A rarely-seen film based on a JB Priestley play is being screened in Bradford this weekend, exactly 70 years after it was first performed in the city.

Called They Came to a City, the film is the focus of a special anniversary event organised by the Bradford-based JB Priestley Society in conjunction with the National Media Museum.

An introductory talk by Dr Bill Lawrence, the museum’s former head of film, will be followed by a screening of the film. The event will close with an open discussion led by Society members Michael Nelson and John Baxendale.

The 1943 film reveals Priestley’s hopes for a better society after the end of the Second World War, focusing on a group of people on the cusp of an exciting new future.

The event will celebrate Priestley’s significant contribution to cinema.

While he is best known for his novels and plays such as An Inspector Calls and When We Are Married, and his trenchant social observation, English Journey, Priestley also wrote original screenplays and had literary works adapted for films. He also worked anonymously for Hollywood studios in the 1930s.

They Came to a City stars Googie Withers, John Clements, Raymond Huntley and A E Matthews.

Dr Lawrence said the rarely-seen film is currently undergoing a re-appraisal by critics.

He added: “The original play was first performed in Bradford in 1943, exactly 70 years ago, and was soon made into a film by the Ealing Studios. It features nine characters, each representative of a sector of British society, who are plucked from their lives and left at the gates of a Utopian city. They debate whether or not to go through to a new future.

“It is now regarded as the first attempt to present socialism in a British feature film, to which the recent release of Ken Loach’s Spirit of ’45 has added even greater resonance to today.”

* The film screening, talk and discussion takes place at the National Media Museum on Sunday, from 1.45pm.