Old films I've never seen

[locomad]

They must have shown both then! I recorded it (the 1934 film) - it was on early last Saturday morning.  I'll have to go through the TV guide to see if the 1949 one's on over the next week.

 

It was on Tuesday 3rd October at 18.00 talking pictures, lasted about 90 mins, excellent shot of a steam crane and very tight curves in ship yard, taken either from a crane or ship under construction. The curves would look too tight on a model layout?

[jetmorgan]

For those that get Talking Pictures TV....Tuesday 24th October at 17:20 - 18:00 (5.20pm - 6pm) Today & Everyday

 

Sunday 29th October 2017 – 17:15 TODAY AND EVERYDAY (1948) (also showing Tues 24th 17:20 & Sat 28th at 10:45) Director: Cecil H Williamson Starring: Frank Phillips (narrator) A rare short film from producer E J Fancey with the co-operation of British Railways, looking at the importance of the railway engine from its conception to the forties. A historical and informative film with some superb vintage footage of locomotives.

[locomad]

For those that get Talking Pictures TV....Tuesday 24th October at 17:20 - 18:00 (5.20pm - 6pm) Today & Everyday

 

Sunday 29th October 2017 – 17:15 TODAY AND EVERYDAY (1948) (also showing Tues 24th 17:20 & Sat 28th at 10:45) Director: Cecil H Williamson Starring: Frank Phillips (narrator) A rare short film from producer E J Fancey with the co-operation of British Railways, looking at the importance of the railway engine from its conception to the forties. A historical and informative film with some superb vintage footage of locomotives.

 

Thanks for information excellent film I've never seen before, very enjoyable. Good post war clips of steam.

 

I've also seen a few excellent films on this channel, never seen "Date with disaster" really good British crime drama, and "All over town" about a returning ex service man fight with council corruption in a seaside town. Living in such a town now nothing seems to have changed.

[jetmorgan]

Thanks for information excellent film I've never seen before, very enjoyable. Good post war clips of steam.

 

I've also seen a few excellent films on this channel, never seen "Date with disaster" really good British crime drama, and "All over town" about a returning ex service man fight with council corruption in a seaside town. Living in such a town now nothing seems to have changed.

Unfortunately I forgot it was on so came in part way through. I will have to record the later one on Saturday...and remember it this time.

 

I've seen bits of Date with Disaster but always come in part way through. Some of the episodes of Scotland Yard are good and several have featured railways in them, I'll have to look at getting that series on DVD when I have some money. 

 

Another film to look out for is one called Rover Done Good....filmed around Callington in Devon...it's a short film and again I came in on it part way through but at the end there look to be some views of LSWR gated push pull coaches, or something very similar

[locomad]

Is this a new dawn for television? Considering nothing else worth watching on other channels had great delight to record and watch recently from "squawking pictures" ch 81 a delightful 1/2 hour bfi film "Waverley Steps" filmed around about 1949 excellent shots of A1 e27 been shedded at Waverley, plus other street scenes

 

Well worth watching if repeated

[steve1]

A neat little horror short called Panic. Only 20 mins but good. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0844746/

 

There's another creepy shortt called The Dumb Waiter http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0281827/

 

steve

Edited October 31, 2017 by steve1

[nick_bastable]

For those that get Talking Pictures TV....Tuesday 24th October at 17:20 - 18:00 (5.20pm - 6pm) Today & Everyday

 

Sunday 29th October 2017 – 17:15 TODAY AND EVERYDAY (1948) (also showing Tues 24th 17:20 & Sat 28th at 10:45) Director: Cecil H Williamson Starring: Frank Phillips (narrator) A rare short film from producer E J Fancey with the co-operation of British Railways, looking at the importance of the railway engine from its conception to the forties. A historical and informative film with some superb vintage footage of locomotives.

just watched this after recording it  excellent footage of the Golden Arrow and train ferry at Dover

 

Nick

[Pacific231G]

The Flood Tide that was shown on Talking Pictures was a 1934 River Thames story, not the 1949 one you mention. What I liked in it was the scenes of the Thames sailing barges racing in large numbers, having seen a programme only the other day about the surviving Thames sailing barges, and with them having a race in the Thames estuary. It  must have been quite a superb sight to have seen that in real life.

Does anyone else remember a BBC TV drama series called King of the River from 1966-67. Bernard Lee (who was playing M at the time) was Joss King the widower skipper of one of the last working Thames sailing barges. I can only remember scenes of the barge and that he had two daughters, the older Ruth (Meg Wynn Owen) a rather straightlaced teacher in the local grammar school and the younger Susannah (Geraldine Sherman who later appeared in Get Carter) defintely not straightlaced. The series was never exploited commercially and, according to Wikipaedia, no episodes are known to exist but that doesn't necessarily mean that they don't.  

 

Apart from "M" in the James Bond movies I best remember Bernard Lee for his portrayal of the Merchant Navy Captain in Battle of the River Plate

Edited October 31, 2017 by Pacific231G

[locomad]

Two excellent very enjoyable films today I managed to set box thing and record them, channel 81 again both British both never seen before.

 

"Strongroom" about bank robbery gone wrong and staff locked in a strongroom vault, very much like "timelock" Canadian film, but with a British feel, gripping full of twists brilliant ending.

 

Other was "bang your dead", Jack Warner was in it, made in the late 40"s based around prison camp and shanty town, about a labourer accused of murder. Interesting it showed living conditions after war where many families were forced to live in huts, old army camps due to shortage of housing.

[wombatofludham]

Both have been on before on dear old Squawking Pictures but I agree both were fascinating.  "Strongroom", the Canadian picture has also turned up on Channel 81, and made for an interesting comparison with the British film.  I was intrigued by "Bang You're Dead" and the portrayal of people living in demobbed army camps, I'd read a bit about the occupation of Army surplus camps post war but to see it in film was surprising.

 

I know I refer to the channel tongue in cheek as "Squawking Pictures" but it is the channel that really does keep on giving.  Really good mix of films and if you miss one through a programming clash you do often get a second or third chance later on.  At the moment I'm getting addicted to "The Human Jungle" with Herbert Lom and the "Scotland Yard" shorties I miseed on the first showing.

[jetmorgan]

If you have Talking pics TV then this is on early Sunday morning....so you will need to set your recorders!!!

 

Sunday 3.50AM......Breaking Point 1961. The nephew of a printer gets involved with foreign spies intent on making counterfeit money. Stars Peter Reynolds & Dermot Walsh.

 

I caught the end of it the other night and there was a view of Gatwick Airport, including a quick shot of the station in the early 1960's. Several shots of DC 3 Dakota's, Airspeed Consul/Oxford among other British 1960's airliners

[Arthur]

very much like "timelock" Canadian film, but with a British feel, gripping full of twists brilliant ending.

 

Other was "bang your dead",Interesting it showed living conditions after war where many families were forced to live in huts, old army camps due to shortage of housing.

Timelock is actually a British made film, filmed largely in England though with a Canadian setting and Canadian/US cast.

 

Yes, I found that aspect of postwar living in abandoned military camps interesting.

 

I watched ‘The Breaking Point’ the other day. It’s an okay thriller but does have some good footage of period roads, vehicles and aircraft.

 

Been enjoying the Human Jungle. As a kid, it used to give me the creeps, the haunting music and psychological themes probably.

 

Not sure if it’s been mentioned on these pages yet, the 40 minute documentary ‘Today and Everyday’ a post war look at steam locomotives in everyday use is a must. Ends with footage of LMS 10000, it’s been shown and repeated recently on 81.

 

.

[ejstubbs]

Not sure if it’s been mentioned on these pages yet, the 40 minute documentary ‘Today and Everyday’ a post war look at steam locomotives in everyday use is a must. Ends with footage of LMS 10000, it’s been shown and repeated recently on 81.

 

Mentioned by jetmorgan a mere ten posts previous to yours!

 

Does anyone know where I can find decent listings for Talking Pictures?  The ones in Radio Times are too small to browse and have virtually no information beyond a star rating.

 

Oh hang on: the station's own web site seems to have decent listings.  I'm sure that when I last looked it seemed to be very much a "work in progress".  Good to see that it's up and running properly now.  This one looks like it might be of interest:

 

Sun 05 Nov 17 11:20 BFI: Terminus 1961. Drama. Directed by John Schlesinger. Iconic short of a day in the life of a London Railway Station.

 

Mid-day Tuesday: Whistle Down the Wind.  Oddly, I always seem to get a bit of grit in my eye when I watch this one...

Edited November 4, 2017 by ejstubbs

[Arthur]

 

So it was, been away for a couple of days and missed that.

 

I see Night Mail is being shown at 7:30 this evening.

 

I use a TV listings app but have found that the listings for Channel 81 can change at short notice. Presumably their own website will be more accurate.

 

.

[locomad]

I'd read a bit about the occupation of Army surplus camps post war but to see it in film was surprising.

 

.

My interest is from local history of my area, seaside coastal strip east north wales coast where now vast areas of land are given over to holiday camps thousands of mobile carvan sites.

 

During the war flat areas of coastal land close to main railway line were turned into huge army camps, after the war due to the huge shortage of housing many became homes for bombed out families, at first locals felt sorry for them, but attitude of land owners and local councils changed soon changed. Many land owners having finally got possession back found they had been charged for the concrete bases the huts were put on, seeing more money could be made from putting carvans on than farming forced many "squatters" off the land. These later became the large parks some with 2500 plus vans we have today.

 

Some of these Shacks I can still remember as a youth still with people living in them up to the early 70's, one of my school friends lived in one, no more than a large shed, very tatty almost like gypsy site, his house was lost when a sea storm came in and just washed away, no one killed, the reminds, brick fireplace and base can be found here the sand dunes today.

 

Some original shacks can still be found today, but are used as sheds the now owners of the land prefer to live in mobile homes on the site, some orginial owners claimed squatters rights hence the legal possession

[locomad]

I was intrigued by "Bang You're Dead"

What I also liked about this film was the detective who was more interested in the truth than getting an easy prosecution, wouldn't mention more as it would spoil the plot if anyone not seen it before and it's repeated

[billy_anorak59]

One that I haven't seen for a while is in the 'Get Carter' / 'Villain' genre - the 1967 film 'Robbery' starring Stanley Baker, Barry Foster, George Sewell and others. It's based on the great train robbery, and includes amongst other things, a green 'syp' class 40 to start with, a good Jag Mk2 getaway chase, Leyton Orient's football ground, and ends at RAF Graveley (Hunts) - I know this because I've just done a search...

 

Good example of it's type as I remember, but as it's not been mentioned here previously, ...perhaps not!

[Rugd1022]

One that I haven't seen for a while is in the 'Get Carter' / 'Villain' genre - the 1967 film 'Robbery' starring Stanley Baker, Barry Foster, George Sewell and others. It's based on the great train robbery, and includes amongst other things, a green 'syp' class 40 to start with, a good Jag Mk2 getaway chase, Leyton Orient's football ground, and ends at RAF Graveley (Hunts) - I know this because I've just done a search...

 

Good example of it's type as I remember, but as it's not been mentioned here previously, ...perhaps not!

 

Mentioned in various other threads on the forum Billy... mostly filmed during March and April '67, released in August to good reviews, seeing the car chase sequence and liking the realistic feel to the film Steve McQueen asked Peter Yates to direct 'Bullitt' in early '68. The railway scenes in 'Robbery' were shot at Theddingworth and Rockingham on the Rugby - Market Harborough - Peterborough line which closed in June '66, the film crew had to clean the surface rust off the rails before shooting could start. The short scene with the Midland style Signalbox is thought to have been filmed somewhere along the Northampton to Market Harborough line, which is also where the coaching stock was stabled during the two weeks it took to film the railway scenes. D318 was stabled at Rugby Midland Shed at the same time.

Edited November 6, 2017 by Rugd1022

[billy_anorak59]

Thanks for the info Rugd - I'm obviously late to the party, as usual!

 

Some interesting stuff there - I was trying to find the loco number from the YouTube clip I viewed, so you've solved that one for me. As an aside, RAF Graveley is just up the road from me, and it doesn't look much like it did in the film any more. The watch tower is now a house, and wind turbines have sprouted up over the runway area. It's still got the flavour of an old airfield though - on foggy autumn mornings you can easily imagine a Lancaster of Halifax returning after a raid.

 

Thanks again.

[locomad]

Managed to watch "Man in the sky" so thank everyone who suggested this excellent film, also watched "Good companions" which I've never seen before, excellent colour pictures very Sharp picture on ch81

 

I've been told it's to be re tuned after 30th November just hope I can still watch this channel

[ejstubbs]

Talking Pictures TV on Freeview is moving to a non-HD multiplex (technically, a DVB-T rather than a DVB-T2 multiplex) at some point on Thursday afternoon next week (ie 30th November).  That means that it should be available in areas which don't have the extra HD channels, and to people who don't have an HD Freeview box or an HD Freeview tuner in their TV.  I understand it will keep its current channel number (81).

 

If you currently receive Talking Pictures TV on the HD multiplex then you may need to re-tune your Freeview box or TV to continue receiving it after it moves.  Or it may 'just work'.  Unless there's something you're desperate to watch or record at around that time (and bear in mind that Talking Pictures does tend to repeat its programming over time) I'd probably wait to see if the technology works it out on its own, before interfering and potentially breaking something.

 

Looks like I won't have to bother buying that DVB-T2 tuner for my computer after all.  More money for trains, hurrah!

[locomad]

Talking Pictures TV on Freeview is moving to a non-HD multiplex (technically, a DVB-T rather than a DVB-T2 multiplex) at some point on Thursday afternoon next week (ie 30th November).  That means that it should be available in areas which don't have the extra HD channels, and to people who don't have an HD Freeview box or an HD Freeview tuner in their TV.  I understand it will keep its current channel number (81).

 

If you currently receive Talking Pictures TV on the HD multiplex then you may need to re-tune your Freeview box or TV to continue receiving it after it moves.  Or it may 'just work'.  Unless there's something you're desperate to watch or record at around that time (and bear in mind that Talking Pictures does tend to repeat its programming over time) I'd probably wait to see if the technology works it out on its own, before interfering and potentially breaking something.

 

Looks like I won't have to bother buying that DVB-T2 tuner for my computer after all.  More money for trains, hurrah!

So assume from that it won't be HD anymore, shame I do enjoy the colour quality of some of the films, let's hope I can still get it after 30th November

 

Nice comedy on this afternoon "Desert mice" Sid James, Jill Ireland, host of other stars about an ENSA group in the desert during WW2 some very funny gags, very much in the "carry on" film

[ejstubbs]

So assume from that it won't be HD anymore

 

As far as I know it never has been HD, in the sense that the broadcast video stream has not been in HD resolution (ie 1920x1080 pixels).  I'll confirm that as soon as I can get on to my HD PVR and check the resolution of one of the Talking Pictures TV programmes.

 

There are quite a few non-HD channels on the HD multiplexes.  The term "HD multiplex" is misleading in that regard.  A DVB multiplex (of either flavour) is, at the end of the day, little more than a one-way digital "pipe" that uses broadcast wireless as the physical carrier rather than wires, fibre, cellular radio or short-range wireless such as WiFi.  As I mentioned in my previous post, the multiplexes that carry the HD channels use a more up-to-date digital terrestrial broadcast technology called DVB-T2.  DVB-T2 has significantly greater bandwidth (bits per second) than the original DVB-T technology - you could think of it a bit like 3G vs 4G mobile data, or 802.11n vs 802.11g WiFi.  That higher bandwidth is required in order to be able to handle the greater bitrate required for HD video.  Because the DVB technology just provides a "pipe" that that you can send any digital data down (fundamentally, it doesn't care whether it's SD or HD digital video - or even e-mail, web pages, or anything else so long as it's a string of 0s and 1s), it also means that there's more room for SD channels on a DVB-T2 multiplex.

 

At the moment there are three DVB-T2 multiplexes: the original one that was created specifically for the public service broadcast (PSB) channels (ie BBC, ITV1, 4 and Five) and two others that were added later (but only on certain transmitters) that provided capacity for more HD channels.  Takeup of that additional bandwidth was slower than expected.  (Bear in mind that even Five only went HD on Freeview this year, several years after Freeview HD had launched.)  So Ofcom decided to allow Arqiva, which operates those multiplexes (called COM7 and COM8) to sell space on those multiplexes for SD channels too, and that's how Talking Pictures TV original made its way on to Freeview.

 

I believe that those additional HD multiplexes may not have much of a long term future, as the frequencies they use are planned to disappear as part of another radio spectrum shuffle for 5G or some such other massively important technology for keeping the bovine hordes glued to Farcebook and Twatter on their somaphones.  In that sense, having Talking Pictures TV on COM6 rather COM7 is probably good for the channel's long term survival on Freeview.

 

UPDATE 1: According to Talking Pictures TV, if you currently receive the channel on Freeview then you will have to retune to continue to get it after it moves from COM7 to COM6.  If you don't currently get it on Freeview, but you do get Yesterday (channel 19) then you should be able to get Talking Pictures TV after November 30th (whether that will require a retune I'm not 100% sure - it may depend on your TV/digibox).

 

UPDATE 2: I've now had a chance to inspect a decrypted video stream from Talking Pictures TV.  The resolution is 544x576 pixels.  That's a fair way short of HD, in fact it's not even SD which is 720x576.  That kind of resolution is often used by minor channels to keep their bandwidth down - bandwidth being what you pay the multiplex operator for.  The bit rate on the Talking Pictures TV film I checked was 1.81Mb/s.  In comparison, a film I recorded from Film4 recently was 720x576 pixels ie full SD resolution, at a bit rate of 2.40Mb/s ie 33% more than Talking Pictures TV.

 

CONCLUSION: Any perception of high picture quality on Talking Pictures TV is going to be down to the upscaler in your TV.  On the plus side, it shouldn't be any worse when the channel moves to COM6 - in fact Talking Pictures TV have said that it definitely won't be any worse.

 

FINAL THOUGHT: It now occurs to me that your comment about "colour quality" might have been a subtle joke based on the fact that Talking Pictures TV usually shows films and TV shows shot in monochrome.  In which case: WOOSH, and D'oh!

Edited November 22, 2017 by ejstubbs

[locomad]

 

FINAL THOUGHT: It now occurs to me that your comment about "colour quality" might have been a subtle joke based on the fact that Talking Pictures TV usually shows films and TV shows shot in monochrome.  In which case: WOOSH, and D'oh!

It not a joke quite a few films which are near all I've never seen before are in colour There was one yesterday about a pet alligator, brilliant colour filmed in the 50's, must admit I'am having trouble watching them all although I've enough recorded to last over Xmas. Even the b&w films seem to be better quality

 

Quality is something I notice especially if I visit other people's houses, quite a few family and friends have expensive large telly's with very expensive sat boxes yet the quality especially audio is appalling must be a Welsh thing as live in Wales, yet I'am in view of English TV ( winter hill). Most of my visitors notice too good sharp picture quality and audio, yet quite amazed it's a cheapo telly and a £60 box from tesco. Only downside if it is a downside I can't get any Welsh tv channel despite living in Wales.

 

Thanks for the technical information about freeview just about understood it, I also download films off the internet, some of them are HD quality is excellent

[wombatofludham]

It not a joke quite a few films which are near all I've never seen before are in colour There was one yesterday about a pet alligator, brilliant colour filmed in the 50's, must admit I'am having trouble watching them all although I've enough recorded to last over Xmas. Even the b&w films seem to be better quality

 

Quality is something I notice especially if I visit other people's houses, quite a few family and friends have expensive large telly's with very expensive sat boxes yet the quality especially audio is appalling must be a Welsh thing as live in Wales, yet I'am in view of English TV ( winter hill). Most of my visitors notice too good sharp picture quality and audio, yet quite amazed it's a cheapo telly and a £60 box from tesco. Only downside if it is a downside I can't get any Welsh tv channel despite living in Wales.

 

Thanks for the technical information about freeview just about understood it, I also download films off the internet, some of them are HD quality is excellent

 

Strange to relate that when Winter Hill came on stream Granada, the ITV contractor using the mast, used to put out some Welsh language programming and even had a five minute news summary in Welsh as they saw North Wales as part of their area.  There's even a clip somewhere of Michael Parkinson ending a news report with a cheery "Nos da"!

 

It was the fact that Sutton Coldfield transmitter used to broadcast in Welsh on BBC1 after Watch with Mother that gave me the urge to learn Welsh.  Sutton's VHF signal and border relays used to penetrate deep into mid Wales which is why it was one of the "certain transmitters only" that broadcast any Welsh language programmes after the rest of the country had switched off for an afternoon siesta.  No Homes Under The Bailiff back in the 1970s...