John Betjeman: From Marble Arch To Edgware

[@anthonywalker9396]

Betjeman fully represents all that was good about the old style UK.He was articulate, well mannered and truly himself.

[@arnoldhemsley9317]

So true. This film can make you feel happy and sad at the same time.

[@genesbeans]

No man ever more deserved the epithet "National Treasure".

[@tango6nf477]

Some people scorn this man for his speech, manner and presentation. They have grown up in our modern society where people cannot express themselves without using the F word, have a very limited vocabulary despite years in school and where image is more important than content. Sir John was of an age where class (and I dont mean social class but personal class) was something admired and valued, today's concept of class is something quite different.

[@arnoldhemsley9317]

The people you speak of who "scorn this man" are not worth the time of day, nor worth mentioning, Tango.

[@woden20]

I do like Betjeman, his love of the church and architecture is very English. We have lost so much.

[@Vidley1866]

If he was lamenting in 1968, can't imagine what he'd think now 😱

[@benreadspoetry7958]

Its first and only broadcast was on Wednesday 31st January 1968. From the Radio Times: The poet John Betjeman goes on a journey from Marble Arch to Edgware reciting four specially written poems: 'How beautiful the London air,' 'Ho for the Kilburn High Road,' 'The sisters Progress and Destruction dwell' and 'One after one rise these empty consecutives'. Along the way he pauses at places of interest such as the hidden Marble Arch police station from where, since 1851, a hundred policemen could lie in wait ready to emerge at the first hint of trouble. After bemoaning the loss of the Metropolitan Theatre of Variety to make way for a car park and reminiscing about the 1920s air pageants from Hendon Aerodrome, Betjeman arrives "at Edgware, a Middlesex small town that was."

[@JamesTilsley1]

Betjeman for me represents that kind of warm reassuring nostalgia for a time I never knew, an England of steam trains and branch lines, the glow of parish churches at evensong and immaculately kept village greens, an idealised England of The 20th century. The past wasn't like that, but I find Betjeman's imagined past immeasurably comforting.

[@talstory]

old maids bicycling to Holy Communion through the morning mists..

[@kingy002]

That's is a good summation, James. Nostalgia for the past affects us all in different ways.

[@ancientmusketeer6564]

Sheer delight for the eyes and ears, bless you.

[@anthonywalker9396]

Arguably one of the greatest poets of any generation and a charming presenter.

[@stephenfreestone7956]

a terrible, pompous presenter

[@anthonywalker9396]

@@stephenfreestone7956 Yes, but only in your mind.

[@PixPix-zi6vi]

Yes indeed and this was a lament and God knows what he would think of Edgware and Edgware Road now that’s it’s gone foreign.

[@simonf8902]

And he’s a total charmer. ❤

[@bernie4268]

I was just reading his poem “Eunice” yesterday about a spinster and her Summer allotment in Kent. Marvellous. Imagine if Betjeman hadn’t drawn attention to the things he was seeing all about him.

[@SpiritmanProductions]

"Speed, greed, and worry." Same today as ever. And for what?

[@edwardhudson9851]

Ex Pat 59 yr old Sth Londoner watching this @ 22:20 -20-01-2023 in Edmonton Canada.Thank you for this,just thank you.Sir John and his work is very important to me :0)

[@sen5i]

I did that walk many times in the late 70's early 80's would go up west see a gig and it would end after the last train and back then there were no night busses so we'd walk home up the Edgeware road. I lived in Hendon so I'd bail at west Hendon and walk up station road

[@shanedavis9166]

Note the air-raid siren on the roof around 3.35.

[@senianns9522]

To be able to take that walk safely these days would be a 'marvel' in itself!

[@estellegold2009]

A cousin of my fathers used to play the piano in the Cumberland Hotel - into bhis 80's too.

[@skaboosh]

Superb, I love it.... Makes me feel calm and happy

[@heinkle1]

Thanks for posting this

[@johnbristow8099]

I wonder what Betjeman would have made of that ridiculous Mound which disfigured Marble Arch for a short time.

[@_wood]

wonderfull

[@laurenceskinnerton73]

Interesting.

[@robkeeleycomposer]

Can someone tell me the name/location of the vast building around 15’09 ? The scene at st Lawrence little Stanmore at the end is magical.

[@D-777i]

18:35 - Bet all that countryside is no more.

[@MichaelDembinski]

15:34 and on... liminal spaces explored, Burrough's Inter Zone

[@barnabyhughes5643]

Loved this. I think he would die if he saw how mush worse things have got since 68. Patches of green are sadly no more in and around Hendon, and the urban sprawl is once more on the prowl.... waiting to devour Hertfordshire and Surrey and possibly most of Kent and Essex.

[@ianburpitt5569]

Re affirms my life as a Londoner London has always been a dump and always will be

[@FranssensM]

In case people don’t recognise this. It’s what Britain was like. It is unrecognisable today.

[@williamwaynflete6336]

a) There's only one e in Edgware Road; b) JB's journey is all the way to Edgware; it's just a few yards to Edgware Road.

[@thedirectorschair1054]

Corrected. Thank you :)

[@andrewmurray5542]

I counted two Es in 'Edgware Road'.

[@elliotkey7961]

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[@liamgriffiths9853]

So thats where they keep all the coppers. I knew they must've been hiding somewhere.

[@davids8449]

Things have modernised in todays britain........we now have the secret service mingling with the crowd at speakers corner 🎥🎥🎥🎥🎥

[@arnoldhemsley9317]

It's a torture to think what he would make of wokery!

[@kingy002]

It is a made up idea that exists in your brain not mine and I live in the same world as you. There have always been differences of opinion, that's just life. You don't have to take everything so seriously.

[@davids8449]

I would pay good money not to go to London

[@paulfitzpatrick3090]

100 police? Must be Diane Abbott police being paid 80 pounds a year....

[@stephenfreestone7956]

Betjeman was bloody awful as a presenter.

[@anthonywalker9396]

Yes,but only in your mind!

[@stephenfreestone7956]

@@anthonywalker9396 eh? you another pathetic ex private schoolboy are you?

[@anthonywalker9396]

@@stephenfreestone7956 Yes, but only in your mind.

[@bernie4268]

I guess you can’t be it all. I’ll take the poet.

[@LaPtiteAnglaise]

Perhaps X-Factor is more your thing?

[@_wood]

wonderfull

[@elliotkey7961]

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