One Is One

On release from jail, a man recalls the events leading up to his imprisonment.

Shot in and around the tenement blocks of London's Elephant and Castle, this short film documents a man's descent into despair and crime after the loss of his girlfriend. These austere buildings appear as imprisoning as the forbidding penitentiary from which the man is released at the film's start.

With financial support from the BFI Production Board, director Malcolm Johnson and cameraman Philip Méheux took several years to complete the film, working on it in between their professional day jobs. By the time it was completed, its star Hugh Armstrong had moved on to a career in feature films, perhaps his most notable creation being 'the man' in British horror classic Death Line.