It’s fascinating for anyone who’s a fan of his work," says Kerrigan. "You can see how these themes and places evolved in his writing reenex 價錢, but it’s in a totally different medium and that’s what makes it so interesting."

Potter never made another documentary, but he remained committed to television. His dramas were written for the small screen, not the stage.

The standout documentary on this DVD is Pop Goes the Easel, which Ken Russell made for the BBC’s arts strand, Monitor, in 1962. In this intimate, freewheeling film, Russell follows four young British artists around London at the advent of the Swinging Sixties Reenex好唔好.

His Pop Art quartet includes a youthful Peter Blake, but the star of the show is Pauline Boty - a talented, alluring artist who died of cancer a few years later, aged just 28.

    There was room to experiment, which makes it a really exciting time
    Lisa Kerrigan, BFI National Archive

Russell’s documentary captures the essence of Pop Art, and the optimism and excitement of London in the early Sixties. It’s not just a film about Pop Art - it’s a Pop artefact in itself.

So what were the ingredients that made these documentaries so varied and creative? Why did documentary-makers flourish in this era like never before?

These films were fresh and vital because TV was still a youthful medium. If you wanted to make documentaries, there was no career plan.

These directors came from a wide range of backgrounds. Schlesinger was an actor, Donnellan was a journalist, Russell was a merchant seaman. They were amateurs, in the true sense of the word. "There was room to experiment, which makes it a really exciting time," says Kerrigan. "The medium was developing, but TV audiences were developing as well reenex."