British Transport Films

British Transport Films was an organisation set up in 1949 to make documentary films on the general subject of British transport. Its work included internal training films, travelogues (extolling the virtues of places that could be visited via the British transport system - mostly by rail), and "industrial films" (as they were called) promoting the progress of Britain's railway network. It was headed by Edgar Anstey until 1974, and from then until its demise by John W. Shepherd. Initially it made films mostly for the British Transport Commission, but after that organisation was broken up in 1963 the majority of its films were for the British Railways Board. However it also made films for London Transport, the British Waterways Board, the travel company Thomas Cook and the coach company Thomas Tilling.

Somewhat paradoxically, the unit celebrated a quiet, unchanging image of rural Britain - with travelogues such as The Heart of England (1954), The Lake District (also 1954), Three Is Company (1959), Down to Sussex (1964) and Midland Country (as late as 1974) - while simultaneously invoking the "white heat of technology" in its other work, such as its Report on Modernisation series instigated in 1959 (renamed Rail Report in 1965). The unit won many awards over the years, including an Academy Award in 1966 for the film Wild Wings, which had little to do with transport and concentrated on WWT Slimbridge in Gloucestershire, founded by Peter Scott. BTF also gave John Schlesinger an early breakthrough with the 1961 film Terminus, chronicling a day in the life of Waterloo Station in a style highly uncharacteristic of the unit. Oscar-winning cinematographer David Watkin also got his start lighting BTF films from 1950 to 1960.

BTF continued to make films through the 1970s and early 1980s, notably chronicling the progress of the InterCity 125 and, poignantly, that of the ill-fated Advanced Passenger Train, but the tide was turning against such "nationalised" industrial film units. In September 1981 BTF's film library closed, with the material being offered back to its retrospective owners. BTF ceased to exist as a full unit in 1982, although the BTF name was still used for various British Rail internal works, many of them by then made on video, until around 1986. For a time the BTF films made for British Rail and London Transport were marketed by the Central Office of Information, but from March 1988 the now-defunct organisation FAME (Film Archive Management and Entertainment) handled the BR films on behalf of the British Railways Board, while the London Transport films went to the London Transport Museum in Covent Garden. In 1996 the British Railways Board was broken up and the BR films - the bulk of the BTF archive - were acquired by the British Film Institute.

In the 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s many of the films were released on video, latterly mainly by the British Film Institute and by Beulah, which evolved out of FAME and owns the release rights to the BTF films made for London Transport. The British Waterways Board has also released its own library of BTF films on video. In recent years several have been released on DVD, with a number of films made for London Transport appearing on Beulah DVDs before the first BFI DVD compilation of BTF films appeared, after many delays, in June 2005.

BTF also produced Robbie and, previously, the notorious The Finishing Line, which are often thought of as Public Information Films.

"Snow Drift at Bleath Gill"

a classic 1950s presentation from British Transport Films.9 mins

The Elizabethan Express

Part 1/2 10 mins

Part 2/2 9 mins

Paddington to Birmingham Snow Hill

c1962 5 mins

External links

• British Transport Films