Contains the only filmed record of John Gielgud performing the role of Hamlet in full costume and makeup, as he was actually doing onstage at the time that this short subject was filmed.
The eponymous hero of this docu-drama, Timothy 'Tim' James Jenkins, was one of the pupils in the Boys School of Varndeam Grammar School, Brighton, East Sussex, England, in 1956. In his late teens, he was part of the 'Mod' London subculture of fashion suits, pop and folk music, all night dancing, and scooters to return home in the late hours of night; and curiously, the pop art Mod symbol was based on the logo of the RAF airplanes when Tim was born. He grew up to be a grammar school teacher, and a good one it seems. And he died young, in December 2000, in a time it was plain to see that the «greed for money, or power, out of all decency» had won the war that followed WWII.
The film contains the dialogue between Hamlet (performed by John Gielgud) and The Gravedigger (performed by George Woodbridge) in William Shakespeare's "Hamlet", on stage then at the Haymarket Theatre, Haymarket, St. James's, London.
The film contains an excerpt from Ludwig van Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 23 in F Minor, known as "Appassionata", performed by Myra Hess, after we are shown the wall poster announcing it as "5th Birthday Concert - Tue Oct 10 1 o'clock", one of the many daily concerts the lady pianist gave at The National Gallery, London, beginning the very day WWII was declared.