The London Nobody Knows - based on the book of the same name by Geoffrey Fletcher - is a 45 minute snapshot of the underbelly of late 1960s London and is a fascinating time capsule of the remnants of a bygone age, before the extensive redevelopment of the late 60s and 70s.
The actor James Mason guides us away from the London everybody knows (Trafalgar Square, Madame Tussauds, Oxford St, etc.), and instead takes us on a tour of the hidden gems on the capital: crumbling and deserted theatres, street markets, jellied eels and mash stalls, the last remaining gas lamp lighters, street escapologists, strange and now long-defunct industries (egg breaking plants?), ornate Victorian toilets, etc. It also shows a seedier and sadder side of London; poor souls who are doomed to occupy Salvation Army hostels and doorways for the rest of their days, without hope of breaking free of the shackles of poverty, alcoholism and mental illness. Some these images are heartbreaking.
While fascinating, informative and often funny, it leaves you lamenting a lost London (is Marks', the wonderful Jewish deli still there?), while at the same time making you glad that the drabness and the kind of grinding poverty seen here are consigned to the dustbins of history. This isn't available on DVD or video, so you're going to have to hope that BBC4 find it in one of their cupboards and reshow it. With the Beeb currently in the grip of Betjemania, this seems as good a time as any to broadcast it again.
The actor James Mason guides us away from the London everybody knows (Trafalgar Square, Madame Tussauds, Oxford St, etc.), and instead takes us on a tour of the hidden gems on the capital: crumbling and deserted theatres, street markets, jellied eels and mash stalls, the last remaining gas lamp lighters, street escapologists, strange and now long-defunct industries (egg breaking plants?), ornate Victorian toilets, etc. It also shows a seedier and sadder side of London; poor souls who are doomed to occupy Salvation Army hostels and doorways for the rest of their days, without hope of breaking free of the shackles of poverty, alcoholism and mental illness. Some these images are heartbreaking.
While fascinating, informative and often funny, it leaves you lamenting a lost London (is Marks', the wonderful Jewish deli still there?), while at the same time making you glad that the drabness and the kind of grinding poverty seen here are consigned to the dustbins of history. This isn't available on DVD or video, so you're going to have to hope that BBC4 find it in one of their cupboards and reshow it. With the Beeb currently in the grip of Betjemania, this seems as good a time as any to broadcast it again.