A series which explores living memory

"The old days were the days for filming. I think there was more humanity in our old films. I think it was because we didn't know so much about it. When you know too much about a thing you're apt to put more mechanical effort into your work - you forget all the humanities."
George Pearson, who celebrated his ninety-fourth birthday this month, was one of Britain's leading film directors in the great days of silent pictures.
In tonight's film he movingly recalls some of his early years: seeing moving pictures for the first time more than seventy years ago; making some of his first films during the first world war; turning Betty Balfour into a star in the early 1920s...
The programme includes excerpts from some of Pearson's films: Christmas Day in The Workhouse (1914) Nothing Else Matters (1920) Squibs Wins the Calcutta Sweep (1922) Reveille (1924)
(April 14: The Narrow-boat Men)
(Colour)