Dan Smith

Series

Series Name

The Pacemakers

Issue

Issue No.

5

Date Released

1969

Completion

Sep 1969

Stories in this Issue:

1. 1Dan Smith

Story

Story No. within this Issue

1 / 1

Summary

COI synopsis: Dan Smith is the son of a miner from England’s North-East industrial belt. The chaos of industrial reorganisation, decline and depression which he saw there in the thirties lit a fire in his belly. A determination to change things, which forty years of battling in public, and in private, have done little to change. Today he is chairman of the clumsily titled Northern Economic Planning Council, one of the spearheads in the increasing regional sense in Britain, and he has wrought colossal change. The economic climate has changed, the future propects and ambitions have changed and the quality of life has changed. New industries have replaced coal mines, a policy of looking for science led growth has replaced the old survival pattern, and artist-designed new towns have replaced the slums. Of course it’s not due to Dan Smith, but his vision, his eloquence, his guile and his energy have been devoted to helping England’s northern belt step straight from the 19th into the 21st century. In this film we meet Dan Smith, who tells us what drives him, and what that drive has resulted in.

Keywords

Buildings and structures; Environment; Economics; Industry and manufacture; History and archaeology; Town and country planning

Written sources

COI Catalogue Cards [BFI National Archive]
Viewing Copy - BFI National Archive
COI Microfilm Roll 16 [BFI National Archive]   Used for synopsis

COI Reference

MI 1461/5

Credits:

Sponsor

Central Office of Information (COI)

Sponsor

Foreign & Commonwealth Office

Commentator

Michael Smee

This series is held by:

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)