Runcorn – the view from Canada
In 1973 Canadian director Michel Régnier made the film British New Towns, about Runcorn and Basingstoke. Someone's uploaded the Runcorn film in 4 sections to YouTube and it's well worth a watch.
It's initially narrated by the town's planner, Arthur Ling, who'd worked for the London County Council after the war, as perhaps the most eminent of the communist faction in the department. Runcorn finally gave him the chance to plan on a huge scale (well, he had actually worked on the MARS plan for London, which had replanned the entire city in herringbone style, but that was never really a goer).
The New Town looks so gleaming and bright in this film, even though the camera footage and editing is jerky in an almost French New Wave manner. The camera operator plods through the town centre on foot and bounces about at the back of a bus, and the editor hacks the action shots about so quickly it makes the viewer slightly seasick.
The cry of cuckoos accompanies endless shots of the figure of eight road route, and it's relief in the third section when the film focusses on the new houses, and the people living in the town. At that point, with the adventure playgrounds, gardens and community centres, the film becomes an utterly glorious piece of social history. And then there's the deep Canadian voice-over which clashes so violently with the wing-specced, mulleted and polyester-clad residents and adds a strange voice of god quality to the film.
It's initially narrated by the town's planner, Arthur Ling, who'd worked for the London County Council after the war, as perhaps the most eminent of the communist faction in the department. Runcorn finally gave him the chance to plan on a huge scale (well, he had actually worked on the MARS plan for London, which had replanned the entire city in herringbone style, but that was never really a goer).
The New Town looks so gleaming and bright in this film, even though the camera footage and editing is jerky in an almost French New Wave manner. The camera operator plods through the town centre on foot and bounces about at the back of a bus, and the editor hacks the action shots about so quickly it makes the viewer slightly seasick.
The cry of cuckoos accompanies endless shots of the figure of eight road route, and it's relief in the third section when the film focusses on the new houses, and the people living in the town. At that point, with the adventure playgrounds, gardens and community centres, the film becomes an utterly glorious piece of social history. And then there's the deep Canadian voice-over which clashes so violently with the wing-specced, mulleted and polyester-clad residents and adds a strange voice of god quality to the film.
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