British Pathe

M/S of Malcolm Taylor sitting at a desk in an office and talking on the telephone and making notes; he hangs up, takes his notes and a briefcase and walks out of shot. M/Ss as we see him walk up to a large house in St John's Wood, London, and ring on the doorbell; a lady answers the door and lets him...

M/S of Malcolm Taylor sitting at a desk in an office and talking on the telephone and making notes; he hangs up, takes his notes and a briefcase and walks out of shot. M/Ss as we see him walk up to a large house in St John's Wood, London, and ring on the doorbell; a lady answers the door and lets him in.

Commentator tells us that Malcolm is an actor, and has set up an agency called 'Domestics Unlimited' for actors between engagements; a kind of home-help agency, the duties can mean anything from housework to baby-sitting. M/Ss of Malcolm taking off his jacket and putting on a frilly apron, then going outside to scrub the doorstep.

C/U of a young actress/writer, Bernadette Milne, sitting at a table and typing; M/S as we see Malcolm sweeping the floor around her with a roller-sweeper. C/U of Bernadette typing then looking over her typewriter to check Malcolm's work.

M/S and C/U of another 'resting' actor, Graham Larkin, polishing a tiled floor in a bathroom - he too wears a rather feminine apron. M/S of Malcolm cleaning a window from the outside. C/U of a saucepan steaming on a stove; M/S of Graham checking his watch, then lifting the pan lid to stir it.

M/S of Malcolm coming out of the house, pushing a young boy in a wheelchair; a small girl comes out of the house and runs after them; they walk off up the road with the children playing catch with a ball. They arrive at a playground and the boy immediately leaps out of the wheelchair and onto the roundabout, (perhaps it is a pushchair, although he looks too old for that). Malcolm pushes the children round, as we get a good point of view shot from the spinning roundabout. C/U of an old dowager-type lady looking on.

The children drag Malcolm to the seesaw and they sit on one end while he takes the other end and starts to 'seesaw' with them. M/S of the children going up and down, as the camera tilts up and down with them. Malcolm is starting to look a bit queasy and worn out; he signals to the children to stop and gets off his end of the seesaw, stops the boy from getting in the pushchair and sits down in it. The children push him out of shot and then off down the road (Abercorn Place) while Malcolm lights a cigarette.

Interesting film; I wonder if it inspired the feature film 'Carry On Regardless' - or vice versa! Good shots of men doing housework in frilly aprons / pinnies.

Note: Malcolm Taylor was also featured in CP 301 - Billy Bunter Audition. There are some notes on file written by Malcolm about the agency and his acting career, plus very brief notes on Graham and Bernadette (it looks like she was working on the Billy Bunter show at the Victoria Palace that was auditioning in CP 301).

Note: See out takes on *PM0125* CP 315 CUTS .