This film is showing as part of ‘Britain at Bay: Peace & War 1937-1940’, a touring programme of films from the BFI National Archive. Visit http://www.independentcinemaoffice.or… for more information.

This early Dufaycolor documentary from Humphrey Jennings focuses on an August harvest in Sawston, Cambridgeshire. The old makes way for the new as the trusty old scythe bows down to the horse-drawn binder and plough. Hard work, flat caps and pipes abound as we see the workers downing midday ale for sustenance and taking a break at 5 to sit in the fields for a cup of tea brought to them by their wives. The ‘playground of the town’ and ‘workshop of the country’, alias the great British countryside, has never looked better.
For more information about Dufaycolor and ‘English Harvest’ see http://www.bftv.ac.uk/projects/dufayc…