Rent The Golden Age of Canals (2011)
3.0 of 5 from 2 ratings
1h 0min
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
This is the story of the history of Britain's canals told through some fantastic amateur film archive and home movies shot by the people who took the trouble to restore the network from the 1950s. Of course there are lovely films of boating trips. Stan Offley, an IWA activist from Ellesmere Port, filmed his trips around the wide canals in the 40s, 50s and 60s in fantastic 16mm colour. But equally charming is the film of a hostel-boat holiday on the Llangollen in 1961 made by Ed Frangleton, with a little help from Harry Arnold where, as Ed puts it ironically, "I married the cook". There is astonishing film of the last days of working boats, some shot by John Pyper when he spent time with the Beecheys in the 60s and film taken by Keith Christie of the last days of the cut around the BNC. Then there are the films of key restorations: the Stourbridge 16 talked about with great wit and affection by one of the leading activists in that watershed of restorations in the mid-60s, David Tomlinson, and John Maynard's beautiful films of the restoration of the Huddersfield, 'the impossible restoration' shot over two decades. All these and more are in the programme alongside the people who made the films and some of the stars of them.Together they tell the story of how in the years after 1945 a few people fought the Government to keep canals open and restore ones that had become defunct, and against all odds won their battle. - Actors:
- Tom Chaplin, Tony Lewery, Joseph Boughey, David Bolton, Elizabeth Jane Howard, Colin Scrivener, Don Gray, Harry Arnold, Ed Frangleton, Robin Smithett, David Tomlinson, Keith Christie, Tony Gregory, Bob Derricott
- Directors:
- David Parker
- Producers:
- David Parker, Nick Shearman
- Voiced By:
- Gina McKee
- Narrated By:
- Gina McKee
- Studio:
- Go Entertain
- Genres:
- Documentary, Special Interest
