This film is part of Rentals
Time Flies
Fast-talking funny man Tommy Handley visits Elizabethan England - and ends up teaching Good Queen Bess con tricks - in this snappy time-travel comedy.
Director: Walter Forde
Overview
This rollicking flight of fancy sees Liverpool-born comic Tommy Handley - best known for his cheery wartime radio comedy show, ITMA - take a trip back to Ye Olde England inside a dotty professor's amazing 'Time Ball'. While he's there, he and his friends teach Raleigh to smoke, help Shakespeare pen a few tricky lines, and introduce the peasants to the joys of jazz music.
Some of the jokes in Time Flies would surely have been considered corny in Shakespeare's day, but amid the puns and patter are some remarkably prescient sci-fi ideas - a futuristic camera, capable of capturing and instantly replaying moving images, seems a lot like a hand-held digital video device. Notable among a strong supporting cast are Felix Aylmer, outstanding as a scientist in a world of his own, and Will Hay's old sidekicks: Moore Marriott as a Nostradamus-like soothsayer, and Graham Moffatt as his surly nephew. Digitisation supported by The Mohamed S. Farsi Foundation.
Related
Special People Special People
Comedy 2008 74 mins Director: Justin Edgar
Justin Edgar's pioneering feature comedy about a neurotic filmmaker enlisted to make a film with a class of wheelchair-users.
Timestalker Timestalker
Comedy 2024 89 mins Director: Alice Lowe
What if unrequited love spanned the centuries? Alice Lowe's time-jumping fantasy rom-com is a colourful, darkly funny treat.
Night Courier (Mandoob) Night Courier (Mandoob)
Comedy 2023 112 mins Director: Ali Kalthami
A desperate delivery driver gets caught up in the dark underworld of Riyadh in Ali Kalthamiβs gripping, pitch-black satire.
Seven Psychopaths Seven Psychopaths
Comedy 2012 110 mins Director: Martin McDonagh
Three Billboards' director Martin McDonagh spins an epic and twisted tale of pets and gangsters, with an all-star cast.
The Day Shall Come The Day Shall Come
Comedy 2019 88 mins Director: Christopher Morris
An impoverished Miami preacher is lured into terrorism by the FBI, in the latest explosive satire from comedy genius Chris Morris.
Tamara Drewe Tamara Drewe
Comedy 2010 111 mins Director: Stephen Frears
The return of beautiful journalist Tamara Drewe (Gemma Arterton) awakens destructive passions in a Dorset village.
Kadoyng Kadoyng
Children's 1972 60 mins Director: Ian Shand
It looks like the quaint village of Byway will be bulldozed to make way for a motorway β until alien outcast Kadoyng arrives from Outer Space to help.
Quest for Love Quest for Love
Romance 1971 87 mins Director: Ralph Thomas
This British sci-fi comedy, adapted from a John Wyndham story, follows a manβs search to find the ideal woman whom he briefly meets in a parallel universe.
The Day the Earth Caught Fire The Day the Earth Caught Fire
Science Fiction 1961 100 mins Director: Val Guest
The BFIβs HD remaster of the British sci-fi classic. A journalist discovers that the Earth has been knocked off its axis and is moving ever closer to the sun. Is the Earth doomed?
The Man Who Changed His Mind The Man Who Changed His Mind
Horror 1936 63 mins Director: Robert Stevenson
Boris Karloff stars as Dr. Laurence, a scientist who has devised a way to put one personβs mind into anotherβs body.
Brown on Resolution Brown on Resolution
War 1935 71 mins Director: Walter Forde
Walter Fordeβs 1935 war drama stars a young John Mills as the illegitimate son of a naval officer who brings down a German cruiser in WWI.
Rome Express Rome Express
Thriller 1933 91 mins Director: Walter Forde
A star-studded international cast boards the Paris-Rome express for this lavish comedy-thriller from Gainsborough Pictures.
Small Things Like These Small Things Like These
Drama 2024 99 mins
Oscar-winner Cillian Murphy delivers a stunning performance as a coal merchant who discovers horrific secrets about his local convent.
Only the River Flows Only the River Flows
Crime 2023 102 mins Director: Shujun Wei
Shujun Wei's slow-burn noir draws us inexorably into its mysterious psychological journey.
The Critic The Critic
Period drama 2023 101 mins Director: Anand Tucker
Ian McKellen is in delicious form as London's most vicious critic, who strikes a Faustian pact with a struggling actor (Gemma Arterton).
Special People Special People
Comedy 2008 74 mins Director: Justin Edgar
Justin Edgar's pioneering feature comedy about a neurotic filmmaker enlisted to make a film with a class of wheelchair-users.
Timestalker Timestalker
Comedy 2024 89 mins Director: Alice Lowe
What if unrequited love spanned the centuries? Alice Lowe's time-jumping fantasy rom-com is a colourful, darkly funny treat.
South: Sir Ernest Shackleton's Glorious Epic of the Antarctic South: Sir Ernest Shackleton's Glorious Epic of the Antarctic
Documentary 1919 81 mins Silent Director: Frank Hurley
An extraordinary story of survival in the wastes of Antarctica.