This film is part of Rentals

Grantchester

Rupert Brooke's poem 'The Old Vicarage, Grantchester' is given the pop video treatment.

Documentary 1958 15 mins

Director: John R.F. Stewart

Overview

This lush, languorous visual accompaniment to Brooke's elegiac poem is interspersed with some startling images of local "strong men" - running frantically in skimpy swimwear - and the "mean and dirty" girls of Ditton, a neighbouring village. The poem is read by Gary Watson, who went on to become a well-known TV actor, appearing in The Avengers and The Three Musketeers in the 1960s. Director John Stewart was a prolific maker of short documentaries on topics ranging from Mersey ferry boats to coalmining.