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Just Billingham No. 7

A cheery report on the successful Synthonia Club rugby team, ICI blood donors, and an irritable bus queue in Billingham.

Cinemagazine 1946 10 mins

From the collection of:

Logo for North East Film Archive

Overview

The jovial Just Billingham series for ICI workers settles into its amusing and informative post-war groove. This edition boasts gloriously lively images of sporty exercise and scrums as the Synthonia Club Rugby Section, a force in Durham County Rugby Union after World War Two, prepares for a winning match against Darlington RA. ‘Incidentally girls, this sort of thing isn’t bad for the waistline.’

Also featured, volunteer ICI workers take time out to donate a pint of blood soon after the peacetime launch of the National Blood Transfusion Service. And a topical transport tale stages a tongue-in-cheek visual skit on the very British art of complaining across the class divide as Billingham workers queue for a Stockton and Middlesbrough Corporation bus. Just Billingham was the earlier of two internal relations cinemagazine titles produced by ICI, the other called Panorama, a format first popularised by the Pathe Pictorial in 1918. Twenty seven issues were released from 1946 to 1960 covering all aspects of the company including sporting and social events.