Table Manner. How to Behave at the Dinner Table

This comprehensive instructional video on table manners is charming and insightful and is humorous in its old-fashioned delivery.

A group of children gather around a neatly laid table. As they settle to eat, a series of exaggerated scenarios exemplifying bad table manners are presented. Someone hogs the vegetables, another aggressively barges through his neighbour to reach the salt. With every example, a more polite and civil alternative is shown, complete with smiling faces. One boy struggles to keep a straight face as he demonstrates talking with his mouth full.

This film is from the collection of Enfield Local Studies Library and Archive, a member of the London's Screen Archives Network.