The CFF had a total annual production budget of £60,000 – an incredibly low figure, even allowing for the fact that most CFF films lasted for less than an hour and were filmed in under a fortnight. One result was the creation of the X certificate another was the establishment in 1951 of the Children's Film Foundation, which was funded by the so-called "Eady levy", a voluntary tax taken from all cinema ticket prices. However, the CFF, with its encouragement of young talent and regular cinemagoing among children, deserves to be remembered as an integral part of postwar British cinema, alongside Hammer horror or Carry On.Ĭhildren's matinees had been shown in British cinemas since the 1920s, but after the second world war, educationalists raised objections to the nature of the films being screened, leading to the Wheare report into juvenile cinemagoing in 1950. Sadly, despite such luminaries – and the fact that the BBC was screening CFF as recently as the 1980s – far too many of the CFF's works are no more than vague memories for middle-aged filmgoers, of well-spoken urchins discovering buried treasure on the Isle of Wight. Other notable graduates of the CFF included Michael Crawford, Dennis Waterman, Susan George, Gary Kemp, Keith Chegwin and even Matthew "The Wright Stuff" Wright. The star of this epic was a 16-year-old, pre-cockney Phil Collins, one of the many future young stars nurtured by the CFF. Finally comes the moment the budding juvenile delinquents are all waiting for: Calamity the Cow, shot in glorious black and white, and brought to you by those jolly nice people at the Children's Film Foundation. To see the films we like and shout aloud with gleeĪfter this rousing number, the cinema's manager hosts some obligatory birthday singing and talent shows.
First off is the ABC Minors song, the lyrics of which flash up on screen:
The event – the ABC Minors Children's Matinee, to which thousands of grateful parents have dispatched their offspring.
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