Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
LONDON IN FILM THROUGH THE DECADES
As early as 1889 Wordsworth Donisthorpe made a primitive motion picture of Trafalgar Square,
and since then London has been featured in countless films. Below is a snapshot selection of
films culled from each decade since the 1920s.
Blackmail
(Alfred Hitchcock, 1929). The first
British talkie feature film, this thriller stars the
Czech actress Anny Ondra and has its
dramatic finale on the dome of the British
Museum.
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
(Alfred Werker, 1939). The Baker Street
detective has made countless screen
appearances, but Basil Rathbone remains
the most convincing incarnation. Here
Holmes and Watson (Nigel Bruce) are pitted
against Moriarty (George Zucco), out to steal
the Crown Jewels.
Passport to Pimlico
(Henry Cornelius, 1948).
The quintessential Ealing Comedy, in which
the inhabitants of Pimlico, discovering that
they are actually part of Burgundy, abolish
rationing and closing time. Full of all the
usual eccentrics, among them Margaret
Rutherford in particularly fine form as an
excitable history don.
The Ladykillers
(Alexander Mackendrick,
1955). Delightfully black comedy set
somewhere at the back of King's Cross (a
favourite location for filmmakers). Katie
Johnson plays the nice old lady getting the
better of Alec Guinness, Peter Sellers and
assorted other crooks.
Blow-Up
(Michelangelo Antonioni, 1966).
Swinging London and some less obvious
backgrounds (notably Maryon Wilson Park,
Charlton) feature in this metaphysical
mystery about a photographer (David
Hemmings) who may unwittingly have
recorded evidence of a murder.
Jubilee
(Derek Jarman, 1978). Jarman's
angry punk collage, in which Elizabeth I
finds herself transported to the urban
decay of late twentieth-century Deptford.
My Beautiful Laundrette
(Stephen
Frears, 1985). A surreal comedy of
Thatcher's London, offering the unlikely
combination of an entrepreneurial Asian
(Gordon Warnecke), his ex-National Front
boyfriend (Daniel Day-Lewis) and a
laundrette called Powders.
Naked
(Mike Leigh, 1993). David Thewlis
is brilliant as the disaffected and garrulous
misogynist who goes on a tour through
the underside of what he calls “the big
shitty” - life is anything but sweet in
Leigh's darkest but most substantial film.
Dirty Pretty Things
(Stephen Frears,
2002). Entertaining romantic thriller set in
London's asylum-seeking, multicultural
underbelly, shot through with plenty of
humour and lots of pace.
The King's Speech
(Tom Hooper, 2011).
Moving, funny account of King George VI's
battle to overcome his stammer, after
finding himself catapulted onto the throne
following the abdication of Edward VIII.
Twenty-first-century London
On the surface at least,
twenty-first-century London
has come a long way since the
bleak Thatcher years. Funded by money from the National Lottery and the
Millennium Commission, the face of the city has certainly changed for the better: the
city's national museums have been transformed into state-of-the-art visitor attractions,
and all of them are free; there are new pedestrian bridges over the Thames; and Tate
Modern towers like a beacon of optimism over the South Bank.
The creation of the
Greater London Assembly
(
GLA
), along with an American-style
Mayor of London, both elected by popular mandate, ended fourteen years without a
city council. The Labour government, which came to power on a wave of enthusiasm
1986
1991
2000
2005
GLC abolished leaving
London without a
central government
The first buildings
at Canary Wharf
completed
Establishment of
the Greater London
Authority (GLA)
July 7 a series of terrorist
bombs across the London
transport network leaves
56 dead
