Victorian Entertainment

You'll never guess quite what this chap can hide under his cone...

A Victorian gentleman's quaint morning routine - complete with cut-throat razor, scent and powder

A tramp helps himself to a farmer's milk in this knockabout Victorian comedy

A Victorian vaudeville routine is given the big screen treatment with camera tricks galore.

Street-level storytelling with a saucy twist in this voyeuristic Victorian comedy

Seen but not heard? Three children get up to mischief after mother puts them to bed in this Victorian entertainment.

This burlesque film fantasy has striking sexual overtones - and a surprising feminist twist

A simple special effect enlivens an early crime film

This Victorian girl is engrossed in her games, and no wonder, with a dog, two cats and a doll to play with

A boy examines things through his Grandmother’s magnifying glass, and early film takes a huge step forward.

Fire! These early 20th-century firemen ride to the rescue on horse-drawn engines, bicycles and even a tandem

A hapless copper is left to pick up the pieces after a gruesome collision of early trick cinema and cartoonish comedy

A not-so-little variety star shows off his appetite

It's not easy for a Victorian lady to maintain her dignity on the water - and this clown certainly doesn't help

A philandering husband gets hung out to dry on laundry day

Four wriggling puppies make for more than an armful - as a young woman discovers in this charming short film

A Victorian gentleman undresses for bed. Rest assured that this film contains absolutely no nudity!

Backstage at a music hall, an actress prepares for her performance.

Granny's eyesight may be failing, but she won't rest until she has threaded her needle, and given us a giggle too

A Victorian gentleman is robbed at gunpoint, not just for his wallet but for his hat and suit as well. Oh, the humiliation

Well, did you ever? Two women share juicy stories, and enjoyably shocked reactions, over tea

Ooh la la! This chap becomes a little too engrossed in his French magazine, and ends up taking a cold shower

A simple special effect gives an eerily comic twist to this film of Victorian gentleman taking some outdoor exercise

A Boer War skirmish… filmed in Blackburn

After him! A tramp stealing meat kicks off one of the very first film chases

Film's first joke? A fresh take on an old prank.

All hands to the pump as firemen and passersby tackle a fire and save the horses from a stable smothered in smoke

A peeping Tom gets a shocking glimpse of stocking in this early take on film voyeurism.

When the bed itself is tossing and turning, how is a man supposed to get his rest?

A conversation between two gents perks up when they see a picture of a beautiful actress in a magazine

The strange objects in this shop are brought uncannily to life thanks to a series of early camera tricks

All's well that ends well - which is exactly what happens when movie magic undoes a boy's wanton vandalism

This sequence of increasingly enthusiastic smooches was hot stuff in 1899

Early advertising film demonstrating the machinery which revolutionised the printing industry

A soldier takes boisterous revenge when an unwelcome stranger interrupts his romantic moment

A Victorian stage spectacle filmed at the magnificent Crystal Palace in south London

Musical comedian Percy Honri is a ukulele-playing man-in-the-moon in this early skit

A husband catches his wife with another man and takes his revenge

What’s in your cheese? The microscopic mites here are unpleasant today but caused a sensation in 1903, in one of the Britain’s earliest exhibited scientific films.

Innovative early film, which invents its own 'split-screen' effect

The two sides of the Boer War slug it out

A dramatised Boer War scene

A pantomime kitchen scene

An early film in-joke

A scene from Bleak House is the first ever screen adaptation of Charles Dickens

Close-up of a close - and painful - shave

Saucy comedy about a bride modestly disrobing whilst the husband peeks from behind a screen

An entertaining early film 'trick'

The fabulous Deonzo Brothers in a spectacular barrel-jumping stage act

Mitchell & Kenyon enter the action genre, reimagining a Boer War skirmish - with Blackburn standing in for South Africa.

A drunken spouse gets his just desserts in a timeless scene

A pet dog submits to his mistress’s beautifying ministrations

Two men lose it laughing at something in a magazine

Music hall chairs: impressive acrobatics in a Victorian music hall act

An early demonstration of Greco-Roman wrestling for the benefit of the camera

Fictional treatment of a contemporary atrocity story from the 1900 Boxer rebellion in China.

Comic hijinks with a malodorous tramp

A mischievous model turns on the artist

Beautifully-preserved early film of a young girl feeding some excitable puppies

An overeager guest disrupts teatime in this enigmatic slice of Victorian drama.

This innovative 'trick' film is a fantastical children's pantomime in miniature

Crimewatch Mitchell and Kenyon style, in the first ever film to recreate a true crime.

A grisly early fictional reconstruction inspired by atrocity stories from China's Boxer Rebellion.

This ‘facial’ comedy showcases the rubber face of Tom Green.

Dramatised account of Chinese rebels' violent confrontation with Christian missionaries, made in the wake of the Boxer Rebellion.

A country yokel gets a shock in an early example of a 'film within a film'.

A mysterious fragment of Victorian footage.

A dramatic rescue from a burning building by heroic firemen is one of our most important films

Fascinating fragments of a typical Victorian seaside entertainment

When a couple's home is burgled, the missus proves her mettle by confronting the culprit, come what may

A splash of Victorian comedy that still reels you in

The 'Two McNaughtons' roll out their popular music-hall routine

Victorian Music hall star Lil Hawthorne sings the popular 'Kitty Mahone' in this earliest surviving 'sound film'

A witty warning that medicine is not to be messed with: mix the wrong dose of powders and your bellyache may blow up

Out-takes of the world's earliest ever 'Western' film.

A classic saucy sketch, a chance for canoodling in the carriage as the train hits a tunnel

There's more than footwork going on in this dance lesson

A battle of soot versus flour

A woman beating out a carpet; a frisky policeman; a husband’s return… whatever will happen next?

An old joke but a merry one.

Early comedy in which a cruel joke is played on an old maid

A bracing fight scene, played out in an early purpose-built film studio.

A comic old faithful

It's a lovely day in the park, for romance and daylight robbery - but will this tramp make a clean getaway?

These two little lovelies were captured on screen by RW Paul and were the hit of his 1896 Alhambra show.

Young scamps launch a snowball attack on a hapless bobby.

A policeman breaks up a gambling den, but is caught pocketing the proceeds.

Rare production footage of an early 'trick' film with a famous music hall performer.

A faithless wife, with a penchant for men in uniform, entertains a sailor before her policeman husband comes home.

A boy asks a magician to entertain his sick sister in this edition of RW Paul’s Sentimental Songs with Animated Illustrations.

A treat for Victorian voyeurs - and Britain's oldest erotic film?

A yokel is so impressed by a conjuror's magic trick that he attempts to repeat it on his wife

Plenty of laughs to be had as these Victorian clowns attempt to run a charity race - if they can get their wigs on

Harsh reality interrupts an older man's reverie of flirting with a pretty young woman

One of the earliest surviving British adverts

The first ever Shakespearean film - once thought to be lost - with Herbert Beerbohm Tree in the title role.

Debut film outing for Dickens' Yuletide classic

A classic early film gag - and a big leap forward for a fast-evolving new art

Frogs legs on film: trailblazing Victorian medical research

What larks during the morning wash, swapping bootblack for the soap...

These Victorian children's Christmas wishes come true in a very special early British film

Entertaining example of early 'special effects'

A memorable early film 'trick'

A whistlestop tour of early filmmaking, from street scenes to a thrilling Western.

Double nostalgia, as this 1930 newsreel looks back at a London landmark in earlier days

Brits versus Boers... or are they?

Quick on the draw: Victorian cartoonist Tom Merry does a rapid sketch of Kaiser Wilhelm II

I've got you under my skin... early 'trick' film having fun with the new science of x-ray photography

An unusual farewell in this charming early film