I used to love to watch this film and other trade test films in the early 1970's on BBC2 when I was a kid, we got our first Philips colour TV in 1973, the film scared the living daylights out of me! LOL!
Used this for all the time I worked with electronics and ship systems. Still here!! Saw it when it was a test transmission for BBC2 colour transmission set ups in the 70's. I was only a boy then, when I was poorly and off school. Still useful today.
Thats my Dad - Keith Plummer at 11:01 He says a film crew came to his work to make the film and he was asked to act. They dubbed over his voice though!
ahh, happy days of my youth as a young eager tv technician, the colour tv cost as much as the minivan delivering it, the van now costs thousands and the tv just a few pounds, how times have changed.
I love this film as what happened to Henry actually happened to me inside a transmitter HV enclosure. Contractors had replaced a large capacitor and had put the cable to the earth switch on the wrong terminal. I went inside and dabbed around with the earthing wand as I had done dozens of times before and there was an almighty "bang". You have never seen anyone move so fast!
Saw this as a kid ........the lessons served me well! I think the actual kit in the film is linked to Fusion Power Research - developing ways of containing plasma. I think the machine was called ZETA back in the day.
Oh wow ZETA! "The Next girl As Hot as ZETA Will (When I meet her) Have to expect The pinch effect' en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZETA_(fusion_reactor) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinch_(plasma_physics)
"I suppose that Earth is alright" at 17:10 I remember quite clearly. That bit always made me jump. We always used to take the mickey out of one of the other apprentices , as he had the same work ethic as Henry. No sooner does he get back from time off visiting the dentist, that he had more time off visiting the doctor. Kevin, (our said apprentice), would always be having time off with one lame excuse or another. A pimple on his nose, his girlfriend's budgie had died.....you name it, he used it for more time off. Good times though, and a real pleasure to see this film again.
Like others comments here, saw this as a kid and have never forgotten SIDE!!! In fact, I'm going to get a T shirt with that on it! And also, electricity never misses a chance to complete a circuit! Should get some strange looks, and knowing looks from some of a certain age!!
My favourite film was 'The Shadow of Progress'. The film painted a grim outlook on man's destruction of our planet. Although we have cleaned up a lot of our practices, 50 years later and we are still doing too much damage to our environment. And we cannot agree on whether climate change is man made. Sad thought really.
I have a 16 mm print of that one, and had 35 mm prints of Divertimento and We’ve come a long way. I think I still have Long Way, but Divertimento was given to somebody. They wanted it to use at a screening about British Film music at the Barbican Cinema years ago and I told them to keep it.
Academic researchers always know better than you how to do the job. One disputed his sparky's plan to wait for the three-phase to be turned off because "We'll press on" with the circuit live. The resulting flash of ultraviolet seared both his retinas.
Is the actor who plays the responsible officer, the same one who played one of the ROC men in Papa One in the film (also by RHR) about the Warning and Monitoring system?
