The Ealing Comedies

Any Man's Kingdom

A documentary showing aspects of long-disappeared rural life in Northumberland in 1953.

Borrowed Pasture

Richard Burton narrates this stunning film of two Polish soldiers struggling to make a living from a derelict farm in Carmarthenshire.

On Call to a Nation

Casting real doctors instead of actors, this film uses scripted scenarios and interviews to see the National Health Service through their eyes. The documentary also shows that there is still division among doctors as to whether the NHS was a sound idea in the first place.

How They Dug the Victoria Line

First transmitted in 1969, this documentary follows the construction of the world’s most advanced underground system. Macdonald Hastings narrates the story of one of the most complex tunnel engineering feats of its time. He reveals the isolation felt by the miners who spent six years burrowing deep beneath the streets of London, shows what they did beneath one of London's most famous department stores and explains why the ground at Tottenham Court Road had to be frozen during the hottest weeks of 1966. The result is a brave new world of transport with automated trains, two way mirrors, automatic fare collection and closed-circuit television, all choreographed by a computer programme played out by an updated version of a pianola located in a control room somewhere near Euston station.

Diamonds in the Sky

It all began on 25 August 1919. Four passengers left Hounslow Heath for Paris - the world's first regular, daily, international air service. Today 600 million people travel by air every year. How has this extraordinary growth in air travel changed our lives? As Civil Aviation celebrates its 60th year, this series of seven programs examines the impact of air travel on our world.