Going round and round in circles: 02 (London)

The first blog about Going round and round in circles (https://piccola-chinita.blogspot.com/2020/04/going-round-and-round-in-circles-london.html) reminds me of a phone conversation I once had with the secretary of one of our film directors on The Heart of the Dragon.

    The Heart of the Dragon was a 12-part Channel Four TV documentary series about China in the early 80s, made by a company specially set up for it, with each producer/director having their own company working on all sorts of other projects.

    Nigel’s company, Hawkshead Communications Limited, was a corporate training filmmaking company, specialising in communications.

    One day, a call came in from the Hawkshead secretary for Nigel.  He wasn’t in, so she said she’d like to leave a message for him.

Secretary:  Tell Nigel I can do it and you know what I mean…

Me:  Do what?  I don’t know what you mean.

Secretary:  No, those are the names of the training films:  “I can do it” and “You know what I mean”.

(London, 1983)

The brain works in wondrous ways: 11 (Recognition in a split second)

 

Old friend Simon from SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies) days chanced upon a copy of the coffee table book I’d worked on in the early 80s.  It was to go with The Heart of the Dragon, a 12-part Channel Four TV documentary series on China, launched in January 1984.  (Yes, 40 years ago already!!)

    I then stumbled across the series on YouTube, uploaded only a year ago by one of the three editors, Laurence Williamson.  (Thank you, Laurence!)

    The opening episode, Remembering, is a summary of the history of China pre- and post-1949.

    In the pre-1949 section, old documentary news footage of the civil war in China in the 30s and 40s was used as a backdrop to the narration.  

    Among the scenes of people fleeing, shots of wartime equipment (military trucks, e.g.) and soldiers (including non-Chinese ones), especially in Shanghai (I think), also flashed across the screen, but only for a few seconds before the narration moved on to another historical slot.

    After that episode was aired on Channel Four in late January 1984, we got a letter in the post from an old woman (white, British) who said she recognised her husband in one of those quick flash-by archive footage shots, asking if she could have a copy of that shot of him for keepsake.  

    I went through the footage and found the segment she was referring to.  It was a split second shot, and only featured him from the side, yet that lady recognised him immediately — and some 50 years back as well when he was a young man.  

    The brain is an amazing organ, indeed.

(London, 1984)