I admit it–I love the British comic actors, comedians, and film comedies from the 1930s and 1940s. But who else today remembers Tommy Handley, Arthur Askey, Will Hay, George Formby, Frank Randle, Ronald Frankau, Richard ‘Stinker’ Murdoch, Max Miller, Stanley […]
What can one say? great 1937 song from the pen of Noel Gay, interpreted by the brilliant Lupino Lane in this 1939 film version of the musical Me and My Girl.
A wonderful serendipitous find! A certain Guy Jones has a YouTube channel dedicated to very high quality vintage documentary film that has been speed-corrected and to which soundtracks have been added. The impressive result is as you’ll see below; and […]
When, eighteen months back, we presented ‘The Edwardian Kitchen’ at East Sheen library, I showed a film clip of Gus Elen singing ‘Arf A Pint of Ale. This had prompted a member of our audience to ask whether it had […]
https://archive.org/download/BellbottomGeorge/1944BellbottomGeorge.mp4 Maria and I both have a passion for George Formby. In this film, Nazi spies are out to destroy a new submarine killer, the “Firefly”, being developed by the British navy. A hapless waiter named George, after being rejected […]
Remember the days before ‘video’? Remember the days when we went not to “the movies” but to “the pictures”? I love old films. I can get quite fanatical and nerdy about very early turn-of-the-century cinema; but films of the Thirties […]
Little by little, week by week, we’ve been adding new topics and new content to our education programme, with 12 topics now offered. One of the new topics has taken me joyously back to an optional course I took while […]
Mention the song Singin’ in the Rain to most people and it will bring to mind the 1952 film of the same name directed by Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen, and starring Kelly, Donald O’Connor and Debbie Reynolds. A lot […]
Since I missed a ‘Song of the Week’ last week when I was busy with other things, I think you deserve a double treat this week! In the course of yesterday’s event at East Sheen Library I was sidelined into […]