''Terminus'' is a 33-minute 1961 British Transport Film

documentary A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...

(filmed in August 1960) directed by

John Schlesinger John Richard Schlesinger ( ; 16 February 1926 – 25 July 2003) was an English film and stage director, and actor. He emerged in the early 1960s as a leading light of the British New Wave, before embarking on a successful career in Hollywood ...

which presents a '

fly-on-the-wall Fly on the wall is a style of documentary-making used in film and television production. The name derived from the idea that events are seen candidly, as a fly on a wall might see them. In the purest form of fly-on-the-wall documentary-making, ...

' look at an ordinary day at

Waterloo station Waterloo station (), also known as London Waterloo, is a major central London railway terminus on the National Rail network in the United Kingdom, in the Waterloo area of the London Borough of Lambeth. It is connected to a London Undergroun ...

in London. Along with most British Transport Films of the period, it was produced by

Edgar Anstey Edgar Anstey (16 February 1907 – 26 September 1987), was a leading British documentary filmmaker. Anstey was born in Watford, Hertfordshire, England in 1907, and was educated at Watford Grammar School for Boys and Birkbeck College. He ...

. It was nominated for a

BAFTA Film Award The British Academy Film Awards, more commonly known as the BAFTAs or BAFTA Awards, is an annual film award show hosted by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) to honour the best British and international contributions to f ...

for Best Documentary and, for a time, the

Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature The Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature Film is an award for documentary films. In 1941, the first awards for feature-length documentaries were bestowed as Academy Honorary Award, Special Awards to ''Kukan'' and ''Target for Tonight''. The ...

, before being disqualified after it was discovered that the film was first released before the eligibility period. Original music was by

Ron Grainer Ronald Erle Grainer (11 August 1922 – 21 February 1981) was an Australian composer who worked for most of his professional career in the United Kingdom. He is mostly remembered for his television and film score music, especially the theme mus ...

Content

The film covers both staff and passengers around the station. The trains are still pulled by

steam locomotive A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, Fuel oil, oil or, rarely, Wood fuel, wood) to heat ...

s. The most unusual section is the enquiry centre: some two dozen people taking telephone calls with questions about travel. The boat-train "Pretoria Castle" arrives and passengers are greeted by friends. A group of prisoners, handcuffed in pairs, are placed in a carriage whilst the general public are held back by police. The lost property office is filled with umbrellas. A coffin is placed in the guard van. A large group of Jamaicans board the train to

Southampton Southampton is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. It is located approximately southwest of London, west of Portsmouth, and southeast of Salisbury. Southampton had a population of 253, ...

. A young boy, Matthew Perry, is traumatised as the police take him to the station master's office where an announcement is made for his mother to collect him. The station announcer knits between public information announcement over the station tannoy. A businessman just misses his train and pays a visit to the crowded station buffet for a beer. Late at night girls drink

Kia-Ora Kia-Ora ( ) is a concentrated fruit soft drink brand, made by Atlantic Industries (a subsidiary of the Coca-Cola Company) and licensed for manufacturing in Ireland and up to 2019 in the UK by Coca-Cola Enterprises Ltd. The juice drink is sold ...

and sailors smoke cigarettes. Some travellers sleep on benches. A homeless bag-lady wanders aimlessly, checking rubbish bins for food.

Production

Many of the supposedly

reportage Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the "news of the day" and that informs society to at least some degree of accuracy. The word, a noun, applies to the journ ...

shots were staged. Schlesinger makes a cameo appearance as a passing, umbrella-carrying business man, and a tearful and apparently lost child, Matthew Perry, was temporarily abandoned deliberately by his mother Margaret Ashcroft, an actress relative of Schlesinger. Some other people appearing were also actors, including handcuffed convicts and a confused elderly woman.

References

External links

*
''Terminus''
at

Screenonline Screenonline is a website about the history of British film, television and social history as documented by film and television. The project has been developed by the British Film Institute The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and tele ...

1961 films 1961 short documentary films British short documentary films British Transport Films Films directed by John Schlesinger Films set in 1960 Films set in London Films scored by Ron Grainer 1960s English-language films 1960s British films English-language documentary films {{UK-documentary-film-stub