Job in a Million, A

Synopsis: Not many employers in the 1930s offered a secure job with a pension at age sixty, so there was always a queue of boys hoping to become messengers at the Post Office. Proud to be among the successful applicants John Truman reports for work on his first day - he is underheight and will have to grow a lot before he is 18, but he is given special exercises and his mother will be able to buy more milk for him now that he is earning 12s6d a week. The film follows John through the various stages of his two-year probationary training up to the final examination and prize day. This little-known drama documentary showing the Cockney lad at home with his mother as well as at his work, is an example of the breakthrough effected by the GPO Film Unit at a time when working-class people were usually presented as merely comic characters in British feature films.
Series: Britain in the Thirties. Vol 1
Language: English
Country: Great Britain
Medium: Video; Videocassette. VHS. col. 18 min.
Year of production: 1937
Availability: Sale
Notes: See: BRITAIN IN THE THIRTIES VOL 1 for availability on compilation videocassette.
Subjects: Business studies
Keywords: personnel recruitment; postal services; training

Name: Post Office Film & Video Library
Email: poes@edist.co.uk
Phone: 01795 426465
Fax: 01795 474871
Address: c/o Post Office Education Services
PO Box 145
Sittingbourne
Kent
ME10 1NH
Notes: Contact: Barry Wiles

This record has been viewed 308 times.

British Universities Film & Video Council