Nigel Smales

When You're Smiler Nigel Smales

Eddy 'Smiler' Smales was a pioneer in British feature films in the 1930s, combat filming in the 1940s and television news from the 1950s. He didn't make history but was there to film bits of it happening. When You're Smiler gives a personal perspective on the evolution of factual film and television in the mid-20th Century set against the social, political and military history of the times. It tells tales of halcyon days in the British film industry and at BBC TV News but its primary focus is on Smiler's adventures with the ground-breaking British Army Film & Photographic Unit during WW2. The story is sprinkled with anecdotes of well-known characters Smiler worked with - Korda, Harvey, Ustinov, Niven, Attenborough, Montgomery, Bosanquet, Forsyth, Mills, Aspel and many others - and gives due credit to the forgotten heroes of the AFPU, not least with an original comprehensive cast list of those who served in or alongside the Unit in some role at some stage.