The Metropolitan Police and the British Film Industry, 1919-1956: Public Relations, Collaboration and...

— —

Alex Rock (Derby QUAD, UK)

The Metropolitan Police and the British Film Industry, 1919-1956

Public Relations, Collaboration and Control

Alex Rock (Derby QUAD, UK)

$170

Hardback

Not in-store but you can order this
How long will it take?

Availability Information

We source books from suppliers in Australia and overseas. For books we don't currently have in stock, the time it takes to get them from our suppliers can vary widely - from a few days to a few months - so we check each book with each supplier to determine the expected time it will take to be supplied to us.

We then advise you accordingly. If the time taken to get any book is too long for you, you can let us know and we will cancel or adjust your order, and refund as required.

To find out the anticipated arrival time for specific items prior to ordering, please contact us by phone or email:

Phone +61 2 9264 3111, or 1800 4 BOOKS (1800 4 26657) if outside Sydney:
option 1 Abbey's Bookshop (Crime, History, Science, Kids & more) • info@abbeys.com.au
option 2 Language Book Centre (ESL & Foreign Languages) • language@abbeys.com.au
option 3 Galaxy Bookshop (Sci-fi, Fantasy, Romance, Graphic Novels) • sf@galaxybooks.com.au

QTY:

English

Zed Books Ltd
13 July 2023

Films, movies & cinema; Social & cultural history; Police procedures

This groundbreaking book investigates the murky relationship between the Metropolitan Police Press Bureau and the British film industry, shedding new light on police-media relations. Beginning with the culture of suppression during the interwar period, when retired police inspectors were threatened with loss of pension should they become involved with the film industry, the relationship shifted when a forgotten pioneer of public relations, Percy Fearnley, was appointed to the role of Metropolitan Police Public Information Officer in 1945. Fearnley was the first-ever journalist to take up this role and, through him, the Metropolitan Police embarked on a series of collaborations with the highest echelons of postwar British cinema, including J. Arthur Rank, Ealing Studios and Gainsborough Studios.

Using newly-declassified internal Metropolitan Police and Home Office correspondence, Alexander Charles Rock tells the story of the Metropolitan Police’s project to manipulate the British film industry into producing propaganda under the guise of mainstream entertainment cinema. In doing so he offers a radical re-reading of the context of production of a number of canonical British films such as The Blue Lamp (1950), I Believe In You (1952) and Street Corner (1953).

By: Alex Rock (Derby QUAD UK)
Imprint: Zed Books Ltd
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 216mm, Width: 138mm,
ISBN: 9781350295087
ISBN 10: 1350295086
Pages: 278
Publication Date: 13 July 2023
Audience: College/higher education , Primary
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Alexander Charles Rock is Director of Commercial and Operations at Derby Museums, UK. He has published on the history of independent cinema, policing London’s cinemas during World War I and local film censorship. His writing has featured in Post Script and Early Popular Visual Culture.

Reviews for The Metropolitan Police and the British Film Industry, 1919-1956: Public Relations, Collaboration and Control

Rock has produced a critical reading of the public relations activity of the Metropolitan Police and their film industry collaborations in the twentieth century, foreshadowing issues around press-police relations identified in the Leveson inquiry. His forensic archival work identifies the impact of the first journalist and non-policeman, Percy Fearnley, appointed as the Met’s Public Information Officer in 1945 and the contradictory tensions between committing to transparency and controlling the message. The book makes a strong contribution in developing a nuanced historical narrative that highlights the role of public relations in producing both propaganda and entertainment. -- Kate Fitch, School of Media Film & Journalism, Monash University, Australia