ABSTRACT
In the early years of the Second World War the Ministry of Information commissioned the London-based film-production company, Strand Films, to make a short documentary about the need for town planning. Entitled New Towns for Old (1942) and having a script written by Dylan Thomas, the film’s action is framed around the dialogue between two bowler-hatted actors as they walk around the Northern steeltown of ‘Smokedale’ (in reality Sheffield). One, speaking with a ‘no-nonsense’ Yorkshire accent, dispenses the knowledge of the insider. He imparts practical insight into ‘how folk live here’, although he also stresses that ‘they live like this in most…other big towns’. Throughout the sixminute film, he extols the virtues of planned action to rebuild the industrial city, in particular arguing that towns should be planned so that residential and working areas are separated from one another.
