Hints and Hobbies No. 7 - 1926

Country: United Kingdom
Strictly Come Dancing' 1920s-style.
This extract is from the seventh installment in the wonderful 'Hints and Hobbies' canon and continues the tradition of doling out helpful tips to the masses including advice on how not to ballroom dance (stamping hard on your partner's toes is frowned upon). Later in the film (not seen here) there's the invaluable pointer that mashing wet bran into your furs will prevent a dirty neck... If ever a franchise deserved resurrecting, it is this one. (Alex Davidson)
You can watch the rest of this film and over 1000 other complete films and TV programmes from the BFI National Archive free of charge at the new BFI Mediatheque - http://www.bfi.org.uk/mediatheque

Hints and Hobbies No. 1 - 1926

Country: United Kingdom
The Hints and Hobbies series was a bizarre and eclectic mix of handy hints shown to inter-war cinemagoers. The range of advice given in this edition varies from good, sensible and practical advice on how to treat a fracture from the capable Mrs Webb of the St John's Ambulance Brigade, to the more obscure, yet intriguing, way of how to supplement your rent; improbably, in true Blue Peter style, by making vases for dried flowers out of cardboard and cretonne. Cretonne?... Presumably it's as elusive to find as sticky-backed plastic.
By far the most wonderful sequence (shown here) is advice on how to be the perfect husband. A nervous middle-class London wife opens and presents a series of bills for hats and outfits from fashionable Knightsbridge shops to her husband. He studies them carefully, and sweetly reassures her that her purchases are most reasonable and that she really should have bought two costumes at such economical prices! (Sharon Messenger)
You can watch this film and over 1000 other complete films and TV programmes from the BFI National Archive free of charge at the new BFI Mediatheque - http://www.bfi.org.uk/mediatheque