The posthumous memoirs of a World War II Pathfinder pilot and Distinguished Flying Cross recipient who flew target-marking missions in enemy territory. Denys A. Braithwaite was born of a well-to-do Yorkshire family and joined the Auxiliary Air Force on his eighteenth birthday in 1939. On the occasion of Chamberlain’s speech to the British nation on September 3, the situation changed dramatically and from being a “super weekend club,” his squadron was assigned coastal patrol duties. In October he was posted to Peterborough to learn to fly with the regular RAF. There followed a period of convoy protection flying Blenheims and then flying with the meteorological flight based at Bircham Newington on the Norfolk coast. Here he flew a Gloster Gladiator with a flight that had the reputation of “flying even when the birds wouldn’t.” Now a Squadron Leader, Braithwaite became acquainted with the legendary de Havilland Mosquito and flew long-range weather reconnaissance flights (PAMPA) under the control of Coastal Command. These patrols involved a lone aircraft flying deep into enemy territory to observe the meteorological conditions in advance of bombing raids or naval action. PAMPA Flight 1409 moved to Oakington and transferred to Bomber Command and operated under the command of Air Commodore Donald Bennett and became one of the elite Pathfinder units. Braithwaite’s lengthy and successful tour included many exciting episodes described here in thrilling detail. After being transferred to the United States, Braithwaite was posted to India where he contracted a tropical disease that ended his flying career. The recipient of the Distinguished Flying Cross, Braithwaite died before being able to see his memoirs in print.

Since the Second World War, depictions of Royal Air Force operations in film and television drama have become so numerous that they make up a genre worthy of scholarly attention. In this illuminating study, S. P. MacKenzie explores the different ways in which the men of RAF Bomber Command have been represented in dramatic form on the big and small screen from the war years to the present day. Bomber Boys on Screen is the first in-depth study of how and why the screen-drama image of those who flew, those who directed them, and those who provided support for RAF bomber operations has changed over time, sometimes in contested circumstances. Until now dramas that focus on Bomber Command have tended to be mentioned only in passing or studied in isolation, despite the prevalence of surveys of both the British war film genre and of aviation cinema. In Bomber Boys on Screen MacKenzie examines the development, presentation, and reception of significant dramas on a decade-by-decade basis. Titles from the beginning of the war (The Lion Has Wings, 1939) to the start of new century (Bomber's Moon, 2014) are situated in the context of technical possibilities and limitations, evolving social and cultural norms in the United Kingdom and elsewhere, and the development of moral and utilitarian controversies surrounding the wartime bomber offensive directed against Nazi Germany. While the focus is on feature films and television plays, reference is also made to documentaries, memorials, veterans' organizations, book titles, war comics, and other representations of the war fought by Bomber Command.

Third, that the condition of total war in which Britain found itself a short time after the commencement of hostilities would mean that films, and indeed, all mass/popular culture, would respond to the urgency of the situation by taking a special interest in representations of British society. And fourth, following on from this, that British films of the Second World War would, one way or another, be agents of propaganda. From these propositions, the book examines just what these films had to say about social class in the images of Britain they were promulgating, with the corollaries of just how were they saying it, and why were they saying it. Alongside this is a concern with what propaganda purposes were being met by these films."--Jacket.

First published in 1973 The Film Business makes a factual survey of British films from their beginnings in 1896 to 1972. Ernest Betts offers character studies of men who have built the film industry and made it what it is. He examines the financial and political background and shows how, while intending to encourage film production, it has often had exactly the opposite effect and inhibited its free development. Betts also attacks the manner in which the American film industry has taken over the British film industry and points to the failure of successive governments to save it from repeated crises and losses. Through these fluctuations the author keeps a firm eye on the film itself and brings the judgement of film critics past and present to bear on British cinema, as it moves uncertainly and not without its triumphs into the 1970s. This is an interesting read for students and scholars of film studies, British film history and British cinema.

'All art is propaganda,' wrote George Orwell, 'but not all propaganda is art.' Moving from World War I to the 'War on Terror' and beyond, The Story of British Propaganda Film shows how the emergence of film as a global media phenomenon reshaped practices of propaganda, while new practices of propaganda in turn reshaped the use of the moving image. It explores classic examples of cinematic propaganda such as The Battle of the Somme (1916), Listen to Britain (1942) and Animal Farm (1954) alongside little-known newsreels, 'telemagazines' and digital media initiatives, in the process challenging our understanding of propaganda itself, and its many diverse manifestations. Richly illustrated with unique material from the BFI National Archive, the book shows how central propaganda is to the development of British film, and how it has filtered our understanding of modern British history, from narratives of decolonisation to the celebration of pop culture and the meanings of the postwar consensus. In a contemporary moment so preoccupied with misinformation, malinformation and disinformation, Scott Anthony explains why the response to the ubiquity of the propaganda film has often turned out to be the production of ever more propaganda.

This volume gathers poems, recollections and fictional items written by Cedric Watts between 1966 and 2017. Some have been published, some have not. The resultant medley should gratify nostalgia, while providing ironic instruction and mild entertainment.

Tony Richardson's 1968 "Charge of the Light Brigade", with its star cast, lavish sets and location shoots, was one of the most expensive British films ever made. Mark Connelly examines the film, its production, the role of its stars David Hemmings, Vanessa Redgrave and John Gieldgud, and director Richardson's running feud with the press and the film's subsequent fame. He shows the film to be representative of its time, in its visual style and its use of 60s themes, to discuss how "Charge of the Light Brigade", while meticulously reconstructed from authentic sources, reveals the horror of war to a world struggling to come to terms with American involvement in Vietnam.