This is where I grew up. I even go back there from time to time. I thought this video was a spoof at first but think it might be a genuine advert for Bracknell from 1979 with some stuff added on later. I was 12 years old then and this video definitely brings back memories of the place. I lived in Easthampstead, which is featured briefly, and Point Royal, a bizarre block of flats in the middle of a field where I first learned to play cricket is there as well. It was Sean Connery's home in the movie "The Offence".
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8 comments:
It sure has a spoofy sound to it but I'll bet it was a nice bit of nostalgia for you. :)
Thank you for sharing that. I wonder what the story behind it is.
I thought it was funny that the narrator had a (rather bizarre) American accent. I wonder if I can get someone to do one for Pigsknuckle? ;)
Hilary - it was a strange mixture but definitely nostalgic. Some of the B&W shots where clearly taken before I was born though! The very last shot might be of Rosset Close. If it is, that's a couple of hundred yards from the house I grew up in and where my mum still lives! I can't be sure though. Point Royal is just a few more hundred yards away.
Radiobracknell - thanks for popping by! I spent a little time on your blog today catching up on the news in Bracknell. Seems to be as exciting a place as when I left over 20 years ago! ;)
I'll definitely be visiting your site in the future.
Diane - when I first watched it I thought it was a Monty Python sketch - that false American accent was just like some of their skits, but think it was serious. When the second half started I thought I was watching a Carry On movie with that music. It was hard not to think that Sid James, Hattie Jacques and Kenneth Williams would appear halfway through!
That was fun. Gosh... I agree about the narrator's accent. In the industrial part of the film I thought, "This does not look like any part of Great Britain that I remember visiting!"
I remember seeing an old film on YouTube about Pacific Ocean Park, a pre-Disney Amusement Park we used to go to as kids it was surreal, as I am sure this was for you.
Whoever the narrator was he was definitely a busy guy with Monty Python!
I can vouch for the buildings and industries shown in the movie, they were all there when I grew up in Bracknell - I even visited some of them on school trips (Clifford's Dairies comes to mind). I don't think many of them are there anymore. The second half of the movie includes some stuff from the 50s so can't vouch for that (e.g., the high street because it was pedestrianised decades ago and the 50s bingo hall). I'm 50/50 as to whether the 2nd half of the movie is a piss take but they're genuine shots of Bracknell. Apart from the motorway - no idea where that is. M3?
There's even a second or so during the first half of the film where you can see the house I grew up in and where my mum still lives!
Tom
Can imagine how nostalgic it must be to revisit the place. Places we leave behind never stay behind in our memories.
Anil,
Thanks for your comment and I think you're right. Of course I still have some attachment to the place with my mum still living there.
I have to say, you have an absolutely fascinating blog!
Tom
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