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Dr Andrew Spicer is Reader in Cultural History at the University of the West of England.

The paper was based on extensive research, notably an extended interview with writer-director Anthony Simmons in September 2006, and, through a detailed case study of his work, which has become almost completely unknown, addressed some key issues within the British film industry in the 1970s.

The first section discussed Simmons' social, political and cultural background which moulded the characteristically optimistic left-wing nature of his film-making and his commitment to a neo-realist aesthetic that emphasised an evocative and poetic treatment of subject matter.

The second section considered his fluctuating career before the 1970s, including his early documentaries and his feature film Four in the Morning (1965).

The third section concentrated on his two, very different, features in the 1970s: The Optimists of Nine Elms (1973) and Black Joy (1977), exploring their conditions of production, distribution, exhibition and reception. They were seen to exemplify a number of characteristics of British film production in the 1970s: the fitful, intermittent one-off nature of feature film-making where each film was a separate venture; the chronic problems of raising production finance; the extreme diversity of subject matter; a fractured and unstable relationship between production, distribution and exhibition.

The final section looked at Simmons' television work in the 1970s: episodes of The Professionals for ITV (1978) and On Giant's Shoulders (1979), a BBC 'Play of the Week'. This was also seen as representative: in this case of the uncertain and ill-defined relationship between the two industries, where film-makers frequently worked in both media but again intermittently, without a clear structure or pathway.

Overall, the paper argued that although Simmons was a maverick figure, a congenital outsider with a particular cultural agenda, the problems that he faced within the British film industry of the period were entirely typical.