I thought you and other members of the Bristol Historical Association would be interested in this forthcoming event – two films that offer unique and detailed views of Bristol. I hope to see you there. Any help in promoting this is much appreciated.

What was Bristol like in 1964 and in 1985? A rare chance to see two films on the cinema screen. 26 October 2025 12.00-17.00

Before John Boorman went on to Hollywood fame he worked in BBC Bristol making documentaries and docudramas. In 1964, Boorman helped launch BBC 2 with a six-part series about Bristol. The Newcomers is a unique view of the city in the mid-1960s at a time of national and international social, cultural, political and economic change. It is centred around the lives of Alison Kennedy, who came to Bristol as a student, and Anthony Smith (ACH Smith), who came to work for the Bristol Post and then Western Daily Press.

They met by chance, married, and Bristol became their home and where they started their family. Many familiar faces from Bristol at the time feature, including playwright Tom Stoppard. The real star is the city of Bristol itself.

The series covers, among others, capital punishment, work and housing, docks labour, a dodgy pub, night life (where Stoppard dances the Hippy Hippy Shake at The Glen), NHS and the welfare state, homelessness, an evangelical church in St Paul’s, trying to make a living as an artist, crime and policing, what it means to live the good life in Bristol and cities generally. There’s fewer cars and a lot more smoking. There’s even a brief glimpse of Raghbir Singh, the first Sikh bus conductor to be employed by the Bristol Omnibus Company following the bus boycott in 1963.

Following the screening of the complete The Newcomers, we will show Money Into Light, where Boorman returns to Bristol 25 years on and revisits the places he worked in and filmed.

Book here: https://ti.to/film-noir-uk/johnboorman