London’s Screen Archives enables Londoners see their past come alive on film. Managed by Film London, we are a unique network of historic film collections that cares for, collects and screens heritage film across the city. Together we preserve London’s rich film heritage from feature films to home movies, public information films, newsreels, and records of the capital’s many different industries.
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Latymer School Play: The Rivals
Dressed in period costumes, the pupils of a North London grammar school act out scenes from R. B. Sheridan's comedy of manners set in 1775 Bath.
From the collection of:

Overview
This short and snappy film records the annual play put on by the Latymer School's Dramatic Society. With high production values in set design and costumes, good lighting and 'live' intertitles, their 1948 version of Richard Brinsley Sheridan's "The Rivals" is a rare and entertaining treat. Of special note is that the young actress presenting the intertitles and playing Lucy the maid is Dame Eileen Atkins, who went on to make acting her life-long career.
This film is from the collection of Enfield Local Studies Library and Archive.
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