Ah yes I remember it well!

[bobins]

Around 1986, we screened a 16mm print of Peter Watkins' BBC film The War Game to our Sixth Form. Despite being twenty-years-on, they were shattered and sickened. In '65, when it was made, it was decided it was "unsuitable for public screening". Within a week, the BFI organised several screenings at the NFT in Waterloo - for MPs and BFI members. It was there that I first saw it. Rather like Schindler's List, many of the audience just sat there in stunned silence at the end of the film.

I've got a documentary here on the making of The War Game, it makes for fascinating viewing. The BBC were leant on quite heavily to shelve the screening of it. Watkins was so dischuffed with how he and his film had been handled that he left the country and was reluctant to talk about it.

[Paul-R]

This thread has prompted another memory for me.

Back in the 60s I would sometimes accompany my father when he made deliveries (picture frames and mirrors) to his customers. One of these customers lived in a tiny village called Cwm Penmachno at the end of a road up a valley off the A5 in north Wales. This customer had phone in his house that, when you picked up the handset, just had a recurring beep playing from it. This chap was getting on a bit (probably younger than me now!) and had asked for it to be removed and, when we next visited, the phone had gone.