Shakespearean Recital and Pageant

All the village is a stage on this jubilant day in West Yorkshire.

Specialising in patriotic sentiment, Topical Budget filmmakers loved revealing quirky images of British traditions. This item in particular does justice to a joyful spectacle: Shakespearean re-enactments and folk dancing. While a film like this is clearly limited by a lack of sound, background glimpses of unspoilt Yorkshire countryside still lend it a timeless, evocative quality.

Temporarily acquired by the Government as a propaganda arm in the First World War, Topical Budget had shown relative longevity for a newsreel, but declined after returning to private ownership. By 1927, it was only four years away from being wound up thanks to the advent of sound - offering glimpses of maypole dancing and speech-reading, didn't footage like this deserve to be heard as well as seen? After all, if music be the food of love…