Made by the BBC, this is a tour of the Castle Museum in York and is presented by Fyfe Robertson. The film includes footage of the famous Victorian street in the Museum including the music and weaving shops. Title - Brush off the Dust with Fyfe Robertson "The World of Doctor Kirk" Was viewed by Fyfe Robertson with Robert Patterson the Museum Curator. The film opens with a montage sequence of museum artefacts and statues. The opening title is placed over a shot of a revolving...

Made by the BBC, this is a tour of the Castle Museum in York and is presented by Fyfe Robertson. The film includes footage of the famous Victorian street in the Museum including the music and weaving shops. Title - Brush off the Dust with Fyfe Robertson "The World of Doctor Kirk" Was viewed by Fyfe Robertson with Robert Patterson the Museum Curator. The film opens with a montage sequence of museum artefacts and statues. The opening title is placed over a shot of a revolving door. Next is a Victorian street scene, and a carriage pulls up. The camera zooms in on the presenter (elderly man in a deerstalker) outside a shop. He informs us that this is a recreated Victorian scene inside Castle Museum. As proof, the camera tilts upwards to show the museum roof. We learn that this model street was the brain-child of Dr. Kirk, and there is a photograph, and a plaque in his honour. The presenter continues to talk, the camera cuts to a slow zoom of a baker working with dough. Outside the shop, Victorian cyclists come past, and following this are more scenes of the interior of the bakery. The man walks up the street and looks at the sweets in the window, continually narrating. He gets to a book shop, and there is a close up of a Bible preface. As he walks, he passes a man filing in a lathe in the street. He goes to a music shop where there are assorted instruments in the window, including a phonograph and organelle. Next he enters the weaver's shop where there is a spinning wheel in action. Also demonstrated is how to operate a loom. He leaves and enters a public house, ordering a whisky and a pint of beer. He looks nostalgically misty eyed when it only costs him 2 pennies. He goes over to the wall and talks about a game that has fallen out of the times, brasses, which is similar to quoits. The next port of call on this voyage of discovery is a vertical cash register. Following this is a wall where prisoners serving life sentences had carved their name into the stone. The next shop contains gas lamps and electric heaters. He enters and tries out a machine that gives electric shocks! Then it is onto the appliance/ironmonger shop. Here there are demonstrations of: apple peeler and corer, hard-boiled egg cutter, coffee warmer night light, sausage griller, early washing machine, and mincing machine. The Fyfe and the Museum Curator then talk about the WC on the floor. The final shop is a post-office where he buys a replica Penny Black. He leaves, posts the letter, and watches the mail carriage leave. Title - "The World of Doctor Kirk." The BBC gratefully acknowledges the cooperation of the York Castle Museum Committee and Staff in preparation of this programme. Produced by Trevor Hill Series Edited by Alan Rees BBC tv