Hidden Heroes - celebrating our older neighbours in film

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Starting in February, North London Cares began releasing 6 short films about some of the people we work with in Camden and Islington; their lives, their passions, the contributions they continue to make to their neighbours and commnunities, and the many ways in which they stay active and inspired. Check out those films here as they appear online week-by-week.

With “Albert”, the last of our Hidden Heroes films to be released via Kentishtowner, we hope there is something for everyone.

At 88 Albert retains some of childhood’s most endearing qualities. He is playful, adventurous, cheeky and fun. New experiences aren’t something to be afraid of; they’re to be embraced.

Until very recently Albert was a runner and keen martial artist. The joy with which he tells of throwing a 6-footer to the floor is boundless. He’s also a pianist, film lover, thinker and storyteller. He understands the world around him, and is at ease with his role in it.

The final shot in this film shows the modern world busily and anonymously going about its business. The city is chaotic and forgetful, but amid the mayhem Albert gets his head down and gets on with his day. Time goes quick but he goes slow. That feels like a fitting way to close the Hidden Heroes series.

Everyone who's spent a good deal of time in north London knows the ponds on Hampstead Heath. For those fortunate enough to be raised here, they’ve always been a backdrop in our lives; for some people they become a character too.

That’s certainly how May, our fifth and penultimate Hidden Hero, feels about the Kenwood Ladies’ Pond. Through her regular swims over forty years, the water has helped her stay fit and active. In happy moments, it’s been a place to build friendships, celebrate birthdays and indulge warm summers. In other times, it’s a place to reflect on days gone by, even loss. It’s provided more than a little tranquility in an otherwise chaotic city.

The ponds have been a local feature for over 300 years. They were originally dug from malarial marshes in the 17th and 18th centuries as reservoirs to meet the growing population’s ever thirstier demand for water.

Today, their purpose is less functional, more social. When they were threatened with closure a decade ago, a high court battle proved their value to the local community. Campaigners continue to protest various proposed changes.

Nobody knows whether the ponds in our back garden will survive another three centuries and more. For the time being, they are here for all of us to enjoy – as May has done for a lifetime. We hope that you’ll recognise some familiar and valued sights and sounds in our latest film. Please share the film widely if you do, and help us celebrate the Hidden Heroes like May – and the ponds – on our doorsteps.

Walter is another one of those priceless characters. As the world spins around him at a thousand miles an hour, he reminds us that there's wisdom to be found in serenity.

An introspective man, Walter's calm is infectious. Wrapped up in this thoughtful demeanour is warmth, gregariousness even intentional silliness; his humour is side-splittingly funny.

Walter hasn’t had it easy. He arrived from Sri Lanka in an unfamiliar place as a young man and had to build up a life, more than once as it transpires, on charm, humour and deep inner strength.

Now in his late fifties, Walter is a carer for his wife, who had a stroke many years ago. He has had challenging times, but he finds peace and relaxation in gardening, and has won awards for beautifying the area in front of his home in Russell Square.

In his soothing film, Walter slows down the pace of the Hidden Heroes series - and makes us think about priorities, and hope for the future...

We've known Peggy and Inez for a couple of years now. They've been attending ourSocial Clubs at the Peel Centre since we started working there every Friday in summer 2012 - joining their younger neighbours for film days, lunches, cinema trips and our lovely hops across to see members of the London Symphony Orchestra at St Luke's Old Street. They've become friends to us; they're two of the warmest people you could hope to meet.

So it was an absolute pleasure to spend a few hours filming with the two of them. As well as having a deep sense of what’s important in life, Peggy and Inez are cheeky as hell. They are constantly playful, easy to laughter, and honest as the day is long.

But as we wrote on the Kentishtowner, which is kindly hosting each of our 6 Hidden Heroes films, the thing that always strikes us about Peggy and Inez is the strength of their affinity for each other. Although they are proud individuals, they are two peas in a pod. They've got that special relationship that everybody has growing up and most people try to sustain throughout life. They're just bezzies.

We hope you enjoy the film - and if you'd like to hang out with Peggy and Inez please sign up to get involved with NLC.

Second in our series of 6 short films is Johnny, a 75 year old cab driver in Kentish Town, who's spent 40 years driving the streets, picking up locals and even ferrying about some of the biggest stars of the last 100 years -- like Frank Sinatra.

Johnny loves talking about his local area, and the people and the places that animate it.

He knows not everything is perfect, but as he drives us around "my area" reminiscing about pie and mash, splashing in the canal, and the smell of bread in Camden Town, his affection for the place he calls home is unbound, undiminished, and infectious.

Please watch Johnny in action - and share his story via Facebook and Twitter if you like it:

The first of our films was released on February 17th via award-winning north London title Kentishtowner, and with an article in The Times.

Dave Elvis is quite the character. If you meet him, you don't forget him in a hurry. In an age when “entertainment” is ubiquitous but most lacks value, Dave maintains an element of classic, Vegas-era showbiz: eccentric, sure, but also fearless, overstated, glam.

At 70 years old, and as Dave says in the film, music remains his purpose. As well as playing regular gigs, open mic nights and community events including The Cally Road Festival, he'll readily stop strangers on the street to entertain them, to give them a pick-me-up, or just to wax lyrical about the King. We hope that through this film, made by Tim Marrinan and co-produced by North London Cares, we've conveyed something of Dave's spirit.

Watch the film "Dave Elvis" below or in HD on Vimeo, and if you like it please share it widely via email, Twitter and Facebook.