It was 1935. Only nineteen years old, Pat Jackson, who was assistant to the film’s co-director, Harry Watt, was waiting for the Night Mail with Watt and the cameraman Jonah Jones on the summit of Beattock. Over a thousand feet above sea level, the hill was the highest point on the West Coast Main Line. Pat – who would go on to direct the great wartime drama documentary Western Approaches – described the occasion in his memoirs: “It was cold, I remember, and we played ru

Last year I complained to Amazon that a book sold on its website had infringed my copyright. Amazon quickly adjudicated in my favour and de-listed the title. But their high-handed anonymity and avoidance of any dialogue that could not be reduced to ticking a box made the experience memorably unpleasant. They were like robots! Beyond their seriously impressive selling operation which has elevated getting stuff to being as easy as in the blink of an eye, they were an intimid

This week Brief Encounter celebrates its eightieth anniversary. A lot of the credit for its extraordinary longevity belongs to its producer Tony Havelock-Allan, although when I interviewed him back in 2000 my abiding memory was of a man who was far too modest to make any great claims for himself. Even when he did take credit for something, he managed to do so in a self-deprecating way. So the title, for example: We didn’t know what to call the film. Still Life  was obviously