Hertford East Station

School for Scoundrels

I was pleased to discover that I am not the only person to watch old black and white films on Talking Pictures TV.

They recently broadcast School for Scoundrels; a typical 1960 British comedy that even Ian Carmichael, Terry Thomas and the legendary Alastair Sim cannot raise over the ordinary.

My wife was looking through social media posts and it seems a few others had noticed that in the opening credits Hertford East was used to portray Yeovil Station.

So here are a few clips from those opening scenes. My apologies for the quality but taking grainy photos of old films from a hi-tech TV screen with a so-so camera phone is not the height of technological brilliance. But maybe it adds to the flavour of the times.

Train arriving on Platform
Ticket gates
Hertford East station
Hertford East sidings

There are some excellent historic photos of Hertford East station at Hertford.net history page.

The film may well come round again -as they do these days so you may be able to capture a better screenshot. If not you can still buy the film – in DVD.

School For Scoundrels [DVD]

The film is based upon the One-Upmanship books from Stephen Potter available in one volume: The Complete Upmanship

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By John Barber

John Barber was born in London at the height of the UK Post War baby boom. He had careers in Advertising, International Banking and the Wine Industry before becoming Town Centre Manager in his home town of Hertford. He has been writing professionally since 1996 when he began to contribute articles to magazines on social and local history. His first published book in 2002 was a non-fiction work entitled The Camden Town Murder, a hitherto unsolved murder case from 1907.