Year: 1966
Language: English
Format: 16mm Black & White
Runtime: 57 min
Director: John Spotton, Donald Brittain, Arthur Hammond
Producer: Guy Glover
Cinematographer: Martin Duckworth, Peter Hennessy, Paul Leach
Sound: Roger Hart, Ron Alexander, Roger Lamoureux, John Knight
Music: John Knight
Cast: R Thomson
Production Company: National Film Board of Canada

Never a Backward Step provides an intimate portrait of Canadian press tycoon Roy Herbert Thomson, Lord Thomson of Fleet, a businessman from Timmins, Ontario who ended up owning more newspapers than any other man in the world. Publisher, television magnate, financier – his communications empire stretched around the world and earned him a baronetcy in England. The filmmakers follow Thomson for a few days and capture the many sides of this very ordinary Canadian who, by dint of hard work and luck, became one of the most powerful men in the world. This frank study of an equally frank man won a Canadian Film Award for Feature Documentary (under the title Never Take a Step Backwards).