Metro-Land | |
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Written by | John Betjeman |
Narrated by | John Betjeman |
Country of origin | United Kingdom |
Original language | English |
Production | |
Producer | Edward Mirzoeff |
Cinematography | John McGlashan |
Running time | 50 minutes |
Original release | |
Network | BBC One |
Release | 26 February 1973 |
Infobox instructions (only shown in preview) |
Metro-land is a BBC documentary film written and narrated by the Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom, Sir John Betjeman. The film was directed by Edward Mirzoeff, and first broadcast on 26 February 1973. The film celebrates suburban life in the area to the northwest of London that grew up in the early 20th century around the Metropolitan Railway (MR), later the Metropolitan line of the London Underground.
"Live in Metro-land" was a slogan coined by the MR for promotional purposes in about 1915 and used for about twenty years until shortly after the incorporation of the MR into the railways division of the London Passenger Transport Board in 1933. As Betjeman puts it at the beginning of Metro-land, it was a "Child of the First War, forgotten by the Second". Betjeman carries with him, as he travels, the pamphlet guide to Metro-land from the 1920s. The film was critically acclaimed and is fondly remembered. A DVD was released in 2006 to coincide with the centenary of Betjeman's birth.