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Scotland Yard - Late Night Final (1953)

Started by petewilson, Feb 02, 2013, 11:13 am

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petewilson

Feb 02, 2013, 11:13 am Last Edit: Jul 24, 2014, 01:53 pm by hb88banzai
Hi...Found this on Roobarbs Forum Courtesy of Mr Magister from 1953......

Scotland Yard - Late Night Final (1953).jpg

More work for you banzai  ;D

hb88banzai

Feb 03, 2013, 03:39 pm #1 Last Edit: Feb 03, 2013, 04:01 pm by hb88banzai
Well, the whole series of "Scotland Yard" 'B' Features was supposedly filmed at Merton Park Studios in South Wimbledon, and this particular "episode" was copyrighted in 1953, but first released in July of 1954.

I've done a quick check of all the Boxes in the Wimbledon sub-division and none match.

Of particular note in trying to match the location is that this Box appears to be on a corner, with traces of a cross street, a parked car, and a hedge on the opposite side being visible behind the Box.

petewilson

I have searched for any filming locations for this series, but none can be found but I did find comments that the series was filmed as far afield as Guildford and Godalming!!
So I'm guessing this is a "rural" Surrey box  ::)

hb88banzai

It's a shame the episode doesn't seem to be on line anywhere. It might provide more information in the scene and/or in context.

hb88banzai

Sep 04, 2013, 05:49 am #4 Last Edit: Nov 30, 2014, 02:29 am by hb88banzai
Looking for a different Box, I think I may have found a likely suspect for the one in this capture --

   W30    Box       18-Jul-32    Dec 71    Tooting Bec Road, south side 10 yards west of West Drive        Tooting    Tooting

While not around the corner from Merton Park Studios like the Wimbledon Chase Station Box was, it is still less than 3 miles to the northeast, just opposite Tooting Bec Common.

Here's a view of the Box Site on street view --

Tooting_Bec_Common_Box-W30-SiteStreetview.JPG

The Box would have probably been a bit to the left of the tree in the middle of the frame.

URL:  https://maps.google.com/maps?q=West+Drive,+Tooting,+London,+United+Kingdom&hl=en&ll=51.431079,-0.145112&spn=0.000054,0.033388&sll=51.434688,-0.15692&sspn=0.004662,0.010546&hnear=West+Dr,+London+SW16+1RR,+United+Kingdom&t=m&layer=c&cbll=51.431079,-0.145112&panoid=MFV-tYilukGJWGcWY0Rfuw&cbp=12,186,,0,14.2&z=15

The POV is a bit different in that the clip's was a little up the street and from the opposite curb, but you can see that the location of the small road on the left (West/North Drive, which connects with Tooting Bec Road, still a relatively narrow road with only one lane in each direction to this day) relative to the Box, with the roadway and curb beyond at the junction of West and North Drive are fairly compelling.

I can't get across the street to get a more accurate POV, nor do I have the episode to see if more the the street and/or the area across the street from the Box are in view at all, but the topography with the capture we do have looks like a match.

Street view of what is across the street from the same POV (the horse path just the other side of the railing would have been there at the time the episode was shot per the OS Maps) --

Tooting_Bec_Common_Box-W30-ReverseStreetview.JPG

And the same angled a bit more to the west, approximating a reverse POV of the original clip's camera angle showing about where all the action would have been taking place --

Tooting_Bec_Common_Box-W30-ApproxReversePOVStreetview.JPG

Note that the Google street view cameras use a very wide angle lens, so the opposite curb is actually closer than it seems here.

A view from a bit west on Tooting Bec Road looking back towards the junction (one position west on street view) --

Tooting_Bec_Common_Box-W30-LongSiteStreetview.JPG

You can see better in these last two views that the topography of the land's elevation changes also pretty well matches what we see in the episode clip - dipping down right to left in the shot (west to east, which is left to right in the above reverse streetview) and then again down to the road visible behind the Box.

And finally, a view of the street and curb at the West Drive/North Drive junction just beyond the Box (currently sans hedge, but may well have had one some 60 years ago) --

Tooting_Bec_Common_Box-W30-WestDriveNorthDriveJunctionStreetview.JPG

Here are the OS Map extracts that show this Box:

From the 1950-1951 OS Maps (dot at the upper left corner of the "PCB" label at centre) --

Tooting_Bec_Common_Box-W30-OS_MapExtract-(1950-1951).JPG

And from the 1968 map showing the path visible in the current street views --

Tooting_Bec_Common_Box-W30-OS_MapExtract-(1968).JPG

Does anybody have this episode of Scotland Yard to see if there is more information in the scene that may confirm or contradict this identification?

Thoughts?

petewilson

If anyone's interested and has the time to sit through all these episodes.... ;)
They are now all available to purchase on DVD (around £20) and also a few of the episodes are available to view on YouTube!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGOYocH50Yw#t=259


Pete

Volpone

Very interesting!  I wouldn't have thought you'd see a box that dark a blue and with white trim as early as 1953. 
"My dear Litefoot, I've got a lantern and a pair of waders, and possibly the most fearsome piece of hand artillery in all England. What could possibly go wrong?"
-The Doctor.

hb88banzai

I can't believe I hadn't noticed that before. Yes, it is most odd. That's got to be about the earliest dark blue paint we have reliably dated pics of.

The other extreme is the http://tardisbuilders.com/index.php?topic=3780, which seemed to retain it's old, battered and faded pre-war medium to light blue without any trim colour until at least 1956 per an aerial photo - the dark blue with white trim it sports in The Giant Behemoth from 1959 looking new and shiny in comparison. They didn't even have the decency to give it the fresh coats of medium blue that most other Metboxes received between the end of the war and the intro of the dark blue & white colour scheme.

It's quite remarkable the number of variations in the shade of blue paint used and the trim colour combinations we've seen at this point - many of them contemporaneous with each other. And that's even without the weathering and patching they underwent during and after the war. We've even seen a few variations in the painting of the Met Posts, though nowhere near as many.

dr hue