by Tom Farman, 18 Jul 2013
This recently unearthed British Council documentary provides a snapshot of English cricket over 60 years ago. Narrated by Sir Ralph Richardson and the great BBC commentator John Arlott, it shows beautiful footage of Test cricket and the theatre surrounding it, as well as the more humble cricket on the village green. There is some splendid slow-motion footage of the Lord’s Test of 1948, featuring such legends of the game as Sir Don Bradman, Sir Len Hutton, Denis Compton and Keith Miller. The Pathe documentary footage is also very strong on the crowd, the sense of occasion of a Lord’s Test that remains every bit as much of a national event today as it did in Sir Don’s last Ashes tour of England.
Bradman’s Invincibles at Tilbury docks, 1948
