Night Mail / West Highland

Long before he was co-opted by the makers of Four Weddings, W.H. Auden had already left his mark on cinema history with the rhythmic verses for this documentary master... more >

Long before he was co-opted by the makers of Four Weddings, W.H. Auden had already left his mark on cinema history with the rhythmic verses for this documentary masterpiece. Produced by John Grierson for the GPO Film Unit, it essentially depicts the passage of the mail from Euston to Edinburgh. But with Auden’s ingenious rhymes - which were tailored to fit the action - it becomes a spellbinding odyssey. A bonus is the BBC travelogue, Western Highland, which melds the style of the British Transport Film Unit with a score by the same Radiophonic Workshop that was responsible for the Dr Who theme. < less

Altogether now: ‘This is the night mail crossing the border / Bringing the cheque and the postal order…’. The Auden/Britten section of Night Mail is the part that has ... more >

Altogether now: ‘This is the night mail crossing the border / Bringing the cheque and the postal order…’. The Auden/Britten section of Night Mail is the part that has become iconic. Justly so, a palpable excitement builds as the train speeds up and the verse speeds up, but the newly-cleaned print for DVD shows there is far more to Grierson’s film than this. The incidental noises orchestrated by Cavalcanti, the shots of staff and trains at Crewe station that recall Bill Brandt photographs in their use of light and shade and the aerial shots of track and overhead lines that resemble something that Norman McLaren would later animate.

West Highland, John Gray’s elegy to the last days of steam on that line that follows 'The Road to the Isles' obviously took Night Mail as an inspiration. Made for BBC TV in 1960 it is subtitled ‘An impression of a day on the West Highland Railway’ and is a loosely impressionistic piece that surveys the Mallaig to Glasgow route, taking in its industries and the scenery along the way. Its two narrators, whispered rhythmical commentary in time to the sounds of the train, gently sung ballads and special effects from the BBC Radiophonic Workshop form an innovative narrative collage.

There are plenty of shots of steam and wheels, carriages and instruments for the enthusiast, and technical specifications form part of the commentary. There is also a certain sly humour at work. When we hear the guard announcing ‘Breakfast now being served’ the narrator quietly slips in with ‘railway porridge’.

Two classics of the lyrical documentary genre. Not just for railway enthusiasts.
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