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00:00In 1945, Britain had lived through six long years of war.
00:12And families and communities across the country had been left shattered.
00:21But then, on the 8th of May, newsreels recorded history in the making.
00:30We may allow ourselves a brief period of rejoicing.
00:35Today is Victory in Europe Day.
00:39Now, 75 years on, rarely seen home movies, some in glorious colour,
00:48and shown together for the first time, capture up close and personal footage of what it was really like on V-Day.
00:57Revealed here alongside unearthed interviews and eyewitness accounts.
01:03Everybody threw tables out. Everything that you couldn't get suddenly miraculously appeared.
01:09These are the once lost memories of a day when the nation came together like never before,
01:15told through the eyes of the people who were there.
01:18They were dancing, they were singing. It was terrific to me. Best day of my life.
01:24It was the people's day.
01:29And this is their story.
01:32Before the war, portable cameras were just becoming affordable.
01:50For the first time, ordinary people could capture their day-to-day lives on film.
01:55Creating home movies that give a remarkable glimpse of the humour and resilience that kept a nation going during the hardships of war.
02:08But after six long years of charting daily life amidst the bombing, rationing, loss and uncertainty,
02:18now their cameras could be used to capture the moment a nation had been longing for.
02:23On the 7th of May 1945, there was a sudden news flash.
02:30This is the BBC Home Service.
02:32We are interrupting programmes to make the following announcement.
02:36It is understood that in accordance with arrangements between the three great powers,
02:41an official announcement will be broadcast by the Prime Minister at 3 o'clock tomorrow, Tuesday afternoon, the 8th of May.
02:49In view of this fact, tomorrow, Tuesday, will be treated as victory in Europe day.
02:54The following morning, the sun would rise in Britain, not to the sound of aircraft overhead, or bombs falling.
03:07But, for the first time in six years, to the sound of bells ringing out.
03:13These uncovered recordings of people at the time and their recollections of the day reveal what an extraordinary day this was to wake up to.
03:29Betty Mulder was a teenager living in South Yorkshire.
03:33All seemed to happen just like building the shelters.
03:35I can't remember anybody organising it, but there was just going to be a party.
03:39Alice Edwards was a 24-year-old land girl from Oldham.
03:43I remember seeing all the bombers going over just before, you know, before VE Day.
03:50I couldn't believe me eyes. I'd never seen so many planes and things going over all at once.
03:56You suddenly realise something was on.
03:59For some people, London was the only place to be for the big day, even if it took a 400-mile train journey to get there.
04:08This was recorded by 45-year-old radio shop owner, Alec Lowe, who had travelled down on the sleeper train from Musselburgh in Scotland with his beloved 16-millimeter camera.
04:29While Musselburgh had a relatively quiet war, Alec would have been shocked to arrive to a London that was in pieces.
04:40This revealing footage shows a capital that still bore the very visible wounds of war.
04:46Two million homes had been damaged, and many lives had been left shattered.
04:55Alec captured images of German bomb damage just metres from St. Paul's Cathedral.
05:02London was emerging from perhaps its darkest chapter.
05:05But by the time he arrived outside Parliament, his wheels capture the gathering crowds.
05:23And Alec kept a close eye on the time.
05:25At midday, he climbed onto a bus shelter to get a better view of the growing crowds.
05:51And it wasn't just in London that the crowds gathered.
05:55There were similar scenes across Britain as people left their homes and came together in town squares.
06:04Twelve-year-old Nancy Biglin from Hull was swept away by the excitement of it all.
06:09We went into Queen's Gardens in Hull, and it was packed.
06:16Somebody was going around doing a conga.
06:18I think it was a chap in an RAF uniform, and he was all ready to jump into the fountain.
06:25They were just singing and dancing and, you know, throwing their hats in the air.
06:29Nancy wasn't the only one enjoying the festivities.
06:39In Victoria Square, exuberant scenes were captured in this local newsreel.
06:46It was shot by the proud Yorkshireman and ardent cameraman Ernest Simmonds.
06:57A movie buff on a grand scale, Ernest owned a playhouse in Beverley, just north of Hull.
07:04It was the only playhouse in the country to make its own newsreel, and on VE Day, Ernest had only good news to report.
07:11Dance and be happy is the message given.
07:15So they dance.
07:17In the Queen's Gardens, not long since an out-of-date dock, but now a glorious open space, a lung in the heart of the city.
07:24They dance in the Victoria Square, in the parks, in any place where they can give expression to their job.
07:30Hull is the most bombed provincial place, not only in Britain, but also in the Empire, with the exception of Malta.
07:46The communal bonds forged through trial and suffering are as strong as steel.
07:52Hull had been a target for the Luftwaffe, as it was a busy port.
07:56But, Nancy remembers how it felt for her hometown to be under constant attack.
08:01We were bombed right throughout.
08:04The bombing went on and on.
08:07So much so that we went to bed in the shelter.
08:10You didn't bother going upstairs to bed, because then you didn't have to get up during the night.
08:15I felt quite safe, as long as my dad was in the shelter.
08:19Instead of standing out at the door like you, still chatting to the chap next door.
08:26Ninety percent of the city had been damaged during the raids.
08:31Over a thousand people were killed, and a further three thousand injured.
08:37So to be able to take to the public parks and dance was especially poignant.
08:42A vast quantity of Ernest's films, around 33,000 feet, were removed from the playhouse and destroyed as a fire hazard.
09:08But, these amazing reels were one of the few that survived.
09:15140 miles down the coast, this once hidden film, in stunning colour, captures how the people of Gateshead celebrated.
09:25The man behind this camera was John McHugh.
09:37John was an off-duty policeman and a member of the local police photographic department, so he had rare access to colour film.
09:45This scene was very different before the war.
09:54Many of the men who had once worked locally at the busy docks were now soldiers.
09:59And like many communities on VE Day, the families of Gateshead still awaited the return of their fathers, brothers and sons.
10:08John's camera captures the cheering crowds of mainly women and children, hopeful faces of many families not yet reunited.
10:22And soon, the whole community, alongside the rest of the country, would come together for the moment they'd all longed for.
10:35The Declaration of Peace by Winston Churchill.
10:41It would mark the beginning of the biggest party Britain had ever seen.
10:45After six long years of war, VE Day had finally arrived, and a nation waited to hear from its Prime Minister, Winston Churchill.
11:05The government had scrapped original plans to announce VE Day with a three-minute all-clear signal, for fear the siren's blasting would bring back memories of the bombs.
11:19Instead, they would have a radio announcement at 3pm from number 10.
11:26Enormous crowds have gathered outside the House and all over the centre of London to hear the end of the war in Europe, officially announced by the Prime Minister.
11:35Amongst the throngs of people there that day was 17-year-old Pauline Harris, who'd just finished her final exams.
11:46When it was announced, my mother, who'd been in the Red Cross, said,
11:50I'm coming to London, so I couldn't stop her.
11:54She came up to London, and we had to walk to Buckingham Palace to see the royal family out on the balcony.
12:02And a 13-year-old Leslie Adams, who'd headed into the centre from Dalston, with a gang of friends.
12:10The boys in the street, we went to Chicago Square, and I think we were up there all day and well into the night.
12:19Across vast tannoys in Britain's cities, crowded around wireless radios in villages and homes across the land,
12:35a nation waited to hear, once and for all, that peace had finally arrived.
12:41In London, Scottish amateur filmmaker Alec Lowe also captured the crowds as they prepared to listen over loudspeakers across the city.
12:53In London, Scottish amateur filmmaker Alec Lowe, who'd been in the city of London,
13:23Hostilities will end officially at one minute after midnight tonight, Tuesday the 8th of
13:36May.
13:37We may allow ourselves a brief period of rejoicing.
13:44Today is Victory in Europe Day.
13:49Advance Britannia. Long live the cause of freedom. God save the King.
14:01Londoners had begun their non-stop two-day celebration.
14:06Now the real party could begin. The crowd went crazy, young and old. Joan King was an 18-year-old
14:16actress working near Trafalgar Square on the Strand.
14:19Oh, it was absolutely marvellous that the war had finished. All that misery and all that
14:26suffering. I was so pleased that the war had ended.
14:31For a 13-year-old Leslie Adams, who'd survived being dug out of his family's shelter after
14:38a V1 attack, there was a lot to celebrate.
14:41Everyone went by me. We were in Trafalgar Square and it was a party going on. There was lots
14:48of people and lots of… I remember lots of soldiers, Americans and English and sailors
14:52and girls and dancing and singing.
14:55And one of those American soldiers just happened to have his 16mm camera with him to capture
15:02all. These lost rails were unearthed after being packed away for 50 years in New York.
15:14Meet Sidney Sassoon, a lieutenant with a US Army signal call. This young lieutenant had unique
15:22access to precious colour film. He was part of the Army Pictorial Service. This was a unit that
15:31produced films for training and propaganda. They had made two successful wartime films in colour.
15:44And then for the rest of the war, all colour film made by Eastman Kodak was requisitioned
15:49for military use. And sometimes by Sidney for his own personal use.
15:58And now he was in the centre of London with his camera and colour film for perhaps the biggest
16:03story of his life. And around Sidney, in every direction he pointed his camera, everyone
16:12was in the party spirit.
16:31Here amongst the crowds, another camera captures a family arriving with their bulldog wearing a
16:36Union Jack across its back.
16:41They were part of a growing crowd. Young and old flooding the streets across Britain.
16:49As 24-year-old Alice Edwards remembers.
16:52Well, I mean, words just can't express what people thought. I remember going mad, that's all.
17:02Celebrated, yeah, and everybody was kissing one another and, you know, crying I think.
17:08I think I cried on VE Day, because it was all over and done with. Yeah.
17:15People were just going mad with excitement. Yeah, it was marvellous. Yeah. Yeah.
17:23People were just going mad at me.
17:27Across Britain, Churchill's speech marked the moment ordinary people could finally cast
17:33away the worry, fear and loss, and look to the future.
17:39Recently discovered reels shot by a local dentist capture villagers near Sheffield
17:44who were ready to do just that.
17:48The party had well and truly begun in a South Yorkshire village that had done more than its
17:53fair share for the war effort.
17:57It was home to a factory that had produced thousands of Churchill tanks.
18:05Many of the local men worked in coal mining, a reserved occupation, while many women worked
18:11in the munitions factories of Sheffield.
18:15The Chapel Town community felt the bitter cost of war.
18:19Forty-eight of their villagers would not return home.
18:23A young boy in Yorkshire at the time, Alan Barnett, remembers the day with mixed emotions.
18:30I suddenly realised that I wasn't going to see Uncle Dave again.
18:33I wasn't going to see cousin Billy again, and he was only 18 when he died.
18:36So it did affect us, yeah. The war really came home then.
18:40But alongside the sadness, the lost reels record relief and jubilation as teenager Betty remembers.
18:50Everybody brought out trestle tables, or any old tables that they had, and things that
18:55people made their own decorations.
18:59And we just had a marvellous time. And then somebody dragged a piano out and played, because they did.
19:04Nearly everybody, parlours had pianos there, people could play. And everybody danced.
19:09And it was glorious. It was gorgeous.
19:12For schoolboy Alan Barnett from Sheffield, who had enjoyed the spoils of war collecting shrapnel,
19:18now a street party meant treats for all the children.
19:24All the celebrations that we had here in Sheffield, and we were bunting across the street,
19:29and everybody threw tables out, and they had ice cream.
19:33A big party in the yard in the street.
19:36This film was recorded by Willie Thorne, a much-loved figure in the village.
19:44Dentist by day, and filmmaker in his spare time, he recorded how the war brought this community even closer together.
19:55Alongside the footage of VE Day, when it was uncovered, were several reels which captured the changing role of women in the village.
20:03He caught rare footage of the anti-aircraft gun sight on the edge of the village,
20:10which was then taken over by the Women's Auxiliary Territorial Service.
20:15Gwendolyn Saunders was one of thousands of women to volunteer during the war.
20:22When it came to the time when we had our first bad air raid actually on the drones,
20:28the only people actually on duty and under fire was the entire WAF watch.
20:37We thought, gosh, why are we getting two-thirds of pay?
20:42But war changed everything.
20:45And now Willie rolled his camera as men, women and children marked the beginning of a new chapter for the village,
21:08with similar scenes across Britain.
21:16This is amateur cine film of a village called Kings Langley.
21:2335-year-old Lewis Coles was the son of a Hertfordshire farmer,
21:27who captured images of their village near London after the war was over in stunning colour.
21:39Lewis was an employee at Kodak.
21:41He took his passion for filming home with him.
21:44Behind the normality of everyday life, this close-knit village, like many across Britain, had been shattered by war.
21:58Kings Langley was only 20 miles from London,
22:01so its villagers had lived under the constant threat of bombs and had lost 31 of their men to the war.
22:08Now Kings Langley could celebrate victory in their own unique way.
22:20Across Britain, the nation waited to hear from their monarch, George VI,
22:25and our amateur filmmakers would be there to capture scenes that would go down in history.
22:32In 1935, four years before war broke out, Kodak released its new colour stock, Kodachrome, revolutionising the world of amateur filmmaking.
22:56But once Britain was at war, colour film was rationed and requisitioned for the war effort.
23:03It became an incredibly rare luxury for Britain's budding filmmakers.
23:08Unless you had an inside connection like garage owner Alec Lowe,
23:12who also ran a radio shop business in Musselburgh,
23:15so was able to get hold of contraband colour footage.
23:19At 5pm, on the 8th of May 1945, in the heart of London,
23:30amateur filmmaker Alec and his camera were pointing towards Buckingham Palace at an extraordinary moment.
23:39When Churchill joined the royal family on the balcony to the delight of the crowd below.
23:52Churchill took his place by the king and queen,
24:07Princess Elizabeth in her khaki ATS uniform, and Princess Margaret.
24:12The king smiled widely while the crowd flung their hats into the air and sang,
24:18They are jolly good fellows.
24:20Greater and greater crowds surge around the palace railings,
24:23as onto the balcony comes the royal family accompanied by our prime minister himself.
24:28Catherine Bradley had served on the home front, driving everything from ambulances to delivering carrier pigeons.
24:38And whilst in service at Woolwich, was inspected by the king's sister, Princess Mary.
24:45But now she was right at the centre of the action in London.
24:49Time and time and time again, they came out onto the balcony.
24:53The whole family, the whole family.
24:56And they do say that Princess Margaret and Princess Elizabeth came out on the two own and joined in with the crowd singing.
25:06In one of his last shots before the film ends, Alec panned up to capture the planes passing overhead.
25:13As word on the ground spread through the crowd that they were bringing the prisoners of war back home.
25:20When the Arendal Castle, followed by the Swedish liners Gripsholm and Drockningholm, reached Liverpool,
25:25they brought several thousand repatriated prisoners, British Empire and Allied servicemen and civilians.
25:31Liverpool spoke for all of us through the terrific welcome it gave us.
25:37For many families across Britain, they had yet to find out if it was one of their loved ones who was lucky enough to be returning home.
25:45Nightly news bulletins had been announcing which prisoner of war camps had been liberated.
25:51And in Hull, a 12-year-old Nancy Biglin and her family were anxiously waiting for news of her brother Eddie, who was being held by the Germans.
26:01We had been listening to the 9 o'clock news.
26:07As the announcer came on and said, Camp so-and-so and so-and-so has been relieved today.
26:13And I can remember being so excited because they got nearer and nearer.
26:19And in actual fact, Eddie's camp was relieved two days before the E-Day.
26:27So we were expecting him home any minute because they were going to fly them home.
26:31We were so excited.
26:33More than 13,000 British prisoners of war were released and sent back to Great Britain.
26:44Families would be reunited.
26:46Just outside Sheffield in Chapel Town, local dentist Willie Thorne caught on film the elation of the local people, celebrating in any way they could, including ditching the cup of tea in favour of beer.
27:14With parades and dancing that carried on all afternoon, everyone flocked to the streets, no longer living under threat or fear.
27:26From young children, to teenagers, to their parents and grandparents.
27:32And in King's Langley Hertfordshire, Kodak employee Lewis Coles captured their unique way to kick off festivities.
27:44A match between male football players and female netball players.
27:49The men played football and the women mostly played netball.
27:56What started as gentle village celebrations grew into something a whole lot more lively.
28:04These once lost reels capture the party in Bradford.
28:16And the man who was responsible for the film, and also appears in it, was Bob Sharp.
28:23Bob had started work in his father's Bradford shop, which he built into a thriving business.
28:29But his ambition went beyond work.
28:32He was deputy mayor during the war, and was director, chairman and manager of his much-loved Bradford City Football Club.
28:41Bob managed the team for three years, but never took charge of a league match because of the war.
28:50His next love was films.
28:53And these rediscovered reels he produced captured this remarkable day.
28:58An enormous crowd congregated in the town square to welcome home the returning soldiers.
29:04A woman in the front of the crowd grabs every couple of soldiers and gives them a big kiss.
29:14Meanwhile, in London, for a city that had lived through the Blitz, V-Day signalled the end of fear.
29:21For Lambeth boy, Ray Barnes, being 17 in the centre of London at one of the biggest parties of his life meant endless possibilities.
29:32The Big Ben was a member of dancing there with people.
29:35Apart from that, he gave a chance of dancing with the girls you might not have known already.
29:39And all kissing going on or whatever.
29:42Also in the centre of the city was Pauline Harris.
29:53Everybody was so happy.
29:55Everybody was dancing in the street.
30:00We went quite mad.
30:02It was wonderful.
30:04But it was the end of nearly six years of war in Europe.
30:08No wonder people went a bit crazy.
30:10All over the capital, as indeed in towns and cities throughout the country, it was the same story.
30:15This was it in Lambeth Walk.
30:17Hang on, Lambeth Walk.
30:18You can always bet when the Lambeth People are about, they'll only be one winner.
30:22That's the Lambeth People will fight anybody.
30:26You can always bet when the land of people are about, there'll only be one winner.
30:38That's the land of people who will fight anybody.
30:44Renee Ponsford, a teenage evacuee, had only just returned to her family and friends in Poplar, in the east end of London.
30:51On VE Day, we started off in the street, but then some friends and I decided to go up to Trafalgar Square.
31:00And we just was in a pack. We didn't move. We couldn't move in Trafalgar Square. We just swayed with the rest of them.
31:06And it was just everybody singing and laughing and shouting.
31:11You know, I think a few people went to get in the fountain and climbed landposts and things, but it was more high-spirited than anything.
31:18I mean, we couldn't move. I think I lost a shoe.
31:21The people went wild, that was all. And you can't blame them.
31:28In Trafalgar Square, Lieutenant Sidney Sassoon was in the heart of the party with his colour 16mm.
31:37Little did he know that his camera would be pointing in the direction of a picture that would become an iconic image of VE Day for decades to come.
31:45This photograph of two young women and two British Army soldiers in one of the fountains in Trafalgar Square has been reprinted in newspapers around the world.
31:57The last shot Sidney was to take on the day was, like Alec Lowe, of the many planes flying overhead bringing troops home.
32:08A sight that would continue as the party carried on into the evening.
32:12It was now 6pm and there was one final scheduled event of the day.
32:20The King's Speech.
32:21The same tannoy's and radios that had broadcast Churchill's speech three hours earlier now prepared to deliver the words of King George.
32:34Today, we give thanks to God for a great deliverance.
32:45Speaking from our empire's oldest capital city, to war battered, I would never for one moment be daunted or dismayed.
32:59Speaking from London, I ask you to join with me in that act of thanksgiving.
33:09To Germany, to Germany, to the enemy who drove all Europe into war has been finally overcome.
33:24Just half a mile from Buckingham Palace, where the King delivered his speech, the crowd at Victoria Station had reached a hundred thousand people.
33:33The crush was so extreme that some people fainted and were carried over the shoulders of the crowd.
33:39Pauline Harris was out celebrating amongst the masses with a friend and her mother.
33:46My mother and another medical student and myself were in these huge crowds and my mother passed out cold.
33:55And they had a special place on the rose beds in front of Buckingham Palace for the people who'd fainted.
34:03And he and I managed to use her head as a battering ram and get her laid out on the rose bed.
34:10I knew she'd faint.
34:11This cine-film of Dumbarton in Scotland was shot by a local film enthusiast and uncovered years later by his nephew.
34:27Ben Humble was part of a pioneering team who established the first Scottish mountain rescue unit.
34:33He loved to film in his spare time and had shot many instructional films as part of the war effort.
34:42But now he recorded for himself on VE Day as the town pipe band marched to the sheriff's court.
34:52Before the town began to prepare for a giant bonfire on the common.
34:58What is remarkable about Ben wasn't just his keen eye, but the fact he was completely deaf.
35:05So for him, the war, and now the wonderful celebrations, were silent.
35:13As the sun set on VE Day, it was far from over for Britain's amateur filmmakers.
35:19After almost six years of blackouts, the night sky across the country was about to be lit up in a spectacular way.
35:35Victory Day changes to Victory Night, and the darkening skies over London are lit by the joyous lights of peace.
35:42At this great moment in their history, the people of Britain rejoice with their allies in the victory for which every one of them has worked so hard and so long.
35:51By the evening of VE Day, landmarks across London, including the Palace, the Houses of Parliament, Trafalgar Square, and Piccadilly Circus, were floodlit to the delight of the crowds.
36:08Joan Wiseman, who was in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force, remembers being in London at the time.
36:14Joan Wiseman, hundreds of us, hundreds of us, Air Force, Navy, the lot, the noise, and the people, and everyone shouting and screaming.
36:26And of course, the blackout was lifted.
36:29One woman stripped naked and was on top of the bus.
36:34It was nothing to do with us.
36:36Absolutely mad.
36:37Around the world, the celebrations had now begun in the other cities of the Allies.
36:53In New York, 15,000 police were called in to control the huge crowds that had massed in Times Square.
37:02The good news hits New York in early morning.
37:04But by nightfall, jubilant Times Square crowds still have not gone home.
37:09There is much to celebrate.
37:11Symbolically, the torch of liberty gleams again, as three years of U-boat menace end.
37:21These once forgotten images of South Africa on VE Day were surprisingly discovered in Cornwall.
37:28They were shot by 30-year-old amateur filmmaker and German Jew, Alfred Crossberg.
37:40Alfred had emigrated from Germany to Johannesburg in 1936, before finally settling in Cornwall after the war.
37:48While he had managed to escape the Nazis, many of his friends and family from his hometown were the first to be sent to Auschwitz.
37:59Now, nine years later, Alfred would capture on camera a peace parade to mark that the horrors were over.
38:06The word victory was writ large on Stutterfords, the Harrods of South Africa.
38:12In Britain, by 8pm, and with the blackout over, people began turning their house lights on,
38:25pulling back their curtains, and standing in the street to see what it looked like at night.
38:33Firework parties for children who had never known Bonfire Night were starting.
38:37In Kettering, local children prepared to burn an effigy of Adolf Hitler.
38:53In Wakefield, a victory dance was held in the streets of the city centre at dusk.
39:01Spotlights were set up for the dance in order to light the streets.
39:07And a bonfire also lit up the town, creating a glow across the crowds that had gathered.
39:17The vast bonfires became a focal point of the late-night celebrations,
39:22as Ted Hill, who was 12 and lived in the Fens during the war, remembers.
39:27And I remember, as the war was coming to an end, that we started collecting some things
39:36and made a giant bonfire in the middle of this field, which was enormous.
39:42I mean, I remember, it must have been about 15 or 20 feet high,
39:46because in the end, farm tractors were coming in with a trailer loaded with old tree trunks and wood,
39:55and waste oil was poured on the top, and we had a gigantic bonfire.
40:01When it went down to embers, people sat around with drink and roasting potatoes on the embers.
40:13We didn't have no drink at our age, but we had plenty of roast potatoes.
40:21Back in Kings Langley, the last few frames of the once-forgotten reels of Lewis Coles
40:27capture the fire on the village common.
40:32Whilst in Chapel Town, Willie Thorne filmed a candlelit procession through the town.
40:39By 10pm in London, the royal family were called out onto the balcony of Buckingham Palace
40:45for the eighth time, as it was lit up by the glare of the floodlights.
40:50Greater and greater crowds surge around the palace railings,
40:54as onto the balcony come the royal family.
40:57When they emerged for the last time, the masses went wild,
41:03grabbing anything that would make a noise.
41:05Rattles, whistles, and even fireworks.
41:09We are living in the midst of many great events.
41:11We know that in the days when the war seems remote and far away,
41:15these will be historic victims.
41:17They will tell another generation how we celebrated victory in Europe Day.
41:21For the people who were there, like 26-year-old Catherine Bradley,
41:26who had travelled in from the outskirts of London,
41:29it was a night they'd never forget.
41:31The people had done it, you know, themselves.
41:35It was terrific to me.
41:37And they were dancing, they were singing.
41:40It was marvellous.
41:41Everybody knew each other.
41:42Everybody was your friend.
41:44And it was lovely.
41:46Till about 3 o'clock or 4 o'clock in the morning.
41:49Dancing, singing, old songs, pack up your troubles.
41:54For our amateur filmmakers, an extraordinary day was over
42:11and a new chapter had begun.
42:15Now Britain could rejoice, go back to normal and rebuild the country.
42:20Willie Thorne in Chapeltown was remembered
42:26as a much-loved member of the community,
42:28founding a cricket and football tournament, the Thorne Cup,
42:32and continued to film after the war.
42:36John McHugh, the off-duty policeman
42:38who captured the Fiii Day scenes in Gateshead,
42:42carried on filming on his beloved cine camera,
42:45capturing another key moment in Britain's history,
42:48the coronation in 1953.
42:50Lewis Coles, who filmed the day at King's Langley,
42:56carried on working for Kodak after the war
42:59and got married to Jeannie in 1948.
43:02They went on to have a daughter,
43:04and he continued to film their life together.
43:09Alec Lowe, having recorded the remarkable events in London,
43:13returned home.
43:14He died in 1985, but made lots of films of his beloved Musselburgh
43:20and his large family throughout his life.
43:26And finally, Sidney Sassoon,
43:29who filmed the iconic image in the fountains of Trafalgar Square,
43:33went on to collect some equally stunning footage of Fiii Day.
43:36After the war, he married an Englishwoman called Hazel.
43:42It was Hazel who brought the reels back to England shortly after his death.
43:47They had not been viewed since they were stored away for over 50 years.
43:51This extraordinary cine footage,
43:56much of it forgotten or stored away for many years,
43:59is testimony to a day that would change the nation forever.
44:04This was, and always would be,
44:07the People's VE Day.
44:09New tonight at five past nine,
44:20Tony Robinson's on the last leg of his around-the-world-by-train adventure,
44:23and this time he's headed for the Arctic Circle,
44:26the farthest north he's been.
44:27Next, we've got a carriage waiting to take us on the most exquisite trip round Spain,
44:32taking in the country's most famous place of pilgrimage
44:34in world's most scenic railway journeys.
44:39Amen.
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