“Oh, What A Lovely Time!” short documentary FREE premiere screening on June 26 at Stratford Hub

Residents and Community members are invited to attend the FREE Premiere of Documentary “Oh What A Lovely Time”: A movie about Theatre Royal Stratford, Royal Docks Tate Institute and East Ham Granada Theatre in the Swinging Sixties.

The documentary will premiere on June 26 at Stratford Hub as part of this year’s Newham Heritage Month. The event will start at 6.30pm and after the screening of the movie there will be a drinks reception and a networking opportunity.

The film Oh What A Lovely War focus on a series of key events that took place nearly simultaneously in the 1960s.

On 9th March 1963, the Beatles played their first official concert in London at the Granada Cinema, East Ham.

That very same year, Joan Littlewood ‘The Mother Of Modern Theatre’ and her world-renowned Theatre Workshop premiered Oh, What a Lovely War! at the Theatre Royal in Stratford, while the Tate Institute was once again flourishing and thriving as a social hub for the people of Silvertown and North Woolwich and their families, with games, sports, social events and music and dance nights keeping the local community entertained.

The film explores the three buildings and gives voice to the local community’s memories of these twentieth century cultural hotbeds.

The title Oh, What a Lovely Time! is a double tribute: on one hand, to Joan Littlewood; while her artistic achievements are widely recorded, less is known about what she did for the local community during her tenure at the Theatre at Stratford, stories rescued for this project.

The movie “Oh, What a Lovely Time!” was commissioned as part of a wider History, Culture and Music project run by the Royal Docks History Club and The Royal Docks Activity Centre, with support from National Lottery Heritage Fund.

The movie has been written and produced by television and film professionals, journalists and history buffs Neil Cole and Marieta Evans - the same team behind the much-loved heritage documentary about the disappeared West Ham Stadium, which was premiered last year at an screening event at The Royal Docks Good Hotel, before touring the East End with further community screenings in the Royal Docks and also the Docklands Museum in Canary Wharf.

You can read more about Neil and Marieta’s heritage documentary work here: https://theneilcoleshow.com/documentaries/

Marieta Evans is a co-founder of the Royal Docks History Club project, and has run and hosted Heritage events for Thames Festival, Newham Council and The Royal Docks team.

For this film, Evans & Cole have teamed up with Charlie Cook as director of photography and editor – he has a wealth of prestigious credits including commercials, sport and music (BBC Introducing, Glastonbury).