A video still taken from the film War Comes to London (1940). Photo: British Council/PA WireAn archive of films showing UK life from the 1930s and 1940s is now complete.
The last remaining 25 films to be digitised and loaded on to the British Council (BC) archive show wide-ranging scenes of British life, from England’s pubs and Sheffield’s steel industry to London’s preparations for war and a mystery for Scotland Yard’s Flying Squad.
The BC, the UK’s cultural relations organisation now marking its 80th year, already had 89 films – available at www.britishcouncil.org/film – on the archive which first went online in 2012.
They were produced in the BC’s early years to try to show the best of the UK to audiences in embassies, consulates and classrooms around the world during global conflict.
Among the releases are Routine Job (1946) – in which Scotland Yard’s Flying Squad works to solve the mystery of some stolen cases of tea – and The Story of English Inns (1944), a look at the history of England’s pubs and their role at the heart of English life. War Comes to London (1940), about Britain’s preparations for World War II, and Steel (1945), a restored Technicolor film which looks at steel-making and the workings of a foundry, are also among the highlights.