37:58And then Filey from Butlins is the Beachcomber Bar.
0:37:58 > 0:38:01I worked for two summers at Butlins, first as a black and white walkie,
0:38:01 > 0:38:04we were called, and then the second year I was promoted
0:38:04 > 0:38:07to a colour walkie and the place where the colour
0:38:07 > 0:38:10walkies were allowed to go to was the Beachcomber Bar,
0:38:10 > 0:38:14which was the height of sophistication at Butlins, Filey.
0:38:14 > 0:38:17Look at the colours as well. Aren't they absolutely fantastic?
0:38:21 > 0:38:27Now Martin is also into motorway cards and '60s architecture,
0:38:27 > 0:38:30but if push came to shove I wonder which he'd plump for.
0:38:30 > 0:38:34Martin, what's your all-time favourite, is it a Butlins card?
0:38:34 > 0:38:40Difficult to actually pin down one card that would be my absolute favourite but I guess
0:38:40 > 0:38:43my collection of motorways is particularly cherished
0:38:43 > 0:38:46and within that, for example, let me show this one here,
0:38:46 > 0:38:49the Captain's Table in Leicester Forest East.
0:38:49 > 0:38:53This was taken a few years after it opened and this is as a time when
0:38:53 > 0:38:56the actual motorway service station was very glamorous and people
0:38:56 > 0:39:02would come in and book themselves in for a meal on a motorway service station.
0:39:02 > 0:39:05It was absolutely the bee's knees for a night out.
0:39:05 > 0:39:11And here look at this other postcard of the M1, what's fantastic about it is how deserted it was.
0:39:11 > 0:39:14Then the M1 was a really heroic thing, I remember being taken on
0:39:14 > 0:39:17to the M1 is a treat when I was a teenager.
0:39:23 > 0:39:28So the postcard is a very good indicator of how our social trends and attitudes have changed.
0:39:28 > 0:39:34The period in particular that these cards come from was the time in the '60s and '70s
0:39:34 > 0:39:38when Britain was building itself up again after the Second World War
0:39:38 > 0:39:44and many of the things they show, such as motorways, shopping centres, all look now rather drab
0:39:44 > 0:39:48and dreary so although technically we think of them now as a bit boring,
0:39:48 > 0:39:50of course at the time they were really the height
0:39:50 > 0:39:55of the new achievement of the utopia being built in Britain after the Second World War.
0:39:57 > 0:40:01What is the appeal in boring postcards?
0:40:01 > 0:40:04I mean, look at this, a power station control panel,
0:40:04 > 0:40:06is this what they call post-modern?
0:40:06 > 0:40:09Hang on though, there may be something in this.
0:40:09 > 0:40:14On one of my old Parky's, I think there's a bit of Andrew Sachs
0:40:14 > 0:40:17with the ultimate in boring postcards.
0:40:17 > 0:40:20Earlier in this series I was talking to Andrew Sachs about his life and times,
0:40:20 > 0:40:24about playing Manuel in Fawlty Towers and all that, when he mentioned his hobby of collecting boring postcards.
0:40:24 > 0:40:29Well, that started it, from all parts of Britain they came to us by the sackful.
0:40:29 > 0:40:32What Andrew Sachs is regarded as a private habit
0:40:32 > 0:40:34proved to be a national pastime.
0:40:34 > 0:40:36Anyway tonight is a big night for all the boring postcard collectors
0:40:36 > 0:40:40because we're going to announce the most boring postcards of all time
0:40:40 > 0:40:43and celebrate with a suitably boring prize.
0:40:43 > 0:40:45To do the honours, please welcome the man who started it all,
0:40:45 > 0:40:47Mr Andrew Sachs.
0:40:47 > 0:40:50APPLAUSE
0:40:58 > 0:41:00Here's the card you might have seen before,
0:41:00 > 0:41:03it's this one showing a kilted gentleman
0:41:03 > 0:41:04looking at a large hole.
0:41:04 > 0:41:05The person who sent it
0:41:05 > 0:41:08suspected he was doing something other than looking
0:41:08 > 0:41:13and he christened it "Piddler of the Glenn."
0:41:13 > 0:41:17Let's move on now, Andrew, to the three that we've picked out
0:41:17 > 0:41:20in reverse order, as somebody else is always fond of saying.
0:41:20 > 0:41:22- Yes.- So the third then.
0:41:22 > 0:41:25Well, these three, I must say,
0:41:25 > 0:41:29they lowered our spirits considerably
0:41:29 > 0:41:32and set the blood coagulating in my veins.
0:41:32 > 0:41:35This one here is a classic example,
0:41:35 > 0:41:39it's caravans, Nissen huts, prefabs are always good value,
0:41:39 > 0:41:43and it would have actually come possibly second or even first
0:41:43 > 0:41:45except for the inscription on the back
0:41:45 > 0:41:49which says "Scenes of interest and beauty from Lyneham in Wiltshire."
0:41:49 > 0:41:52Mmm, yes, a likely story. That was number three.
0:41:52 > 0:41:54The second one,
0:41:54 > 0:41:56this is an American entry.
0:41:56 > 0:42:00Yes, from Judith Oakley, it's quite nice, it's again in colour
0:42:00 > 0:42:04but it's OK, it's a brick wall with some holes in it.
0:42:04 > 0:42:07The O'Brian Hall, Amherst Campus, it says.
0:42:07 > 0:42:10Well, that excites me. The thing that stops it again from winning
0:42:10 > 0:42:12is I think a little too much excitement
0:42:12 > 0:42:14about the trees at the bottom.
0:42:14 > 0:42:16Normally, trees are pruned at the top,
0:42:16 > 0:42:21these are pruned at the bottom.
0:42:21 > 0:42:24Let's now look at the winner.
0:42:26 > 0:42:30Yes, this is totally underwhelming, it's wonderful.
0:42:32 > 0:42:35Now, for the benefit of those viewers
0:42:35 > 0:42:38who have perhaps summoned up enough energy to switch off
0:42:38 > 0:42:40or go into a coma,
0:42:40 > 0:42:42may I describe it a little bit?
0:42:42 > 0:42:46It's almost uniformly grey or off sepia,
0:42:46 > 0:42:48it is totally without interest.
0:42:48 > 0:42:51Right, so that's the out and out winner.
0:42:53 > 0:42:56Ah, boring postcards.
0:43:00 > 0:43:03ALARM BLEEPS
0:43:09 > 0:43:13I'm really well stocked with stories but I'm sure I'm missing something.
0:43:13 > 0:43:17The postcard OF art and the postcard AS art,
0:43:17 > 0:43:20what was it Professor John said?
0:43:20 > 0:43:25They're very beautiful, a lot of them, and they were artworks.
0:43:25 > 0:43:30This continues to the present day, and if you look for instance
0:43:30 > 0:43:34at the kind of postcards which people like me actually buy...
0:43:34 > 0:43:36I've got one in my pocket actually,
0:43:36 > 0:43:43which is a very lovely picture by a very good photographer George Rodger.
0:43:43 > 0:43:48Now I wouldn't necessarily, even though I admire his work,
0:43:48 > 0:43:50I wouldn't necessarily buy a whole book,
0:43:50 > 0:43:55they're very expensive coffee table book of Roger's work,
0:43:55 > 0:43:59and also if I send it, it signals to the person I am sending it to
0:43:59 > 0:44:02that we have shared high cultural values.
0:44:02 > 0:44:06It's a kind of snobbery but I think a very innocent kind of snobbery,
0:44:06 > 0:44:09the kind of postcards you choose define you.
0:44:09 > 0:44:14Go to a museum for instance and people are buying postcards.
0:44:14 > 0:44:16They're not necessarily writing wish you were here
0:44:16 > 0:44:19and sending them to their nearest and dearest like we used to
0:44:19 > 0:44:21but people still like to have them,
0:44:21 > 0:44:22they still like to have around,
0:44:22 > 0:44:26they're nice objects, nice things and also they are very cheap
0:44:26 > 0:44:29so you leave the museum thinking you bought something,
0:44:29 > 0:44:32you've got a relic, and it only cost you 90p or someone like that.
0:44:35 > 0:44:40Gilbert and George have done some amazing things with postcards,
0:44:40 > 0:44:43namely, stick them in patterns.
0:44:48 > 0:44:50Oh, get on with it.
0:44:57 > 0:45:00Why did you choose to live as artists?
0:45:00 > 0:45:04It was not our choice, we are driven to be artists.
0:45:04 > 0:45:07What's your favourite colour?
0:45:07 > 0:45:10We have no taste, we are artists.
0:45:10 > 0:45:15These Gilbert and George patterns of postcards from phone boxes
0:45:15 > 0:45:19and tourist shops are supposed to represent the male urethra.
0:45:19 > 0:45:24It is meant to be ironic or are they just taking the piss?
0:45:24 > 0:45:27I mean is that art or artifice?
0:45:27 > 0:45:30Come on, that doesn't look a bit like my urethra.
0:45:30 > 0:45:33Actually I don't know what it looks like because I don't think I've ever looked at it.
0:45:33 > 0:45:38OK, if you can't beat them, glue them.
0:45:42 > 0:45:45There, I'll call that Donald McGill's Blackpool Tower,
0:45:45 > 0:45:48must be worth a bob or two.
0:45:50 > 0:45:56The postcard is a form loved by many artists
0:45:56 > 0:45:59and I hear someone is doing something special with mail art.
0:45:59 > 0:46:02That's art using the post.
0:46:02 > 0:46:08To find out more, I'm going to Chelsea College of Art.
0:46:10 > 0:46:14My name is Nigel Bents and I work at Chelsea College of Art,
0:46:14 > 0:46:17and I'm involved with something called mail art.
0:46:17 > 0:46:20My explorations into mail art
0:46:20 > 0:46:23made me go in all sorts of different directions
0:46:23 > 0:46:29until I discovered that for me the postcard is an exquisite form.
0:46:31 > 0:46:33It wasn't until some years later
0:46:33 > 0:46:38that I came across somebody called Reginald Bray,
0:46:38 > 0:46:41the father of mail art.
0:46:41 > 0:46:45Bray also produced some remarkable postcards,
0:46:45 > 0:46:48in their concepts they were just tremendous
0:46:48 > 0:46:51and there's a couple that I'm going to show you now.
0:46:56 > 0:46:59It does what it says on the card really,
0:46:59 > 0:47:01it's to any resident of London
0:47:01 > 0:47:06and this postcard he sent to any resident in London.
0:47:06 > 0:47:07Sadly it didn't get sent,
0:47:07 > 0:47:12it's got a rubber stamp here of insufficiently addressed,
0:47:12 > 0:47:14but a tremendous idea.
0:47:14 > 0:47:18He was successful in sending postcards
0:47:18 > 0:47:23that were more specific, he'd find a picture postcard in the shop,
0:47:23 > 0:47:26the Old Man of Hoy, Orkney Islands,
0:47:26 > 0:47:30and would address it to a resident nearest this rock.
0:47:30 > 0:47:35He then came across a format for which I guess he was most well known
0:47:35 > 0:47:39which was his autograph card postcard
0:47:39 > 0:47:45in which he gathered the addresses of whoever was in the news
0:47:45 > 0:47:48or whoever needed their autograph taking
0:47:48 > 0:47:52and he would send this card with a bit of blurb at the top there
0:47:52 > 0:47:55saying who he is and who he was.
0:47:55 > 0:48:00He sent tens of thousands of these off, and on the back the recipient
0:48:00 > 0:48:04would sign their autograph and then post it back to him
0:48:04 > 0:48:07and he amassed a huge collection.
0:48:09 > 0:48:12It seems nothing is beyond Nigel Bents imagination
0:48:12 > 0:48:16in his testing of the resourcefulness of the postal services,
0:48:16 > 0:48:20but deep down Nigel is also a determined postcard collector.
0:48:20 > 0:48:25I'm collecting some large letter postcards at the moment,
0:48:25 > 0:48:29I'm trying to amass all 50 of the American states.
0:48:29 > 0:48:33The most important postcard for any collector and every collector
0:48:33 > 0:48:35is the one that you haven't got.
0:48:35 > 0:48:39It doesn't matter at all about any of the ones you have,
0:48:39 > 0:48:43as soon as you have them, that's done, it's on with the next.
0:48:43 > 0:48:49I do not have North Carolina yet, I will soon, it's in the post.
0:48:49 > 0:48:54I do not have Alaska, it's too expensive at the moment,
0:48:54 > 0:49:00it's £14-£15 and one person in America issues them every so often.
0:49:02 > 0:49:07And Hawaii, which doesn't exist so I intend to design it myself
0:49:07 > 0:49:11and then distribute it to needy collectors who need Hawaii.
0:49:22 > 0:49:29Stone me, postcard intercourse, and who are my correspondents?
0:49:29 > 0:49:34Ah, Jimmy McGovern! Hero of Hillsborough and the street,
0:49:34 > 0:49:36with an amusing tale of how his postman
0:49:36 > 0:49:39reads all his cards and hopes to visit all the places on them.
0:49:39 > 0:49:41I sense a play coming on.
0:49:44 > 0:49:47Nicholas Parsons! Heaven.
0:49:47 > 0:49:51"I love postcards and keep those sent to me by friends." Ah!
0:49:51 > 0:49:53"I enjoy sending postcards..."
0:49:53 > 0:49:57Bzzz! Repetition, sorry Nicholas.
0:49:57 > 0:50:00Oh, my old mate Bill Oddie.
0:50:03 > 0:50:08Ooh, gracious, not of the feathered variety.
0:50:09 > 0:50:15These cards can be my homage to Reginald Bray, the autograph man,
0:50:15 > 0:50:18after all, it is mail art and they are all male.
0:50:20 > 0:50:22That reminds me...
0:50:26 > 0:50:30I'm sure there's an old postcard album
0:50:30 > 0:50:33somewhere up here in the high Andes.
0:50:36 > 0:50:38Hello, Little Ted.
0:50:41 > 0:50:44Beano, Beano...
0:50:46 > 0:50:49bingo!
0:50:49 > 0:50:54Quite an eclectic selection, comic stuff, rare views,
0:50:54 > 0:50:58ah, Butlins, must be worth a few quid.
0:51:01 > 0:51:05Next stop, the UK's largest postcard collectors fair.
0:51:05 > 0:51:10The organiser of the postcard fair is Barrie Rollinson,
0:51:10 > 0:51:13if ever a man knows his clientele, it's Barrie.
0:51:16 > 0:51:21What a queue! Mainly men,
0:51:21 > 0:51:26with the occasional sighting of the fairer sex, presumably.
0:51:26 > 0:51:30I've got a waistcoat like that. Ah, there's one.
0:51:40 > 0:51:46This is amazing, postcards, postcards everywhere
0:51:46 > 0:51:48and not even time to blink.
0:51:48 > 0:51:50Everything! There's another one.
0:51:50 > 0:51:56On every stand, boxes and boxes of pictures and messages,
0:51:56 > 0:51:58cheap cards, expensive cards.
0:51:58 > 0:52:01Barry, everyone here seems a postcard addict.
0:52:01 > 0:52:05They have a history and a memory,
0:52:05 > 0:52:07that's what we all collect,
0:52:07 > 0:52:10memories that give us pleasure to remember these things.
0:52:10 > 0:52:13What's the one postcard you've yearned for?
0:52:13 > 0:52:18It's so easy for me to answer, my grandfather was Mayor of Rotherham
0:52:18 > 0:52:24in 1939, and a picture postcard of my grandfather in his mayoral robes
0:52:24 > 0:52:31would be an absolute delight for me. I would cherish it,
0:52:31 > 0:52:38Wow, if you could have a cornucopia of cards, this would be it.
0:52:45 > 0:52:50Nearly 150 dealers, this is the ideal place to cash in on my album.
0:52:50 > 0:52:52Ha! They'll bite my arm off.
0:52:54 > 0:52:58Yep, she'd go for my album.
0:52:58 > 0:53:00Hi, would you look at my cards,
0:53:00 > 0:53:04- I think they're rather special.- OK.
0:53:04 > 0:53:06Some are a bit loose.
0:53:10 > 0:53:15From our point of view these cards are rather on the modern side,
0:53:15 > 0:53:19we tend to sell older cards than this.
0:53:19 > 0:53:21They changed the size of the cards
0:53:21 > 0:53:24and the bigger size cards are the more modern ones,
0:53:24 > 0:53:26which we don't have any of at all,
0:53:26 > 0:53:29or if we do they're in our cheap boxes.
0:53:29 > 0:53:31Cheap boxes?!
0:53:31 > 0:53:34I wouldn't actually be interested in buying that really.
0:53:34 > 0:53:36No, oh, dear. Well, thanks for having a look.
0:53:36 > 0:53:38Yes.
0:53:43 > 0:53:46Oh, there is Brian. Hi, Brian.
0:53:46 > 0:53:49I must buy something, I'll follow young Martin's lead
0:53:49 > 0:53:52and go for the early motorway stuff, it shouldn't cost too much.
0:53:52 > 0:53:55Have you got any motorway cards? Ah, thank you.
0:53:55 > 0:53:58- They're £2 each. - Brilliant, great stuff.
0:54:02 > 0:54:06I'll give Barrie a waft of my album, he looks a generous type.
0:54:06 > 0:54:09These are modern, I'm sorry there's no value.
0:54:09 > 0:54:12- So I'm not going to retire on these, Barrie?- No.
0:54:12 > 0:54:18No, but if you could I'd already be a millionaire.
0:54:19 > 0:54:24At least Brian from Reflections is bound to give me a good price.
0:54:24 > 0:54:26Right, OK.
0:54:28 > 0:54:31Anything there catching your eye?
0:54:31 > 0:54:34To be honest, to be worth any real money
0:54:34 > 0:54:36postcards have got to be pre-1920.
0:54:36 > 0:54:38We class these as modern cards
0:54:38 > 0:54:43and so the chances are there won't be anything of terrific value.
0:54:43 > 0:54:46I don't think you'd get much more than a tenner for that.
0:54:46 > 0:54:48- I know it's disappointing.- A tenner?
0:54:48 > 0:54:51That's only three pints in old money!
0:54:51 > 0:54:58But on the upside I now think my quest is all but over.
0:54:58 > 0:55:03Time for a quick recap of all my favourite quotes from my journey,
0:55:03 > 0:55:08for as my mate Picassos said, "Good artists borrow, great artists steal"
0:55:08 > 0:55:12I think there is a magic about sending a postcard today,
0:55:12 > 0:55:16in fact I'd go so far as to say that it's in some ways
0:55:16 > 0:55:19more of an impact it has than postcards then
0:55:19 > 0:55:22because it is so unusual to get a handwritten note
0:55:22 > 0:55:25from a friend or a member of your family.
0:55:25 > 0:55:27That's good, thanks, Guy.
0:55:27 > 0:55:29Next up, Martin Parr.
0:55:29 > 0:55:31In this day and age the postcard's role
0:55:31 > 0:55:35is almost gone because everyone now has got a camera phone,
0:55:35 > 0:55:38you can send a picture, you can write a message on it,
0:55:38 > 0:55:40you can do it instantly, you don't have too rely
0:55:40 > 0:55:43on someone else to take the picture,
0:55:43 > 0:55:46you can take it yourself, so everything has its time and place
0:55:46 > 0:55:49and the postcard had had a great century and long may it live,
0:55:49 > 0:55:52but it won't because it's dying in front of us.
0:55:52 > 0:55:54Trust a photographer to be negative.
0:55:54 > 0:55:58Everything in the world is represented somehow in a postcard.
0:55:58 > 0:56:00In fact you could put it the other way round and say that
0:56:00 > 0:56:04everything in the world exists in order to end up as a postcard.
0:56:04 > 0:56:05You'll find nothing,
0:56:05 > 0:56:07you find no point of reference
0:56:07 > 0:56:10which doesn't echo itself in a postcard,
0:56:10 > 0:56:13isn't illuminated by it, any aspect of human life
0:56:13 > 0:56:15and the things we see and do.
0:56:15 > 0:56:17What more can you ask of an object?
0:56:19 > 0:56:21Tom, I'm won over.
0:56:21 > 0:56:25As James Bond once nearly wrote, postcards are forever.
0:56:25 > 0:56:30Excellente, so I'll start my talk in 1902
0:56:30 > 0:56:32and the first split back card,
0:56:32 > 0:56:34then cover some of Tony's gorgeous ones.
0:56:34 > 0:56:37Then talk about the messages on the back
0:56:37 > 0:56:40as tantalising glimpses of Edwardian life,
0:56:40 > 0:56:43hit them with the amazing number of deliveries,
0:56:43 > 0:56:47so the card was a phone call, e-mail, text or Twitter
0:56:47 > 0:56:49all rolled into one.
0:56:49 > 0:56:52Rounding up nicely with holiday postcards
0:56:52 > 0:56:54of the post-war period,
0:56:54 > 0:56:55Butlins and all that.
0:56:55 > 0:57:01Finally the Holy Grail for the collector, an authentic card
0:57:01 > 0:57:04sent off the Titanic at her last port of call in Ireland,
0:57:04 > 0:57:06this one went for £6,500,
0:57:06 > 0:57:09Jack the writer didn't survive,
0:57:09 > 0:57:13that'll create a hush around the room.
0:57:13 > 0:57:16I could even pass round my own album,
0:57:16 > 0:57:19somebody might but it as a memento.
0:57:19 > 0:57:21But how to start?
0:57:22 > 0:57:26It just has to be a Donald McGill joke to win them over.
0:57:29 > 0:57:31Tonight's the night!
0:57:31 > 0:57:33They're going to love this!
0:57:44 > 0:57:50Gentlemen and ladies, my talk is on the picture postcard
0:57:50 > 0:57:56so I must start with my favourite Donald McGill saucy caption.
0:57:56 > 0:57:58Lady store assistant is saying to a male customer,
0:57:58 > 0:58:00"Gentlemen's requisites?
0:58:00 > 0:58:03@Yes, sir, go straight through Ladies' Underwear."
0:58:05 > 0:58:10Yes, the are picture postcard as we know it started in 1902
0:58:10 > 0:58:15- when the post office first allowed split back that we... - VOICE FADES
0:58:21 > 0:58:24Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:58:24 > 0:58:27E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk