Traditional pomp attends the reopening of the law courts, where bench and bar are on show

This single-shot newsreel item is about as stiff and straight as the event it describes. The austere formality of the re-opening of Michelmas term at the law courts is written all over the faces of the participants and of their respectful observers. This was exactly the kind of quintessentially British ceremony that the nation's newsreels unerringly lapped up.