Night Mail Video Collection

	The GPO Film Units Presents... The 1936 classic 'Night Mail' has been released on Video via licence in several guises. Here it was packaged together with, Job in a Million, Granton Trawler, and Story of an Air Communique.

Night Mail DVD Collection

On 7th April 2005, The British Postal Museum & Archive released a collection of films on a single DVD:

"The limited edition DVD is nostalgically packaged in the style of a 1930s GPO parcel and features an exclusive set of 4 postcards, showing images of TPO ephemera."

	The Night Mail DVD arrived as a GPO parcel complete with 4 postcards, also with a GPO wrapper.

Night Mail

	N I G H T   M A I L   (1936 B/W) 24 minutes The classic 1936 documentary with music by Benjamin Britten and verse by WH Auden. Plus 3 bonus films from the Royal Mail Film Library. The Midnight Hours - Post Haste - Mail Rail
	The Midnight Hours (1987) Colour 13 minutes Post Haste (1988) Colour 19 minutes Mail Rail (1987) Colour 10 minutes

Notes from the cover:

Night Mail

1936 Black & White 24 minutes
Produced by John Grierson. Directed by Harry Watt and Basil Wright. Music by Benjamin Britten. Verse by WH Auden.

"The most celebrated documentary made by the General Post Office Film Unit. Night Mail shows the Postal Special's run from London to Scotland. It has all the qualities of classic British documentary: realism, perfect structure and an inspirational appeal."

The Midnight Hours

1987 Colour 13 minutes
"A documentary showing each phase of the extraordinary operation of collecting, sorting and distribution of the nation's mail by road, rail and air. The structure of the film updates Night Mail, some 50 years on."

Notes: 'The Midnight Hours' gained the nickname 'Night Mail 2' because many years ago it was screened on TV immediately after the original version, but separated by a commercial break. Hence the second part was labelled Night Mail 2. The Midnight Hours was written by Eve Hunter with original material from TVS.

Poste Haste

1988 Colour 19 minutes
"A film celebrating 150 years of the Travelling Post Office train service, which revolutionised the sorting and delivery of mail around Britain."

Mail Rail

1987 Colour 10 minutes
"This film was made to mark 60 years of the Royal Mail Underground Railway - Mail Rail. This unique railway sits 22 metres below the streets of London and at its peak carried more than one third of the capital's mail."

Night Mail II (1987)

'The Midnight Hours' includes some elements of the filming by TVS from Night Mail II which was made in the autumn of 1986 and completed in 1987.

Night Mail II was produced by TVS - TV South (formerly Southern Television) to celebrate 50 years since the original Night Mail was made (1936-1986). The film featured an updated poem by Blake Morrison, together with music by James Harpham. Bob Franklin was the director and Peter Williams was the producer.

Night Mail II maintained the momentum and pace of the original Night Mail with aerial shots of the North East TPO proudly sporting the new 'Royal Mail Letters' red and yellow livery with corporate typeface. Aptly, the loco was 47515 'Night Mail'. The carriage numbers were 80365, 80422, 80320, 80362, 80421, 80363 and brake 80868.

[Reference: Mail by Rail - Peter Johnson 1995 edition ISBN 0-7110-2385-9 ]

Links

See also Night Mail Trains.