OVERVIEW: 100 Years of the Girl Guides

[feather_ghyll]

I just watched the hour-long documentary 100 Years of the Girl Guides, which aired on BBC4 on Sunday on iPlayer, where it can still be watched by residents of the UK until Sunday night. Past experience suggests that it will be repeated on BBC2 at some point.

I was never a Brownie, Guide or Ranger, but read about them from enthusiastic proponents like Mrs Osborn-Hann, Ethel Talbot and Catherine Christian (or is it Christine Chaundler? perhaps both). The programme, a mixture of history with talking heads: former Brownies or Guides all, but some being celebrities or notables talking about their experienc/view of what they learned or women talking about certain experiences that they'd been through. It made me tear up, to be honest, one Guide had been sent to help at Belsen after it was liberated and shaed some of her memories and then later, they were talking about Trefoil school, a school run by the Guides for disabled children, who might otherwise have not been educated by the state, and how the Guides welcomed all girls, able-bodied or not. Oh, and they had a clip of Guides at Great Ormond Street. It was all presented very matter of factly, and it may be hormonal, because I don't usually blub, but I blubbed. Anyway, if you were/are one of the huge numbers who were/are involved in the Guiding movement, or just a reader like me, I'm sure you'd find it fascinating. There was no mention of guiding books, although they used clips of Guides' footage.

Comments

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

I watched it yesterday evening and plan to post about it when I have time. Good that you could find it interesting even though you weren't a Guide.

[feather-ghyll.livejournal.com]

As I think it was promoted, it's, in some ways, a spotlight on British girls and women over the last century too. I thought it was a positive look at the Guides, in which I had some interest, if no personal experience and it was really interesting from a historical perspective.