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The Beginning of History: a Film*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Jacquetta Hawkes
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Extract

It was early in 1944 that the production of a film on British prehistory was agreed upon at the Ministry of Education. It may be that war conditions made it easier I to get this unorthodox project adopted—the attention of a possible opposition was distracted. Nevertheless it is remarkable that in the middle of a war two Government departments (the Ministry of Information is the producing agency) should undertake a work apparently so unpractical and so little urgent. It would have been interesting to be present in the Admiralty office in the then very strictly prohibited area of the Orkneys when the request came through for a permit for a film director to visit the island’s prehistoric monuments. He was permitted. If there is a racial generalization which has some truth, it is that the English are a tolerant people.

Type
Research Article
Information
Antiquity , Volume 20 , Issue 78 , June 1946 , pp. 78 - 82
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 1946

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References

The writer is much indebted to the director of the film, Mr Graham Wallace, who supplied full notes on his approach to the problems of this production, and his experiences while it was in progress. Dr Gerhard Bersu kindly prepared a note on the Little Woodbury reconstruction.