The National Health **** (1973, Jim Dale, Lynn Redgrave, Eleanor Bron) – Classic Movie Review 7015

Director Jack Gold’s 1973 wickedly funny British black comedy is based on Peter Nichols’s smashing hit play, attacking the deficiencies in The British National Health System, the failures of British socialism and the erosion of decent values in the UK, in which Britain is likened to a dilapidated London hospital, full of the sick and the senile, the ludicrously overworked and the unreasonably cynical.

The National Health successfully blends two kinds of Sixties humour — bedpan Carry On and smart biting social satire. Appropriately, it is co-produced by Ned Sherrin, who has a taste for both kinds of comedy and produced many versions of both. It is, unfortunately, ever timely and relevant.

Jim Dale gives an exuberant star performance (as both Barnet and Dr Neil Boyd) in this deliciously confident transfer to film of the British National Theatre play. It also stars Lynn Redgrave, Eleanor Bron, Sheila Scott-Wilkinson, Donald Sinden, Colin Blakely, Clive Swift, Neville Aurelius and Mervyn Johns. The film’s spoof hospital soap opera, Nurse Norton’s Affair, is hysterical, with the same main cast members (Dale, Redgrave, Bron) giving highly amusing turns in different guises.

Also in the cast are David Hutcheson, Bert Palmer, Bob Hoskins, John Hamill, Robert Gillespie, Patience Collier, Maureen Pryor, Gillian Barge, George Browne and James Hazeldine.

The National Health (The National Health or Nurse Norton’s Affair) is directed by Jack Gold, runs 97 minutes, is produced by Virgin Films, is released by Columbia, is written by Peter Nichols ,based on Peter Nichols’s play, is shot in Eastmancolor by John Coquillon, is produced by Ned Sherrin and Terry Glinwood, is scored by Carl Davis, and is designed by Ray Simm.

It went out in a weird double bill with The Deadly Trap (1971).

Lindsay Anderson’s Britannia Hospital (1982) is a riff on the same idea.

The stage production of The National Health had a West End run and also got to New York and opened at the Circle in the Square Theater on 10 October 1974 but ran for only 53 performances, though it was nominated for the 1975 Tony Award for Best Play.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7015

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