Pan-tele-tron 1957

What makes man different from the animals? Talking, walking, using tools, and, of course, speech! Now we are not all Zeus, so as we started to need to communicate over greater distances we used everything from pigeons to drums then semaphore and in 1800-odd, we discover electricity and that enabled the telegraph, then the telephone - and now automatic networks enable hassle - and crackle - free conversations from one side of the world to the other. Meantime, Marconi was experimenting with the wireless in the 1890s and gradually that became indispensable as a means of quickly and efficiently informing folks of what's going on hither and tither and of even entertaining us. You can tell where we are heading now? Yep. We marry the fixed line methods of the telephone with the wire-free methods of the radio and guess what? Television, that's what! Information is quickly and easily shared the world over and even in 1957, it all looks like the world is shrinking fast! There's an engagingly mischievous Greek mythological theme to help tie the strands together and the animation is colourful and busy accompanied by the convivial commentary from Ted Archer. It's only ten minutes, and worth a watch.

— CinemaSerf