Tilting at windmills

In October 1971 the Department of Employment released the first film in this series, made by the Rank Short Film Group. Between its release then and mid‐April 1972 1965 bookings of the film were made and 290 copies were sold — an all time record for the Central Film Library. In my review of this film, The Industrial Relations Act — An Introduction I commented that this was a subject which ill lent itself to film. But the enormous response to this film and the fact that some five and a half million copies of booklets on the Act issued by the Department of Employment have already been distributed testifies to the very wide interest (and indeed considerable bewilderment) about the most controversial piece of industrial relations legislation for many decades. For the sake of those who missed the review of this first film and in order to provide an overall survey, now I will comment on all the five films in this series. The following descriptions by the Central Film Library outline the content of each film, upon which I will then comment in more detail.