Famous people

Edith Cavell, a British Nurse working in Belgium, was tried and shot by the German Army in 1915 for assisting the escape of British and allied soldiers. This provoked international condemnation. After the war ended, her body was brought back to her home county of Norfolk for burial on Life’s Green next to Norwich Cathedral. The solemn procession was filmed by George Swain for his father’s photographic company so it could be shown in a Norwich cinema. The film is unedited and still as filmed on the day.

Still active in his 90s, dramatist and socialist George Bernard Shaw is shown entertaining his neighbours and friends including Danny Kaye at his home in Ayot St Lawrence where he had lived since 1906. This film was made for audiences at small film shows, including mobile cinemas and village hall shows which were popular in the 1940s and 1950s until television became widespread.

George Formby, musical star, and his wife Beryl attend a Norfolk speedway event and wish the film makers good luck with their new cine magazine for small audiences (though the second issue was never released). The next story is about Iron Age treasure discovered in Norfolk; keep watching for the final musical sequence with the Harmony Pioneers.

A silent amateur film record of Sir Winston Churchill, by then in his 80s and declining in health, visiting the Cambridge college recently established in his name.

Local television provided a training ground for many presenters and entertainers who became national figures. Here, David Dimbleby reports on a Suffolk village for regional news magazine ‘About Anglia’. He was working as a journalist for Anglia Television during his Oxford University vacation.

Surreal brilliance from Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise as the Anglia Television interviewer Newman Sanders tries to get a straight answer from the comedians currently appearing in a show on Wellington Pier, Yarmouth.

American actor James Stewart had a distinguished military career as an Air Force pilot during the Second World War, and later in Vietnam. Anglia Television followed him as he returned to the East Anglian region for the veteran reunions and remembrances of 1975.

Allan Smethurst, The Singing Postman, performs some of his best known songs. This colour film was made to promote the Singing Postman to wider audiences, and his songs competed with The Beatles in the charts, but his core audience continued to be those who shared his home region and dialect.

“The Greatest” boxer Muhammad Ali charms local people as he autographs cans in a Norwich supermarket. This thoughtful and funny interviewee shares his life philosophy and explains why he is endorsing Ovaltine drink.

In this half hour BBC East television profile, the versatile entrepreneur Clive Sinclair, based in Cambridge, talks about his upbringing and career, and some of his inventions including his pocket calculator, pocket television, personal computer and proposed design for an electric car.