This film was directed and produced by Harry Watt and Basil Wright, and ended with a specially commissioned poem by W. H. Auden.

[4] The advert was filmed in September 1988,[3] and featured aerial shots of famous structures including the Forth, Tyne and Saltash bridges, that – although impressive – made it very expensive to produce.

[1] The opening shot is of a Travelling Post Office, as Tom Courtenay begins to recite Auden's poem: This is the Night Mail crossing the border, bringing the cheque and the postal order.

[1]Courtenay then breaks from the original verse as the video goes on to detail British Rail's freight operations: Passing the shunter intent on its toil, moving the coke and the coal and the oil.

It became apparent that the 2½ minute running time (as well as being expensive to air) limited the amount of showings it could receive, so an abridged 90 second version was later released.