No-one ever seems to have recorded that we were just a bunch of enthusiastic kids, accepting the basic theme of the dignity of man from our brilliant but erratic boss.”
So said Harry Watt, co-producer of Night Mail (1936), of his mentor John Grierson. It could, however, have equally applied to the early years of British Transport Films under Edgar Anstey. As we saw last time, the unit had been established in May 1949, some eight months after Nationalisation. Anstey was 42, but many of his staff were considerably younger. Production Manager Ian Ferguson and cameraman James Ritchie were in their early 30s, for example, with senior cameraman Ron Craigen only a little older.
The Railway Executive itself might have been in its infancy, but when Hugh Dalton, Labour Chancellor…