This film is one of very many films made by the Leeds cine group, Mercury Movie Makers. The club, still going strong, had previously made a film of Princess Alexandra laying the foundation stone for the extension to St. Gemma’s Hospice 18 months earlier, A Royal Visit, also with the YFA. As a result of making this film the Hospice asked them to make a film of the opening of the extension. Not having the rights to the sound, Mercury Movie Makers made a deal with the BBC to swap sound for...

This film is one of very many films made by the Leeds cine group, Mercury Movie Makers. The club, still going strong, had previously made a film of Princess Alexandra laying the foundation stone for the extension to St. Gemma’s Hospice 18 months earlier, A Royal Visit, also with the YFA. As a result of making this film the Hospice asked them to make a film of the opening of the extension. Not having the rights to the sound, Mercury Movie Makers made a deal with the BBC to swap sound for film.



This film is one of very many films made by the Leeds cine group, Mercury Movie Makers. The club, still going strong, had previously made a film of Princess Alexandra laying the foundation stone for the extension to St. Gemma’s Hospice 18 months earlier, A Royal Visit, also with the YFA. As a result of making this film the Hospice asked them to make a film of the opening of the extension. Not having the rights to the sound, Mercury Movie Makers made a deal with the BBC to swap sound for film. Hence the sound on the film is slightly out of synchronisation (Alan Sidi, the sound expert with MMM, wasn’t involved in this production, and claims that had he been this wouldn’t have happened). 

The history of the MMM is quite fascinating. They were members of another local cine club who wanted to branch cine off and make 16 mm, and not just 8mm or super 8 film. They formed themselves into a club in 1959 as an offshoot of an adult education class run by Geoff Bolton; naming themselves after the Roman messenger of the gods. At first they met in a room above a pub in Guiseley, The Old Drop Inn, then they rented Sexton Lodge from the Church of St Paul in Esholt through one of their members, Ken Dixon, who was a Church committee member.  The cine group turned this into a cine showroom in return for upkeeping it and paying the Church a small rent towards the repair of their roof. When the TV soap Emmerdale started filming here they used these premises, bringing in a good income.  Here they would put on film shows for the other many cine clubs from across Yorkshire, and for the public, especially the elderly. In 2008 they moved to Rawdon Conservative Club when the Church upped the annual rent from £150 to £3,000.  The group made films as a collective, although individual members would also make their own personal films. Most of these are now collected together at the YFA.

This film captures the Prince and Princess of Wales quite early on in their marriage, which took place on 29th July the previous year.  Even in this short span of time they had already undertaken a number of public engagements together, although Princess Diana would still have been something of a novice at this opening.  Certainly the Princess looks a bit ill at ease in the formal settings, being much more relaxed when chatting with people in the wards. Still only 20, Diana was at the time carrying William, and The Times, the following day, reported that Princess Diana had revealed to one of the patients, 78 year old Edwin Wilson, for the first time, the date that her baby was due, 1st July, Diana’s 21st birthday. The film shows Diana’s caring side, for which she became renowned, evidenced by her holding hands with a bed-ridden patient – she was one of the first high profile figures to be photographed holding the hands with someone with HIV in April 1987. We also see some of the facial expressions which became an integral part of her persona, the eyes turned down and the smile. 

All hospices, then as now, run as independent charities, and as such are reliant upon donations; so it must have been something of a coup for the Catholic run Hospice to get the newly wed Royal couple to open the extension, when the couple would have been at the height of their popularity. 

As is well known, the marriage of Charles and Diana began to break down in the late 1980s. They were officially separated on 9 December 1992, and divorced on 28 August 1996. In 1991 Princess Diana returned to St Gemma’s to open the newly built Prout Conference Centre there.

However, the film is really about St Gemma's Hospice and the work they do. The original property, called ‘the Grange’, was the home of a local wine merchant.  In 1945 it was bought by Canon McShane, a local priest, becoming a centre for worship and also the Priest's residence. In 1949 the Sisters of the Cross and Passion, founded in 1840, acquired the property as a Convent and began a school which continued until the 1970's. When considering what to do instead of a school that might be of greater help for those in need, a Radio 4 programme about care of people with terminal illness persuaded them to set up a hospice. Out of this a 9-bed unit was opened on 12 April 1978. In 2000 there was another major refurbishment, and now St Gemma's is the largest hospice in Yorkshire and one of the largest in the UK.

Hospices have been around for some time, going back at least to the beginning of the nineteenth century. They were usually run by Catholic orders – as most still are – and provided some respite for the terminally ill.  The modern hospice movement was started in Cicely Saunders, who founded the first purpose built hospice, St Christopher’s, in 1967 in London. This was set up to run on modern lines of palliative care and help for family and friends.  Since this time many older hospices have been converted to run on similar lines with a shared set of aims and principles, putting an emphasis on care, compassion and respect for the dignity of each person as an individual.  Each hospice offers bereavement support, and expert pain and symptom relief.  St Gemma’s is no exception, specialising in the relief of cancer patients. Cicely Saunders was made a Dame in 1979 and died in 2005. 

References


Information on Mercury Movie Makers
St Gemma’s Hospice:


The National Hospice Charity

Cicely Saunders International