Bruce Lacey

A brief canter through the life and work of one of Britain's most unbelievable artists.

Bruce Lacey performance

A cabal of sentient shopping carts take up grisly revenge after they've been pushed around long enough.

A ritual created and performed by Bruce Lacey.

Bruce Lacey wandering around and interacting with stones

Using only one camera, remote controlled mirrors and an external tilting device, Lacey alternates the perspective of angular planes on his face into that of a woman. Like archetypal statues, the images disintegrate, solidify and slowly re-assemble.

A moody, pastoral sci-fi tale about Stella Superstar and her travels across the universe. Vaseline around the camera lens and other early cinema techniques turn it into something truly beautiful.

'.....invites us to experience a level of connection and intimacy between two people.' - Sam Dunn (Head of BFI Video Publishing)

Experimental cutout piece

Bruce Lacey: 'People used to come and make documentaries about me, but they weren't interested in the day-to-day family life that I found extremely interesting and funny. So I decided to make that film myself. All the members of the family wrote down all the different day-to-day things that they wanted to be seen doing.'

The Lacey watch British astronauts landing on the moon

An instructional film by Bruce Lacey.

A 1974 documentary in which comedian Dave Allen meets a variety of eccentrics including Alexander Stuart Wortley who lives in a box on wheels, a cowboy vicar and the artist/filmmaker Bruce Lacey showing his set-up where he pretends to fly a Lancaster bomber in his garage.

An obscure Eastern cult that practices human sacrifice pursues Ringo after he unknowingly puts on a ceremonial ring (that, of course, won't come off). On top of that, a pair of mad scientists, members of Scotland Yard, and a beautiful but dead-eyed assassin all have their own plans for the Fab Four.

A nebbish schoolteacher begs his smooth (and misogynistic) pal to teach him 'the knack' – how to score with women. Serendipitously, the men meet up with a new girl in town, as well as a friendly lunatic who can’t help but paint things white.

Harriet Blossom is married to Robert Blossom, a businessman who'd rather spend the night at his bra factory than at home with her. One day, Harriet's sewing machine breaks, so Robert sends a repairman, Ambrose, to fix it. It's lust at first sight for Harriet, who convinces Ambrose to hide out in the attic for a tryst. When her new beau shows no desire to leave, the pair begin a years-long love affair right under Robert's nose.

Sequel to The Mouse that Roared; The Tiny Country of Grand Fenwick has a hot water problem in the castle. To get the money necessary to put in a new set of plumbing, they request foreign aid from the U.S. for Space Research. The Russians then send aid as well to show that they too are for the internationalization of space. While the grand Duke is dreaming of hot baths, their one scientist is slapping together a rocket. The U.S. and Soviets get wind of the impending launch and try and beat them to the moon.

An instructional film by Bruce Lacey.

Two young women arrive in London to make it big in show business, and become corrupted by money and fame in the process.

The hero and heroine want to popularize trad jazz in their town. Some older people feel displeased about trad jazz, and prevent their trying. The hero and heroine go to a London television studio to ask trad jazz musicians to perform in concert.

A surreal mix of advertising tropes from the 1960s is very funny but has a neat anti-capitalist undertow.

Lewis and Scilla's rocky marriage finally breaks apart – a situation made worse by the fact that Scilla is a key part of the television show that Lewis produces. But while Lewis copes by picking up a passing starlet, Scilla indulges her passion for bathrooms by getting one custom-designed by an ex-Nazi architect!

The Preservation Man is about useless objects but here they're part of the artist Bruce Lacey's collection of random junk that is incorporated into his art with their original function is irrelevant. Sensibly, Russell and commentator Huw Wheldon keep analysis to a minimum, preferring to use the film as an excuse to spend a quarter of an hour in Lacey's amiable company.

The crazy almost-launch to BBC2, starring The Alberts alongside Ivor Cutler, commissioned in the wake of their rule-changing love comedy theatre show, ‘An Evening of British Rubbish’. It’s Rubbish, but by Jingo – it’s British Rubbish!

Sped up footage of musicians fighting on a stretch of mudflats.

Mechanical statues and other pieces by Bruce Lacey.

Art for art's sake.

The Alberts (Bruce Lacey, Tony Gray and his brother Dougie Gray) attempt to take off. There are two edits of this film, both with their own distinct ending.

Spike stars with Bob Todd, Bill Kerr, Graham Stark, Valentine Dyall, and Sheree Winton & a final TV outing for moustachioed 'token Italian' comedy actor Mario Fabrizi, who died 18 months later, aged just 38.

A performance of the band The Alberts. One of several films made especially for deaf children by adult film maker George Harrison Marks.

The Alberts (Bruce Lacey, Tony Gray and his brother Dougie Gray) attempt to take off. There are two edits to this film, both with their distinct ending. The other version is edited by Bruce Lacey and is four minutes shorter.

An early cinema influenced tale of rags to riches by Bob Godfrey. Bruce Lacey stars as the hapless ‘little man’ who longs to stand in the shoes of his hero: conductor Lance Corporal.

Starring Lacey as the Mobile Absurd Non-entity, aka M.A.N. – a “synchronized, pressurized, energized, moisturized moron” – this angry, Goon-like film rips apart the factory-produced, ‘ideal home’-type lifestyle aggressively marketed in the post-war era with playful, witty panache.

A short film without any direct action designed more as an experiment, with disjointed comic scenes with no common thread.

Free-form and anarchic in a very English way, this elaborate, gothic, handmade production was based on a tale from the ARABIAN NIGHTS and looks forward to FLAMING CREATURES and other underground movies from the 60s that merge lush fantasy with grimy reality. Art director Bruce Lacey stars as the ghoulish witch doctor who brings a dead body back to life.

A highly impressionistic film in which a blind man (Lacey) drifts through the war-damaged streets of Camden and Islington.