Going To The Flicks
A 2-part Archive on 4, 15 and 22 January 2011
Radio 4 Extra, 10 and 17 January 2015
mp3x2
Barry Norman is one of Britain's best loved film broadcasters, but for this series he is not so much interested in the films as in exploring how the experience of going to the cinema in Britain has changed over the last one hundred years. In fact, his first surprise is the discovery that people are far more likely to recall the general experience of going to the cinema than the individual films they saw.
Producer: Beaty Rubens.
160/44; 130 MB total; sound quality excellent
Episode 1
Barry Norman draws on BBC archive as well as recordings from the University of Lancaster which have never been broadcast before, and also new interviews to find out how people's experience of this most popular form of entertainment has changed over the decades.
The Silent Era, it turns out, was not all that silent, with plenty of chatting and tea-drinking going on, not to mention children reading out the titles to their illiterate parents and grandparents.
Barry then moves on to hear how overwhelmed many viewers were by the sheer luxury of the cinemas built in the inter-war years and how these pleasure palaces offered a few hours of escape from lives which were harsh or sometimes simply dull.
He himself recalls going to the pictures in the 1950s, which was the golden age of Saturday morning cinema for children.
In the 1960s, with the advent of television, Barry finds out about the ultimately failed attempts to introduce novelties such as Cinerama and The Smellies to cinema and hears confessions about just what went on in the back row!
With contributions from film expert Annette Kuhn and architectural historian Richard Gray, this first part of Barry Norman's memoir of Going to the Flicks is a heady mix of nostalgia and surprise.
Episode 2
Continuing his two-part survey of the changing experience of British cinema-going over the last century, Barry Norman starts with cinema at a low ebb in the 1970s and moves up to the exciting innovations of the present.
In the 1970s, film was at a particularly low ebb and ticket sales had fallen to an all-time low. In conversation with Sir David Puttnam, he recalls his own pessimism about the future of cinema at the time.
Moving onto the 1980s, Barry explores the impact of an American import - the Multiplex - on Britain.
He then moves onto the challenge of videos and DVDs in the 1990s and is ultimately surprised to find how positive the picture now looks as British cinemas embrace 3D and other innovations and attendance figures continue to rise.
Featuring archive never broadcast before, this series attempts for the first time ever to survey the changing experience of cinema-going in Britain over the last century.
Replies
Welcome back, my friend! We all missed you!
Thanks for the kind words all.; I sincerely hope I can live up to yolur expectations since one of my problems after Pam's death was a stroke. affecting my meory. But the doctor said to jump right in and do what I can. ------ Riklaa
Hey Rick! No expectations! Just enjoy the site like the rest of us and be well......Abby :)
Thanks for sharing and good to see you back.
Hello Rick - good to see you again!
Hi Rick,
Welcome back!! Abby said it so well!
This is such good news that you feel up to posting. Do take care.....Gayle
Hi Rick, how wonderful to see you back at Times Past!! I missed you! Hope things are settling down a bit after your recent loss, and please know that you and all your efforts on this site are appreciated......All the best, Abby :)