Calling Blighty PG

A special screening of rare and unseen films of Sheffield and South Yorkshire men sending filmed messages home from India and Burma at the end of WW2. The films were screened at local cinemas in 1944-5 such as the Regent in Barkers Pool to wives and sweethearts back home as a way of increasing morale; a sort of one way Skype of their day, they are remarkable and moving documents. 

Professor Steve Hawley of Manchester Met University has traced some of the families of the men in the films and they have been invited to this unique screening, to meet other families of men of the “Forgotten Army”, fighting far from Sheffield where leave was impossible and conditions were harsh. Join us for this recreated screening and specially made film of the Calling Blighty Sheffield messages, where just as in 1944 the audience will mix tears with laughter seeing their men speak of their love for their families and thoughts of local Sheffield landmarks.

Thanks to Film Hub North, the BFI and the North West and Yorkshire Film Archives