This film is part of Free
A Holiday Call
Even in the depths of austerity, a well-earned holiday can be yours - if you invest in National Savings holiday clubs
Overview
Britain in 1946 was in dire need of a holiday. The long war was over but the glow of victory was dimming, and years of austerity lay ahead. Thankfully, as this cheery little film informs us, help was at hand in the shape of a National Savings holiday club. Workers could put aside their shillings and their pennies towards a well-earned break - to bustling Blackpool, say, or the more solitary pleasures of the English countryside.
It's an efficient and nicely-shot film, even if the matching of the images to the commentary sometimes feels a tad too literal: a shot of iron railings is superimposed over workers entering a factory as the narrator intones "A good many of us felt like prisoners in a cage". "Today," he continues, "we can look forward into a new light" - cue shot of train exiting a tunnel. This government film is a public record, preserved and presented by the BFI National Archive on behalf of The National Archives, home to more than 1,000 years of British history.
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