Whenever I think of postwar modernism I think of James Bolam. Sort of. Here's three reasons why.
Firstly, here's the opening titles of Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads? featuring the demolition and rebuilding of Newcastle, including the towers of Cruddas Park rising above the bulldozed wasteland of the city. The song has a rousingly nostalgic tone, setting the scene. Bob has moved into a classic New Town-style newbuild house, representing how he's broken with the past and has become upwardly mobile, white Terry (Bolam) remains adamantly wedded to his working class roots.
From the mid-eighties, here's a piece from peerless comedy drama The Beiderbecke Affair by the wonderful Alan Plater. Beautifully filmed, much of the school scenes were done in long shot through the glass walls, usually with either a deadpan Bolam-Flynn voice-over, or jaunty Beiderbecke jazz. Here's a typically delightful and stylish segment from the first episode.
Lastly, there's a fantastic documentary from the newly born Channel Four in 1982 called The Sixties, before the channel turned into lifestyle porn and 'reality' cruelty. Narrated in characterful fashion by James Bolam, this episode The Getaway People tells the story of postwar rebuilding and features interviews with ageing hipster Reyner Banham, patrician traffic guru Colin Buchanan, soulful Alison Ravetz bemoaning the destruction of the old city fabric, and incisive planning expert Peter Hall, speaking about systems in the manner of Adam Curtis. The documentary's aim, as in so much of the eighties, is to dismantle the dreams of the 1960s, in this case the planners and architects, particularly the transport planners. Here we have Buchanan's Traffic in Towns report taken weirdly literally, considering how it appeared to be half-warning how crazy the destruction of towns for the car could be. Leeds gets it in the neck, as it usually does in discussions about sixties planning, with fascinating interviews with two former Lord Mayors of Leeds discussing the pressures on them from the governments of the day. And, naturally, the arrival of systems built high rise blocks crashes into the programme like a ton of concrete, with an amazing Sectra ad and footage from the time of Ronan Point. The footage and interviews are completely brilliant, it's a must-see.
Firstly, here's the opening titles of Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads? featuring the demolition and rebuilding of Newcastle, including the towers of Cruddas Park rising above the bulldozed wasteland of the city. The song has a rousingly nostalgic tone, setting the scene. Bob has moved into a classic New Town-style newbuild house, representing how he's broken with the past and has become upwardly mobile, white Terry (Bolam) remains adamantly wedded to his working class roots.
From the mid-eighties, here's a piece from peerless comedy drama The Beiderbecke Affair by the wonderful Alan Plater. Beautifully filmed, much of the school scenes were done in long shot through the glass walls, usually with either a deadpan Bolam-Flynn voice-over, or jaunty Beiderbecke jazz. Here's a typically delightful and stylish segment from the first episode.
Lastly, there's a fantastic documentary from the newly born Channel Four in 1982 called The Sixties, before the channel turned into lifestyle porn and 'reality' cruelty. Narrated in characterful fashion by James Bolam, this episode The Getaway People tells the story of postwar rebuilding and features interviews with ageing hipster Reyner Banham, patrician traffic guru Colin Buchanan, soulful Alison Ravetz bemoaning the destruction of the old city fabric, and incisive planning expert Peter Hall, speaking about systems in the manner of Adam Curtis. The documentary's aim, as in so much of the eighties, is to dismantle the dreams of the 1960s, in this case the planners and architects, particularly the transport planners. Here we have Buchanan's Traffic in Towns report taken weirdly literally, considering how it appeared to be half-warning how crazy the destruction of towns for the car could be. Leeds gets it in the neck, as it usually does in discussions about sixties planning, with fascinating interviews with two former Lord Mayors of Leeds discussing the pressures on them from the governments of the day. And, naturally, the arrival of systems built high rise blocks crashes into the programme like a ton of concrete, with an amazing Sectra ad and footage from the time of Ronan Point. The footage and interviews are completely brilliant, it's a must-see.