Country Policeman
The working life of a lowland policeman
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- Questions & Activities
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Description
This film looks at the working life of a country policeman, from trying to catch poachers to investigating chicken rustling, and from the enforcement of agricultural regulations, to checking the safety of an explosives store at a quarry. The policeman featured in this film is Andrew Charters, then a police officer in Dumfries. This film was one of several commissioned by Anthony Eden to promote the work of the police.
Questions & Activities
Questions
- How has rural crime and country policing changed since this film was made?
- Who do you sympathise with?
- How much of this film do you think is scripted?
- What impression does the music give of the policeman?
- How are the travellers depicted in the film?
- Would we be happy with this level of intrusion in our modern lives?
Activities
Citizenship / RME: Research the condition of travelling people life in Scotland's past and their role in the rural economy and community. Pay particular attention to the reasons why they are an object of suspicion, fear and hostility.
Early Years / English: List all the people the policeman met and the places he visited. List any crimes he had to investigate, his various duties enforcing food and agriculture ministry regulations and disease control. Talk about other activities that you wouldn't expect a policeman to undertake today.
Early Years / Moving Image Education: Download the clip and take out the original sound using the editing package on your school computer. Then write and record your own story about what is happening and add it to the film using your editing software.
English / Creative Writing: Write a story from the boy's perspectives focusing on why his grandfather is a poacher, why he helps him and what his life is like in 1946 just after the war when many men were killed (including perhaps his father).
Social Studies / Citizenship: Research how rural crime and country policing has changed since this film was made and how life in the country has changed (and how it hasn't).
Technology: Write a discursive essay on changing technology and if this has improved helped or aided the working life of the country policeman.
Clip Details
| Record Id | 007-000-000-093-C |
|---|---|
| Resource Rights Holder | Courtesy of the British Film Institute |
| Project Ref | 0494 |
| Date | 1946 |
| Genre | Public Information, Sponsored |
| School Subject | Geography, Religious and Moral Education, English, Social Studies, Technologies, History |
| Subject Matter | Citizenship |
| Who | Central Office of Information for the Scottish Home Department (sponsor), Gilbert Gunn (director), Merlin Films (production company) |
| Where | Dumfries |
| Event | Working life |
| Attributes | Black and White, Sound |
| Clip Length | 17:00 |
| Film Length | 17:00 |