I watched this slightly off beat documentary many years ago. A nostalgic trip of a forgotten London.
Made in 1967, it was before my time. Much of this London was gone by the time I visited the city for the first time in the mid 1970s.
James Mason is slightly uncomfortable as a presenter. Who cares, it is his silky voice that we want. He is also a Yorkshireman, then again the documentary is based on a book by a Lancastrian.
Mason starts off in a decaying music Hall theatre that was once home to the likes of Marie Lloyd. Haunted by Dr Crippen's wife that he murdered.
Mason hoped that the theatre would be pulled down rather than it continue to rot. It eventually did get knocked down.
I hoped that such a cold hard hearted view would continue. Mason flip flops too often. Such as when he gazes at St Paul's Cathedral and then looks at all the post war reconstruction. Most of it was horrid in his opinion.
There were buskers which was seen to be a dying breed in the 1960s. Now it is a growth industry in modern London.
Same with the homeless. On the up since 1979. Although it was notable that the homeless and the underclass were always present in London. Mason talks to people living in a Salvation Army hostel, they were the elite of the poverty class.
The documentary is also whimsical. There is a sketch about egg breaking, there are the market traders with their patter and plenty of eels.
It is dated, it is about London that was disappearing. Mason acknowledges that some aspects of Victorian London was ghastly.
Made in 1967, it was before my time. Much of this London was gone by the time I visited the city for the first time in the mid 1970s.
James Mason is slightly uncomfortable as a presenter. Who cares, it is his silky voice that we want. He is also a Yorkshireman, then again the documentary is based on a book by a Lancastrian.
Mason starts off in a decaying music Hall theatre that was once home to the likes of Marie Lloyd. Haunted by Dr Crippen's wife that he murdered.
Mason hoped that the theatre would be pulled down rather than it continue to rot. It eventually did get knocked down.
I hoped that such a cold hard hearted view would continue. Mason flip flops too often. Such as when he gazes at St Paul's Cathedral and then looks at all the post war reconstruction. Most of it was horrid in his opinion.
There were buskers which was seen to be a dying breed in the 1960s. Now it is a growth industry in modern London.
Same with the homeless. On the up since 1979. Although it was notable that the homeless and the underclass were always present in London. Mason talks to people living in a Salvation Army hostel, they were the elite of the poverty class.
The documentary is also whimsical. There is a sketch about egg breaking, there are the market traders with their patter and plenty of eels.
It is dated, it is about London that was disappearing. Mason acknowledges that some aspects of Victorian London was ghastly.