Britain in a Day

[kernelbogey]

On Saturday 12 November 2011 an eclectic range of British people turned the camera on themselves, capturing the entertaining and mundane, the exciting and unusual, the poignant and the everyday. The result, Britain in a Day tells the fascinating story of the British public in their own words. Following on from the feature film Life in a Day, this 90-minute film directed by BAFTA winner Morgan Matthews offers an extraordinarily candid look at 21st century life across the UK, crafted from over 750 hours of footage, including 11,526 clips submitted to YouTube. The documentary offers remarkable insight into the lives, loves, fears and hopes of people living in Britain today. This captivating self-portrait of Britain forms part of the BBC's Cultural Olympiad. After Britain In A Day premieres on BBC Two an immersive online archive will be launched to showcase the full-length submissions the film is comprised of. The archive will be available online.

Broadcast on BBC2 on 12 June and available on iPlayer until 19 June

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p00kqz5p/Britain_in_a_Day/

Well worth watching.

[Serial_Apologist]

I agree KB

Not sure why, but I found some of it quite touching. Maybe it had something to do with the disconnectness of it all: dropping in, unprepared, takes one out of customary narrative mode, so that one was instantly focussed, not wondering as to whys and wherefores, absolved from making judgements.

I could though have done without the farmyard scenes, since I happened to be eating a rather late meal!

[kernelbogey]

I agree S_A - I too was often moved. I think it's the intimacy of personal footage taken by someone who (in most cases) was part of the story. People filmed were natural in a way they couldn't have been for an unknown cameraman. The day-long format also gave it a shape, and it was a fascinating picture of our country.