NO SEX PLEASE, WE'RE BRITISH

UK, 1973, 91 minutes, Colour.
Ronnie Corbett, Beryl Reid, Arthur Lowe, Ian Ogilvy, Susan Penhaligon, Michael Bates, Deryck Guyler, Gerald Sim, Michael Robbins, Frank Thornton, Michael Ripper.
Directed by Cliff Owen.

No Sex, Please, We’re British was a very popular play on the London stage. It is a sex farce, tongue-in-cheek, parodying British attitude towards sexuality. A pornographer orders material for his shop – but it is delivered to the bank in Windsor. One can imagine all the consequences of having to deal with this crisis in a very stiff-upper-lip British manner. Popular television stars like Ronnie Corbett, Arthur Lowe and Ian Ogilvy lead the cast along with Beryl Reid.

The film was directed by Cliff Owen who directed television programs and some feature films, including Dick Emery in Ooh, You Are Awful and Harry Corbett and Wilfrid Brambell in Steptoe and Son.

1. How entertaining a British comedy? Anything more than conventional British style, humour, subject, treatment?

2. The style of popular British comedy that derives from the stage and from television? The casting of Ronnie Corbett and the comedy built round him and his size, his style? The success of the film as a Ronnie Corbett vehicle? Was it evident that the film was based on a stage play in terms of dialogue, situations, farce and identities? How well was the transition made to the screen?

3. London locations, the house, the office, gardens? Colour photography, bright music for this kind of film?

4. How humorous is this kind of farcical material: the reliance on mistaken identities, mistaken situations and cross-purposes? Sorting out of difficulties? People put in compromising circumstances? The chase? How well presented were these?

5. How enjoyable a character was Brian? As portrayed by Ronnie Corbett? His work, home, family? His predicament? The humour of trying to get rid of the pornographic material? His relationship with David, with Penny? The irony of his relationship with Mr Bromley and trying to avoid Bromley's suspicions? The irony of his dealing with the bank inspector? The final confrontation and the humorous but light happy ending?

6. The contrast with David as the ordinary kind of worker, his wife, coping with the situation with Brian? The importance of David's mother and her visit? Beryl Reid's comic style? Arthur Lowe's comic style as Mr Bromley? Their contribution to the comedy?

7. The farcical presence of the bank inspector and all that he has to go through? The irony of the girls sent by the pornographic publishers? The predicaments and the ambiguities? The characters of the girls and the humour and satire? Broad satire?

8. How humorous was the satire on pornography and anti-pornography? The satire through Mr Bromley on the fanatics against pornography? The satire on the material coming through the post? British humour condemning pornography and yet enjoying the ambiguity of low comedy? The indication of the title and its irony?

9. How valuable are these comedies to entertain? To raise consciousness? To poke satisfying light fun at people's serious preoccupations?