Introduction

The long forgotten Terry Report on The Future of the British Film Industry (HMSO 1976), set up by Prime Minister Harold Wilson almost forty years ago, highlighted the fact that the relationship between the British state and the film industry had at its core a concern with both the economic importance and the cultural role of film in British society. It is no surprise, then, to find that since the early part of the twentieth century that state intervention in the policy arena has, at differing moments, reflected and grappled with these often competing concerns. This chapter maps out some of the significant moments in the evolution of film policy as it relates to the business and infrastructure of the industry in the UK and takes us up to the late 1970s. Over this period, a clear pattern is evident in that the film industry and its specific relationship to Hollywood shaped various state interventions that were mostly aimed at buttressing an indigenous industry and also focused on growing and developing the UK's capacity to compete internationally.