0:00:04 > 0:00:08This is the story of how one of the most influential youth movements of
0:00:08 > 0:00:13all time used film to open up the countryside to the masses.
0:00:13 > 0:00:18For generations, the promotional films of the Youth Hostel Association
0:00:18 > 0:00:25have encouraged millions of people to expand their horizons and see the world through fresh eyes.
0:00:25 > 0:00:32Now, after years of lying unseen, the films are being broadcast together for the first time.
0:00:35 > 0:00:39They follow a journey through decades of what it means to be
0:00:39 > 0:00:45young, and as youth hostelling celebrates its first 100 years, show how our relationship with
0:00:45 > 0:00:48the British countryside was changed forever.
0:01:11 > 0:01:16Heading towards the Youth Hostel Association's headquarters in Derbyshire, film archivist
0:01:16 > 0:01:22Binny Baker is about to pick up a collection of vintage films which she's hoping will help shed fresh
0:01:22 > 0:01:29light on an organisation which has given millions of people their first experience of the great outdoors.
0:01:30 > 0:01:37I know by experience that there will be all sorts of surprises hidden within those boxes.
0:01:37 > 0:01:39It's just how many we'll find.
0:01:39 > 0:01:44There'll be some interesting stuff, but it's just how the film's fared over the years.
0:01:47 > 0:01:51Youth Hostelling started in Germany in 1909
0:01:51 > 0:01:53and spread to Britain in the 1930s.
0:01:53 > 0:01:57From the outset, the people behind its progress here quickly understood
0:01:57 > 0:02:00the importance of film in promoting its message.
0:02:02 > 0:02:07The films Binny's come to look at were recently unearthed during an overhaul of the YHA's records.
0:02:09 > 0:02:12- What are we going to find in here? - All sorts of things.
0:02:14 > 0:02:19She's already viewed some, but today she's joining the association's voluntary archivist,
0:02:19 > 0:02:23John Martin, to assess what other treasures may be hidden here.
0:02:23 > 0:02:26When we've collected the archive here,
0:02:26 > 0:02:29they've come from various different sources,
0:02:29 > 0:02:33and some of the sources are clearly much more complete than others.
0:02:33 > 0:02:39I want to have a look at some of these older ones. Quite often, you can tell just literally
0:02:39 > 0:02:42by the box and the...
0:02:42 > 0:02:44- Tin cans.- Yeah, look at that one.
0:02:44 > 0:02:46YHA disk reader 9.5.
0:02:46 > 0:02:51Now, 9.5 is one of the earliest film formats that people could use.
0:02:51 > 0:02:531930s.
0:02:53 > 0:02:59Inside, a handwritten note, which promises to take John and Binny back to the very start.
0:02:59 > 0:03:03Now, this is most interesting, because this is a list of some very
0:03:03 > 0:03:07early Northumberland youth hostels, which presumably are on the film.
0:03:07 > 0:03:09And mentioned is Wallington.
0:03:09 > 0:03:12Now, the history of Wallington is enormously important.
0:03:12 > 0:03:19This very much looks to me like an original because you can see, if you look up at the light there,
0:03:19 > 0:03:21can you see the different colour in film stock?
0:03:21 > 0:03:26There's dark and then there's light, and that's part of the way the film's been exposed.
0:03:26 > 0:03:30Those little gaps there are where they've been spliced together.
0:03:30 > 0:03:33This is going to be an exciting film, because it's not a print,
0:03:33 > 0:03:36it's a camera original, or it's been edited, at least.
0:03:36 > 0:03:39I love the fact that here, in your hand,
0:03:39 > 0:03:44is the history of the YHA in the 20th century. It's just great.
0:03:50 > 0:03:54Before taking the films back to the safety of her temperature controlled
0:03:54 > 0:03:59vaults, Binny's keen to gets John's expert knowledge of this early find.
0:03:59 > 0:04:03So, first time we're actually going to look at some film.
0:04:03 > 0:04:05- Very exciting.- It is, isn't it?
0:04:05 > 0:04:11It's not in too bad nick, so I'm hoping we're going to get a pretty good picture as we go through.
0:04:11 > 0:04:13What a wonderful piece of apparatus.
0:04:13 > 0:04:16It's great, isn't it?
0:04:16 > 0:04:18There's our first image.
0:04:18 > 0:04:20Yes.
0:04:20 > 0:04:22Looks '30s to me.
0:04:22 > 0:04:24With those uniforms.
0:04:24 > 0:04:27Like a women's keep-fit class, isn't it?
0:04:27 > 0:04:30- Yeah. It's "Freedom YHA".- Yes.
0:04:30 > 0:04:36Once we take this away and do some proper work on it, the quality will be, I can tell just by
0:04:36 > 0:04:39looking at this, the quality is just going to be fantastic.
0:04:54 > 0:04:57"Northumbrian hostels".
0:04:57 > 0:04:59Now, this'll be interesting.
0:04:59 > 0:05:02What was the significance of the Northumbrian...?
0:05:02 > 0:05:08It was the very first of the YHA's regions.
0:05:08 > 0:05:11The Trevelyans were
0:05:11 > 0:05:15the chief instigators or amongst the chief instigators
0:05:15 > 0:05:19at the very beginning of the association in 1931, '32.
0:05:19 > 0:05:25Among the gems here are shots of early YHA activity at Wallington Hall,
0:05:25 > 0:05:28the home of Sir Charles Trevelyan, an early benefactor
0:05:28 > 0:05:31and the brother of the association's first president.
0:05:32 > 0:05:39Later, emerging from the film, what are thought to be the first moving images of Sir Charles himself.
0:05:39 > 0:05:43And they donated what, money, or their own buildings?
0:05:43 > 0:05:50Yes, part of Wallington Hall became one of the very first youth hostels in the country.
0:05:53 > 0:05:57With access to the countryside far more restricted than it is today,
0:05:57 > 0:06:01it was crucial that the YHA attracted the landed gentry to its cause.
0:06:01 > 0:06:04Amongst the landowners, there were some
0:06:04 > 0:06:11very liberal or socialist leaning landowners like the Trevelyans,
0:06:11 > 0:06:17who were very keen to encourage this kind of activity on their land.
0:06:17 > 0:06:22- This would be an official film. - Yeah.- I'm certain of that, and it would be duplicated.
0:06:22 > 0:06:24- There we go.- Yeah. Very good.
0:06:27 > 0:06:31The concept of youth hostelling flourished as part of a broad liberal movement
0:06:31 > 0:06:34led by rambling and cycling groups, who wanted to get
0:06:34 > 0:06:39the working classes away from polluted urban areas into the great outdoors.
0:06:39 > 0:06:44Once established, it quickly became a cause among both the rich and poor.
0:06:46 > 0:06:51Behind the Youth Hostels Association at the very beginning, there was
0:06:51 > 0:06:58very definitely a lot of serious thought, a lot of financial support.
0:06:58 > 0:07:06Although the YHA in the 1930s was never that well off, it couldn't have got where it got to
0:07:06 > 0:07:12having, within five years, over 200 hostels, without a great deal of
0:07:12 > 0:07:16support by well-meaning people who could afford to do that.
0:07:19 > 0:07:23As Binny takes the rolls of film back to her base in Yorkshire
0:07:23 > 0:07:27for preservation, she's excited by the secrets they may contain.
0:07:29 > 0:07:32We've got the history of the Youth Hostel Association
0:07:32 > 0:07:37over at least seven decades, so that is really exciting.
0:07:37 > 0:07:41I was optimistic at the beginning of this sort of archive hunt
0:07:41 > 0:07:46that we would have a nationally significant collection.
0:07:46 > 0:07:49I think the more we look, the more we'll find.
0:07:50 > 0:07:54The early snapshot of hostelling in Northumberland is dwarfed by
0:07:54 > 0:07:59the discovery of the YHA's first film aimed at boosting recruitment.
0:07:59 > 0:08:03In 1933, two years after the first hostels were opened in Britain,
0:08:03 > 0:08:09the association was already striving to assert itself on an ambitious scale.
0:08:09 > 0:08:14It set out its manifesto in a drama called Youth Hails Adventure.
0:08:17 > 0:08:22The film, which would have been shown in church and village halls, advertises the YHA's aims
0:08:22 > 0:08:27of bringing the classes and sexes together in a new apolitical but democratic movement.
0:08:29 > 0:08:34For John Walton, professor of Social History at Leeds Metropolitan University,
0:08:34 > 0:08:38the film represents an early example of liberal propaganda.
0:08:38 > 0:08:44The crucial point about this film is that it's made in the early 1930s, really at just about the lowest
0:08:44 > 0:08:49point of the great industrial depression that really begins in 1929.
0:08:49 > 0:08:53There's a fear of revolution. There's a fear of communism.
0:08:53 > 0:08:59All this is designed to make people feel comforted and contented with their lot.
0:08:59 > 0:09:05It's designed to defuse tensions, and prevent class conflict from developing.
0:09:08 > 0:09:11I think it's very impressive that they use film,
0:09:11 > 0:09:15although it's worth noticing that it's not a talkie.
0:09:15 > 0:09:20Talkies were available by 1933 but they don't actually use them.
0:09:20 > 0:09:22It is something exciting and new.
0:09:22 > 0:09:25It's a new opportunity to show
0:09:25 > 0:09:29spontaneity in all sorts of ways,
0:09:29 > 0:09:34and what's particularly interesting is that they do have the resources to do it.
0:09:41 > 0:09:45Each character in Youth Hails Adventure is carefully chosen
0:09:45 > 0:09:48for what they represent of the social structure of the time.
0:09:48 > 0:09:51And film was the perfect way of getting this message across,
0:09:51 > 0:09:55as a medium which was spreading fast among all socio-economic groups.
0:09:55 > 0:10:03It's really featuring the workers of a big London firm,
0:10:03 > 0:10:05wanting to escape on holiday.
0:10:05 > 0:10:12The youth hosteller is being quite evangelical about the YHA to the boss's son,
0:10:12 > 0:10:19who is quite drawn towards the idea of the YHA, but at the same time needs to be won over.
0:10:19 > 0:10:22But he's doomed, anyway, to go off on holiday
0:10:22 > 0:10:24with his father.
0:10:28 > 0:10:32Despite the film's ambitious scale, there are still some tell-tale signs
0:10:32 > 0:10:35that they were working to a limited budget.
0:10:35 > 0:10:40A lot of the sets are outside, and you can tell that because the wind blows through the set.
0:10:40 > 0:10:43That's a great example of frugal film-making at that time.
0:10:43 > 0:10:49They probably couldn't afford a big, indoor set that was lit, so the alternative,
0:10:49 > 0:10:53to get the lighting right for the film, was to use an outdoor set.
0:10:53 > 0:10:56So you wait for a good day, and then you shoot it outside.
0:11:02 > 0:11:07The film questions the value of the typical seaside resorts of the era,
0:11:07 > 0:11:12showing these as less fun than the YHA's dynamic new holiday movement.
0:11:12 > 0:11:19Well, what we have here is the boss's son being bored at the Grand Hotel, sitting out quite comfortably
0:11:19 > 0:11:22having breakfast, but really wishing he was somewhere else.
0:11:22 > 0:11:28And you can see the idea dawning upon him that it would be really nice to go and join his friends
0:11:28 > 0:11:33at the youth hostel, so here he is writing his letter of application.
0:11:33 > 0:11:36You actually have to get your YHA card.
0:11:36 > 0:11:40You have to be a defined member of the organisation.
0:11:40 > 0:11:45So there is some kind of mystical rite of passage about joining the YHA.
0:11:46 > 0:11:50Also central to the film was the promotion of female emancipation.
0:11:52 > 0:11:57The bicycle was a great agent of women's liberation from the 1890s onwards.
0:11:57 > 0:12:03We see them frequently riding in mixed parties, but again,
0:12:03 > 0:12:07innocently, in this friendly, comradely sort of way.
0:12:07 > 0:12:11Sexual contact is certainly not what the YHA thinks they should be interested in.
0:12:11 > 0:12:15What they should be doing is forming healthy relationships that might
0:12:15 > 0:12:19lead to marriage, while being very well-behaved in the meantime.
0:12:19 > 0:12:25While the film was intended to have universal appeal, some of the imagery was surprisingly daring.
0:12:26 > 0:12:29The scenes of nudity are completely unexpected.
0:12:29 > 0:12:34I'm absolutely astounded that this might have been shown without being cut.
0:12:34 > 0:12:39In the 1930s, there is an increasingly relaxed attitude to
0:12:39 > 0:12:43the display of parts of the body that had hitherto been hidden,
0:12:43 > 0:12:49but this means legs and arms, it means open-necked shirts, and it means not wearing hats.
0:12:49 > 0:12:51It does not mean mooning!
0:12:54 > 0:12:59With all the characters eventually joining together to build a new hostel, including the initially
0:12:59 > 0:13:05sceptical factory owners, the film acts as a recruiting tool right across the class divide.
0:13:08 > 0:13:12Of course, this is showing people how they can make a practical contribution
0:13:12 > 0:13:15to the development of this virtuous new organisation.
0:13:32 > 0:13:37Some of the most dramatic images from the early YHA films are of mountaineering.
0:13:37 > 0:13:45Traditionally a rich man's pastime, by the 1930s and '40s, climbing was becoming a more democratic sport,
0:13:45 > 0:13:50and the YHA was keen to show itself helping to make it accessible to all.
0:13:50 > 0:13:57But first they had to overcome the difficulty of capturing film in such potentially dangerous locations.
0:14:01 > 0:14:05Today, mountaineering cameraman Ian Burton, who worked with Griff Rhys Jones
0:14:05 > 0:14:10on the BBC series, Mountain, is hoping to find out how they did it.
0:14:15 > 0:14:20Used to scrambling up mountains with the lightest of modern equipment, today is going to be different.
0:14:20 > 0:14:26Joining Ian at the Cow and Calf rocks in Yorkshire is film historian John Adderley, who's brought
0:14:26 > 0:14:32the kind of 16 millimetre camera the YHA pioneers would have used.
0:14:32 > 0:14:34This is a Cine-Kodak Special.
0:14:34 > 0:14:40This is a very popular camera in the '30s and '40s, I believe.
0:14:40 > 0:14:41There's no auto focus.
0:14:41 > 0:14:44There's no auto iris.
0:14:44 > 0:14:49It's wind-up, so you've got to make sure you've got plenty of wind for the shot you want to take.
0:14:49 > 0:14:54You don't want to press the button and find you've got five seconds of wind left.
0:14:56 > 0:15:01Before Ian begins his climb, the two men assess the original cameraman's handiwork.
0:15:01 > 0:15:06Oh, wow. You can see the climbing gear is absolutely horrendous.
0:15:06 > 0:15:11It's just a piece of rope tied around his waist. You wouldn't ever want to hang off that.
0:15:11 > 0:15:14The footage may look dramatic, but Ian's not convinced
0:15:14 > 0:15:17the cameraman is taking as much of a risk as the climbers.
0:15:17 > 0:15:21By looking at this, there, for example, it doesn't give you any idea where it is.
0:15:21 > 0:15:25It could be only ten feet off the ground, very easy to get to,
0:15:25 > 0:15:28but still, in those days, it'd look amazing.
0:15:28 > 0:15:34With John's expert advice, Ian is given a quick lesson in how to use the vintage camera.
0:15:34 > 0:15:36Oh, my word, it's heavy.
0:15:36 > 0:15:39You look through that hole to line up the viewfinder here.
0:15:39 > 0:15:41Do the shutter a few times.
0:15:41 > 0:15:43How do you stop it?
0:15:45 > 0:15:47- Push it up.- Oh, I see.
0:15:49 > 0:15:54Ian's subjects today are a couple of climbing guides well used to tackling crags like these.
0:15:54 > 0:15:59He sets off in search of the kind of vantage point he thinks his predecessors would have used.
0:15:59 > 0:16:02It looks really high, which is the key thing.
0:16:02 > 0:16:06It's about 10 metres up, so it's as safe as houses but it looks really dramatic.
0:16:12 > 0:16:14Such an awkward camera to use.
0:16:14 > 0:16:19I've got two lenses but neither of them are really that helpful.
0:16:19 > 0:16:22Oh! What's happened to my film?
0:16:24 > 0:16:30One problem faced by both Ian and his predecessors is the limited amount of film.
0:16:30 > 0:16:34It's really, really frustrating because it's a really terrible camera to use.
0:16:34 > 0:16:40It's lovely using film again but I've got no idea whether its going to be any good.
0:16:40 > 0:16:47With his film finished and the weather deteriorating, Ian has no option but to climb back down.
0:16:50 > 0:16:55In the '30s, the climbing films would have had to be sent away for processing.
0:16:58 > 0:17:03Today, Ian and John are in for an anxious wait.
0:17:03 > 0:17:06Excellent. That looks wonderful.
0:17:06 > 0:17:09It looks really juddery and really old-fashioned looking,
0:17:09 > 0:17:12so they really didn't walk and act like that.
0:17:12 > 0:17:14It was the camera.
0:17:16 > 0:17:19The viewfinder isn't in a helpful position.
0:17:19 > 0:17:23For usablility, it's terrible.
0:17:23 > 0:17:29I would've said I'm amazed they got anything shot. But actually it's produced quite remarkable results.
0:17:29 > 0:17:33They were the pioneers, and I feel quite envious of that.
0:17:33 > 0:17:39To be a pioneer like they were, using a technology that hadn't been used before.
0:17:39 > 0:17:41It must have been a great feeling.
0:17:48 > 0:17:51At the Yorkshire Film Archive, where staff have begun the task of
0:17:51 > 0:17:58cataloguing and restoring the YHA's collection, archivist Binny Baker has made an important discovery.
0:18:01 > 0:18:08The box she's concentrating on contains four separate reels of one film entitled The Magic Shilling.
0:18:10 > 0:18:14Produced in 1949, it was the first film to be made
0:18:14 > 0:18:19after the Second World War, when film stock was scarce and access to the countryside restricted.
0:18:19 > 0:18:24The YHA needed another big promotional push.
0:18:24 > 0:18:27You just know that nobody has looked at this for a long time, and on this,
0:18:27 > 0:18:31one of the first things we noticed is that it is negative film.
0:18:31 > 0:18:37Prints might have been done from it, so this is the film that actually went through the camera.
0:18:37 > 0:18:42We thought this was going to be called The Magic Shilling, but as soon as you put it on, it isn't.
0:18:42 > 0:18:44It's called The Magic Triangle.
0:18:44 > 0:18:47One of the concerns was this reticulation,
0:18:47 > 0:18:52which you can see here, which is deterioration of the film stock.
0:18:52 > 0:18:54We then transferred it via a telecine machine,
0:18:54 > 0:18:58and during that process there is some enhancement that you can do to get
0:18:58 > 0:19:03the real kind of essence of what that cameraman, that photographer, wanted.
0:19:03 > 0:19:08Because over time it loses tension, the film warps, there are all sorts of things.
0:19:08 > 0:19:12But with modern technology you can almost get it back to its pristine best.
0:19:15 > 0:19:18One key difference in The Magic Triangle
0:19:18 > 0:19:21is that all references to class have been swept away.
0:19:21 > 0:19:27Instead, it concentrates on another of the YHA's core aims, the desire for international harmony
0:19:27 > 0:19:30in a world torn apart by five years of world war.
0:19:34 > 0:19:39This as a film was much more about the whole work of the YHA.
0:19:39 > 0:19:43But it based it on a couple who had joined the association.
0:19:43 > 0:19:45So there's a story. But it also widens out,
0:19:45 > 0:19:51and has, on the four different reels it has a whole different set of areas that it looks at.
0:19:51 > 0:19:58It looks at internationalism, it looks at the camaraderie of youth hostel members,
0:19:58 > 0:20:04it looks at the hostels, at the British countryside, it looks at the industrial nature
0:20:04 > 0:20:08of the towns they were coming from in order to go to the countryside.
0:20:08 > 0:20:12So it covers a huge aspect of the work of the organisation.
0:20:17 > 0:20:19Oscar-winning film producer Lord Puttnam
0:20:19 > 0:20:25is a former chairman of the Council For The Protection Of Rural England, who began his career in advertising.
0:20:25 > 0:20:30These films depict an attitude to the countryside which is essentially English,
0:20:30 > 0:20:34I'd say English more than British, essentially pastoral,
0:20:34 > 0:20:42it's romantic, it's broadly encouraging and highly traditionalist.
0:20:42 > 0:20:45They've become really interesting social documents.
0:20:48 > 0:20:54But as a means promoting the YHA's cause, he feels The Magic Triangle is a lost opportunity.
0:20:54 > 0:20:59I just was frustrated by the fact it could have and should have been done better.
0:20:59 > 0:21:02It didn't strike as having been made for a professional screening.
0:21:02 > 0:21:06It would have been loved by the people in it, they'd have absolutely adored it.
0:21:06 > 0:21:11If you look at that film, compared to the American, German or even French films of the period,
0:21:11 > 0:21:15it depicts a very English attitude to a very English countryside.
0:21:15 > 0:21:20It wasn't that the idea was bad. It was that the execution was bad.
0:21:20 > 0:21:23There's a lack of belief, a lack of self belief in the film.
0:21:25 > 0:21:29Although the film may have lacked panache, it was certainly was well timed.
0:21:29 > 0:21:35The post war generation was the first to benefit from legislation introducing paid holidays.
0:21:35 > 0:21:37Everybody's got an amount of money
0:21:37 > 0:21:39but they've got nothing to spend it on.
0:21:39 > 0:21:43You've got rationing on some things into the early 1950s.
0:21:43 > 0:21:47You've got shortages of all sorts of basic commodities.
0:21:47 > 0:21:51Getting to the countryside must have been a tremendous safety valve for people
0:21:51 > 0:21:55after the end of the war, once it became possible to travel again.
0:22:03 > 0:22:07But although its audience might have had more money to spend,
0:22:07 > 0:22:10the YHA had to be careful with its own resources.
0:22:10 > 0:22:13And that included a clever piece of recycling.
0:22:14 > 0:22:18One thing that's really fascinating about this particular film is that
0:22:18 > 0:22:22later on in the collection, later on in the years, they used it again,
0:22:22 > 0:22:29and cut it up into pieces, and made two separate films using original footage from this film.
0:22:29 > 0:22:33And it was a really exciting discovery to find that when looking through those films.
0:22:33 > 0:22:37You were looking at the footage thinking, "I've seen that shot again.
0:22:37 > 0:22:40"I've seen that shot before, where has it come from?"
0:22:40 > 0:22:43One of the re-edited films, Yostling,
0:22:43 > 0:22:46is made to promote the pleasures of Youth Hostelling in Britain.
0:22:46 > 0:22:51Cut down to less than 20 minutes, it's intended to deliver the YHA's message much more quickly.
0:22:51 > 0:22:53Even its inter titles are more succinct.
0:22:57 > 0:23:01They were a very frugal organisation, they worked with volunteers.
0:23:01 > 0:23:04They weren't going to spend their money unwisely.
0:23:08 > 0:23:12For all their pastoral charm, both Youth Hails Adventure and The Magic Triangle
0:23:12 > 0:23:17were filmed when there were continuing tensions about access to the countryside.
0:23:21 > 0:23:24The '30s had seen mass trespasses as the burgeoning
0:23:24 > 0:23:28ramblers movement sought to sweep away restrictions to open land.
0:23:28 > 0:23:32And the campaign for greater rights to roam continued after the war.
0:23:32 > 0:23:38But the YHA makes no reference to this bitter conflict with landowners in any of its films.
0:23:38 > 0:23:41The YHA was specifically founded in this country
0:23:41 > 0:23:43as a non-political organisation.
0:23:43 > 0:23:49Almost from day one, we were not seen as a pressure group,
0:23:49 > 0:23:53we were not seen as a group like the Ramblers Association,
0:23:53 > 0:23:56who were campaigning for access to the countryside.
0:23:56 > 0:24:04So although YHA members very much got involved in what they were doing, we as an organisation didn't.
0:24:04 > 0:24:10And I think that has perhaps held us in very good sway over the whole of our existence.
0:24:12 > 0:24:16The YHA also had to tread carefully when it came to sexual politics.
0:24:16 > 0:24:20Although clearly promoting equality and communal living,
0:24:20 > 0:24:24the films had to satisfy everyone that the YHA was respectable.
0:24:24 > 0:24:28The depiction of this very chaste organisation was there to reassure
0:24:28 > 0:24:34parents or to make girls feel more secure about going away to a YHA.
0:24:34 > 0:24:40I could equally make the point that maybe a lot of the people they would have liked to have attracted
0:24:40 > 0:24:42were turned off by it!
0:24:42 > 0:24:44Great shots of people having to separate.
0:24:44 > 0:24:47In virtually every single film of every decade,
0:24:47 > 0:24:51when it's bed time, there's an absolute point at which each film says,
0:24:51 > 0:24:53"Well it's night-night time now",
0:24:53 > 0:24:57and the girls go off into one room and the boys go off into the other.
0:24:57 > 0:25:00You see shots of dormitories where people are getting changed.
0:25:00 > 0:25:04The YHA were obviously making a big thing of that, in order to convince parents
0:25:04 > 0:25:09and I suppose to convince people generally, that it was an upstanding organisation
0:25:09 > 0:25:11and it wasn't going to put up with any hanky panky.
0:25:22 > 0:25:25Central to many of the films is the role of the YHA's wardens.
0:25:25 > 0:25:29Many of whom cut their teeth here at Idwal Cottage in Wales,
0:25:29 > 0:25:32which was often used as a location for filming.
0:25:32 > 0:25:37It's the oldest youth hostel in Britain still in use and two days before officially reopening
0:25:37 > 0:25:40after a major refit, a group of ex-wardens are returning
0:25:40 > 0:25:43for the first time to see how life here has changed.
0:25:43 > 0:25:45Hello, Ken, nice to see you.
0:25:53 > 0:25:57The hostel has changed so much since we first knew it.
0:25:57 > 0:26:00Six beds, two times three.
0:26:00 > 0:26:06And everybody on a Friday or Saturday night would try and get one of these beds to be sleeping outside.
0:26:06 > 0:26:08Lovely.
0:26:08 > 0:26:12Joyce and John Pope were the wardens here in the 1950s.
0:26:12 > 0:26:17We had to feed them and keep the place clean and turn them out
0:26:17 > 0:26:24at 10 o'clock and let them in at 5 and generally keep order!
0:26:24 > 0:26:27And hostellers didn't just come here for the climbing.
0:26:27 > 0:26:32It was mainly for the lads, this hostel.
0:26:32 > 0:26:39But the YHA slogan in those days for girls was "YHA - Your Husband Assured."
0:26:43 > 0:26:46The job of warden was a powerful position, incorporating the roles
0:26:46 > 0:26:49of regimental sergeant major, chaperone, and parent.
0:26:49 > 0:26:56The name for youth hostel wardens in Germany of course is Hausvater and Hausmutter.
0:26:56 > 0:26:58You were the parents to them.
0:26:58 > 0:27:03We had no authority, of course, outside the hostel at all.
0:27:03 > 0:27:06If they were doing things they shouldn't have outside the hostel,
0:27:06 > 0:27:08the police would tend to blame us for it.
0:27:08 > 0:27:12But actually, we had no authority over them, we could only advise.
0:27:14 > 0:27:17A key part of every hostel was the shared common room,
0:27:17 > 0:27:20where people of all walks of life were encouraged to meet.
0:27:20 > 0:27:22Romance often blossomed here.
0:27:23 > 0:27:26The common room was very closed in.
0:27:26 > 0:27:32We had 40 to 45 people in and it was very tight, so we were all thrown together.
0:27:32 > 0:27:38But in those days, it was usual to make your own amusement in the common room.
0:27:38 > 0:27:41Part of the tradition was that there would be a sing song each evening.
0:27:41 > 0:27:47Back inside the common room watching films of Idwal's past, echoes of those early days return.
0:27:47 > 0:27:50And fragments of the songs have stayed in the memory too.
0:27:50 > 0:27:55I'm sure we can give a rendition of some of the old songs! After you!
0:27:55 > 0:28:00# One is one and all alone and ever more shall be so.
0:28:00 > 0:28:02# I'll sing you two, oh
0:28:02 > 0:28:05# Green grow the rushes, oh!
0:28:05 > 0:28:08# Two, two, the lily-white boys, clothed all in green, oh, oh!
0:28:08 > 0:28:13# One is one and all alone and ever more shall be so! #
0:28:16 > 0:28:21Lights out was usually enforced by the warden at 10pm, however good the singing.
0:28:21 > 0:28:24And the ethos of equality and shared experience
0:28:24 > 0:28:28meant everyone who stayed overnight had to do a chore before leaving.
0:28:30 > 0:28:36It was a movement and people joined it partly because of the accommodation and partly because
0:28:36 > 0:28:41of the spirit of the YHA, which was something quite different to commercial organisations.
0:28:41 > 0:28:49And also, it kept the costs down because we didn't have to employ staff to do all the chores.
0:28:49 > 0:28:55And it made it possible for anybody to come, because it was very cheap.
0:29:03 > 0:29:09From the outset, the YHA was keen to encourage greater international understanding.
0:29:09 > 0:29:14Among those inspired by this message was a Manchester schoolteacher, Dr Graham Pink.
0:29:14 > 0:29:20As an amateur cameraman, he established film making as part of his pupils education and recorded
0:29:20 > 0:29:27his class's first ever trip abroad - a fortnight's youth hostelling to Switzerland in 1963.
0:29:27 > 0:29:31I'd had an interest in still photography since I was a lad.
0:29:31 > 0:29:35I was given my first camera when I was still early secondary school.
0:29:35 > 0:29:37Y'know, an old box camera.
0:29:37 > 0:29:41And I gravitated then, I suppose, once I'd started work here I could
0:29:41 > 0:29:46afford to buy a camera, I bought a Bolex camera, an 8 mil.
0:29:46 > 0:29:50And I set up a film club in the school, and we used to make little films,
0:29:50 > 0:29:51and tried to use the youngsters.
0:29:51 > 0:29:55This is the sort of camera I would have been using in those days.
0:29:55 > 0:29:57Eight millimetre film - tiny film.
0:29:57 > 0:30:02And it gave a surprisingly good result with Kodachrome film.
0:30:02 > 0:30:06All mechanical. Quite a heavy thing, I must say, to transport,
0:30:06 > 0:30:09and when I had all my gear with me for the holiday.
0:30:09 > 0:30:14I just managed to collect as much film as I could.
0:30:18 > 0:30:23We had a very pleasant couple of weeks travelling between, I think, three hostels in all we visited.
0:30:23 > 0:30:27And we made this film.
0:30:27 > 0:30:32Filmed by one of the pupils as he prepared to capture some of the stunning scenery,
0:30:32 > 0:30:38Dr Pink was determined the boys should get the most out of the YHA's opportunity for cultural exchange.
0:30:38 > 0:30:45Of course, we wanted our pupils to meet people from Switzerland itself, but of course, if you go to a hostel,
0:30:45 > 0:30:49then you'll find there are visitors there from all over the world.
0:30:49 > 0:30:55Which, of course, if we'd gone to a hotel, or a bed and breakfast, we wouldn't have experienced that.
0:30:57 > 0:31:01They were there, they were abroad, they met other young people.
0:31:01 > 0:31:04Having studied the history, the geography,
0:31:04 > 0:31:08the geology of the country, they could see it at first hand.
0:31:08 > 0:31:11This, of course, would be great fun for them.
0:31:11 > 0:31:16Quite an event, in the middle of August, to be playing snowballing!
0:31:20 > 0:31:23Later on, when I formed a film-making club in school,
0:31:23 > 0:31:27I could show it to the pupils, and tell them, "Now, how would you improve this film?
0:31:27 > 0:31:30"How would you edit it?" That sort of thing.
0:31:37 > 0:31:42How did it change them? I think it gave them a wider view of the world.
0:31:42 > 0:31:44It gave them a view of how other people lived.
0:31:44 > 0:31:49It was their first trip to Europe, and I'd like to think it broadened their outlook on life.
0:31:50 > 0:31:53I'm sure it opened their eyes.
0:31:56 > 0:32:01As Binny builds up a clearer picture of what the collection contains,
0:32:01 > 0:32:05one film-maker's name is beginning to stand out from the 1950s archive.
0:32:05 > 0:32:12There's a really grotty old label here, and I can just about make out, "Western Lakeland."
0:32:12 > 0:32:18It says it's 16 mill, and it's...what's that?
0:32:18 > 0:32:20"In conjunction with...
0:32:20 > 0:32:23"G. Moorwith."
0:32:23 > 0:32:30Oh, and also with - that's really interesting - with Cowen of Keswick.
0:32:30 > 0:32:35Now, Cowen is a film-maker who made two really significant films for the organisation.
0:32:35 > 0:32:38So if additional material is being put into this film, again,
0:32:38 > 0:32:41it's another example of using and re-using film.
0:32:41 > 0:32:44So that's really good.
0:32:44 > 0:32:48It doesn't smell too bad. It doesn't seem to be suffering too badly of anything.
0:32:52 > 0:32:56Already there, I can see there's a break in that film, in the perforations,
0:32:56 > 0:32:59so it may not even go through this particular machine.
0:32:59 > 0:33:02If you look quite carefully, it's not straight,
0:33:02 > 0:33:09so we'll have to go quite carefully, because we've got no idea, as yet, of the age of this film.
0:33:16 > 0:33:20Fairly scratchy. It looks like it's been through the mill a few times.
0:33:22 > 0:33:27See the clouds moving right over the mountains there, with a massive panoramic view.
0:33:27 > 0:33:30But there we have a bit of a problem. Oh, golly, that's split.
0:33:30 > 0:33:34I'm going to just have to make some running repairs.
0:33:35 > 0:33:39On the original film are cement joints.
0:33:39 > 0:33:42They dry out, depending on what the conditions are.
0:33:42 > 0:33:47So this'll just be a temporary fix, just so we can go through, and look at it now.
0:33:48 > 0:33:55Yeah, I can feel the original cuts in it, so it may be, you know, that this is the only copy of it -
0:33:55 > 0:33:59because it feels like an original.
0:33:59 > 0:34:03Early colour, Kodachrome, absolutely lovely, despite the scratches on it.
0:34:03 > 0:34:06And this is one of the first ones that we've seen.
0:34:06 > 0:34:10The only other colour ones that we know of this early period are by Cowen.
0:34:10 > 0:34:16And as it said on the box, if we're to believe that tin, that's the same film-maker.
0:34:18 > 0:34:24Cleaned and digitally remastered, the beautiful clarity of these images can finally be enjoyed
0:34:24 > 0:34:27in the way the cameraman would have intended.
0:34:37 > 0:34:43We're not getting so much YHA, "Join us, come and look at us."
0:34:43 > 0:34:46That doesn't seem to be here, although they've got YHA signage.
0:34:48 > 0:34:52Interesting shot, I haven't seen this in any of them - men taking the bins out,
0:34:52 > 0:34:56with all the rubbish from the kitchens. SHE CHUCKLES
0:34:56 > 0:34:57That's great.
0:35:03 > 0:35:06If our research is right on these films,
0:35:06 > 0:35:09these colour ones are the first colour films we have from Cowen.
0:35:09 > 0:35:14He was obviously the film-maker of choice. We don't know an awful lot about him. He came from Keswick.
0:35:14 > 0:35:18We've done some research into the Institute of Amateur Cinematographers,
0:35:18 > 0:35:24because that's where a lot of film-makers joined that Association, in cine-clubs right over Britain.
0:35:24 > 0:35:26But he doesn't seem to have been a member.
0:35:29 > 0:35:35At first, Binny's research into this film-maker throws up few leads.
0:35:35 > 0:35:38But a few weeks later, there's a break through.
0:35:38 > 0:35:43At a house in Southport, more rolls of film shot by W Cowen
0:35:43 > 0:35:47take pride of place at the home of a close relative - Alan Bale.
0:35:47 > 0:35:53Called Bill Cowen to his family, and most people who knew him - he was my grandfather.
0:35:53 > 0:36:00He was born in 1897, so he was a Victorian, one of the last Victorians. He ran a chemist shop,
0:36:00 > 0:36:05so he would have had access to the materials, and to cameras, and so on,
0:36:05 > 0:36:07cos that would have been what they sold.
0:36:07 > 0:36:09He always liked still photography,
0:36:09 > 0:36:15so he was quite a happy amateur photographer, to say the least, before the war.
0:36:15 > 0:36:18In the '50s, and so on, he became a professional cameraman.
0:36:25 > 0:36:32Bill Cowen's natural gift behind the camera is shown to great effect on the YHA film Breaking New Ground.
0:36:35 > 0:36:41Here, the camera lingers on the delights of a rural Britain that was rapidly disappearing.
0:36:41 > 0:36:45Cowen was clearly filming with the future in mind.
0:36:49 > 0:36:53But it was his next film which was to cement his reputation.
0:36:53 > 0:36:56COMMENTATOR: 'The end of the day will bring a common need -
0:36:56 > 0:36:58'the need for rest, food and shelter.
0:36:58 > 0:37:05'Let us therefore go down to join these many and different tributaries flowing now into a common stream,
0:37:05 > 0:37:09'to where, irrespective of race, creed or politics,
0:37:09 > 0:37:12'occupation or social distinction,
0:37:12 > 0:37:15'there is a youth hostel offering food, warmth, shelter,
0:37:15 > 0:37:19'and simple accommodation of a pattern these wanderers have created for themselves.'
0:37:19 > 0:37:24Where All Ways Meet is the youth hostel's first film with sound.
0:37:24 > 0:37:28They began in style - using the voice of one of the great broadcasters of his generation -
0:37:28 > 0:37:33the Welsh poet, and BBC wartime correspondent, Wynford Vaughan-Thomas.
0:37:33 > 0:37:35As far as how he knew him, I don't know.
0:37:35 > 0:37:38He perhaps knew him through photography, or broadcasting,
0:37:38 > 0:37:43and maybe he'd been working in the Lake District, and Grandfather had met him.
0:37:43 > 0:37:48But, you know, it would have been quite a good person to have...
0:37:48 > 0:37:53to have a well-known broadcaster actually doing the commentary on the film, I should imagine.
0:37:53 > 0:37:58Where All Ways Meet is basically centred around the Lake District, which was his home.
0:37:58 > 0:38:03And, you know, it shows a lot of the great landscape
0:38:03 > 0:38:07of the Lake District, and so on - it's explored in that film.
0:38:07 > 0:38:12I would imagine they were some of the first films he'd made professionally.
0:38:12 > 0:38:16And it is quite fascinating, it seems very well shot to me.
0:38:16 > 0:38:20You know, it was interesting to see that part of my grandfather's life come to life.
0:38:24 > 0:38:30Bill Cowen's early work for the YHA was to provide a springboard to a successful career in film,
0:38:30 > 0:38:35eventually leading to a job on the award-winning TV wildlife series, Survival.
0:38:35 > 0:38:39A passion sparked to life by shooting images like these.
0:38:39 > 0:38:44COMMENTATOR: 'Theirs for a day, the freedom of mountain, moor, or open road.
0:38:44 > 0:38:49'The warmth of the sun, the clean, fresh bluster of the wind, the sweep of the sky.
0:38:49 > 0:38:52'And above all, a feeling of deep content that will abide with them
0:38:52 > 0:38:56'through the week of work ahead, and long after.'
0:38:58 > 0:39:00COCKEREL CROWS
0:39:03 > 0:39:05# Good morning! Good morning!
0:39:05 > 0:39:07# Good morning! Good morning!
0:39:07 > 0:39:10# Good morning... #
0:39:10 > 0:39:12Another recurring theme in the films is food.
0:39:12 > 0:39:16And in particular, the legendary cooked breakfast,
0:39:16 > 0:39:22a meal seen as the height of luxury when many of these films were made.
0:39:22 > 0:39:24When I first started youth hostelling,
0:39:24 > 0:39:28immediately after the war, food such as this was tightly rationed.
0:39:28 > 0:39:29COCKEREL CROWS
0:39:29 > 0:39:31# Good morning! Good morning! Good! #
0:39:33 > 0:39:37Those of us who lived in the towns, we were pretty lucky when we came out.
0:39:37 > 0:39:41We'd...you know, pass a local farm
0:39:41 > 0:39:45who knew us, and he would be prepared to sell us one or two eggs.
0:39:45 > 0:39:48# Nothing has changed, it's still the same... #
0:39:48 > 0:39:51We were all not very well off,
0:39:51 > 0:39:54so to minimise our own costs - our own personal costs,
0:39:54 > 0:39:56we scrounged food from home.
0:39:56 > 0:40:00I mean, here you see, literally, a banquet.
0:40:06 > 0:40:11We sometimes spent as much as two hours in the men's kitchen, in the self-catering kitchen,
0:40:11 > 0:40:14because we'd all be laughing and joking, and talking together,
0:40:14 > 0:40:18and there'd be a cup of tea on, and so you'd have your cup of tea.
0:40:23 > 0:40:27And then afterwards, those who hadn't cooked...
0:40:27 > 0:40:28would do the washing up.
0:40:31 > 0:40:35It was fun, it was enjoyment, and...
0:40:35 > 0:40:40in spite of my efforts today, we all learnt a lot,
0:40:40 > 0:40:48and I think you would find that most of the lads and the girls that we used to go around with,
0:40:48 > 0:40:51we all learnt our elementary cooking here.
0:40:54 > 0:41:00- COMMENTATOR:- 'Hostelling is an experience that many of us have enjoyed at some time or another.
0:41:00 > 0:41:03'For some, it is an occasional pleasure...'
0:41:03 > 0:41:09Of the promotional output from the 1960s, one film stood out - The Hostellers.
0:41:09 > 0:41:15A quietly subversive film, it began to ask some serious questions of the YHA's aging hierarchy.
0:41:15 > 0:41:19It focused on the building of the first ever floating hostel in England,
0:41:19 > 0:41:23and featured a young hosteller from Yorkshire called Ken Moody.
0:41:23 > 0:41:25"I'm 19 now.
0:41:25 > 0:41:27"I've been hostelling for six years.
0:41:27 > 0:41:31"I help other people organise their holidays on the waterways.
0:41:31 > 0:41:34"I see other people having their holidays and think,
0:41:34 > 0:41:35""What a stuffy kind of holiday.""
0:41:39 > 0:41:42Ken had been one of the founding members of the floating hostel,
0:41:42 > 0:41:46Sabrina, and was instrumental in helping to kit it out.
0:41:46 > 0:41:48For a month in the summer of 1964,
0:41:48 > 0:41:53he would find his views on the YHA's establishment under careful scrutiny.
0:41:55 > 0:41:58"I meet everybody I know through the YHA.
0:41:58 > 0:42:02"I meet them hostelling at weekends. I go hostelling every weekend."
0:42:04 > 0:42:07- COMMENTATOR:- 'Sabrina, the first floating hostel in Britain,
0:42:07 > 0:42:11'was converted by a local group of hostellers in their spare time.'
0:42:11 > 0:42:17I'd been to Sweden, and I'd stayed at the floating youth hostel in Stockholm harbour,
0:42:17 > 0:42:19so I knew it could be done.
0:42:19 > 0:42:25So we thought we could get a Yorkshire boat, and put it... moor it at Selby on the canal,
0:42:25 > 0:42:28and convert it into a youth hostel.
0:42:32 > 0:42:36A contact who was a barge operator in the Selby area
0:42:36 > 0:42:38towed it up for us -
0:42:38 > 0:42:43pushed it in through the locks onto the canal at Selby.
0:42:43 > 0:42:45We pulled up by rope.
0:42:49 > 0:42:52Nearly 50 years later, Ken is preparing to go back to Selby
0:42:52 > 0:42:58to meet the film-maker who chose him as a focal point for one of the YHA's most defining films.
0:42:58 > 0:43:01DUCKS QUACK
0:43:01 > 0:43:05Gloria Sachs was an assistant editor with the British Transport film unit,
0:43:05 > 0:43:09and was looking to advance her career when she was offered the chance to direct a film,
0:43:09 > 0:43:14part-funded by the YHA, to publicise its activities.
0:43:14 > 0:43:16You didn't have any grey hairs when I saw you last!
0:43:16 > 0:43:20- Hello, Gloria! I've got as many grey hairs as you now!- Not quite! - SHE CHUCKLES
0:43:20 > 0:43:24- Hello, darling.- Lovely to see you. Lovely to see you.
0:43:25 > 0:43:28- It's a while since we were down here. - It is.
0:43:28 > 0:43:32They used to put the boat alongside that cabin.
0:43:32 > 0:43:35- So we were working over that side, weren't we?- Yes.
0:43:35 > 0:43:37What happened to the boat?
0:43:37 > 0:43:43After the YHA finished with it, it was left moored up there for a while.
0:43:43 > 0:43:47And the local children played on it, and vandalised it,
0:43:47 > 0:43:50and after that, it was sold to somebody who towed it away,
0:43:50 > 0:43:53and it's now been converted back into a houseboat.
0:43:53 > 0:43:55Why did the YHA give it up?
0:43:55 > 0:43:59Erm...it wasn't making any money for them.
0:43:59 > 0:44:03It wasn't up to the standard of modern hostelling.
0:44:03 > 0:44:05It was a simple hostel.
0:44:13 > 0:44:16After filming the sequence on Sabrina,
0:44:16 > 0:44:21Gloria's film widened out to become something which challenged the YHA to its very core -
0:44:21 > 0:44:27an uncensored vehicle for the views of the '60s generation, with Ken and a friend, Brian Cotton,
0:44:27 > 0:44:32travelling around the hostels in Britain, free to say what ever they felt.
0:44:35 > 0:44:40"You find a small percentage of wardens are real sticklers,
0:44:40 > 0:44:44"who think they can run these hostels on the army principle.
0:44:44 > 0:44:46"It doesn't work out at all."
0:44:50 > 0:44:54I was very actually very bored with films that had commentaries,
0:44:54 > 0:44:58certainly, talking about the things you could see on the screen anyway.
0:44:58 > 0:45:00Very boring.
0:45:00 > 0:45:03I wanted something that was a little more free, and real, actually.
0:45:03 > 0:45:08We did interviews with them, and from those interviews,
0:45:08 > 0:45:13we edited the verbiage, as it were, and built the film around it.
0:45:13 > 0:45:16"I think as it's run now, the YHA is pretty sound.
0:45:16 > 0:45:21"It's just young people aren't getting experience to take over when the time comes.
0:45:21 > 0:45:22"They're not given the chance.
0:45:22 > 0:45:26"You've got to get the youngsters to take responsibility, and do the jobs."
0:45:28 > 0:45:34That's what we really did feel - we were the new young rebels of YHA!
0:45:34 > 0:45:39We made mistakes. We said the wrong things. We didn't expect them all to be included.
0:45:39 > 0:45:44"Sometimes we try to get young ladies to cook our meals for us.
0:45:44 > 0:45:50"But, from bitter experience, you often find that you get a meal...
0:45:50 > 0:45:52"that usually half of it is burnt!"
0:45:57 > 0:45:59Filming the Hostellers took a month.
0:45:59 > 0:46:04Improvisation was the key, even down to inventing a suitable girlfriend for Ken.
0:46:04 > 0:46:08Rather than take a girl with us up to Scotland for the scene,
0:46:08 > 0:46:12the assistant director had his young wife with him, who fitted the bill.
0:46:12 > 0:46:16I leant her a bicycle. It was my father's bike.
0:46:16 > 0:46:18HE LAUGHS
0:46:18 > 0:46:20And we put it together.
0:46:25 > 0:46:28"When you meet a girl youth hostelling,
0:46:28 > 0:46:33"you can jolly guarantee she has the same interests as you. For a start, you've got hostelling in common."
0:46:37 > 0:46:40To somebody who had never been hostelling,
0:46:40 > 0:46:45it gave them, I hope, a reasonable picture of what hostelling was about.
0:46:45 > 0:46:46Happy days!
0:46:54 > 0:46:57Ken's influence on the YHA's promotional output didn't end there.
0:46:57 > 0:47:00He later joined the national executive,
0:47:00 > 0:47:05and successfully argued that members should be allowed to use cars to travel to hostels.
0:47:05 > 0:47:11The diehards at the YHA believed that youth hostels were there for people of very limited means,
0:47:11 > 0:47:15who cycled, walked, and didn't have cars.
0:47:15 > 0:47:19But cars were becoming cheaper, and people were using them
0:47:19 > 0:47:23to get to the areas where they were going walking and climbing.
0:47:23 > 0:47:27There were people still fighting against it into the '70s and '80s.
0:47:27 > 0:47:30But we won the battle.
0:47:30 > 0:47:33A significant development, which would be incorporated
0:47:33 > 0:47:38into a film at the end of the flower power era called Passport To Roam.
0:47:38 > 0:47:45"It was Roger's idea in the first place, because, honestly, I didn't think it would appeal to me.
0:47:45 > 0:47:48"However, he insisted, and in we went.
0:47:48 > 0:47:53"And I don't remember much about it, except there was a room with a piano, where they had singsongs."
0:47:53 > 0:47:59Passport To Roam was a brave attempt to bring the YHA up to the 1970s.
0:47:59 > 0:48:04"So I thought I might as well join, as weekends have been rather dull lately."
0:48:05 > 0:48:09They start with what really is a very posh girl,
0:48:09 > 0:48:13who is anti-going-to-the-countryside, and her boyfriend drags her along.
0:48:13 > 0:48:17And she's very negative - the whole film starts in a very negative way.
0:48:20 > 0:48:24In a sense, it uses class as a tool, then proceeds to immediately misuse it.
0:48:24 > 0:48:27I thought they were reflecting the YHA
0:48:27 > 0:48:30as it probably wanted to be thought of,
0:48:30 > 0:48:35as opposed to offering me a glimpse of what life might have been like.
0:48:35 > 0:48:36Come and get your drinks, then!
0:48:42 > 0:48:48The way in which they communicated using film was to try and fit in with that feeling of the time,
0:48:48 > 0:48:52so people who'd slightly moved away, and were trying new things.
0:48:52 > 0:48:54They were wanting to draw those...
0:48:54 > 0:48:59draw those hostellers back into the organisation,
0:48:59 > 0:49:04and to encourage people who'd never started, who'd never enjoyed the countryside, to bring them back in.
0:49:04 > 0:49:08I found Passport To Roam excruciatingly embarrassing.
0:49:08 > 0:49:09It seemed to bring together
0:49:09 > 0:49:12all the sorts of people you would least want to meet,
0:49:12 > 0:49:16doing all the sorts of things you would least want to be involved in.
0:49:16 > 0:49:17THEY ALL SING
0:49:17 > 0:49:22It had this caricature of the worst kind of folk club.
0:49:22 > 0:49:25THEY ALL SING
0:49:28 > 0:49:30Can you hang on to that?
0:49:34 > 0:49:36What about Don't Think Twice?
0:49:36 > 0:49:42Then, they're highlighting that there are lights out,
0:49:42 > 0:49:46and people have to go to bed at a certain time, and the warden enforces this,
0:49:46 > 0:49:48so they're highlighting discipline.
0:49:48 > 0:49:51One more song, then, please, and then off to bed.
0:49:51 > 0:49:55# We love you, Warden
0:49:55 > 0:49:57# Oh, yes, we do... #
0:49:57 > 0:49:59Then they bring in a pathetic, subversive response,
0:49:59 > 0:50:03that's embarrassing in every dimension.
0:50:03 > 0:50:05It's deeply, deeply uncool.
0:50:05 > 0:50:07- Can I have a bottle of orange, please?- Of course.
0:50:07 > 0:50:10- Shall I open it for you?- Yes, please.
0:50:10 > 0:50:12'It's depicting a world'
0:50:12 > 0:50:17which I absolutely accept might have existed in the very early 1950s.
0:50:17 > 0:50:21That world was dead and gone by 1965.
0:50:21 > 0:50:24'It was an anachronism on the day it was made.'
0:50:24 > 0:50:26- Do you do much hostelling? - Quite a bit.
0:50:26 > 0:50:27I did something you'd enjoy.
0:50:27 > 0:50:33The promotional films had always been a mixture of the amateur and professional,
0:50:33 > 0:50:36but throughout the '70s and early '80s, they appeared to stagnate.
0:50:36 > 0:50:38More films like Passport to Rome,
0:50:38 > 0:50:43featuring the hostellers themselves in predictable trips around the countryside,
0:50:43 > 0:50:47failed to chime with the increasingly sophisticated visual demands
0:50:47 > 0:50:49of the TV-watching generation.
0:50:49 > 0:50:54COMMENTATOR: 'Some hostellers travel by bike, bus, train, or car.
0:50:54 > 0:51:00'How they travel, and how they spend their time, is entirely up to them.'
0:51:00 > 0:51:05The YHA began to reposition itself as a place for families, instead of just the young.
0:51:05 > 0:51:10Later, the chores would be sacrificed to health and safety, and the ban on alcohol lifted.
0:51:10 > 0:51:15The films of the '70s are about the increasing pressure
0:51:15 > 0:51:17to conform and consume,
0:51:17 > 0:51:21in terms of how you present yourself, in terms of what you're interested in,
0:51:21 > 0:51:26and it's difficult for the YHA, actually, to slot into that.
0:51:26 > 0:51:28So the problem is,
0:51:28 > 0:51:34do you try to cling on to your existing constituency which is perhaps getting smaller?
0:51:34 > 0:51:36Do you try to reach out more broadly?
0:51:36 > 0:51:39If you want to reach out more broadly, what do you do?
0:51:43 > 0:51:45A radical rethink was needed,
0:51:45 > 0:51:48and it came with a ground-breaking film in 1984,
0:51:48 > 0:51:52which featured actors from the hit children's programme Grange Hill.
0:51:52 > 0:51:57Enter The Adventure was commissioned by former YHA chairman Hedley Alcock.
0:51:57 > 0:51:58I'm asking you.
0:51:58 > 0:52:00'I'll give you a clue.'
0:52:02 > 0:52:04ELECTRONIC CHIMING
0:52:06 > 0:52:10It went modern, it went directly to using a computer.
0:52:10 > 0:52:16We were using professional people, and we were aiming straight at modern, young people.
0:52:16 > 0:52:19It talked to them in their own language.
0:52:19 > 0:52:20Press enter.
0:52:28 > 0:52:33Not only did Enter The Adventure try to answer the specific needs of a new generation of teenagers,
0:52:33 > 0:52:37but to reflect the wider changes in society too.
0:52:37 > 0:52:41Totally different, and the new friend was a coloured guy.
0:52:41 > 0:52:44That's another shift,
0:52:44 > 0:52:50and again, it's emphasising that the youth hostel movement is universal, it's open to all.
0:52:52 > 0:52:57As well as trying to prise youngsters away from their TVs and fledgling computer games,
0:52:57 > 0:53:01the association was also struggling with the competition of cheap family holidays abroad.
0:53:01 > 0:53:06This was the era when it became possible for ordinary, working people
0:53:06 > 0:53:09to go out and have a fortnight's holiday in Spain.
0:53:09 > 0:53:12We needed people to use and stay in our hostels.
0:53:12 > 0:53:14It was no longer the...
0:53:14 > 0:53:18the singsong in the common room in the evening.
0:53:18 > 0:53:22It was no longer the make-it... do-it-yourself entertainment.
0:53:22 > 0:53:23You tell me.
0:53:27 > 0:53:33For actor Lee MacDonald, it was a chance to get away from his Grange Hill character Zammo.
0:53:33 > 0:53:35Whoa! Steady! HORSE NEIGHS
0:53:37 > 0:53:40I'm like a London lad, and everything was London and inner-London,
0:53:40 > 0:53:45and I didn't see much of the countryside, except mum's caravan. It was just different,
0:53:45 > 0:53:49and it just showed you that you could go off, and it wasn't expensive,
0:53:49 > 0:53:51and you could enjoy yourself in the country.
0:53:51 > 0:53:54I think that was my first awareness of youth hostels,
0:53:54 > 0:53:58and that I could do it, and friends of mine could do it, and get involved.
0:53:59 > 0:54:01Would Big Brother like to get me out of this?
0:54:03 > 0:54:08When I got the part, it was so different than normal - you'd normally go and say your lines.
0:54:08 > 0:54:11This was to go off, and do activities, which was really good.
0:54:11 > 0:54:15There was canoeing and cycling and horse riding. I wanted horse-riding.
0:54:15 > 0:54:20I've loved horse-riding since then. I got horse-riding, which was brilliant.
0:54:22 > 0:54:26I think there's always a need to get kids out, you know,
0:54:26 > 0:54:31into doing activities and stuff, and I think more so now than back then.
0:54:31 > 0:54:35I think there are so many computer games and stuff now, more than there was then,
0:54:35 > 0:54:40youth hostels should get out there, and blitz the kids, and get them out and doing stuff.
0:54:46 > 0:54:50Today, as the youth hostelling movement celebrates its 100th birthday,
0:54:50 > 0:54:54it's still using film to spread its message, but gone are the old-fashioned dramas,
0:54:54 > 0:54:57and lingering images of the countryside.
0:54:57 > 0:54:59If you can't get the message over in five minutes,
0:54:59 > 0:55:02almost the message is dead in the water.
0:55:02 > 0:55:06It's the delivery of that film, and how we present it.
0:55:06 > 0:55:10We probably are gonna need to deliver messages via young people's mobile phones,
0:55:10 > 0:55:12but that will be taking
0:55:12 > 0:55:16that tradition on into the future, and actually delivering it
0:55:16 > 0:55:18direct to the end user.
0:55:21 > 0:55:25But while the fabric of the Youth Hostel Association remains essentially the same,
0:55:25 > 0:55:29the social conditions in which it exists have been totally transformed.
0:55:31 > 0:55:36And for lifelong member Dr Graham Pink, the future is something he's willing to invest in.
0:55:36 > 0:55:39He's spent a quarter of a million pounds of his own money
0:55:39 > 0:55:43on helping to refurbish Keswick youth hostel in the Lake District,
0:55:43 > 0:55:46hoping it'll be part of a vibrant hostelling network
0:55:46 > 0:55:48available for young people
0:55:48 > 0:55:52with limited means for many years to come.
0:55:52 > 0:55:55This is an example of what can be done with a very old building,
0:55:55 > 0:56:01and turning it into a very nice, modern youth hostel for the 21st century.
0:56:06 > 0:56:11When I offered to make a contribution to the YHA, I thought,
0:56:11 > 0:56:13"I don't want to leave it until I die,
0:56:13 > 0:56:17"I'd rather give it while I'm still alive, and I can see the results of it."
0:56:17 > 0:56:20And this is exactly what I've got here.
0:56:20 > 0:56:24It's very rewarding to come back, and see the excellent work they've done,
0:56:24 > 0:56:27see the enjoyment that young people have,
0:56:27 > 0:56:29and particularly youngsters that come here -
0:56:29 > 0:56:33they most likely don't appreciate what it was like in the olden days.
0:56:33 > 0:56:39They've made an excellent job of it, and it's nice to know that they are perhaps learning to use hostels,
0:56:39 > 0:56:43and get the pleasure out of them that I had 60, 70 years ago.
0:56:49 > 0:56:54The promotional films of the YHA, intended as a positive vision of the future,
0:56:54 > 0:56:56have succeeded in capturing key elements of our past,
0:56:56 > 0:57:01a past in which our ideas of youth and freedom,
0:57:01 > 0:57:06adventure and independence have changed beyond recognition.
0:57:07 > 0:57:11I think the YHA has become inevitably more middle-class,
0:57:11 > 0:57:19and perhaps more conformist in all sorts of ways, including being conformist to consumerism.
0:57:19 > 0:57:22I think it's had to. It would have gone to the wall if it hadn't.
0:57:22 > 0:57:25I think its future is very different from its origins.
0:57:28 > 0:57:30This was very early environmentalism.
0:57:30 > 0:57:33The environmental movement, not based on science,
0:57:33 > 0:57:37but based on an instinct that there was a lot to be gained from nature,
0:57:37 > 0:57:40and that men and women within nature was a place
0:57:40 > 0:57:44where your better instincts were likely to be stimulated.
0:57:57 > 0:58:01Here we have a youth organisation that started internationally,
0:58:01 > 0:58:02moved to Britain,
0:58:02 > 0:58:06and they followed its development through the 20th century on film.
0:58:06 > 0:58:11There's hardly any other collection that reflects that sort of enthusiasm for film,
0:58:11 > 0:58:17and that very one-dimensional look at an organisation in the same way.
0:58:17 > 0:58:20It spans an organisation's history through film.
0:58:22 > 0:58:25MUSIC PLAYS OVER SINGING
0:58:28 > 0:58:29Good night, all.
0:58:49 > 0:58:52Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:58:52 > 0:58:55E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk