Britain’s nationalised railway of the 1970s was shaping up to be a very different operation from that which it had started in the late 1940s. So too was the film unit of the railway - British Transport Films. Exciting times were ahead, the Channel Tunnel was back on the drawing board, Electrification would get the nation through an oil crisis and the futuristic tilting Advanced Passenger Train was coming to fruition.
As BTF moved away from theatrical cinema distribution their production values remained visually beautiful to look at; a simple consignment from A to B or a promotion for hire cars could still be as visually exciting as the latest streamlined express passenger service, yet the films of BTF were now targeted at smaller audience groups with measurable results. 16mm had taken over from 35mm production, its reduced costs and high quality remained the norm for regular production work. Video production was creeping in too and throughout the 1970s, BTF had been pioneers in video production with their own dedicated video department. BTF, just like British Rail, was ready to head into the 1980s.
The Films:
Disc One:
Multiple Aspects (1969, 20 mins)
Top Levels of Transport (1969, 15 mins)
A Tale Out of School (1969, 25 mins)
Our Business is Moving (1970, 15 mins)
A Day with SELNEC (1972, 23 mins)
Sea Road to Britain (1974, 20 mins)
Keep Your Business Moving (1977, 7 mins)
Disc Two:
TheKowloon Connection (1979, 17 mins)
Life on the Line (1979, 16 mins)
Who's in Charge? (1980, 17 mins)
TOPS for Industry (1981, 13 mins)
Round Trip to Glasgow (1982, 14 mins)
Robbie (Overhead Lines) (1986, 13 mins)
Channel Tunnel: Tomorrow's Way (1986, 23 mins)
Extras
King of the Road (1986, 11 mins)
Illustrated booklet with new writing on all of the films included by the BFI’s Steven Foxon and post-war transport historian and enthusiast Stephen Edwards
