the bbc hired a producer called sydney newman, and his brief was contemporary drama straight after thednesday. and you had an hour and a quarter, hour and a half — unheard of now. and the ethos was to challenge the news. the news went before us. and we said, "we're going to be the real news. "we're going to say what's really happening." was there also stylistically, because so many of the dramas that and we found that our... we needed to be on the streets, you know, we wanted to be out there really filming life and putting stories in amongst it. and there was no way the bbc would allow us to do it. so when...there was a gap in the schedules, i got hold of nell dunn's book up thejunction, which is like little vignettes of working class life in battersea. kids up to mischief, the energy and mischief of youth. and i said, "we can do this." the book is very cinematic as it is, very quickly put six or seven stories together, link the characters. we had a script in a few days. we got a 16mm camera, shot in four days. we shot half the film. came back into the studio, and instead of visual mix

the bbc hired a producer called sydney newman, and his brief was contemporary drama straight after the." and we found that our... we needed to be on the streets, you know, we wanted to be out there really filming life and putting stories in amongst it. and there was no way the bbc would allow us to do it. so when...there was a gap in the schedules, i got hold of nell dunn's book up thejunction, which is like little vignettes of working class life in battersea. kids up to mischief, the energy and mischief of youth. and i said, "we can do this." the book is very cinematic as it is, very quickly put six or seven stories together, link the characters. we had a script in a few days. we got a 16mm camera, shot in four days. we shot half the film. came back into the studio, and instead of visual mixing, we knew there was a 16mm backup recording of what had gone on in the studio in case of emergencies. and against much complaining, we used the 16mm backup copy and cut it into the 16mm we'd shot on the streets and we'd made a film. what you focus on is the lives of three young women in south lo