“Oh, What A Lovely Time!” – Documentary Premiere

OH, WHAT A LOVELY TIME!

Our movie highlights three key sites which have been influential nationally, and crucial centres for communities locally. The Music Culture and Heritage in the Royal Docks and the wider East End cannot be discussed without a mention of the Granada (East Ham), the Tate Institute (Silvertown) and Theatre Royal (Stratford East).

All three have played an important role in the history of this area in their own ways. Our film will focus on a series of key events that took place nearly simultaneously in the 1960s.

On 9th March 1963, the Beatles played their first official concert in London at the Granada Cinema, East Ham.

That very same year, Joan Littlewood ‘The Mother Of Modern Theatre’ and her world-renowned Theatre Workshop premiered Oh, What a Lovely War! at the Theatre Royal in Stratford, while the Tate Institute was once again flourishing and thriving as a social hub for the people of Silvertown and North Woolwich and their families, with games, sports, social events and music and dance nights keeping the local community entertained.

The film explores the three buildings and gives voice to the local community’s memories of these twentieth century cultural hotbeds.

The title Oh, What a Lovely Time! is a double tribute: on one hand, to Joan Littlewood; while her artistic achievements are widely recorded, less is known about what she did for the local community during her tenure at the Theatre at Stratford: stories which we aim to rescue for this project.

The movie “Oh, What a Lovely Time!” was commissioned as part of a wider History, Culture and Music project run by the Royal Docks History Club and The Royal Docks Activity Centre, with support from National Lottery Heritage Fund.

The movie has been written and produced by television and film professionals, journalists and history buffs Neil Cole and Marieta Evans – the same team behind the much-loved heritage documentary about the disappeared West Ham Stadium, which was premiered last year at an screening event at The Royal Docks Good Hotel, before touring the East End with further community screenings in the Royal Docks and also the Docklands Museum in Canary Wharf.

You can read more about Neil and Marieta’s heritage documentary work here.

Marieta Evans is a co-founder of the Royal Docks History Club project, and has run and hosted Heritage events for Thames Festival, Newham Council and The Royal Docks team.

For this film, Evans & Cole have teamed up with Charlie Cook as director of photography and editor – he has a wealth of prestigious credits including commercials, sport and music (BBC Introducing, Glastonbury)

Here are some of the contributors that we have had the great opportunity to work with, interview or film to appear on our movie, and the screening event will be an excellent opportunity to meet them and share stories, memories, and History tales.

Contributors List

Sovra Newman – Newham Super Choir Music Leader, Art Facilitator, Freelance Performer and a member of Parrabbola, a Community Arts organisation

Colin Grainger – Local journalist whose family had links to the Tate Institute

Valerie Noble – Valerie was one of the teenagers who went to see The Beatles at the East Ham Granada in March 1963

Linda Bryant– Theatre Wardrobe assistant who worked with Joan Littlewood and community theatre actress

Johnny Munday – Freelance Photographer and former Theatre Royal – Stratford East staff member who worked at the Theatre with Joan Littlewood during the Theatre Workshop years

David Newley – David was one of Joan Littlewood’s “nutters”, the local teenagers that she did outreach and community work with during the years she was in Stratford, effectively changing their lives

Stephen Pewsey – Newham Historian

Graham McGlone – Graham was born in Silvertown and grew up and worked in the Royal Docks, and is the author of the book “Sugarland: A policeman’s life in London’s docklands during the 1950s”

The Silvertown and North Woolwich British Legion Coffee Morning Ladies, many of whom are retired employees of Tate and Lile, also known as “Sugar girls”.

We would also like to thank participants, contributors, attendees and volunteers of previous Royal Docks History Club meetings and Royal Docks Learning and Activity Centre heritage projects and events who had already shared with us photos, files, memories and stories related to the Tate Institute, The Royal Docks, Stratford East and East Ham Granada for previous activities, some of which we have re-used to bring back again to life in this new project (among many of them, Stan Dyson, Robert Rogers, Dave Fennessy, David Conroy, Graham Hill, James Daems, Peter Stone, Colleen Russel, Glynis Webb, Kevin Russel, Ruth Tomey, Josephine Webb, Lorraine Patterson).