Spare Time

An impression of working class leisure activities in Sheffield, Bolton, Manchester and Pontypridd, this was produced by the GPO Film Unit under Cavalcanti but was heavily influenced by the Mass Observation movement. The material is mundane: the greyhounds, the bike club, the Palais, and so on. But Jennings' eye for rich, resonant images and the fluency with which it's all stitched together, in harmony or counterpoint with some pre-existing piece of music, impressively foreshadows his wartime pictures. Centrepiece is a kazoo band, The Victorians, desperately cold on a winter's day, performing a grotesque version of Rule Britannia on a misty, forlorn playing field. A touching, troubling encapsulation of 1930s Britain.