Photos
Patterson Hume
- Self
- (as Professor Patterson Hume)
Donald Ivey
- Self
- (as Professor Donald Ivey)
Storyline
Featured review
Relatively Speaking
One of the most miserable experiences I had at school was attending physics lessons, when I wandered around in a state of controlled panic without a clue what was going on. (My teacher described me in my end of term report as "Extremely lazy".)
One of very few pleasant memories I had of that time was when our teacher set up a projector and showed us this film, in the closing credits of I was already cine-literate enough to recognise the venerable name of documentary director Richard Leacock.
Produced under the auspices of the Physical Science Committee this educational film depicts the antics of Professors Patterson Hume (1923-2013) and Donald Ivey (1922-2018) of the University of Toronto as they sought to explain the rather arcane subject of ascertaining inertial and noninertial frames of reference.
Beginning with Professor Ivey addressing the audience in medium close-up, the fun begins when Professor Hume appears upside down, walks around him, quizzically sizes him up and incredulously declares "You look peculiar, you're upside down!!" Professor Ivey smiles at the audience then tosses a coin to decide whose right; the coin goes up so he promptly loses the bet.
And so it proceeds with the two wise young men in old-fashioned suits politely referring to each other throughout as 'Professor Hume and 'Professor Ivey' explaining a tricky subject in ways that could never have been attempted on a lecture platform.
Harry Enfield is a couple of years younger than me. Presumably he also had to attend physics lessons so I think I can guess were he drew the inspiration for Mr Grayson and Mr Cholmondley-Warner.
One of very few pleasant memories I had of that time was when our teacher set up a projector and showed us this film, in the closing credits of I was already cine-literate enough to recognise the venerable name of documentary director Richard Leacock.
Produced under the auspices of the Physical Science Committee this educational film depicts the antics of Professors Patterson Hume (1923-2013) and Donald Ivey (1922-2018) of the University of Toronto as they sought to explain the rather arcane subject of ascertaining inertial and noninertial frames of reference.
Beginning with Professor Ivey addressing the audience in medium close-up, the fun begins when Professor Hume appears upside down, walks around him, quizzically sizes him up and incredulously declares "You look peculiar, you're upside down!!" Professor Ivey smiles at the audience then tosses a coin to decide whose right; the coin goes up so he promptly loses the bet.
And so it proceeds with the two wise young men in old-fashioned suits politely referring to each other throughout as 'Professor Hume and 'Professor Ivey' explaining a tricky subject in ways that could never have been attempted on a lecture platform.
Harry Enfield is a couple of years younger than me. Presumably he also had to attend physics lessons so I think I can guess were he drew the inspiration for Mr Grayson and Mr Cholmondley-Warner.
helpful•40
- richardchatten
- Dec 24, 2022
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Official site
- Language
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
- Runtime28 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.33 : 1
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content