For many kids now, it's too late to begin listening. The 'swinging times' have been eclipsed by a climate of uncertainty disillusionment and fear. Those with an interest in public transport will thrill at the plentiful footage of the famous Bristol ‘Lodekka’ buses while aviation geeks will get a similar thrill from scenes of Mr Smith at work: when he isn’t encouraging young tearaways to play nicely together he is an engineer overseeing test flights of the Bristol 188 ‘Flaming Pencil’ supersonic jet. David Hemmings and Ray Brooks play two of the bikers, while Anneka Wills, later to find fame as Doctor Who companion Polly, pops up alongside Douglas as two girls who hang out at the local church hall. Yeah, from that, you’ve probably worked out this isn’t a plot-driven film. It’s also a typically early ’60s take on youth, where even the rebels seem quite pleasant, rarely getting above troublesome in the ‘rebel-o-meter’.

Halliwell, Leslie (1989). Halliwell's Film Guide (7thed.). London: Paladin. p.938. ISBN 0586088946. Band of Thieves (1962) Seven of the prisoners at Gaunstone Gaol have been encouraged to take up Trad jazz by a music-mad governor and… It was directed by Clive Donner who would make a name for himself with The Caretaker in 1963 and then head to Hollywood to make What’s New Pussycat? In 1965.Johnnie and his friends Bill (David Andrews) and Bert – a baby-faced David Hemmings – get into trouble racing their motorbikes along the Portway on the banks of the Avon and are banned from riding them which leaves them frustrated and deepens their boredom. Painted Smile, The (1962) Small-time con artists Jo Lake (the gorgeous Liz Fraser in an uncharacteristic straight acting role) and Mark Davies (Peter Reynolds)… Radio Times Guide to Films (18thed.). London: Immediate Media Company. 2017. p.856. ISBN 9780992936440. Made shortly before The Beatles burst onto the music scene, and as a result, Some People probably looked out of date almost immediately after its release. It’s now something of a curiosity piece, or a nostalgic piece of whimsy for anyone who happened to be a teenager during the early 1960s.

Anneke Wills plays Mr Smith’s daughter, Anne, who has a teenage fling with Johnnie. His influence leads her to buy tight jeans which she further shrinks to fit in the bath. You’d think this scene a little ripe if it turned up in a modern period drama set in the 1960s but here it is charmingly authentic. This was an excellent movie for its time. It touched more closely upon the growing pains of young adults than many another. Monthly Film Bulletin wrote "Not without charm and showing, for the most part, a nice attention to detail, this teenage film (the profits of which go to the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme) is transparently well-meaning and made with obvious affection. Unfortunately, it has nothing to add to that now painfully familiar delinquency formula which combines a liking for coffee bars, motor bikes and guitars with an inability to talk reasonably to Father. The script fails not because it is heavily weighted in favour of the Kenneth More character but because of the needlessly naive way in which this is done. Relying mainly on superficialities for its effects, the film finally outcasts the one thoroughly rootless delinquent who should have been its main concern." [11] Then, fuelled by jealousy over his girlfriend’s attraction to Johnnie, Bill tries to sabotage his friend’s new found stability. It’s small stuff – squabbling and scrapping, hardly Marlon Brando territory – but that makes it feel all the more authentically British.More also fell in love with one of his younger co-stars during filming; Angela Douglas was 26 years his junior. He eventually left his second wife for her. They married in 1968 and were still a couple on his death in 1982. Gathering up DVD's of films that my dad could enjoy watching during the Easter holiday,I decided to dust down some old issues of a UK movie magazine called Empire,and to take a look at a column by genre film reviewer Kim Newman.Along with the re-released Horror titles,I was pleased to stumble upon a review by Newman about a very intriguing sounding 'Teen Rebel' title,which led to me getting set to pay a visit to 'swinging Bristol' for the first time. When I moved to Bristol last year I wanted to get to know its culture and so asked around for tips on which novels and films best represent the city. Some People was one of the suggestions and after a little hunting I found a DVD released by Network in 2013. Once I’d finally watched the film I was more curious than ever about Dad’s reaction and pressed him on it when we next went for a pint. With some reluctance he told me the story. Then one night, while messing around in a church they’ve all but broken into, they are taken under the wing of Mr Smith, a local youth group organiser played by veteran British actor Kenneth More, who encourages them to form a pop group.

The story of three teenaged tearaways Johnnie, Bill and Bert who find themselves at odds with society. Following a brush with the law they have a chance meeting with a local choirmaster who offers them a way of making good.Filmed entirely on location, it captures the reality of Bristol in the heat of post-Blitz reconstruction, half tumbledown harbour city, half planners’ dream. Director Clive Donner, who had been working in advertising, was approached to make a documentary to promote the Duke of Edinburgh scheme. Donner felt the documentary would only reach people who already knew about the scheme, and suggested they make a dramatic feature instead. [5] Serious Charge (1959) An unmarried vicar, the Reverend Howard Phillips (Anthony Quayle), newly arrived in the parish of Bellington, attempts to force local…

The cast is pretty strong, headed up by Ray Brooks and David Hemmings, your typical denim-clad teenage tearaways, working during the day, riding fast bikes and generally causing a bit of trouble in the evenings if time permitted. Some People (1962) Singer Not the Song, The (1961) The Singer Not The Song is set during the 1950s in a small isolated Mexican village. Local Roman Catholic priest Father…Bill rejects Mr Smith’s mentorship seeing in it an attempt to control him and breaks with Johnnie and Bert, falling in with a gang of hard-cases. I would love to see the film again, but I have only seen it on television once, and that was probably about 20 years ago. It was filmed in Bristol and I know that the city has changed considerably since then, so it is now of interest not only for the content and story, but also for the location in which it was shot. The film also features a test flight of the Bristol 188 – a British supersonic research aircraft built by the Bristol Aeroplane Company in the late 50s. Sadly; politicians are more mixed-up than they ever were. Now, with lunatics like Harriet Harman and Patricia Hewitt resolutely destroying the nuclear family, marginalising fathers into non-existence, and feminising the education system, whilst selling-off school playing fields for development and criminalising almost every infringement of law; a whole generation of disaffected kids has arisen who are tragically represented by this movie's modern sequel: 'Kidulthood'. Britain is now officially the worst place in the western world to be a kid. (It's also the worst place to be old.) Having the film set in Bristol rather than London is a masterstroke, giving it an extra layer of authenticity, not least when the main participants wander around the department stores, cross the river, drop into a fish shop or have a drink in a pub.