Live stream preview

Watch this video and more on BFI Player Classics

Watch this video and more on BFI Player Classics

Start your free trial Learn more

Already subscribed? Sign in

Spare Time

Documentaries • Documentary, UR

Humphrey Jennings epitomises the artist-filmmaker and this poetic evocation of ordinary people enjoying well-earned time away from the mill, mine, or foundry is a forerunner to Jennings' later wartime greats such as Listen to Britain. Joyous shots of people either pigeon fancying, ballroom dancing or swigging a pint down the local in in Sheffield, Manchester, Bolton and Pontypridd are edited with grace and surrealism-infused wit.

Tags
Brass bands, Darts, Wrestling
Cast
Laurie Lee Commentator
Crew
Humphrey Jennings director

Up Next in Documentaries

  • Nice Time
    17:37
    Nice Time

    Nice Time

    The swirling neon frenzy of Piccadilly Circus has never been better captured than in this innovative short, which presents the London landmark as a bewildering collage of image and sound.

  • O Dreamland
    12:11
    O Dreamland

    O Dreamland

    Lindsay Anderson’s 12–minute tour of Margate’s Dreamland funfair is immediately notable for its deliberately bleak and unattractive photography and a spare and impressionistic soundtrack. Despite the absence of a commentary, the film distinctly conveys Anderson’s obvious disdain for the modest, i...

×