Metro-Land (1973 film)

Metro-Land
Title card with the title "Metro-land with John Betjeman" in mock Edwardian script – yellow on a deep red background.
Title card of Metro-land
Written byJohn Betjeman
Narrated byJohn Betjeman
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Original languageEnglish
Production
ProducerEdward Mirzoeff
CinematographyJohn McGlashan
Running time50 minutes
Original release
NetworkBBC One
Release26 February 1973 (1973-02-26)
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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.