Hi Keith,

Thanks for your elucidation. I think that the reason why people have had a strong response to the film as it stands is that it was taken out of the very specific context for which it was made. If shown simply on its own merits and without that context or any explanation, I can understand why people who care about these things worry when revival events featuring characters such as the Green Man are shown cheek-by-jowl with traditional customs. The casual viewer cannot make the distinctions for themselves.

Does it matter? Well, I think it does. Unfortunately there is a lot of fakelore that has become attached to Britain's traditional customs and history. Certain people have engaged in the arduous process of teasing the different threads apart, which can be frustrating on lots of levels - many visitors to and practitioners of the customs themselves would prefer to believe in their version of history, because it's much more interesting than saying, "We don't know where this comes from or why it happens. It just does. Isn't it great?" I can understand why the people who do the research, and work patiently to de-bunk the nonsense, get cross if they perceive that someone is stepping in and jumbling it all up again (though I do appreciate, having spoken with Simon myself, that this is not his intention at all). I'm just talking about perceptions, and a certain protectiveness, that develops over time.

At the end of the day, I guess the danger in looking at that film out of context is that people latch onto the Jack in the Green stuff because it is an attractive and colourful event. That's great - but it would also be good if they realised what its relationship is to those longer-established living customs which form our folk heritage, and understand that it isn't one of them.

I know people, for instance, who prefer the Thaxted version of the Horn Dance to the real Abbots Bromley. That's fine, as long as they are judging them on their own terms and understand the difference between people doing something interesting with an idea, and a real, living tradition. Without context, that's hard to do.