West Sussex Council, facing deep budget cuts, has defended spending �100,000 on making films showing you how to wash your hands and make a phone call.

Without spoiling the plot, the central message in 'How to Wash Your Hands' is that what was once dirty can be rendered clean: it's a powerful metaphor for lif.

In 'How to Use a Mobile Phone', the frailty of human existence is touched upon as we are led on a journey which is at the same time alien and familiar: just how do you hold a phone?

'I have my phone firmly in my right hand and then select the digit of choice, in my case the left index finger,' says the presenter, whose name we never discover.

'Place your finger on the button – don't come at it from a distance.'

Don't come at it from a distance. West Sussex Council has recently cut funding for day care for the elderly, bus routes and library opening hours. On the plus side, the old folk, bus and library users will know how to use their phones to complain about videos made for non-existent window-lickers.