This film is part of Free
Thud and Blunder in Knock off Time
Miners' safety training - marked by stylish animation and gallows humour.
Animation & Artists Moving Image 1964 2 mins
Overview
Gallows humour and stylish graphics are the hallmarks of this animated training film. Hapless (i.e. bone stupid) miners Thud and Blunder starred in a whole series of cartoons produced for the National Coal Board's 1963-4 in-colliery safety campaign. In this episode, it's our heroes' misuse of underground conveyor belts that brings them grief.
The cartoons were produced for the NCB by production company TV Cartoons, headed by the artistically respected Canadian animator George Dunning. This item is typical of the company’s Coal Board commissions: visually fluent, wordless, witty, basic and brief.
Related
Animation Goes to Work
Strangers
Public Information Filler 1973 1 mins
Who needs to talk to strangers when you're the only one who can understand the garbled mewling of your best buddy cat, Charley?
In the Kitchen
Animation & Artists Moving Image 1973 1 mins
If you can't stand the heat, Charley, get out of the kitchen and spread your message
Is This a Record?
Comedy 1973 22 mins
Pythons join Frank Muir, Connie Booth and Willie Rushton celebrating the Guinness Book of Records.
A Mug's Game, Or, How to Squash a Lemon Head
Animation & Artists Moving Image 1967 4 mins
Yo-yo, Pogo and Splat (guess which one's the lemon head?) feature in this innovative stop-motion railway safety film
The Princess and the Wonderful Weaver
Animation & Artists Moving Image 1968 12 mins
It’s the 60s – what better way to sell wool than animating a spurious fable about a mile-high naked princess?
G.E.C. 1
Animation & Artists Moving Image 1969 6 mins Location: Liverpool
An animated call to arms against factory closures on Merseyside, mixing Terry Gilliam-style stomping feet with agitprop angst.
New
Hovis: Boy on the Bike
Advert 1974 1 mins Location: Shaftesbury
A classic slice of British advertising history, though that hill's not as Northern as it looks...
Workforce of Parkgate Iron and Steel Co., Rotherham (1901)
Non-Fiction 1901 3 mins Silent Location: Rotherham
Edwardian workers react to the camera at one of Rotherham's major employers.
Workforce of Ormerod's Mill, Great Moor Street, Bolton (1900)
Non-Fiction 1900 1 mins Silent Location: Great Moor St, Bolton
Eager youngsters burst out of the gates of a Victorian cotton mill.
The Henley Regatta
Sport 1901 1 mins Silent Location: Henley-on-Thames
It's the first weekend of July 1901, and high society are on the Thames
Good Night
Advert 1898 1 mins Silent Location: St Pancras
An unusual farewell in this charming early film
Solar Eclipse
Non-Fiction 1900 1 mins
The magic of a real solar eclipse filmed by a famous magician