Metro Land (TV film)

MetroLand is a BBC documentary film written and narrated by the then UK Poet Laureate Sir John Betjeman. It was directed by Edward Mirzoeff and first broadcast onFebruary 1973. The film celebrates suburban life in the area to the Northwest of London that grew up in the early 20th century around the Metropolitan Railway later the Metropolitan line of the Underground.

According to Mirzoeff, the programme was conceived in 1971 over lunch with Betjeman at Wheelers Restaurant in Soho. The two had recently collaborated on a BBC series called BirdsEye View, which offered an aerial vision of Britain. MetroLand was commissioned by Robin Scott, Controller of BBC Two, with the initial working title of The Joys of Urban Living. As completed, it was a series of vignettes of life in the suburbs of Metroland, drawn together by Betjemans commentary, partly in verse, whose text was published in 1978, and interwoven with blackandwhite film shot from a Metropolitan train in 1910. It was 49 minutes long.Betjemans first appearance in Metroland is over a pint of beer in a station buffet, reminiscent of a scene in the film Brief Encounter 1945. This sequence was filmed at Horsted Keynes, on the Bluebell Railway in Sussex. Other locations include ........

Source: Wikipedia