The Holiday, Britishness And British Film
The Holiday, Britishness and British FilmMatthew KerryA thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of therequirements of Nottingham Trent Universityfor the degree of Doctor of PhilosophySeptember 2009
This work is the intellectual property ofthe author. You may copy up to 5% of this work for private study, orpersonal, non-commercial research. Any re-use of the informationcontained within this document should be fully referenced, quoting theauthor, title, university, degree level and pagination. Queries or requestsfor any other use, or if a more substantial copy is required, should bedirected in the owner of the Intellectual Property Rights.I declare that this thesis is the result of all my own work. All sources are clearlyreferenced in the text and bibliography. I also declare that none of this work hasbeen submitted for publication, or as part of any other degree.Matthew Kerry September 2009.
AbstractThe representation of the supposed free space of the holiday by a medium ofmass entertainment offers a highly condensed image that demands analysis.In my thesis I question the ways in which the holiday film constructs a sense ofBritishness based around the idea of community that is shaped and pressured byforces at different historical moments. Modern capitalist society offers us astructure where the holiday is presented to us as the ultimate contrast from work.It is commodified, and we choose to enter into this ideology, take our break, andreturn to work, refreshed. The holiday also offers a particular type of freedom,which distinguishes it from other forms of leisure. It can be considered as more ofan ‘event’ than a weekend break from work, for instance.The emergence of the holiday as a form of mass entertainment for the workingclass appears to coincide with the birth of cinema in the same respect. Bystudying the holiday film I try to reveal what it tells us about British culture, thenation and British life, and how cinema audiences may have engaged with andresponded to these texts.As well as providing textual analysis of the films, I also address the holiday as aliminal, carnivalesque space (Inglis, 2000, Shields, 2002), and also consider howthe landscape is mediated through the tourist gaze (Urry, 2002, Bell and Lyall,2002). I explore the ways in which the cinematic representation of the holidayshifts in relation to changing social contexts – in new formations of leisure, classand landscape. I also consider how audiences might actively respond to thesefilms, and how these texts might construct an ideal working-class community preand post- World War II. Overall, I argue that representations of the traditionalBritish holiday in these films are mostly white, working-class and raucous, butthat these representations are not fixed, and are subject to change according tohistorical and social pressures.
AcknowledgementsFirst and foremost I would like to thank the AHRC who funded my period ofresearch. Without this assistance, my studies over the past 5 years would nothave been possible.Many thanks to my Director of Study, Vivien Chadder for her help with myapplication, and continued support. Thanks also to Dr. Steve Jones forreferences on national identity and landscape, and Gary Needham for invaluableadvice on how to structure a large piece of work, and for the loan of books.Immeasurable thanks also go to my internal examiner, Dr. Ben Taylor, and to myexternal examiners, Professor Sue Harper and Dr. Tracey Potts, for their helpfulguidance towards the completion of this thesis.Thanks to Professor Roger Bromley, Georgia Stone, Dr. Ruth Griffin, Dr. MartinO’Shaughnessy and Dr. Joanne Hollows for moral support and advice. Thanks toRachel Eden for last-minute technical support, and to Kate Booth of the GraduateSchool.Many thanks to my family: Mo Kerry for her interest and moral support, LucyKerry for grammatical advice and Jonathan Kerry for the loan of DVDs andbooks. Thanks also to dear friends James Nott and Dr. Maria Collingham.Many thanks also to the British Film Institute, particularly staff in SpecialCollections and Viewing Copies, and thank you to the Media Archive for CentralEngland for allowing me to use their viewing facilities. Thank you to ChichesterLibrary and to the Butlin’s Archive. Thank you to the library staff of NottinghamTrent University and their inter-library loans service.
ContentsIntroduction to Thesis1Section 1 – Theories and MethodologyChapter 1 – The Holiday and Theorising the HolidayChapter 2 – The British Holiday Film and Its Audience1364Section 2 - HistoriesChapter 3 – The Postcard Comes To Life: Early British Film and theSeaside89Chapter 4 – Holidays With Pay: The Working Holidays of the 1930s117Chapter 5 – Re-constructing the Family Holiday: The Holiday Campin Postwar British Film161Chapter 6 – From Austerity to Affluence: Holidays Abroad inPostwar British Film201Chapter 7 – Grim Nostalgia and the Traditional British Holiday inthe 1970s239Chapter 8 – Interrogating National Identity and the Holiday inRecent British Film279Conclusion of Thesis – Summarising Representations of NationalIdentity in the British Holiday Film303Indicative Filmography307Bibliography333
Introduction to ThesisThe ‘Idea’ of Britishness and the HolidayIn August and September of 2008, several variety acts who had arguablyreached their peak of popularity on stage and on television in the 1970s and ‘80s,joined forces for the Best of British Variety Tour 2008.1 These acts includedCannon and Ball, The Krankies, Jimmy Cricket and The Brotherhood of Man (toname a few) who between them represented England, Scotland, Northern Irelandand Wales, and performed in front of a huge backcloth of the Union Jack flag.The tour started in Skegness,2 moving on to Lowestoft, Southend, and BlackpoolOpera House – the latter venue being where stars such as George Formby hadentertained seaside audiences in the 1930s. After a date in Bournemouth, thetour then began to work its way inland, reaching the East Midland’s city ofNottingham on the 18th September, where I saw the show.The evening’s entertainment was heralded by the National Anthem, which mostof the white-skinned (and largely white-haired) audience stood up for, andconcluded with ‘Land of Hope and Glory’. These patriotic tunes were aligned witha show in which a 60-year old married woman (Janette Krankie/Janette Tough)played a naughty schoolboy who pretended to flash his ‘willy’ at a man who alsohappened to be her husband (Ian Krankie/Ian Tough). The second half of theshow was ushered in by the tune ‘Oh We Do Like To Be Beside The Seaside’.Although the tour had admittedly started by visiting some seaside resorts, theuse of the tune in land-locked Nottingham was seemingly left unquestioned bythe show’s organisers, and apparently accepted by the audience as yet anothertraditional tune, along with those used elsewhere in the show. Sticks of red, whiteand blue rock were for sale on the merchandise stall, as were mini Union Jack1A Best of British Variety Tour 2009 has been announced, so this may well become anannual event.2‘Recently voted Britain’s most traditional town – home of dodgems, donkeys, anddiscount variety acts’ (Moyle and Heffernan, 2008).1
flags, which, although meant for the audience to wave during the show, perhapswouldn’t have looked out of place on top of a seaside sandcastle.What these souvenirs and the use of the ‘seaside’ tune do have in common withthe Union flag backdrop, and the photograph of the bulldog which appears onevery other page of the souvenir programme however, is an ideologicalconstruction of Britishness, involving tradition, patriotism and nostalgia. Thevariety acts themselves could also be said to reinforce tradition and nostalgia,having roots in the type of seaside entertainment on offer in music halls and onpiers over a century ago. The apparent appropriateness of the ‘seaside’ tune withthis type of show – even when presented in Nottingham – possibly demonstratesa process of consent or acceptance by the audience of a certain idea ofBritishness, which may or may not be the same idea of Britishness that themulticultural or youthful people of Nottingham had on that evening beyond theconfines of the Royal Concert Hall.There were two dates of the Best of British Variety Tour at Blackpool, both ofwhich spanned the height-of-season bank holiday week of late August. It was thistown that was also chosen for the filming of the show for the ‘live’ DVD whichwas subsequently released. Blackpool is arguably the holiday resort whichperhaps best exemplifies this type of entertainment, and the fact that manyBritish people would recognise this marriage between Blackpool and varietywithout even questioning it, perhaps demonstrates a process of ‘unconscious’acceptance of some of the signifiers of tradition, patriotism and nostalgiasuggested above.The idea of the holiday and some of the cultural signifiers and motifs of theholiday, such as sticks of rock, and the song ‘Oh I Do Like To Be Beside TheSeaside’ appear to be largely ingrained and taken for granted, as is the idea thatthe holiday is an important and firmly established British institution, even thoughholidays only became widely available for most working-class British people after2
the Second World War. However, this thesis isn’t simply about the holiday, butrather about the relationship that British cinema has had with the holiday over thepast century, and how the representation of the holiday in these films mightideologically construct an idea of Britishness for the cinema audience.The Imagined Holiday and FilmJeffrey Hill considers that holidays are ‘imagined events’ (Hill, 2002: 86).Although referring to the work of Walton (2000), he puts it succinctly that holidays‘exist in the mind’ and are ‘capable of generating immense pleasures ofanticipation and remembrance’ (Hill, 2002: 86). Mass Observation highlights the‘holiday dream’ in its study of Bolton mill workers in the 1930s and, as Crosspoints out, ‘For many the holiday dream means a release from routine, a radicalchange from accustomed space, time, and activity’ (Cross, 1990: 42). If aSunday visit to church helps workers ‘through the rest of the week’, the holidayhas a ‘long-term function’, giving millworkers ‘something to look forward to’3 asmanifested in the weekly saving of money in holiday clubs (Cross, 1990: 40). AButlin’s souvenir brochure from 1939 demonstrates that the company similarlyunderstood the ‘before, during and after’ aspect of the holiday experience:The thought behind the issue of this souvenir is to provide a happy endingto a perfect holiday. First there was the thrill of holiday planning, then theholiday itself. Now comes the pleasure of looking back through thesepages, which it is hoped, will help you to live again the happy carefree daysyou spent with us (Read, 1986: 23).Pimlott (originally writing in 1947) observes the temporal nature of the holiday,encompassing its anticipation and reflection, saying ‘For many they are one ofthe principal objects of life – saved and planned for during the rest of the year,and enjoyed in retrospect when they are over’ (Pimlott, 1976: 238). This isemphasised further when he considers that ‘the adult often associates theseaside with memories of youth, of happiness, adventure, and romance, whichadd a sentimental value to things as they are’ (Pimlott, 1976: 254). Hassan points3My emphasis.3
out that ‘nostalgia has long played a part in the English seaside holiday’ (Hassan,2003: 9), and it is this element of nostalgia which perhaps frames Michael Palin’smemories of anticipating the family holiday from Sheffield to Sheringham – thepacking of suitcases, and the collection (by a Pickford’s van) of his family’sluggage to take it to the station separately before their taxi arrived:The excitement began three or four days before we left, for our buckets,spades, water-wings, and athlete’s foot powder had to be packed early, inheavy leather suitcases stamped with the magic letters PLA – Passenger’sLuggage in Advance (Palin, 1987: 7).In some respects the idea of the holiday as an ‘imagined event’ is what links theholiday to cinema. For the duration of a film, an audience temporarily ‘lives’ withinthe narrative, but a film can also be something they look forward to seeing, andsomething that can stay with an audience, as a memory, for a very long time.Kuhn argues that a common feature of 1930s cinemagoers’ accounts of theirvisits to the pictures is a pattern of ‘anticipation, transportation and elevation’ withaudience members looking forward to-, then being ‘carried away’ by the films,and subsequently hanging onto this feeling until their next visit (Kuhn, 2002: 229,230 and 233):This is a story of a journey from ‘real life’ to the pictures and back again,from outside the cinema to inside and then back to an outside world which,for a while at least, will be imbued with the magic encountered and leftbehind in the cinema: an outside which then becomes the starting place foranother journey, another cycle of return and (temporary) uplift andtransformation (Kuhn, 2002: 233).In her research, Kuhn interviews one cinemagoer who says a visit to the picturesleft him feeling ‘refreshed’ and ‘ready for work the next day’, whilst another saysthat the cinema was ‘as good as a dose of medicine’ (Kuhn, 2002: 229 and 230).Shafer gives a similar account of the cinema by using a letter from a man to FilmWeekly in December 1930 to highlight how important film actors and singerswere to working men and women, saying:4
After the show they go home rested and refreshed, better for the briefhours’ respite from their ordinary life; and the rest of the week will bebrightened by snatches of a song, a lilting melody, or a chuckle at aremembered wisecrack by one of the comedians (Shafer, 1997: 18).Higson, similarly highlights that a film such as Cecil Hepworth’s Tansy (1921)provided a ‘restorative’ function for its audience, and cites a Bioscope reviewwhich says that the ‘wonderful sense of peaceful calm’ of the film ‘has thesoothing effect of a delightful country holiday’ (Porter and Burton (eds.), 2001:55).There is evidence to suggest that early film advertisers saw the potential inaligning cinema entertainment with the idea of the holiday. A comic-stripadvertising feature entitled ‘A Reel Holiday’ printed in The Bioscope of 18th May1922 shows the benefits of enjoying an ‘imaginary’ holiday at the cinema, insteadof a real one at the seaside (Williams, 1993: 147). The first picture in the comicstrip shows a row of grim-faced travellers clutching luggage, with the caption‘Why travel in discomfort to Slackton-on-the-Mud?’ and is contrasted with animage of a cinema audience viewing an exotic scene bathed in sunshine, withthe caption ‘When all the world may be viewed at ease at the picture theatre’.Likewise, a shivering man at the water’s edge captioned ‘Why brave the rigoursof the English climate?’ is contrasted with a sunny image of on-screen bathingbelles: ‘While the sun always shines at the picture theatre’. Finally, aholidaymaker reaches into his pocket whilst a stern seaside landlady hands overa lengthy bill: ‘Why “do in” a years savings in a fortnight?’, which is shownagainst a happy queue of father, mother, daughter and son at a cinema boxoffice, with the caption: ‘When health, wealth and happiness are gained byregular attendance at the picture theatre!!’ (Williams, 1993: 147). This tongue-incheek account of visits to the cinema suggests that the viewing of exotic scenesand bathing belles offer some sort of restorative function for an audience, and acheaper alternative to the annual holiday.5
As I will suggest later, a film can arguably ‘transport’ an audience on animaginary journey through the process of its narrative, and this is perhaps doublyexpressed if the film is enjoyed during a period which also offers an ideologicalseparation from work. Some holiday resorts have acknowledged the potentialrelationship between the holiday and film as a form of seaside entertainment. AsBragg and Harris argue:The cinema as a form of entertainment was well suited to the seaside. Mostholidaymakers were in a mood to maximize the entertainment value of theirone or two weeks by the sea. In fact, most seaside landladies’ policy ofinsisting that guests be off the premises after breakfast and not return untilafter nine in the evening ensured, particularly on rainy days, a constantlevel of business for cinema owners (Bragg and Harris, 2000: 86).A 1914 guidebook for an excursion to Scarborough highlights the resort’s newGrand Picture House on Foreshore Road, as an ‘exceedingly useful’ place to visit‘especially if it happens to be a wet day’ (Walters, 1977: 25). Not only did thisnew attraction offer somewhere to see films and shelter from inclement weather,but the attraction of the cinema was also married to the spectacular attraction ofthe sea view. This is because, the Grand Picture House was: the only modern Open-air Picture Theatre in England, and where, duringthe Entertainment, all patrons [could] have one of the best views of the Bayand surrounding scenety (sic) in the district, at the same time deriving thebenefits of the bracing sea air (Walters, 1977: 25).The marriage between cinema and holiday attractions is perhaps bestdemonstrated, however, by the Dreamland Amusement Park in Margate. Theentrance to the park is in fact, an Art Deco cinema, attracting a film audience andalso serving ‘as an advertisement for the amusement park behind’ (Bragg andHarris, 2000: 91). The architects Leathart and Granger built the cinema in 1935,making use of marble and bronze in their designs for what Bragg and Harris calla ‘gateway for a whole fantasy world’ (Bragg and Harris, 2000: 86 – 91).Although I will return to this idea of the ‘imagined’ holiday (Hill, 2002: 86) and its6
marriage with cinema when looking at audiences, my primary concern in thisthesis is not with the exhibition of films at holiday resorts, but rather with Britishfilm’s representation of the holiday in a body of work which I refer to as ‘theholiday film’.The Holiday and British FilmAcademics have previously alluded to the holiday as a subject in British film, butthese films have never been analysed as a body of work in their own right.Holiday historian John K. Walton, for example, recognises the potentially comiclink between the seaside and film saying that it offers ‘ample scope for thecomedy of (cultural and sexual) embarrassment and the deflation of pretensionand pomposity’ but undermines his argument somewhat by demonstrating thatfilm is not his forte (Walton, 2000: 8). Walton acknowledges that the increasingvogue for package holidays is recognised in Carry On Abroad (1972), but makesa poorly researched statement, by saying that none of the Carry-Ons have aBritish seaside resort setting, therefore overlooking Carry On At YourConvenience (1971) and Carry On Girls (1973). He lists several films that havebeen constructed around the theme of the holiday, or set in holiday resorts, butthe comic link with the seaside is not further theorised (Walton, 2000: 8 – 11).Steve Allen (2008) similarly looks at the relationship between the seaside andfilm in his essay ‘British Cinema at the Seaside – the Limits of Liminality’ usingThe Punch and Judy Man (1962), Last Resort (2000) and I Want You (1998).Although he refers to typical characteristics of the seaside such as itsamusements and fish and chip shops, Allen doesn’t examine the holiday andrepresentations of Britishness, in detail. His concerns are primarily with thelandscape, and he admits that he has not ‘commented on the perceived ‘decline’of the British seaside resort, and how it might be mapped onto these alternativeengagements with liminality’ (Allen, 2008: 69). This could be considered anoversight, as the function of Stonehaven/Margate as a holiday destination in Last7
Resort, and the fact that the place is larg
Contents Introduction to Thesis 1 Section 1 – Theories and Methodology Chapter 1 – The Holiday and Theorising the Holiday 13 Chapter 2 – The British Holiday Film and Its Audience 64 Section 2 - Histories Chapter 3 – The Postcard Comes To Life: Early British Film and the Seaside 89 Chapter 4 – Holidays With Pay: The Working Holidays of the 1930s
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