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Old 24th Dec 2019, 5:53 pm   #335
Ted Kendall
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Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: Kington, Herefordshire, UK.
Posts: 3,657
Default Re: Technology related anachronisms on TV and in films etc.

I've just caught up with "Darkest Hour" - gripping stuff, and Gary Oldman deserves his Oscar. However, in the climatic scene, his speech in the Commons is heard live over the radio. This is of course anachronistic - broadcasting of Parliament only commenced in the 1970s. True, the same speech was have been delivered by Churchill (or Shelley?) over the BBC that night, but this is one more misconception of the kind which led to the Argo issue of Churchill's speeches being bathed in artificial reverberation.

Granted, in the film the dramatic licence works, but it should not be forgotten that the Commons chamber was sanctum sanctorum at this time - only one photograph of the house in session during the war has ever emerged, and that was clandestine.

Oh, and the shot of R.W.Wood asking the bloke on the knobs if all was well is accompanied by ghastly artificial whistles - at that time the OB engineer would not have been monitoring off-air, even for cue purposes.
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