Easy Money

"All the world loves a gamble. Gambling is one of the few passions that can be enjoyed equally by rich and poor alike." Peter Brown tells us that this is Ascot. (RL)

"And a gambler bets on anything, the speed of an arrow, the speed of one kind of machine or what comes tumbling out of another. You can lose 10,000 on the turn of a card and win it back on the spin of a drum. You can stake a fortune on the antics of a little ball or the guess of a big man in the city."

"Britain's favourite game if football and one of Britain's most popular gambles is the football pools. Every Wednesday and Thursday ten million people fill in a little piece of paper with a mumbo jumbo of 1s, 2s and crosses. These are their forecasts of the results of the following Saturday's football matches. For the information of the odd half dozen who don't know, all betting on football pools on done by post and on credit. The punter doesn't pay over his stake until the following week. And this brings it inside the requirements of the law. So you cross your fingers and send it on." Peter also tells us that is Wembley and the 1946 Cup Final and would appear to be a clip from extra time as the 90 minute score was 1-1. Here showing 3 -1 the game finished Derby 4 Charlton 1. (RL)

"Football pools are big business. They employ 25,000 people. They also use many part time workers checking coupons at weekends. There are many people who think that gambling is a great moral and spiritual danger. Others, no less public spirited, decide to tax it. But whatever they are and whatever they think, gambling still goes on. £850,000,000 was spent on it in 1946, 200 of those millions on the dogs tote. The 1947 figure is something like a billion! One thousand million pounds out of the pockets of people saying I bet you." Facing the Curry’s electrical factory on Great West Road in Brentford, Middlesex.

Taken off angle by Antony Blair to get the best possible shot between the trees.

"The Post Office gets £10,000,000 a year out of postage on football pool entries and poundage on postal orders. The amount staked by the public totals £60,000,000 a year. And £54,000,000 of this goes back to them as dividends. Some people spend a lot of money on it but, according to statistics, the average weekly bet of the average pools investor is three shillings." Outside the Curry’s electrical factory on Great West Road in Brentford, currently occupied by advertising corporation J. C. Decaux.

Antony found that a redesign has taken place.

"It probably comes from an average family, like the Staffords who live in a suburban house which they are buying though a building society." 1 Cedars Close, London NW4. (SR)

Phil Stafford arrives back home to the house where a suspected win on the pools has caused discord and family arguments. 1 Cedars Close, London NW4. (SR)

In the second segment of the film, Herbert Atkins catches the train to the City and the job that his Wife has told him to resign from after his win of £28,000 on the pools. Gerrards Cross station on Station Approach off Packhorse Road in Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire. The station also features in 'The One that Got Away'.

"With all this money to be won it's not surprising that every now and then somebody tries to pull a fast one . . ." The offices where investigator Mr. Lee outlines a case concerning a fraudulent claim. Designed in 1936, this is the Curry's factory at 991 Great West Road, Brentford in Middlesex.

Antony Blair returned to the location 73 years later.

The final part of the anthology has Edward Ball (Edward Rigby) taking his pal Archie (Guy Rolfe) for a drink at The Dorchester after his penny points windfall. The Dorchester Hotel on Park Lane, London W1. More of the hotel can be seen in other productions including 'This Happy Breed', 'Carry On Regardless', 'It's Not Cricket', 'Glad Tidings', 'The Optimists of Nine Elms', 'The Iron Maiden', 'Cloak Without Dagger', 'Expresso Bongo' and 'Strange Bedfellows'.

The same hotel entrance now.