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Victorian Entertainment

"We are not amused", said Queen Victoria - or so we're told. Her subjects, though, were eager for all manner of entertainments. The first films made their homes in the fairground and the music hall, and the first filmmakers - several of them originally showmen or magic lanternists - were more than happy to supply the laughs, drama and thrills that audiences demanded.

Comic skits, sight gags, dramatic scenes and the like were hugely popular. Non-fiction subjects outnumbered entertainments, but it was the second that inspired early filmmakers to many of their greatest innovations, from 'facials' (the first close-ups) to 'tricks', the prototype for modern special effects.

115 items in this collection

The Beggar's Deceit

  • 1900

Spiders on a Web

  • 1900

Come Along, Do!

  • 1898

A Railway Collision

  • 1900

Comic Faces - Old Man Drinking a Glass of Beer

  • 1897

How It Feels to Be Run Over

  • 1900

The Magic Extinguisher

  • 1901

A Quick Shave and Brush-up

  • 1900

Catching the Milk Thief

  • 1899

Clown and Police

  • 1900

A Photograph Taken from Our Area Window

  • 1901

Children in the Nursery

  • 1898

Artistic Creation

  • 1901

Footpads

  • 1896

The Child, Dog and Pram

  • 1900

Grandma's Reading Glass

  • 1900

Answering a Call

  • 1901

Explosion of a Motor Car

  • 1900

Herbert Campbell As Little Bobby

  • 1899

Lady and the Boat

  • 1899

Hanging out the Clothes; Or, Master, Mistress and Maid

  • 1897

Lady and Puppies

  • 1901

Man in Bedroom

  • 1901

Lettie Limelight in Her Lair

  • 1900

Grandma Threading Her Needle

  • 1900

Robbery

  • 1897

Scandal over the Teacups

  • 1900

Soda Syphon Joke

  • 1900

The Bathers

  • 1900

Winning the V.C.

  • 1900

Stop Thief!

  • 1901

The Biter Bit

  • 1898

The Burning Stable

  • 1900

As Seen through a Telescope

  • 1900

Man by Bed

  • 1901

Two Old Sports

  • 1900

The Haunted Curiosity Shop

  • 1901

The House That Jack Built

  • 1900

The Kissing Couple

  • 1899

Three Linotype Machines

  • 1900

Tommy Atkins in the Park

  • 1898

The Sports and Nations' Dance, Grand Finale and Curtain, On Open Air Stage at Crystal Palace

  • 1899

Mister Moon

  • 1901

Lover Kisses Husband

  • 1900
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.

Cheese Mites

  • 1903

Are You There?

  • 1901

A Prize Fight or Glove Fight between John Bull and President Kruger

  • 1900

Shelling the Red Cross

  • 1900

Policeman in Schoolroom

  • 1901

The Bill Poster

  • 1899

The Death of Poor Joe

  • 1900

The Dull Razor

  • 1900

The Bride's First Night

  • 1898

The Puzzled Bather and His Animated Clothes

  • 1901

The Deonzo Brothers

  • 1901

The Dispatch Bearer

  • 1900

Two A.M.; Or, The Husband's Return

  • 1896

The Lassie and Her Dog

  • 1901

Two Laughing Men

  • 1900

Will Evans, The Musical Eccentric

  • 1899

Two Wrestlers

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

Attack on a China Mission - Bluejackets to the Rescue

  • Brighton
  • 1900

Weary Willie

  • West Yorkshire
  • 1898

The Artist's Model

  • 1898

Woman, Dog and Pups

  • 1901

Afternoon Tea al Fresco

  • 1900

The Magic Sword A Mediaeval Mystery

  • 1901
Crimewatch Mitchell and Kenyon style, in the first ever film to recreate a true crime.

Arrest of Goudie (1901)

  • Berry St, Liverpool
  • 1901
A grisly early fictional reconstruction inspired by atrocity stories from China's Boxer Rebellion.

Beheading a Chinese Boxer

  • 1900

Aunt Selina - Takes Snuff, Sews and Plays with Her Cats

  • 1900
Dramatised account of Chinese rebels' violent confrontation with Christian missionaries, made in the wake of the Boxer Rebellion.

Attack on a Mission Station

  • Blackburn
  • 1900

The Countryman and the Cinematograph

  • 1901

Collapsing Bed Scene

  • 1897

Fire!

  • 1901

Black Face Pierrots

  • 1899

His Brave Defender

  • 1901

Gentleman Fishing

  • 1896

Has He Hit Me?

  • 1898

Kitty Mahone

  • 1900

The Indian Chief and the Seidlitz Powder

  • 1901
Out-takes of the world's earliest ever 'Western' film.

Kidnapping by Indians (1899)

  • Blackburn
  • 1899

The Kiss in the Tunnel

  • 1899

Long Night Dance

  • 1900

The Miller and the Sweep

  • 1897

Policeman Beaten

  • 1900
An old joke but a merry one.

A Morning Wash (1900)

  • 1900
Early comedy in which a cruel joke is played on an old maid

The Old Maid's Valentine

  • 1900

Policeman and Burglar

  • 1902

The Postman and the Nursemaid

  • 1899

The Tramp and the Baby's Bottle

  • 1899

The Twins' Tea Party

  • 1896
Young scamps launch a snowball attack on a hapless bobby.

Snowballs (1901)

  • Glasgow
  • 1901
A policeman breaks up a gambling den, but is caught pocketing the proceeds.

Sporting Colliers and the Bobby (c.1901)

  • 1901
Rare production footage of an early 'trick' film with a famous music hall performer.

Mr Moon (1901)

  • 1901
A faithless wife, with a penchant for men in uniform, entertains a sailor before her policeman husband comes home.

The Unfaithful Wife (c.1900)

  • 1900

The Waif and the Wizard; or, The Home Made Happy

  • 1901
A treat for Victorian voyeurs - and Britain's oldest erotic film?

Woman Undressing

  • 1896

The Would-be Conjuror

  • 1900

Comic Costume Race

  • 1896

Let Me Dream Again

  • 1900

The Spirit of His Forefathers

  • 1900
The first ever Shakespearean film - once thought to be lost - with Herbert Beerbohm Tree in the title role.

King John

  • 1899

Scrooge; Or, Marley's Ghost

  • 1901

The Big Swallow

  • 1901

First X-ray Cinematograph Film Ever Taken, Shown by Dr. Macintyre at the London Royal Society 1897

A Morning Wash

  • 1900

Santa Claus

  • 1898

Undressing Extraordinary; Or, The Troubles of a Tired Traveller

  • 1901

Upside Down; Or, The Human Flies

  • 1899

How We Filmed in the Nineties

  • 1936

Pathe Pictorial No. 624

  • 1897

Nurses Attending the Wounded

  • 1899

Tom Merry, Lightning Cartoonist, Sketching Kaiser Wilhelm II

  • 1895

The X Rays

  • 1897

Good Night

  • St Pancras
  • 1898