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Work Experience
From North Inch Production · British Screen Finance · Sapex Scripts
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Work Experience is a 1989 short film directed by James Hendrie. It follows Terence who is caught in a vicious circle. He cannot get a job because he has no experience, but he cannot gain experience without getting a job! The film won an Oscar for Best Live Action Short Film.
Cast & crew
Directed by James Hendrie
Lenny Henry
Susan Brown
Kathy Burke
Shelagh Fraser
Neil Pearson
John Normington
Annabel LeventonSimilar titles
Reviews · from TMDB members
CinemaSerfNov 6, 2026
"Terence" (Lenny Henry) turns up at a big department store keen to get himself a job - but he has no experience so nobody is that keen to take a risk on him. He is offered the chance to prove himself and so for the next few hours sets about making himself indispensable to the customers - all under the watchful eye of the floorwalker (John Normington). Of course, in his eagerness he also manages to attract the attention and suspicion of his colleagues (Neil Pearson and Kathy B… Read more
ates) - but what chance he can get himself a job or, for that matter, even really end up wanting one here? There isn't a great deal to this, but that simplicity works quite well when accompanied by Henry's dead-pan effort and a conclusion that worried and amused in equal measure. Fans of "Are You Being Served" might see some similarities amongst the now defunct department store staffing culture, indeed I thought Bates could easily be based on a less outrageous Molly Sugden and Pearson on the ambitiously affable Trevor Bannister from that BBC sitcom. There isn't really any dialogue to speak of, just an observation of a man trapped in a vicious circle whilst trying to be helpful to himself and others, and though not exactly funny it is quite amusing for ten minutes.