Lloyd
master brummie
The first Travelling Post Office in Britain was a converted horsebox that left London for Birmingham on January 20, 1838.
January 10th 2004 marked the last journey of the Travelling Post Offices (TPOs), which sorted mail at the same time as carrying it across the country.
"This is the Night Mail crossing the border,
Bringing the cheque and the postal order,
Letters for the rich, letters for the poor,
The shop at the corner and the girl next door.
Pulling up Beattock, a steady climb:
The gradient's against her, but she's on time."
W H Auden's descriptive poem and a music score by Benjamin Britten was used as commentary to a 24 minute documentary film about the travelling post office, made in 1936.
"Night Mail (1936) was one of the most critically acclaimed films to be produced within the British documentary film movement. It was also among the most commercially successful, and remains the film most commonly identified with the movement. By 1936, film output at the GPO Film Unit was divided between the production of relatively routine films promoting Post Office services, and more ambitious ones experimenting with the use of sound, visual style, narrative and editing technique. Night Mail is firmly in the latter category.
The film was the product of collaborative, rather than individual authorship. Although it was primarily directed by Harry Watt, Basil Wright developed the script, and had overall production responsibility for the project. The resulting film was edited by Wright and Alberto Cavalcanti; John Grierson and Stuart Legg were also involved in its production. The music score was arranged by Benjamin Britten and Cavalcanti, and the rhyming verse used in the film - spoken by Pat Jackson - was written by W.H. Auden, who also acted as assistant director."
Here's a 3 1/2 minute excerpt, the bit with the poem.
[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gmq6mFAEqNQ"]YouTube - nightmail[/ame]
January 10th 2004 marked the last journey of the Travelling Post Offices (TPOs), which sorted mail at the same time as carrying it across the country.
"This is the Night Mail crossing the border,
Bringing the cheque and the postal order,
Letters for the rich, letters for the poor,
The shop at the corner and the girl next door.
Pulling up Beattock, a steady climb:
The gradient's against her, but she's on time."
W H Auden's descriptive poem and a music score by Benjamin Britten was used as commentary to a 24 minute documentary film about the travelling post office, made in 1936.
"Night Mail (1936) was one of the most critically acclaimed films to be produced within the British documentary film movement. It was also among the most commercially successful, and remains the film most commonly identified with the movement. By 1936, film output at the GPO Film Unit was divided between the production of relatively routine films promoting Post Office services, and more ambitious ones experimenting with the use of sound, visual style, narrative and editing technique. Night Mail is firmly in the latter category.
The film was the product of collaborative, rather than individual authorship. Although it was primarily directed by Harry Watt, Basil Wright developed the script, and had overall production responsibility for the project. The resulting film was edited by Wright and Alberto Cavalcanti; John Grierson and Stuart Legg were also involved in its production. The music score was arranged by Benjamin Britten and Cavalcanti, and the rhyming verse used in the film - spoken by Pat Jackson - was written by W.H. Auden, who also acted as assistant director."
Here's a 3 1/2 minute excerpt, the bit with the poem.
[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gmq6mFAEqNQ"]YouTube - nightmail[/ame]
