National Heritage Lottery Funded Project
To mark sixty years since the end of the Second World War the National Lottery Fund supported various projects and events relating to this important era of UK life.
I was fortunate to be commissioned to film this project, recollections of life in wartime Blackpool.
The observations were fascinating, especially for me for, as a 'baby boomer' born shortly after the war ended, I was unaware of much of the wartime everyday life detail.
My parents, and their contemporaries, did not feel like reliving their memories so soon after the war ended, but the contributions from these interviewees, softened by the passing years are rich in warmth and humour, yet the anguish of those years is still fresh and tangible.
The only thing that wasn't rationed was entertainment
Having, myself been brought up on the Norfolk coast, closer to the action as it were, these memories from Blackpool residents have a totally different perspective.
Blackpool was a place of recreation and training, for UK troops along with contingents from every other allied force too.
Only two bombs fell on the town in the whole of the conflict, though the resulting deaths should not be minimised, Blackpool was, relatively, a fun place to be. As many said: "The only thing in the war that wasn't rationed was entertainment, and that's what Blackpool was all about."