The Yorkshire Film Archive collects, preserves, and shows film made in, or about Yorkshire. Our collections are non-fiction, dating from the 1890s to the present day, and providing a rich and visually compelling record of all aspects of lives, cultures, landscape, industries, major events and everyday activities, many of which are available to watch, free of charge, on our website.
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A Bronte Christmas
Richard Whiteley joins children on the Worth Valley Railway Santa’s Special, while the Haworth Town Band sing On Ilkla Moor Baht 'at.
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Overview
Two iconic Yorkshire Television presenters, Richard Whiteley and Geoff Druett, entertain us with a view of the famous Brontë town of Haworth at Christmas time, imagining what life with the Brontës would have been like in their day. The occasion of the retirement of John Moore as leader of the Haworth Town Band provides the opportunity to take us back to the Black Bull Hotel on Main Street, 1980, before Richard and Geoff enjoy a Christmas at the Parsonage.
This Calendar Special features two of Yorkshire’s better known TV presenters in their heyday, with Geoff Druett becoming a very popular presenter for several decades, and of course Richard Whiteley, “Smiler”, achieving national fame with Countdown, which started as a Calendar feature two years after this film. Whiteley had many other strings to his bow though, and once famously asked Thatcher about her husband Denis's first wife. The Parsonage was given to the Brontë Society and turned into a museum in 1928. The singing of On Ilkla Moor Baht 'at in the opening is apt for Christmas as it is believed to have originated with a church choir out rambling, and to have been composed around the time of the Brontës.
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