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Showing:
UK - BBC4 |Monday 5 June 9.00pm
This is the
remarkable story of how one man and his descendants from a small West
Yorkshire town became major players in the film-making business before
the first Hollywood studio opened in 1911.
James
Bamforth started out as a painter and decorator who used his artistic
and business skills to become the "King of the Lantern Slides"
and then moved into movies. As an early pioneer, he produced an
impressive number of slapstick and humorous films with very limited
facilities. His grandson, Derek, compares his artistic prowess to Rolf
Harris: "He could create backdrops very quickly."
The whole
community got involved in the business – the station master obligingly
allowed trains to arrive and depart repeatedly for various takes; and
the bank manager played his fictional counterpart in Bank Raid.
James's son,
Edwin, continued the family business, making a star out of music hall
comedian Reginald Switz in 50 Winky films. Only 24 out of the 125
Bamforth films survive today, offering a tantalising glimpse of this
early potential. At their peak, the Bamforth machine produced a film a
week. |
