Coo!

Series

Series Name: Mining Review 1st Year

Issue

Issue No.

Date Released

Jul 1948

Length of issue (in feet)

975

Stories in this Issue:

Story

Story No. within this Issue

4 / 5

Summary

NoS synopsis: This item focuses on one miner, Kent-based Tom Lancashire, and his bird Atomic Mealy, one of 15,000 competitors at the Pigeon Special event. Released in batches at ten-minute intervals, they are supposed to fly home as fast as possible, and the winner being the pigeon judged the fastest, based on the time, the distance and the resulting speed.
In addition to showing the race itself and the various mechanisms by which the pigeon speeds are calculated and registered, the item muses on the importance of the pigeon in wartime, when pigeon fanciers like Lancashire lent their birds to the government to use as couriers. They were particularly valuable at getting messages to and from Nazi-occupied continental Europe, and although many were inevitably lost, many others more than proved their worth.

Researcher Comments

According to bfi sources this story was filmed from the 29th to the 30th May 1948.

Keywords

Sport; Birds

Written sources

British Film Institute Databases
Viewing Copy - bfi screenonline
Hogenkamp, A. P., unpublished DPhil thesis pxxxvi.
BFI Screenonline synopsis ID No.1223602

Credits:

Production Co.: Documentary Technicians Alliance
Camera: James Ritchie
Director: Leslie Shepard
Sponsor: National Coal Board
Camera: R. Connor

This series is held by:

Film Archive

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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).
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Record Stats