At the end of 1928 the first "talkies" arrived from Hollywood. They caused a sensation. The public clamoured for more. In British studios - which were still churning out silent films - there was instant chaos.
The scramble to make Britain's first talkies is described by some of the producers, directors, technicians and stars of the time:
Alfred Hitchcock, Herbert Wilcox, Sir Michael Balcon, Ronald Neame, Alec Murray, Albert Ross, Harry Miller, John Longden, Mabel Poulton, Margot Grahame, Chili Bouchier and John Stuart
Including excerpts from Kitty, Atlantic, Rookery Nook, and from the first full-length British talkie, Hitchcock's Blackmail.
(Cockney Mabel didn't speak proper: p 11)