The Enthusiasts

Dates

1967 - 1967

Category

Cinemagazine - Government

History

The Enthusiasts was a series of six black and white films produced by the Central Office of Information (COI). Each issue focused on a personality of the day: Stuart Turner, David Attenborough, Caroline Loizos, Anthony Wedgwood Benn, Sandy Dunbar and Peter Parker. The format was similar in each case, with the subject introduced through background material and then interviewed in the studio, often by Michael Smee, the regular presenter of London Line (Colour series 2). The series was distributed to the United States, Canada and Australia but in slightly different forms. In Canada and the United States it was seen as The Enthusiasts. In Australia it made up every other issue of another COI series, London Line (Colour series 2). A contract with Gauntlet Productions for special coverage of material for The Enthusiasts No.8 indicates that the series was originally conceived as a longer one.

Provenance

The data for this series was compiled from the following sources: The COI catalogue cards and viewing copies of the films held at the BFI National Archive and production files (INF 6) held at The National Archives.

Films in this series can be obtained from:

Film Archive

Name

British Film Institute (BFI)

Email

For BFI National Archive enquiries: nonfictioncurators@bfi.org.uk For commercial/footage reuse enquiries: footage.films@bfi.org.uk

Web

http://collections-search.bfi.org.uk/web

Phone

020 7255 1444

Fax

020 7580 7503

Address

21 Stephen Street
London W1T 1LN

Notes

The BFI National Archive also preserves the original nitrate film copies of British Movietone News, British Paramount News, Empire News Bulletin, Gaumont British News, Gaumont Graphic, Gaumont Sound News and Universal News (the World War II years are covered by the Imperial War Museum).

Series held

View all series held by British Film Institute (BFI)