Out of Town

When I first really observed this vista, deep within Rouken Glen park, I was reminded a show I watched as a pre-school kid. Every lunchtime at midday on ITV you used to get a 10 minute cartoon series, usually by Cosgrove-Hall, followed by a 20 min studio based kids show, usually "Rainbow". Then afterwards a half hour show for the parents before the news, usually a soap like "Emmerdale Farm" or "The Sullivans", but there was also "Out of Town", presented by Jack Hargreaves. Basically a studio based feature show with outside filmed segments, it dealt the already disappearing rural culture of England and beyond. For someone brought up in the second city of the British Empire, this programme was both baffling and incomprehensible, yet at the same time fascinating and compelling, as if I'd stumbled onto another world and way of living. I still vividly remember the opening titles with the slow moving horse drawn carriage travelling toward you up an unpaved dirt track, accompanied by an equally slow moving but beautiful folk melody. Even then, it felt like a call to slow down and appreciate the beauty, and it's this melody that replayed in my head as I saw this image today.