maturin

I just watched The Bells Go Down - Tommy Trinder and James Mason as firemen during the Blitz - an excellent film, but one I've confused in my mind with another on the same subject.
The one I'm thinking of is documentary-style, focussed on a half-dozen firemen at a sub-station (no pole that I can recall, but they had a darts board). I think there was a scene at a warehouse fire by the river, but that's such a typicall Blitz image.
Haven't seen it since I was a kid. Can anyone put me on the right track?
Thanks
Richard

penfold

The very wonderful Fires Were Started (1943) by Humphrey Jennings....just to add confusion, its title while in production was going to be The Bells Go Down.....

Bit of a Bay Window, what??

Steve Crook

They should both be seen - regularly.
Although The Bells Go Down is more light hearted in places, they both give a good idea of what it was like in the blitz. And what a debt of gratitude we owe to the firemen, volunteers and regulars

Steve

CaptainWaggett

Yes, there's a good bit in the Bells Go Down where some soldiers are jeering at the fire crew for having a safe job and 'Billy' Hartnell tells them they should be grateful that the firemen aren't being tested yet... Another good Blitz film is Unpublished Story which has a fireman confessing that he joined in order to have a cushy job but now he's seen the first bombs, he doesn't mind so much being in danger.

Mr Pastry Time

Hey! I did some stage work with Tommy in the 70's and all I remember was that he never stopped talking about Fulham Football Club and we never got home before 12 midnight as he would not get off stage. All this was at the Queens Theatre Sittingbourne.

I asked him about that film at that time (I was about 14) and he did say he worked hard in it, then it was back to football again. Nice guy and the two weeks I did with him were great fun.
Golden days.

winsfordtown

It was broadcast on Sky Arts a few months ago

Steve Crook

Well he was renowned as a devoted fan of Fulham, and he was even their chairman for a while.

Steve

Steve Crook

Of course The Bells Go Down also shows the strange way that the veterans of the Spanish Civil War (in the shape of Billy Hartnell) were treated and weren't allowed to join the army, despite being the only ones with experience of modern warfare or the current enemy

I see there's some bloke called Basil something-or-other in Unpublished Story. But they make up for that by having Valerie Hobson in there as well

Not one I've seen but it looks interesting

Steve

billy bentley

There was a book written by Henry Green titled "Caught" written about his WW2 London fireman experiences, not sure it was ever parlayed into a picture, but it's highly rated in some quarters.