Bed Record (1961)

Hampton, Middlesex. M/S of a young man in a black teacher’s gown working out an algebra sum on a blackboard in the playing field of Hampton Grammar School. Four teenage boys carry an iron bed frame over the field and place it on the ground, then reinforce it with some scaffolding poles. M/S of a line of boys walking across the field; each one puts his shoes on a large pile on the ground as he passes; C/U of various different patterned socks as they walk past the camera. Commentator tells us the boys are setting up a new record for the number of persons that can be contained by one single bed. The boys then start getting on the bed; the older ones go first; other boys standing by make sure they are squished up together properly. Then more and more boys pile on - it’s making me feel a bit queasy! We hear that these boys broke the American record by two people; getting 65 on the bed at their first attempt. Some small boys are lifted onto the pile; a school boy in a blazer makes a note of the tot