From Up North to Up West? London on Screen 1965–1967

In his overview of the decade, Arthur Marwick wrote that the 'Sixties was a time of liberation for majorities in all Western countries, when teenage girls, supported by their mothers, could wear skirts as short as they pleased — and watch films such as Georgy Girl, which spoke directly to them.' This essay challenges such generalisations, and argues that while such films may have spoken 'directly' to their teenage audiences, there were accompanying moralistic subtexts around issues of gender, sexuality, class and power. It suggests that the so-called Swinging London films are best understood as a continuation of the 'British New Wave', where such concerns were paramount, but transported to a new metropolitan context and a new consumer culture. Finally, it makes the case that the images and iconography associated with Swinging London were generally created elsewhere in the media, and that these films worked in complex ways as a part of new dialogues around consumption.