A filmed conversation with Newcastle Amateur Cinematographer Association member James Madden about his early life, experiences during World War Two, and later life as a school teacher in County Durham. Title: Du Mar Title: …to Touch the Heart – some thoughts from James Madden James begins by talking about his early life in ‘Durham County’ as he phrases it, as the whole area had a profound effect on his formative years. He illustrates this with an early photograph of a walk he made with his...

A filmed conversation with Newcastle Amateur Cinematographer Association member James Madden about his early life, experiences during World War Two, and later life as a school teacher in County Durham. Title: Du Mar Title: …to Touch the Heart – some thoughts from James Madden James begins by talking about his early life in ‘Durham County’ as he phrases it, as the whole area had a profound effect on his formative years. He illustrates this with an early photograph of a walk he made with his family just outside their village in the Team Valley. He reminisces about this trip as he points out himself and his relatives in the photo. The village where he grew up was a mining village and old photographs and some archive film accompany his description. He talks about the new house his family moved into and he compares their new house with the houses of some of his friends which were older and had fewer facilities. A photo of an old radio is followed by James’ description of building a ‘wireless’ set, from kit which could be bought in Newcastle. A photograph shows the rear view of the old radio showing components and wiring. A section of archive film shows trams in a busy street. A static photograph shows a department store advert for Binns on an old tram. This was where James secured a job, working in the hardware and toy department. He shows an old clockwork toy dog running on a tabletop, a souvenir from those early days. The department store also sold 9.5mm film projectors, an old advert shows an ‘Ace’ model, which required electricity which was absent from many homes in James’ village. In 1942 James was conscripted into the Royal Navy and had to report to the Devonport naval base in Plymouth where he joined HMS Impregnable. He describes his train journey to Plymouth. A photograph shows new naval recruits. He describes his experiences of the D-Day landings, and he uses a map to help locate the invasion points on the Normandy coastline. Some archive film shows some of the troops involved in the Normandy landings. James then talks about his other experiences in the Navy, along with some contemporary photographs. James is then stationed in Cairo as a teacher but had time to see many of the famous landmarks in that region. He shows a small gong he bought at an Egyptian bazaar. The County Durham education service brought him back from Egypt and gave him a job at school in Crookhill near Ryton. A photograph shows school pupils and staff. He was then moved to a new much larger school at Felling Heworth. James shows a photograph of himself working at the new school in the Sixties, with some children on a drama project which was filmed by ABC Television He then describes a trip organised by Leeds University to China and Mongolia via the Gobi Desert. Later he learned how to use video and he joined the Newcastle & District Amateur Cinematographers' Association and he sums up his approach to film making by going back to his professional principles he used as a teacher. His first principle is to entertain his audience, the second to enlighten, the third to stir the imagination and touch the heart. End Title: ….to Touch the Heart James Madden End Credit: Michael Gough ‘Research’ Walter Clark additional camera work End credit: Production Doug Collender End credit: DuMar 2012