In the 1890s countryside, Lettice Bly learns to ride a bicycle with the help of her new scientific friend.
The joke in this seven-minute comedy is angular momentum. Lettice cannot stay upright on her new bicycle and has decided the machine is at fault. A stranger crouches in the road and explains that a spinning wheel resists being tipped over. Stability is a function of speed. The answer to falling off is therefore to go faster. She tries it and it works, which makes this the rare period drama that leaves you with a usable cycling lesson.
In 1890s Britain, women cycling shocks the nation. Lettice Bly sets forth, armed with her new bicycle and scandalous bloomers.
But cycling isn't as easy as she thought, and passerby science geek Millicent Frimley-Pratt aims to help her soar with the power of physics.
The 1890s cycling boom did more for women's freedom of movement than any argument of the period: a bicycle carried its rider well beyond the reach of a chaperone, and the rational dress it demanded drew as much outrage as the machine itself.
The outrage was not theoretical. Lettice mentions a cousin who had stones thrown at her and was forbidden the bicycle afterwards, which is close to what happened to real women who rode in bloomers in the 1890s; the Rational Dress movement spent the decade arguing that a skirt was more dangerous than a divided one, and losing, and winning anyway because the bicycles kept selling.
Two things are quietly going on under the comedy. Both women have been told what they may not do. One is refused a bicycle by her father and the other is refused a teaching career, and the lesson in the road is the first time either of them has been treated as capable. Millicent takes notes on Lettice as a specimen and promises to write her up in the papers. Lettice, who lives there and would rather not, is drawn as a friend by the end of the afternoon.
A seven-minute period short set in 1890s Britain, directed and produced by Nicole Sarah Fry and written by Jasmine Fry.