Bless This House *** (1972, Sidney James, Diana Coupland, Terry Scott, June Whitfield, Peter Butterworth, Sally Geeson, Robin Askwith, Bill Maynard) – Classic Movie Review 6881

Director Gerald Thomas’s 1972 British TV spin-off movie from the Thames Television series Bless This House provides a showcase for a treasure trove of British comedy greats, and is valuable and enjoyable for that.

Bless This House stars Sidney James and Diana Coupland as Sid and Jean Abbot, and Terry Scott and June Whitfield as Ronald and Vera Baines, alongside Peter Butterworth as Trevor Lewis, Sally Geeson as Sally Abbot, Robin Askwith as Mike Abbot, Bill Maynard as Oldham and Janet Brown as Annie Hobbs.

The popular Sidney James-Diana Coupland TV sitcom gets the big-screen transfer with a simple plot (middle-aged London suburbs couple Sid and Jean Abbot prepare for their son’s marriage), a slapstick script by Dave Freeman, the Carry On movies producer (Peter Rogers) and director, a few Carry On stars, and another popular TV series couple Terry and June (Terry Scott and June Whitfield). Scott and Whitfield are however not playing their TV selves as Terry and June but instead are playing the Abbots’ arrogant new neighbours Ronald and Vera Baines.

Robin Askwith plays Mike Abbot in Bless This House.

While hostilities with his neighbours break out, and his wife nags, the grumpy Sid wants to be left alone to build his illegal whisky still.

Bless This House is not too much fun, and the fun, such as it is, is very mild and mundane, but Sid James blessed everything he appeared in, and so for that matter did Diana Coupland, Terry Scott, June Whitfield, Peter Butterworth, Sally Geeson, Robin Askwith, Bill Maynard and Janet Brown.

Bill Maynard plays Oldham in Bless This House.

Also in the loveable cast are Carol Hawkins, George A Cooper, Patsy Rowlands, Wendy Richards, Julian Orchard and Marianne Stone.

Bless This House is directed by Gerald Thomas, runs 83 minutes, is made by The Rank Organisation, Peter Rogers Productions and GTP, released by Rank and 20th Century Fox, is written by Dave Freeman, based on the Thames Television series, is shot by Alan Hume, is produced by Peter Rogers and is scored by Eric Rogers.

The Thames Television series ran six seasons from 1971 to 1976, for a total of 65 episodes. It was devised by writers Vince Powell and Harry Driver as a starring vehicle for Sid James. Its producer-director William G Stewart married Sally Geeson when the series ended in 1976 after the sudden death of Sid James, but they divorced in 1986. He was the host of the long-running Channel 4 quiz show Fifteen to One. He died on 21 September 2017, age 84.

Maynard played Askwith’s dad in the Confessions series, starting with Confessions of a Window Cleaner (1974).

Janet Brown (1923–2011) was married to Peter Butterworth.

Robin Askwith recalled in 2017: ‘A lot of the fan mail I get these days is about Bless This House. It is still such a popular film. I guess it’s down to the terrific cast and the fun of it all. Sid was great to work with. I really respected him and all the work he’d done. I think it was that film that made me realise I could do comedy. It was Sid’s fault really as he kept telling me to go bigger and overreact more. And from that film I got Carry On Girls.’

Askwith replaced Robin Stewart, who played Mike Abbott in the TV series but was not going to appear in the film version.

RIP June Whitfield, who died on 29 December 2018, aged 93. She played Augusta Prodworthy in Carry On Girls and Queen Isabella of Castille in Carry On Columbus, and her last film was Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 6881

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com