The Yorkshire Film Archive collects, preserves, and shows film made in, or about Yorkshire. Our collections are non-fiction, dating from the 1890s to the present day, and providing a rich and visually compelling record of all aspects of lives, cultures, landscape, industries, major events and everyday activities, many of which are available to watch, free of charge, on our website.
This film is part of Free
Yorkshire Tour No. 6
A chance to see Scarborough in the 1970s with its version of Disneyland, and actor Kenneth Cope gets to act up as Robinson Crusoe as Yorkshire apes more exotic surroundings.
From the collection of:
Overview
Co-presenters Kenneth Cope (aka Martin Hopkirk) and Charlotte Allen make a fine double act as they banter their way around Yorkshire. Among the highlights is Scarborough in 1972, still with its naval battles, zoo, Marineland and Safari Park, and an interview with its founder Don Robinson. Just along the coast is Whitby's annual regatta, which claims to be the oldest in the country.
Tyne Tees was one of the earlier independent television broadcasters, starting out in January 1959. At the time of this film it was allied with Yorkshire Television as part of Trident Television. After Randall and Hopkirk (deceased) – which run for 26 episodes between May 1968 and July 1969 – Kenneth Cope went on to have a highly successful career in television, while Charlotte Allen, after a brief career as a TV presenter, disappeared from view. Amazingly, many of the places visited in the programme are pretty much as they were, over forty years on – except Scarborough Zoo and Marineland are no more, and Fylingdales Early Warning station has lost the appropriately sinister looking domes.