Classic Movies on Sky Arts - Series 3 Episode 6 - Billy Liar

 

Based on the 1959 novel by Keith Waterhouse, Billy Liar is now a John Schlesinger classic movie from 1963. It is one of the "British New Wave" films of the 1960's, all in black and white. It seems an awfully long time since I saw this film, maybe even when it was first released.

Ian Nathan introduces the programme as usual. But he calls these young people "the disillusioned generation". This is rubbish. That was not me or anyone I knew. And Billy is not disillusioned, just a fantasist. We hear all about Keith Waterhouse, first as a reporter, but first and foremost just wanting to write. All the time he was at the Daily Mirror and the Daily Mail, he was writing in his spare time, short stories, plays, anything. His parents were "impossibly poor", but that would not be how they felt at the time. As maybe our parents came into that category in the 1950's. 

Christina Newland tells us that when the book was first published, the country was still in the age of austerity. Steven Armstrong talked about the beginnings of the consumer society and Neil Norman about the theatre of the 1950's with plays from "angry young men" such as Look Back in Anger by John Osborne. In fact the first adaptation of the Billy Liar book was actually a stage play, first starring Albert Finney and then Tom Courtney when he took over. Christina tells us about the choice of actor for the film, and all the team agree that Tom Courtney was perfect for the role of Billy.

Ian Nathan tells us about the director John Schlesinger. How he used his camera out in the real world. We see Julie Christie out walking with real people watching her.  Ian explains how we enter Billy's dreams of "self delusion". Christina added that these sequences often were cut so abruptly in the editing. Neil Norman liked the double act of Billy and Arthur (an early role for Rodney Bewes before his long time in The Likely Lads. We see a clip of them in the funeral parlour. And then who arrives to tell them off but their boss played by ... Leonard Rossiter!

Ian thought the entire cast were great. These included the one and only Wilfred Pickles. Now I remember his radio show Have a Go that ran from 1946 to 1967, it was always on at home. Christina describes the "generational divide" between the older generation and the new. Whilst on the cast, there is a part about the heavenly Julie Christie. Here she is on one of her walks, going past one of the London bomb sites that were still there in the early sixties. Her next film was Darling. 

I think that it was Steven who told us much of the filming took place in Bradford. Ian goes back to the director and how the film elevated the docudrama. One clip we see is the opening of a huge brand new supermarket with a celebrity, a band and large crowds. I can remember my father around this time being given the task to convert some of his firm's grocery stores to supermarkets. Ian and Christina talk about the fantasy element of the film, and Chekov is mentioned. Neil Norman sums up the movie as a "bittersweet comedy but with underlying tragedy". Although there is a spark of hope for Billy at the Locarno ballroom. A song that he composed with Arthur is played there. Steven's final thoughts were on all those sitcoms that came in the future when Billy Liar had paved the way.

Archive Close, Aston Clinton

 

In my post of the 30th June, I included this note from the latest Sight and Sound magazine.

How to build an archive by Pamela Hutchinson.

A review of the BFI National Film Library now called The National Archive. Starting with it's being established in 1935 (with its first curator Ernest Lingren) up to 1945. The beginnings of how films were collected and the appeal that by 1936 there were seven hundred films including precious Chaplin and Hitchcock titles. In the early part of the second world war, the collection found "a permanent location (just down the road) in Aston Clinton in Buckinghamshire", "to live in a temperature controlled environment".

Despite exhaustive searches on the internet, I have failed to determine the exact address. It's possible that this was Aston Clinton House (now demolished) on the grounds of what is now the Green Park Centre. In the History of the Archive for the BFI, we find "In 1940 the BFI opened it's first state of the art film archive  at Aston Clinton"

I then filled in a contact form for the BFI to see if anyone there knew the answer. I was amazed that two hours later I received this reply:

Dear David Roberts 

 

Thank you for your enquiry.

The National Film Archive was originally situated on Green End Street, roughly equidistant between the Oak & The Partridge Arms pubs in Aston Clinton. The Archive building was knocked down, and a small housing estate was built on the former location, now called Archive Close. There is a plaque commerating the Archive on the street sign which reads: "The National Archive was on this site from 1939 to 1987." 

 We hope this is of assistance. 

Best wishes, 

Archive Access

BFI National Archive

So this morning I took the very short journey to Archive Close, only a hundred meters from the Oak pub where we have had the occasional dinner. And, of course, took the above photo. Now I know.

Tree Maintenance in the Garden

 

The tree surgeons were here last week. I had a long list of what had to be done. First of all, the laurel hedge I planted years ago needed attention. As in the photo above, I could trim the lower half, but that was not the right thing to do. It left the top half that needed to be straight. Some severe pruning has left it in a sorry state as the photo below. Hopefully it will recover in the next couple of years.

Next up the removal of a hawthorn tree at the very far corner of the garden. It had become terribly overgrown over the years with all the foliage over hanging next door's garden. As the photos below, we were just left with two trunk systems which have now been removed.

I would have preferred the removal of the whole of the Elder at the far end but in the end settled for two branches that overhang the laurels.

Despite many failed attempts over the last few years to destroy the stumps of the four old Aylesbury Prune trees that died, I finally gave up and these were ground out.

The viburnum in the wildflower border has been fine for the last few years, but gradually it expectedly got fed up with constantly being trimmed. And is now no more.

The wildflowers appreciate the space.

Finally one large branch of the pyracantha, that was hard against the wall at the front, has been removed. It's amazing how much room it has left at the end of the joint border.