I Watch Films: No Sex Please We're British

No Sex Please, We’re British

A 1973 farce. The newly married and newly promoted assistant manager of a branch of Barclays Bank and his wife live in the flat above the bank. His friend the chief clerk (storied comedian Ronnie Corbett) has ordered an electronic calculator; his wife has ordered Swedish glassware as a franchise selling scheme. Due to a mix up they instead get imported Swedish pornography which they have to get rid of discreetly.

Complications ensue; the manager (well-known comic actor Arthur Lowe) is outraged that an adult bookstore has opened between the Christian Aid shop and (appropriately) rival NatWest bank, and invites the local police superintendent to talk about it. The assistant manager’s mother comes to stay, and a bank inspector arrives, expecting to be put up in the flat (which belongs to the bank). Also the owners of the pornography want it back.

It efficiently moves through awkward situations, double- and single-entendres, attempts to hide from or distract people, and a final ridiculous chase sequence in which the film being set in Windsor pays off*. Very dated, sporadically amusing.

Watch This: For a 70s British farce that uses the intersection between fascination with sex and disgust with it
Don’t Watch This: It’s silly, predictable and some of the jokes have not aged well

 

* SPOILERS: Because of the royal residence at Windsor Castle there is a parade of the guards and Ronnie Corbett, a very short man, disguises himself as a guardsman (by regulation tall men).