IWM films air nationally for first time on Talking Pictures TV

Still from “All Hands” © IWM UKY 249. A Second World War “Careless Talk” film, 1940 starring John Mills

Rarely seen and newly digitised IWM films to air nationally for the first time on Talking Pictures TV

Imperial War Museums has managed a Film Archive since its very beginnings in 1917, and houses the biggest archive of wartime film in the UK with over 23,000 hours of film. A new relationship with Talking Pictures TV, an independent film archive and television channel, will see over 40 films and documentaries from the IWM film collection shown on the channel from October 2019 into 2020.

Titles airing include The True Glory (1945), an Oscar-winning documentary directed by Carol Reed (The Third Man and Oliver!); Journey Together (1944), a documentary about cadets hoping to become pilots in the RAF, featuring Richard Attenborough; and The Next of Kin (1942), an Ealing Studios production demonstrating the perils of careless talk during wartime, with Jack Hawkins.

Jane Fish, IWM Film Curator, said: “We have an exceptional film collection at IWM, covering features and documentaries, public and service information films, unedited combat film, as well as official newsreels and amateur films. In this programme of films you’ll get to see actors from Richard Attenborough and Jack Hawkins to Peter Ustinov and a young Thora Hird, or see the work of notable directors such as Carol Reed and Humphrey Jennings. Many of the films we’re sharing have been newly digitised, and will be seen for the first time on national TV.”   

Sarah Cronin-Stanley, Managing Director of Talking Pictures TV, said: “Talking Pictures TV is the
perfect home for these gems from the IWM archives, and we are very proud to be both reuniting them
with audiences and bringing them to new generations for the first time.”

Talking Pictures TV airs 24 hours a day, showing some of the rarest and greatest gems from British film history. See programe schedule