OT Mitchell & Kenyon footage

Filmed pre World War I

Beer engines at the factory gate. Brilliant.

 

I have been watching bits and pieces of this, it's reasonably
fascinating stuff I have to say. I find the quality of the film quite
stunning more than anything else.

 

I've watched all of it, along with The Doctor, and found it riveting.

As the commentary says, what this showed is people as they were. Not
actors, or anything, just people, doing their own things.

Superb quality film, yes, but then it was stored for 80 years in perfect
condition.

What I find fascinating is that when you look at rhe people, and look
beyond the different clothes, the ubiquitous hats, and the gents'
moustaches, they're just the same as they are today.

What I find unutterably poignant is the depiction of a vanished world. A
nation at the absolute zenith of its strength and power, and not
realising that in a few years it was all going to fall apart.

Thirsty years ago, I stood on the quayside of Leptis Magna[1] and stared
out at the Mediterranean, and then turned, and looked back at that
incredible grandeur. The Romans must have thought their world was going
to go on for ever.

The people in those films must have thought the same. That series is one
of the best things I've seen on TV for years.

[1] Google.

 

<Bad form alert>

I reckon that's the best typo of the year so far.....

 

Yeah, but it's on at the same time as Channel 5 was doing a house makeover
for Sam Fox and her girlfriend. Bugger.

 

Yes, has to be.

 

Absolutely, it was brilliant. However, I found by the third episode that
things were being repeated too much. Excellent footage only spoiled a
little by some not so good editing.

Certainly the content is, but then this is something we have never seen
before, and could never be recreated. It's a bit of a shame that the
programs weren't as good as the material deserves, I would also have
liked to see some of the technical aspects too.

 

On Fri, 28 Jan 2005 22:27:16 +0000,

Please sir, I don't have to sir, do I get a brownie point?

 

[1] Seeing, on film, some 5 years before my long-lived granddad was
born, the town I grew up in - the main streets, the bus/railway station,
and (though I'm not completely sure) the factory building that was later
turned into the school I went to - was, as they say up there, a bit queer.

Particularly liked the first episode, with the bloke queueing up to get
in the factory giving 2 fingers to the camera. Plus ça change, plus
c'est la même chav

[1] don't think I'm any relation[2]
[2] really, though, thank **** I moved to SW London

 

Top of the class, a gold badge, and you are Desk Monitor for the rest of
term.

 

Except for the bits where they have re-created M&K's shop/studio etc etc.
Apart from that, excellent viewing.

 

ITYM *northeners".