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Film Description
Compiled highlights from 1960s 'Cinemagazines' produced to promote British values abroad. This monthly series was distributed to cinemas in Asia, and have never before been shown in Britain. A fascinating snapshot of sixties Britain as well as how the British then wished to be perceived.
Roundabout was a short monthly Technicolour cinemagazine produced between 1962-74 for cinema distribution in South and South East Asia. Produced by the marvellously na... more >
Roundabout was a short monthly Technicolour cinemagazine produced between 1962-74 for cinema distribution in South and South East Asia. Produced by the marvellously named Central Office of Information (COI), the programmes were made essentially to promote British values abroad and each issue provides a light overview of a handful of topical stories worldwide.
A sprightly oriental theme opens the programmes, which jump straight into the subjects of choice. The first makes its way from the Sydney Opera House to the Glydebourne Opera, taking in an engineering college in Bhopal, a gearless motor scooter and Hendon Police College along the way. Other issues take in such diverse subjects as new housing in Singapore, oriental print typeface manufacture, a Welsh ribbon and tinsel factory, Britax safety belts and the Delhi Flower Show. Indeed, one of the most enjoyable parts of the programmes is the ingenuity of the links between items. Nothing is too tenuous; issue 36 from May 1965 deals with the return of Burmese Regalia from the UK to its country of origin, then moving on to vehicles in the Lord Mayor’s Show. The link is: ‘from a King’s ornate headdress to uncrowned kings of Speed, racing star Graham Hill…’. In a later issue the subject moves from Islamabad to Scotland in a hop: ‘and across the world in Scotland is a new town of a different sort, Cumbernauld’.
Of course, it’s the type of narration that lends itself to parody, and many of the developments featured and heralded as new then have either fallen into disrepair or have been long superseded, but there’s a liveliness and lack of cynicism about the presentations that makes the films appealing. It’s a sort of worldwide ‘Positive News’ for the sixties.
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