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This quietly pioneering documentary gives a valuable and absorbing impression
of working-class life in the supposedly swinging mid-60s. The wedding of the
title is merely the pretext for a study of the close-knit Yorkshire mining
village of South Elmsall. The filmmakers aim to show that sweeping
generalisations can't be made. The film is structured to suggest a complex view
of the community it portrays (the wedding intercut with numerous other scenes);
many conversations, taped at length then intercut in snippets, register
contrasting opinions.
A Wedding on Saturday was one of a handful of 1964 Granada pieces
constituting the first British documentaries made on 2" videotape, an experiment
helmed by Norman Swallow and Denis Mitchell. Medium and message are intertwined. Coalmining had an unusually rich documentary heritage, suggested by the film
footage of miners underground. When, recorded by video, they emerge from their
pit, showering, eating and chatting in the canteen, it's as if they're emerging
from subterranean myth into daylight. This fits with the underlying theme:
long-term changes in working-class experiences and expectations. A handful of
sequences on film emphasise the very different texture of the rest. When classic
film techniques are borrowed by this new medium, the impact is different:
cutaways, like repeated cuts to a fruit machine, seem less pointed, more
conversational. Tempo is also affected. Events and conversations are
uninterrupted for potentially longer periods, giving the programme a fluid feel
it wouldn't have had if made on film.
Some sources list Mitchell as director, but (as with many 1960s programmes) no one is actually credited
with direction. Swallow as producer was creatively in charge. As a path-breaking
maker of BBC current affairs television in the 1950s and then a resourceful,
articulate Granada filmmaker, he probably had a deeper effect on factual
television than the more strikingly individualistic Mitchell did. But they
shared several tendencies; some became standard television practice, others
didn't. Both programme-makers immersed themselves in their subjects,
necessitating lengthy research before cameras rolled (Swallow spent several
weeks getting to know the people of the area and getting them used to his
presence). Once filming, both allowed for interplay between careful planning and
spontaneous happening (Swallow selected set-pieces in advance but had no script
or firm expectations). Finally, both felt free to edit creatively: Swallow later
stated that the film represented his view of the village as much as it
represented the village itself.
Patrick Russell
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1. The bride arrives (1:41)
