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In From the Cold with Gordon Harker: Happy Holidays from Dreaming in Television!

  Happy holidays, everyone!! My favourite time of year, I enjoy it almost all year haha, but to celebrate a little more this weekend here’s a toasty festive scene from “Saloon Inn” (1940), a hidden early Ealing comedy-mystery based on a play by Frank Harvey. It’s Christmastime in London and the ‘Inn’ pub regulars hope to prove a barmaid’s boyfriend is innocent of murder and robbery in time to save him from execution, all while the landlord’s wife is expecting a baby upstairs and everyone’s downing ales/ avoiding the sandwiches and snotty kid carollers. The film stars Gordon Harker (one of my favourite everythings), in a great turn as turf accountant, supported by a great cast including Ralph Lynn, Anna Konstam, Mervyn Johns, and Joyce Barbour. It never loses its liveliness and even action, but there’s a wonderful timelessness about “Inn,” partly in its theatrical setting/pacing of one mesmerisingly drawn-out evening, unfolding almost entirely at the snug (one envies the

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