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A charming documentary series uses digital wizardry to show the adventurous decade before WWII in all its glorious colour
Our 52-page guide has Jaci Stephen’s Soap Watch, your Movie Planner and a preview of a magical documentary that shows the 1930s in living colour
Get ready for a vision of the past as you’ve never seen it before. Black and white footage of the years leading up to the Second World War has been turned into vivid colour, bringing the era to life.
Until recently, the swimsuits of the bathers at Lansbury’s Lido, in central London, were a dull monochrome. Now they’ve become the riot of colour they were originally – digitally transformed for Channel 5’s fascinating new three-part series Thirties In Colour: Countdown To War.
Beaming for the camera, the swimmers – and the family seen in our picture at Butlin’s – represent the optimism of the decade, when the horrific prospect of another world war was far from the thoughts of the public.
Helen Antrobus, curator at The National Trust and contributor to the show, says, ‘The 30s was a time of total adventure. It must have been unimaginably exciting and – as demonstrated by the swimmers at the lido – social change was flourishing. People were showing their bodies for the first time and, especially for women, that was very liberating!’
Reminding us that the decade was one of innovation, a public information film called A Clean Sweep – The Private Life Of A Vacuum Cleaner, shows a woman at work at Hoover’s revolutionary new vacuum cleaner factory in west London. A touch of celebrity glamour is provided by Amy Johnson, as she gives a triumphant speech to her fans after becoming the first woman to fly solo from England to Australia.
Yet times were tough for many, as shown in footage of Jarrow MP Ellen Wilkinson – her flaming red hair at last on full display – leading the Jarrow March (a protest about the closure of the local shipyard) from Tyneside to London in 1936.
Thirties In Colour has frequent appearances by Adolf Hitler. Early in the decade he’s shown working on the construction of a motorway, spade in hand. ‘He’s trying to portray himself as an ordinary worker, to appeal to all social classes in the Germany he was creating,’ explains Sir Richard Evans, Regius Professor Emeritus of History at Cambridge University.
By episode three, war is looming and public information films show the correct way to use gas masks. There’s heartbreaking footage of
youngsters, one taking a cup of cocoa through a train window, en route to the country to avoid the impending barrage of German bombs.
Series producer and director Leo Gizzi says the show will make us see the past differently. ‘In colour, the details of people’s expressions are clearer and you see the individuality and vibrancy of their styles. It helps makes them seem more like us.’
Tim Oglethorpe Thirties In Colour: Countdown To War, Tuesday, 9pm, 5 Select.