This film is part of Free

Cymru a Chynilo

Post Office savings: good for the family and good for Wales. That’s the message conveyed by narrator Hugh Griffith, the actor, advocating sensible thriftiness to all.

Government sponsored film 1947 7 mins

CC

From the collection of:

Logo for National Screen and Sound Archive of Wales

Overview

Be thrifty – give thoughtless spending short shrift. So advises Hugh Griffith, the actor, on behalf of the Post Office savings scheme. And get the youngsters saving too - good habits instilled early on reap rewards later in life. A Welsh nursery rhyme illustrates what is at stake: living thriftily a farmer may increase his flock; living profligately, he may lose the few sheep he started with.

This film was produced with both a Welsh and an English soundtrack although the nursery rhyme on which the subject is grounded is given in Welsh in both versions. Verity Films, the production company, was founded in 1940, the company’s initial aim being to make short, documentary, propaganda films for the government. The director, Cossar Turfery, was born in Edinburgh in 1897 and is possibly Joseph Cossar Oldmeadow Turfery who served in the Princess Louise’s (Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders) 1915-21. He was producer and/or scriptwriter for a number of documentaries for e.g. the construction company John Laing & Son Film Unit.

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