Andrew Marr’s majestic dismissal of one of the most popular British films of the 1930s seems as good a place to start as any. It comes in the midst of his acclaimed BBC television series tracing The Making of Modern Britain (BBC, first aired 25 November 2009). Episode 5, which deals with the Depression of the 1930s and the run-up to the Second World War, is entitled ‘Little Britain’, and the verdict on Sing As We Go (1934) is strategically positioned to confirm the logic of this title. Most of the episode is concerned with ‘serious’ history, albeit anecdotally told. The Depression, the rise of Oswald Mosley, the political machinations of the National Government, the erosion of Empire and the rise of European dictatorships, these are its points of focus. Almost halfway through the episode, though, there is a cut from footage of mass uniformed rallies in Hitler’s Germany and Mussolini’s Italy, to the Kazoo band sequence from Humphrey Jennings’ Spare Time (1939). The narration makes clear the visual dissonance of this juxtaposition. ‘In Britain,’ declares Marr:

we had a different sense of national destiny. ‘Let’s look the other way, vote for dull politicians and keep our fingers crossed.’ And after all, there were other distractions. None bigger, none louder than Britain’s very own superstar of the Talkies – Gracie Fields.