Plastic clothes, video phones, vacuum tube emails - step into the heady, high-tech future world of... 1955!

It takes a leap of imagination to get from the electric oven in 1935 to plastic clothes, video phones, vacuum tube emails, and the home cinema by 1955. But the Electrical Development Association was clearly optimistic, sponsoring this not exactly prescient vision of the future. Stick around for the ending to get the full picture, and good luck getting the catchy song out of your head.

London in 1955 and the part electricity will play to simplify life.

London 1955. Geoffrey, of European Fruitel Ltd, works in his office with
Gribble, an older colleague. Approaching half-past three Geoffrey finishes his
work whilst Gribble reminisces about working hours in his younger days, and
talks about the book he is writing on the 1930s. Geoffrey uses a television
phone system to speak to Nora, his wife, about dinner. She tells him that
their friend Betty is coming and that he should bring somebody to make four.
They invite Gribble, hoping him that they can steer him off the subject of his
book. Geoffrey promises that it will only take 5 minutes to travel the 50 miles
in his new autogyro.
In the kitchen Nora prepares the meal in an automatic mixing
apparatus. She sings to camera:

Plenty of time,
Plenty of time,
Plenty of time for play.
Woman's place was in the home,
But now she's out all day.
She used to sweep, and scour and scrub,
Light the fire, and mend and rub,
Then do hard labour at the tub,
But now she goes to the Ladies' Club,
And there's plenty of time
Plenty of time,
Plenty of time for play.

Nora speaks to her son, Robin, via a television system and asks him to keep an
eye out for his father. She sees that Betty has arrived through her
"one-way-television for callers" device, which was only invented 6 months
before. They discuss the kitchen and modern cooking, which Nora explains is
only a simple matter of pushing buttons according to instructions, as she
shows on the cooker and mixing apparatus.
Gribble and Geoffrey land, and Geoffrey says that he will not lock up
the hanger as the might nip over to Jersey for a bathe after dinner. They sit
down to eat, but despite their efforts they cannot stop Gribble talking at
length about chapters in his book on eating and drinking, and other matters.
To change the subject they switch on a large screen television, catching the
end of the cricket, the sports news, the weather, and finally music, at Nora's
request.
A man dressed as a cavalier enters the room to everyone's surprise,
and a voice off shuts "Cut!" It is revealed that the room is a stage set and
the characters are actors being filmed. The director calls an end to filming
and the actors remove their make-up. They discuss being back in 1935, and envy
of the next generation and the good time coming to them. "Gribble" [Edward
Chapman] says that they are already living in an age of invention but people
are reluctant to use them, and that electricity can already make housework
cheaper, quicker and more efficient. He talks about his book on the subject
"Plenty of time for play" [price 6d], and tells the audience they can have a
copy as a souvenir of the film if they leave their name and address on the
cards provided. The book explains how to leave the hard work to electricity so
that everyone can have plenty of time for play. "The End. Please hand in your
cards"