RED CROSS APPEAL BY LESLIE HOWARD - SOUND

(31 Dec 1942) Extract from “First of the few includes David Niven in bed wounded then Leslie Howard to camera making appeal. Leslie Howard talks to camera: “Well they seemed to want to get rid of me, but it doesn’t really matter beacuase it is just a scene in a film. A film I am making up at Denham called ’The First of the Few’. It’s the story of R J Mitchell, the man who designed the Spitfire and in it we try to show some of what the Spitfire did in the Battle of Britain. I hardly like to mention the fact but I play the part of Mitchell. And my friend, David Niven, who you saw in the bed in the other room, he’s Geoffrey Crisp the Test Pilot. The charming young nurse is my daughter Lesley, its her first appearance on the screen and she’s terribly nervous. Now I wonder if you recall the last words that David Niven said in that little scene they were I’m going to be alright. I want to remind you that those same words are being repeated all over the world by thousands of people today for the simple reason th