Co-operette

See silly slapstick, music, mayhem and a daffy dance-off between a carrot and an onion in this lively colour film advertising Co-op stores.

Debroy Somers and his Band, comedian Hal Walters and the delightful dance troupe ‘The Six Co-Operettes’ all feature in this captivating full-colour promotional film for the Co-Operative Wholesale Society. Watch with wonder as one sprightly young vegetable tears strips off the other in the bewildering but brilliant ‘carrot and onion dance’. Comedian Stanley Holloway was famous for his comic monologues but for reasons unknown, he never gets started here. The BFI’s copy of this extremely rare film cuts away just as it looks like he’s going begin his routine.