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BBC Four

BBC 4

Time to Remember

Lesley Sharp

Toby Stevens

Kathryn Williams

Time to Remember: Episode 2: Stage and Screen

Documentaries

Factual: History

Stage and Screen

Episode 2

Episode 2: Stage and Screen

BBC Four - Time to Remember, Stage and Screen

The story of a golden age of theatre, cinema and music hall during the 1920s and 30s.

Newsreel and voiceover from the 50s series Time to Remember tell the story of a golden age of theatre, cinema and music hall during the 1920s and 30s.

In the 1950s, the newsreel company Pathe mined their archive to produce a series of programmes for television called Time to Remember. Made by the producer Peter Baylis, they chronicled the political, social and cultural changes that occurred during the first half of the 20th century. 

Each episode was narrated by a prominent actor such as Ralph Richardson, Michael Redgrave, Anthony Quayle, Edith Evans, Basil Rathbone and Joyce Grenfell, all reading scripts recalling historic, evocative or significant moments from an intriguing past. 

In 2010, the material from the original Time to Remember has been collected together thematically to create a new 12-part series under the same title that offers a rewarding perspective on the events, people and innovations from history that continue to shape and influence the world around us.

Archive footage from the theatres, music halls and cinemas of the 1920s and 30s combines with characterful voiceover to give a glimpse of the entertainment industries in their early 20th century golden age. It includes footage of Charles Laughton applying his own stage make-up, chorus line auditions and rehearsals in the West End, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks visiting Europe, and Alfred Hitchcock's first talkie, 1929's Blackmail.

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Pathe newsreel and voiceover from the 1950s documentary series Time to Remember

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