Summoned by Bells - Sir John Betjeman (1976) 1/6

John Betjeman explores his early life, from his Edwardian childhood up to his time at Oxford in the 1920s.
Written by Sir John Betjeman (1906-1984)
Production Company BBC Television
First transmitted 29/8/1976, 58 mins, colour

Producer Jonathan Stedall
Narrated by BETJEMAN, John
Photography: McGLASHAN, John
Additional Film Material: The National Film Archive, The Movietone Library
Rostrum Camera: RICHARDSON, Ivor
Graphic Design: CLAYTON, Peter
Film Editor: BRADY, Shelagh
Sound: BOULTER, Richard, RANN, Peter

[@MrTemugin10]

The way he gently tells a story is so soothing in todays world .

[@karenwood1364]

Yes! Gently! You are so right x i,m sSO enjoying this!

[@garymichael1950]

I've only been aware of Betjeman for about 2 years. Almost impossible to find any of his work here in the U.S.-Thanks for posting this!

[@Stereolabdream]

I pass by so many places where Betjamen spent so much time, and I always pause, and think of him and his poetry. His flat near Smithfields, Pentonville Road, St Pancras, Swains Lane, and of course West Hill...

[@itgetseasierlessitry]

I never knew my Granddads, so I adopted Sir John from the tellie.

[@maryboyer9355]

I loved his poetry, I lived in Slough for many years, got married , had 3 sons, happy happy day,s, Johns poem of Slou is of course famous

[@Mike8981]

How wonderful to find John in your front garden!

[@surjagain]

Thank you for uploading this.

[@pashasmum]

Lovely - thank you so much.

[@TheFloripano]

I saw this once on BBC2 and have been looking forward to reseeing it ever since.Thank you!

[@nlondonex]

Brilliant, thanks for posting!

[@ravenshireful]

many thnx for uploading :)

[@OUTBOUND184]

I cannot express my love for this enough. Surprised to be the first to comment. Thanks for the upload!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@alanmunro]

Stronger than Death wonderful sir John

[@villarule]

this is wonderful

[@joeoconnor5400]

AN Wilson's BBC documentary on Betjeman is worth viewing.

[@gerard1875]

a rendition of a better time. A safer World and perhaps happier people. Could it happen again? Who knows? perhaps, if enough people want it to happen.

[@Lytton333]

Money grubbing has ruined it all.

[@jonharrison9222]

Sentimentality and misty eyes achieve nothing. And do remember Betjeman’s toading after the landed and titled next time…

[@thadtuiol1717]

Just shows that WW1 was an incredible tragedy for Europe, and England in particular. I weep for what England has become in 2017... has any country fallen so far and so fast as England has?

[@kelman727]

Thad tuiol The present is never bad as people think because the past is never a rosy as people like to think. Weep away, but don’t allow your judgement to be clouded by nostalgia and sentimentality.

[@jasoncha1973facup]

Are you insane?

[@erebus79]

@@kelman727 You're a fool.

[@Krifko]

Amazing. Thanks you so much for uploading. :-)

[@acklam65]

superb !

[@transferdatathreewally24]

well picked, all the best Iain w in glasgow x

[@bensimps123]

at 4:47 do you think the owners of the house were looking out thinking "what's that man doing in the bushes in our garden?"

[@davidallen4712]

Poor old England what has happened.

[@pastorflaps6819]

David Allen it's so sad how much England has lost in just a few years

[@Lytton333]

Planners, politicians, social engineers, globalism, sterile modernism, restructuring' goons, lawyers (see politicians), mass immigration, managerialism, 'rationalisation' (sterilization), socialist catastophies in education and local government policy, capitalist monopolizing in commerce, and finally the cancer of political correctness to silence objections to all the former.

[@johnk.lindgren5940]

kiitos

[@Khayyam-vg9fw]

Betjeman would have been 10 or 15 years older than my late father. The world they were born into was harsher in some respects, gentler in others. Betjeman doesn't idealise or sentimentalise - he's quite prepared to face and acknowledge the less pleasant aspects of the world in which he grew up. This isn't sepia-tinted nostalgia.

[@OUTBOUND184]

Do you have any of his other programmes or interviews? They're so scarce!

[@frederickstart8500]

Not the Angel as implied but Elephant and Castle (late twenties?) a wonderful six road junction sadly destroyed by Hitler and post war planners.Fred Start

[@anthonyhowarth2177]

Whaypt is the lovely music???

[@richardlegg9709]

M

[@Oscartherescuedog]

Does anyone know if the estrangement between father and son was resolved before father died? I don’t know why the estrangement happened but I’ll hazard a guess it was because of the son not wanting to go into the family business but instead ‘go out on his own’

[@nickmiller76]

Obviously not, because Betjeman states in the poem that the obelisk in Highgate Cemetery "...points an accusing finger to the sky".

[@Oscartherescuedog]

@@nickmiller76 “Obviously not?” - I hadn’t picked up on that part of the poem but thanks for the comment!

[@AliothSenator]

Big Big Train anyone?

[@duxame3572]

Quite; although it strikes me as odd that you fail to mention the child labour depicted between those two cases of animal exploitation.