News on Screen

Aidan Crawley studied at Oxford before becoming a journalist in 1930. In 1936 he became a producer of educational films, but he also provided some commentaries for Movietone, apparently after a visit to Palestine in 1937. Crawley’s Movietone work began with ‘PALESTINE: Stern Measures Are Taken To Suppress Arab Terrorism’ in British Movietone News No.435 of October 1937, and continued until his last credit as commentator in No.476 of July 1938. Crawley also appeared incidentally in ‘HOLIDAY CRICKET’ in British Movietone News No.531A of August 1939. He later became an MP (Labour) in 1945, serving as a junior minister. He resigned from the Labour Party in 1957 and served as a Conservative MP 1962-67. He was Editior-in-Chief on ITN 1955-1956, before making television documentaries for the BBC 1956-60.

Sources

Who’s Who 1897-1996 CD-ROM; autobiography, ‘Leap Before You Look’ (1988).