Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2021 September 4

= September 4 =

British short film
Hi all, I wonder if anyone can identify a British short film dating from c1979/1980. Plot: two men, one older, one younger, arrive at dusk at a workshop in an isolated woodland setting. They proceed to strip down a car engine in text-book fashion, using all the right tools and techniques, while chatting about random subjects. They then rebuild the engine in the same exemplary fashion. At the end they leave the workshop - it is bright morning, and they greet two more men who are just arriving, probably to do the same thing all over again.

I saw this film along with Apocalypse Now (UK release in December 1979) at Hull University, probably in early 1980, so it would date from around this time or earlier.

Both the actors were familiar faces at the time: I seem to remember that the older man was played by a TV policeman or detective, someone like Frank Windsor, John Thaw or Stratford Johns, but it doesn't appear to have been any of them. The younger man could have been Richard Beckinsale (d. 1979), but again I have drawn a blank. Any ideas? MinorProphet (talk) 21:08, 4 September 2021 (UTC)
 * , that's a fascinating question! If you haven't already tried it IMDB have an advanced search which lets me search for short films. Setting it to short films from the UK from 1976 to June 1980 gets me 388 films. That should be manageable to search manually. But keyword search is not turning up anything like what you describe. Blythwood (talk) 23:59, 5 September 2021 (UTC)

Thanks for the hint. I searched all the way through your list, but only the vague match I found was this: The Quality Connection (1977) 25 min | Short, Drama. Training film for car workers, showing the importance of quality control. Director: Bert Wilkins | Stars: Frank Windsor, George A. Cooper, Tony Adams, David Suchet

On the other hand I found The Waterloo Bridge Handicap (1978) a comedy with Leonard Rossiter about commuting into London: and Away from It All (1979), an increasingly desperate travelogue narrated by Nigel Farqhuar-Bennett.

Usefully, I updated Peter Harding (RAF officer, born 1940) who is mentioned in 12 Squadron Buccaneers (1978) which he commanded at the time. But no sign of any engine mechanics at all, although I searched as far back as 1973. MinorProphet (talk) 05:14, 6 September 2021 (UTC)