Immediately following the Blitz film in October 1940, Jennings travelled outside London to document the war’s effect on the middle and north of England; the film was released the following February. Coventry and other provincial cities have been hammered by bombs, the film tells us, but Hitler cannot destroy the country’s community spirit and the restorative powers of a cup of tea. At the end, bombers bent on revenge set off for Germany to the sound of Händel’s Hallelujah Chorus: an unusually belligerent war statement from Jennings, but a typical example of the film’s powerful counterpoint of images, music, and words.

Geoff Brown