In This Episode Aidan McManus Talks About his Favourite 1950s Films Shot in and Around Ladbroke Grove.

Finishing off the 1950s Films in this episode, I had never heard of Seven Days to Noon. Nor Secret People. Nor Turn The Key Softly. Nor Sapphia. As a kid however, I had watched The Blue Lamp on many many occasions.

Seven Days To Noon

An English scientist runs away from a research center with an atomic bomb. In a letter sent to the British Prime Minister he threatens to blow up the center of London if the Government don't announce the end of any research in this field within a week. Special agents from Scotland Yard try to stop him, with help from the scientist's assistant future son-in-law to find and stop the mad man.

Secret People 1952

When her father is murdered, Maria (Valentina Cortese) moves to London with her young sister. They live with Anselmo (Charles Goldner), a family friend, and resume a normal life. After a few years, Maria and her sister, Nora (Audrey Hepburn), visit Paris with Anselmo. There, Maria meets an old love, Louis (Serge Reggiani), who has become a radical and currently plots to assassinate a world leader. Louis uses Maria to enter London and then convinces her to begrudgingly join their terrorist group.

 

Turn The Key Softly

Turn the Key Softly is a 1953 British drama film, directed by Jack Lee and starring Yvonne Mitchell, Joan Collins, Kathleen Harrison and Terence Morgan. Lee and producer Maurice Cowan also wrote the screenplay, based on the novel of the same name by John Brophy, dealing with the first 24 hours of freedom for three women released on probation from prison on the same morning.

Sapphire

Sapphire is a 1959 British crime drama. It focuses on racism in London toward immigrants from the West Indies and explores the "underlying insecurities and fears of ordinary people" that exist towards another race.[1]. The film was directed by Basil Dearden and stars Nigel Patrick, Earl Cameron and Yvonne Mitchell. It received the BAFTA Award for Best Film and screenwriter Janet Green won a 1960 Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for Best Foreign Film Screenplay.[2] It was considered a progressive movie for its time.

The Blue Lamp

The Blue Lamp is a 1950 British police drama, directed by Basil Dearden and starring Jack Warner as veteran PC Dixon, Jimmy Hanley as newcomer PC Mitchell, and Dirk Bogarde as hardened criminal Tom Riley. The title refers to the blue lamps that traditionally hung outside British police stations (and often still do). The film became the inspiration for the 1955–1976 TV series Dixon of Dock Green, where Jack Warner continued to play PC Dixon until he was 80 years old (even though Dixon's murder is the central plot of the original film).

There is a whole podcast episode dedicated to The Blue in Episode 072. Click here to listen on iTunes.