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A Kind of Loving – film scenes from inside the Mullard Blackburn Factory

This 1962 “kitchen sink” drama tells the stark tale a young draftsman Vic Brown (Alan Bates) who becomes involved with secretary Ingrid Rothwell (June Ritchie), who works at the same engineering firm situated in bleak northern England. All the scenes inside the factory were filmed on location at the Mullard’s Blackburn site. The film reveals a little more about the everyday working lives of the employees at Mullard and gives a fascinating snapshot of what life must have been like in the early 1960s in Britian.

mullard_blackburn_a_block_640px — ‘A’ Building where most of the action takes place in the film

mullard_blackburn_technical_drawing_department_640px — Wot! A technical drawing department with no computers! All drawings of tubes were done by hand. Alan Bates in the foreground, a young Leonard Rossiter behind him on the right and an even younger James Bolam directly behind him.

mullard_blackburn_technical_drawing_department2_640px — And here’s a view out of the technical drawing department window. You can see the other Mullard factory buildings and behind them cooling towers for the local power station.

mullard_blackburn_canteen_640px — The site canteen. June Ritchie is on the far left at the front and Alan Bates is near the middle of the frame drinking a mug of tea.

mullard_blackburn_g_block_640px — ‘G’ Building. Nice frame of the outside of the personnel department. You can actually see the sun. In pretty much every outside scene in the film it is either raining or foggy. Britain was a much glummer place in the 60s because of the high levels of pollution created by industry. Those tubes came at a price.

mullard_blackburn_home_time_640px — This has to be footage of the multitudes of real Mullard staff leaving the site to go home after a day’s work – notice how quite a few of them are looking directly at the camera. Actors James Bolam, Alan Bates, and possibly a few additional actors, are in there amongst the exodus of staff helping improve the realism.

mullard_blackburn_main_gate_640px — Main gate at night. ‘A’ Building is behind the glazed security building on the left of the frame.

The material reproduced from the film is soley for educational purposes and the author acknowledges Vic Films Productions as the copyright owners. You can find out more about the film on Alan Bates’ official website.

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A Kind of Loving – film scenes from inside the Mullard Blackburn Factory