[dwb]

Whilst browsing in the "General Interest" section of HMV last Saturday I picked up a new(?) well © 2007 DVD published the British Film Institute entitled "Night Mail". This contains a digitally remastered version of the "one of the most critically acclaimed and best loved films produced within the British documentary movement", the eponymous "Night Mail" which was produced by the GPO Film Unit with a budget of £2000 in 1936. For this princely sum they managed to employ a certain W.H.Auden and a 21 year old composer by the name of Benjamin Britten.

The DVD also contains the following items to take the total viewing time to a shade under 2 hours:-

"The Way to the Sea" (1936, featuring verse by Auden, music by Britten)
"Spotlight on the Night Mail" (1948)
"Thirty Million Letters" (1963)
"Night Mail 2" (1986)

If this sounds familiar to owners of the British Transport Films series of double DVDs, that shouldn't be a surprise, especially as "Thirty Million Letters" was produced by BTF.

David

 

[7113]

Sounds like a good one to buy - I will have to check out my local HMV

Regards

 

[whoppit]

night mail 2? is that anything like that british rail advert that featured the night mail? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_AsS_6klHQ...feature=related

paul

 

[dwb]

QUOTE anything like...?
That's a great video clip, it probably deserves a thread of its own in this section.

As for similarity, the red coaches and the loco look familiar. Night Mail 2 was produced by TVS as a modern "take" fifty years on from the original. I can't remember how long it is and it doesn't say on the box, but it's more than a few minutes and as a remake it wouldn't surprise me if it wasn't the same length as the original's 23 minutes.

David

 

[7113]

If it's the TVS remake it's another cood reason to get it.

Regards