It’s a Great Day! *** (1955, Ruth Dunning, Edward Evans, Sheila Sweet, Sidney James, Vera Day) – Classic Movie Review 11,099

Director John Warrington’s 1956 British black and white comedy It’s a Great Day! is the feature film version of the hit BBC TV soap opera The Grove Family, with original stars Ruth Dunning and Edward Evans back as Gladys and Bob Grove, plus the rest of the original cast in Christopher Beeny as Lenny, Sheila Sweet as Pat Grove, Peter Bryant as Jack Grove, Margaret Downs as Daphne Grove and Nancy Roberts as the tetchy Gran.

This primitively made, but pleasantly performed (by a vintage cast) and amiably written comic tale about builder Bob Grove, who is thought to have pinched floor tiles for the new homes he is constructing, is a must for Fifties nostalgists. The real thief must be revealed before a princess arrives to open the estate Bob’s building.

It is Britain’s first feature film based on a TV series.

It is shot at Shepperton Studios, Shepperton, Surrey, England.

The TV soap was as popular and newsworthy in its day as Coronation Street, yet it only lasted three seasons (1954-57) and 147 episodes, and afterwards the typecast stars had major headaches resuming their careers. In 1954, the series was viewed by almost a quarter of British people with a TV.

Also in the cast are Sidney James as Harry Mason, Vera Day as Blondie, Sheila Sweet, Peter Bryant, Margaret Downs, Victor Maddern, John Stuart, Henry Oscar, Marjorie Rhodes, Michael Balfour, Nan Brounton, Spencer Hale, Jack May, Peggy Ann Clifford, Stanley Rose and Vi Stevens.

It is written by Michael Pertwee and Roland Pertwee, like the TV show.

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,099

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