On 31 January, the British Film Institute will screen Elstree Calling — a film that sits right at the beginning of British sound cinema, and one that tells us a great deal about Elstree’s ambitions at the dawn of the talkies.

Made in 1930 at Elstree Studios, when the site operated as British International Pictures under managing director John Maxwell, Elstree Calling is often described as the first British musical film. Rather than telling a single story, it takes the form of a music-hall style revue, framed as a live broadcast to the nation — strikingly imagined as a television transmission years before television would become a reality in British homes.

The film brings together a wide range of performers, singers and comic acts, reflecting a moment when cinema was rapidly absorbing traditions from radio and the stage. It was directed across the BIP stages by more than one filmmaker, with sequences overseen by Alfred Hitchcock, who was working at Elstree during this crucial early sound period.

Cinematography was by Claude Friese-Greene, a major experimental pioneer in early colour filmmaking. His involvement is especially significant here: parts of Elstree Calling were colour-tinted, linking the film directly to wider British experiments in colour, spectacle, and visual innovation at a moment when sound itself was still being figured out.

Today, Elstree Calling can feel like a period piece — some of its humour and performances are very much of their time — but historically it marks a bold moment. It shows Elstree positioning itself as a technically adventurous studio, grappling simultaneously with sound, colour, format and the future of broadcasting, and laying foundations for the British studio system that would follow.

Tickets for the BFI screening on 31 January are available via the BFI website.