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  1. #1
    Senior Member Country: UK CaptainWaggett's Avatar
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    This fab-looking dvd is being released by Network in November and contains a lot of material that isn't available elsewhere. Can't wait!

  2. #2
    Senior Member Country: Great Britain Mark O's Avatar
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    Thanks for that info Cap'n, that's something i'm gonna treat myself to!



    I'm sure there's one of these wartime films about utility fashion that features Judith Furse as a shop assistant, on one of the History channels recently (could have been Blighty) there was a programme showing wartime short films aimed at american GI's and how they should behave in Britain with Burgess Meredith as the main narrator and actor.

  3. #3
    Senior Member Country: UK CaptainWaggett's Avatar
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    name='Mark O']Thanks for that info Cap'n, that's something i'm gonna treat myself to!



    I'm sure there's one of these wartime films about utility fashion that features Judith Furse as a shop assistant, on one of the History channels recently (could have been Blighty) there was a programme showing wartime short films aimed at american GI's and how they should behave in Britain with Burgess Meredith as the main narrator and actor.


    That one is Welcome to Britain, directed by Asquith and available on this dvd. Fascinating stuff especially about the way black GIs were mostly given a very warm welcome, in contrast to the way they were treated by their own countrymen. You can spot Felix Aylmer as a schoolmaster too.

  4. #4
    Senior Member Country: Great Britain Mark O's Avatar
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    name='CaptainWaggett']That one is Welcome to Britain, directed by Asquith and available on this dvd. Fascinating stuff especially about the way black GIs were mostly given a very warm welcome, in contrast to the way they were treated by their own countrymen. You can spot Felix Aylmer as a schoolmaster too.


    That's right Cap'n, like the lady on the train inviting the black GI to her home for a cup of tea, apparently that certainly wouldn't have happened in the USA, it amazes me how the US armed forces were 'segregated', i thought everyone was fighting for the same cause.

  5. #5
    Senior Member Country: UK CaptainWaggett's Avatar
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    name='Mark O']That's right Cap'n, like the lady on the train inviting the black GI to her home for a cup of tea, apparently that certainly wouldn't have happened in the USA, it amazes me how the US armed forces were 'segregated', i thought everyone was fighting for the same cause.


    Ah yes - 'It's such a coincidence that we both come from Birmingham'.



    There's a fascinating Frank Capra wartime documentary called The Negro Soldier which, IIRC, manages not to mention the segregated units.

  6. #6
    Senior Member Country: Great Britain Mark O's Avatar
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    Another public info film i'd love to see again is the one used in the 80's when Julie Walters was advertising Tea (either PG tips or Typhoo, can't remember exactly!), she's watching this old film on 'How to make a cup of Tea' with women who's accents were straight out of Brief Encounter and Julie then turns to the camera and says 'wharra palava', Julie shows us her way to make Tea, then turns back to the screen and says in a mimicking accent 'what do you think about that'?, the hoity-toity women having made the tea then say 'what do you say mother'?, and a battleaxe type says 'yes, then Tea will revive you'...........makes me laugh just thinking about it!

  7. #7
    Senior Member Country: UK CaptainWaggett's Avatar
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    name='Mark O']Another public info film i'd love to see again is the one used in the 80's when Julie Walters was advertising Tea (either PG tips or Typhoo, can't remember exactly!), she's watching this old film on 'How to make a cup of Tea' with women who's accents were straight out of Brief Encounter and Julie then turns to the camera and says 'wharra palava', Julie shows us her way to make Tea, then turns back to the screen and says in a mimicking accent 'what do you think about that'?, the hoity-toity women having made the tea then say 'what do you say mother'?, and a battleaxe type says 'yes, then Tea will revive you'...........makes me laugh just thinking about it!


    [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnvYymrCn4g"]Tea-Making tips[/ame]

  8. #8
    Senior Member Country: Great Britain Mark O's Avatar
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    LOL!........thanks for that link Cap'n..........you've made my Sunday seeing 'Mother' again!



    There's some very good advice there, though i doubt if i'd find 'Empire' brand Tea in my local Co-op these days, i love their '99', i only tend to drink Tea in the morning, i'd probably be the awkward one and ask for Cawfee in that Canteen.

  9. #9
    Senior Member Country: Great Britain Mark O's Avatar
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    name='CaptainWaggett']Ah yes - 'It's such a coincidence that we both come from Birmingham'.



    There's a fascinating Frank Capra wartime documentary called The Negro Soldier which, IIRC, manages not to mention the segregated units.


    That sounds like something to watch out for Cap'n............on a recent visit to Bletchley Park i was quite disturbed to see these songsheets, not very pleasant to be regarded as 'chocolate' methinks, i've never understood the prejudice some people have because of the colour of a persons skin, do these racists think they're going to be infected or something?.........








  10. #10
    Senior Member Country: England darrenburnfan's Avatar
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    Things have changed a lot since those days. I remember back in the early 1950's, we had a figurine on the mantlepeice of a little black boy wearing red shorts and sitting on a log. On the bottom of the figurine were the words "Little Black Sambo."



    As for the tea making short, well, fancy sitting in the cinema waiting for the main feature to come on and having to sit through ten minutes of someone telling you how to make a cup of tea. I wonder what cinema audiences of the time thought of that. The two women were the lousiest actresses I've ever seen and where did they get those RP accents? Does anyone in England talk like that these days? The woman on the left sounds exactly like the good witch in The Wizard of Oz. I half expected her to say: "There's no place like home" at any second. Very entertaining though, in a wierd sort of way. I wonder if there was also a ten minute short about the properties of water and how to boil a kettle.

  11. #11
    Senior Member Country: England mallee59's Avatar
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    There are a couple of DVD's narrated by Bill Pertwee as well Captain, the warden says

    very good too

    mallee

  12. #12
    Senior Member Country: UK CaptainWaggett's Avatar
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    I watched this over the weekend (think it's cheapest from Play.com). Lots of excellent stuff though not perhaps the best possible prints, including the George Cole/Alastair Sim piece with Sim as Nero and more Charlie Chester than you could think possible, plus appearances from Stanley Holloway, Reginald Beckwith and Basil Radford among others. There's more than three hours of film but it sadly lacks any documentation at all so I'm sure I missed lots of well-known actors. Recommended for those who like this sort of thing (I certainly do), but not as good as the Imperial War Museum productions.

  13. #13
    Super Moderator Country: England
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    name='Mark O']That sounds like something to watch out for Cap'n............on a recent visit to Bletchley Park i was quite disturbed to see these songsheets, not very pleasant to be regarded as 'chocolate' methinks, i've never understood the prejudice some people have because of the colour of a persons skin, do these racists think they're going to be infected or something?.........









    Judging from the names of the songwriters, it's an American song.....I don't think there were many Sonnys, Eltons or Lewis here pre-war....

  14. #14
    Senior Member Country: Great Britain Mark O's Avatar
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    name='CaptainWaggett']I watched this over the weekend (think it's cheapest from Play.com). Lots of excellent stuff though not perhaps the best possible prints, including the George Cole/Alastair Sim piece with Sim as Nero and more Charlie Chester than you could think possible, plus appearances from Stanley Holloway, Reginald Beckwith and Basil Radford among others. There's more than three hours of film but it sadly lacks any documentation at all so I'm sure I missed lots of well-known actors. Recommended for those who like this sort of thing (I certainly do), but not as good as the Imperial War Museum productions.


    Cheers Captain..........just ordered mine from play.com, if there's nothing appealing on TV over Christmas then i'll wallow in that!



    You probably saw it Captain, there was a small but very interesting exhibition at the IWM during the summer focussing on the contribution of black service men and women in Britain during world war II, with a some old film of a calypso band at a wartime military dance.



    Play.com (UK) : Public Information Films Of The British Home Front 1939-1945 (2 Disc) : DVD - Free Delivery

  15. #15
    Senior Member Country: England
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    Thanks Captain & Mark O...I thought it was a re-release of old material...very wrong. Have ordered from Play.com but they are out of stock at the moment. Hopefully they will get some more in...probable all the Brit Movie lot ordering copies.

    Film Man.

  16. #16
    Senior Member HUGHJAMPTON's Avatar
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    name='CaptainWaggett'] Reginald Beckwith and Basil Radford among others.


    Is the Baz clip about saving rubber?

  17. #17
    Senior Member Country: UK CaptainWaggett's Avatar
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    name='HUGHJAMPTON']Is the Baz clip about saving rubber?


    That's the one

  18. #18
    Senior Member HUGHJAMPTON's Avatar
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    name='CaptainWaggett']That's the one


    And very shifty, he was, too

  19. #19
    Senior Member Country: UK CaptainWaggett's Avatar
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    Now available for a truly bargainacious �8 from the nice folk at Network

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