Punk Can Take It

This power-packed promotional film for the UK Subs also showcases the distinctive talents of unconventional writer and director Julien Temple.

This powerful Julien Temple promo film for punk band the UK Subs, Released in 1979, cheekily spoofs the wartime propaganda films of the 1940s. Adapting its title from the much-celebrated London Can Take It! (1940), Punk Can Take It celebrates the achievements of the 'heroes by night' of the British punk movement in the face of 'the apathy of a stagnant England'. Using some great live footage, it berates the Establishment's unending attempts to crush or co-opt the true punk spirit.

Punk Can Take It is narrated by veteran BBC radio commentator John Snagge, who'd delivered national news reports describing the D-Day Landings in 1944. Snagge was no stuffed shirt and no stranger to self-parody, having cheerfully sent himself up on more than one occasion in the cult 50s radio comedy The Goon Show. Lured out of retirement for Temple's film, he does an excellent job, lending a distinguished air of gravitas to this punchy promo.