Cinema Memories

"The 1960s was a rich decade for British cinema audiences. Alongside Hollywood films, from Westerns such as The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) and The Dirty Dozen (1967) were musicals including West Side Story (1961), Mary Poppins (1964) and The Sound of Music (1965), and epics such as The Longest Day (1962), Cleopatra (1963) and The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965) Towards the end of the decade, a new style of filmmaking emerged, with movies such as The Graduate (1967), Bonnie and Clyde (1967), Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) and Easy Rider (1969). Although the total number of screens in the UK declined from over 3,000 in 1960 to little more than half this by the end of the decade, British cinema itself remained buoyant. The decade saw the release of many so-called 'kitchen sink' dramas including Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960), A Taste of Honey (1961) and This Sporting Life (1963), together with the 'Swinging London' films such as Darling (1965) and Alfie (1966). It witnessed the birth of the James Bond franchise with Dr No in 1962, followed by five other 007 films by 1969. The well-established 'Carry On' franchise produced many more films: 15 in all betwee