the back catalogue of the Children's Film Foundation

Film One of the pleasures of being a child of the 80s was Friday Film Special special strand on BBC One presenting the back catalogue of the Children's Film Foundation. Since then they've gone largely unseen but now we have the excellent news that the BFI have snapped up the worldwide rights to the four hundred works, added them to the archive and are to begin dvd releases and screenings:

"The first DVD release, pencilled in for July 2012, will be The Children’s Film Foundation Collection: London Tales, containing three London-based adventures; The Salvage Gang (1958), Operation Third Form (1966) and Night Ferry (1976).

"To launch the DVD series, The Salvage Gang and Operation Third Form will be screened at BFI Southbank in July with Krish, director of The Salvage Gang and its leading actors Frazer Hines and Amanda Coxell, on hand to introduce the films."

A prospective future release has to be The Boy Who Turned Yellow, the final collaboration between Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. I'd love to see an extra with their uber-aficionado Martin Scorcese telling us what he makes of that.