The first of two documentaries produced by A19 Film and Video Productions about Sunderland native Billy Bell who having amassed a collection of over two-thousand images of the city and is now taking them out into the community holding regular slide-show presentations. Billy talks about how his collection started and about how he got into holding slide shows. He also talks about his early life and visits the site of the now gone Lambton Engine Works, where he worked as a fitter, to reminisce...

The first of two documentaries produced by A19 Film and Video Productions about Sunderland native Billy Bell who having amassed a collection of over two-thousand images of the city and is now taking them out into the community holding regular slide-show presentations. Billy talks about how his collection started and about how he got into holding slide shows. He also talks about his early life and visits the site of the now gone Lambton Engine Works, where he worked as a fitter, to reminisce about his time there. Title: Billy Bell, 33 Gray Road, Hendon Inside a community hall Bill Bell and his wife sets up a slide-projector and screen for a presentation to The Burnhope Monday Guild, in voice-over Billy talks about his slide show presentations which are on the history of old Sunderland. To Hank William’s ‘Lets Turn Back the Years’ a montage of photographs featuring Billy and his family. Back in the community hall Billy and his wife discuss the focus of the projector and order of the photographs he will be showing. As they continue to discuss the presentation a montage of still images of them doing so played to ‘Lets Turn Back the Years’. At home seated in a comfortable chair Billy talks about how he got into producing slide shows of Sunderland. He talks about how he copies old photographs for his presentation changing to him now upstairs in a bedroom copying a photograph with a camera and stand made for him by his son. In the community hall the lights are turned out and Billy’s presentation begins. Several photographs used as part of Billy’s presentation appear on the screen, in voice-over he provides details of what is being shown both to the viewer as well as the watching audience. Back in his living room Billy tells funny stories about some of his earliest jobs as well as his upbringing with his father being out of work. Large shipyard cranes dominate the Sunderland skyline feature as Billy is talking. A selection of Billy’s slides set up on a lightbox, he picks a few and talks in detail about what they show and how he selects images for his presentations, some of the images appear on the screen. A still features an individual known locally as ‘hot potato man’, in voice-over Billy is again speaking to his audience in the community hall. More images follow with Billy speaking in the background is followed by an extended montage of images featuring both photographs as well as local advertisement. Back in his chair Billy talks about starting work at the National Coal Board in 1950 at the Lambton Engine Works. He jumps to his feet and pulls out a selection of photographs showing the works on the table beside the lightbox. He talks animatedly about what the photographs show. A clip from an edition of ‘Mining Review’ about the Lambton Engine Works changes to a modern diesel train pulling coal wagons over a bridge, in the background the Sunderland skyline. At what was once the Lambton Engine Works two tunnels dug into the rockface, a fence now blocks the entrance. Billy walks across what is now grassland pointing out the various shops and units that formed part of the engine works now gone. In the distance the Monkwearmouth Railway Bridge through the mist. Billy walks over to a barrier that overlooks the river Wear below, he points out the various railway and shunting line which once ran down to the river carrying coal to the Lambton drops. As he talks about the many ships and colliers that once lined the quayside, archival images featuring said ships on the Wear. Back at his presentation more images of ships on the Wear as well as the various shipyards along the riverbanks, again in voice-over Billy providing a history of what is being shown. His final image shows the empty river today. The image morphs to show the river today and a collier slowly heading upstream. A small fishing boat travels past changing to another collier passing under both the Wearmouth and Monkwearmouth Railway bridges heading downstream. A fishing trawler slowly makes it way upstream passing a ship on its slipway at the Pallion Shipyards. That final photograph of the Wear today changes to a blank screen and Billy’s presentation ends, the audience begin to applaud. Back at home Billy loads a slide projector carousel with images from the lightbox placing it in a carrycase. He turns off the lightbox, puts on his coat and carries two boxes of slides out of his house closing the door behind him. A montage of images featuring Billy, the production crew and of this video being produced are intercut into the closing credits. Title: Thanks to Billy Bell, The Burnhope Monday Guild, Edinburgh Video Training Company, Sue Kennedy, NEMTC, Northern Arts, NFTVA, Mike Brunning Credit: Camera Nick Oldham Sound Melanie Hamilton, Tommy Hair Research Mick Catmull Stills Gerry McCulloch Editing Nick Oldham Produced by Alan Carter, Mick Catmull Directed by Nick Oldham End title: An A19 Production