Feature film on Hornton to get second screening next week - 20 years after its premier

Documentary maker Roger Corke, who makes films for series like Channel 4’s Dispatches and BBC1’s Panorama and co-producer Anne Joyner made the feature-length film in their home village of Hornton as part of the community’s millennium celebrations in 1999 and 2000.

On Friday-Saturday, February 28 and 29, the film - made to broadcast standards - will be re-shown in place where it first premiered, Hornton Village Pavilion, along with a short update film showing what has happened to the people featured in it.

There’s Only One Hornton! features interviews with ten villagers, each born in a different decade of the twentieth century. It also recounts the history of the village over the previous hundred years and takes the viewer through the last 12 months of the century, culminating in the village seeing in the new millennium round the village green.

“When we came to choose a title for the film, we knew it had to be called There’s Only One Hornton!,” said Mr Corke. “There are 29 places called London in the world and 42 called Oxford but, surprisingly, only one place on the planet called Hornton.

“More important, we have a unique community here with so much going on that we spent pretty much every moment of spare time film activities through the year.”

Captured on film is everything from the village’s May Day celebrations to the Ofsted inspection at Hornton Primary School and the competition to grow the finest produce for the annual flower and produce show. There are also poignant moments, such as when 86-year-old Bill Freeman tells how the postman arrived at his mother’s front door with a telegram to inform her his father had been killed at the front in World War 1.

The film was co-narrated by Anne’s daughter, Jo Joyner - then an up-and-coming actress but now the star of BBC1’s Shakespeare and Hathaway and Channel 4’s Ackley Bridge. Jo has also narrated the update film.

There’s Only One Hornton! even made it into the new millennium’s first edition of The Times, together with a photo of life-time resident Liz Jeffs.

“I pretty much put my career on hold for a couple of years to make this film but it’s the one that I’m most proud of,” said Mr Corke. “I hope people come along and see for themselves.”

The film will be shown in Hornton Pavilion at 7pm on Friday, February 28 and the following evening. There will be a bar, a raffle in the interval, and the £5 tickets are now on sale from Isabelle Harris on 01295 670304 with proceeds going to village causes.