Show Notes
When we began War Hall – A Theatre of the Mind, the political climate felt uncomfortably close to the 1930s. Nationalism was rising. Division was deepening. We found ourselves asking why we were tracing where the bombs fell during the Second World War while the present felt increasingly unstable.
In this final chapter of Season 1, we return to Ken, who survived one of the worst V-2 bombings in London and lived through the rise of Mosley and the Blackshirts. Reflecting on Brexit and Europe’s fragile peace in 2019, his warning is grounded in memory: he has seen what happens when anger turns to division.
There is no art that can redeem the horrors of war. Yet amid bombing and fear, people still fought to preserve beauty in acts of everyday defiance.
Season 2 will follow the wartime concert timeline of Walthamstow Assembly Hall — the refugee musicians who performed there, the orchestras and dance bands who played while war raged.
For Professor John Thomas, this project has taken on new urgency following a diagnosis of incurable metastatic prostate cancer. In tracing the Hall’s creation during the darkest hours of the war, he reflects on legacy and the responsibility to leave something lasting behind.
War Hall is an independent production. If you would like to support Season 2, please consider joining our Patreon. War Hall is an independent production. If we ever make a profit, half will go to War Child, with the rest supporting our small team. If you’d like to help us make future episodes, you can join our Patreon — even the smallest contribution helps us pay artists fairly.
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Some clips are used under fair dealing and fair use for historical illustration. All rights remain with the original rights holders. Used with permission where required.
Music and sound design by Simon Mills.
Produced by Alison Williams, Professor John Thomas, and Susie Williams. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
More from War Hall
Meet the voice of War Hall. In this special bonus episode, Professor John Thomas interviews the indomitable Angela Allen – legendary script supervisor and voice of War Hall: A Theatre of the Mind. Angela reflects on an extraordinary life in cinema, from sheltering in the London Underground during the Second World War to working on The Third Man in post-war Vienna, travelling through the African jungle with Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, and becoming the trusted right hand of director John Huston. Along the way, she worked with Marilyn Monroe, Clark Gable, Arthur Miller, Truman Capote, Ava Gardner and many of the twentieth century's greatest creative figures, helping shape some of cinema's most iconic films. Now in her nineties, Angela looks back on a remarkable career spent breaking barriers in an industry dominated by men—and on the dream she was never able to fulfil - becoming a director. In this second part of our interview, Angela takes us on a journey from Paris to Reno, to the set of The Misfits... The voice you hear in War Hall has been shaped by a lifetime spent reading scripts alongside cinema legends. It is a voice of gravitas - and beauty - a voice straight from the golden age of cinema and sound. War Hall is an independent production. If we ever make a profit, half will go to War Child, with the rest supporting our small team. If you’d like to help us make future episodes, you can join our Patreon — even the smallest contribution helps us pay artists fairly.
Discover War Hall: A Theatre of the Mind—an immersive documentary podcast uncovering the extraordinary true story behind Walthamstow Assembly Hall, a concert venue built during the Blitz that became one of Britain’s most significant recording spaces.
As Walthamstow Assembly Hall opens in March 1943, culture, ceremony and civic pride take centre stage. Concerts, fairs and beauty contests unfold beneath glitter, blackout restrictions, anti-aircraft fire and a war that is still very much alive.