Preaching to the Perverted (1997, Christien Anholt, Guinevere Turner, Tom Bell) – Classic Movie Review 6803

Tom Bell stars as moral crusader right-wing British MP Henry Harding, who despatches a computer wiz-kid called Peter Emery (Christien Anholt) to infiltrate the London S&M scene, in this 1997 British sex comedy film Preaching to the Perverted, billed as ‘the first fetish feature film’.

Peter, who works for a Christian computer company called Holy Hardware, has to gather evidence of physical assaults for Harding to prosecute and shut down fetish clubs where many of the saucier activities are illegal. Harding in particular wants to close a club called House of Thwax. But Peter unwittingly gets drawn into the scene and falls for a sex goddess dominatrix from New York, Mistress Tanya Cheex (Guinevere Turner), who runs the House of Thwax, and is torn between doing his job and doing the job.

A Carry On Spanking for the Nineties, this bold, kinky 1997 effort is gleefully risqué but not at all subtle and not very funny. With writer-director Stuart Urban’s terrible script and the very rough and ropey acting by the game-for-anything performers, it leaves a bad taste in the mouth. However, Anholt is fearless as the hero, going the whole nine yards.

Julie Graham. Georgina Hale, Ricky Tomlinson, Roger Lloyd Pack, Imogen Bain, Sue Johnston, Keith Allen, Charlotte Weston, Julian Wadham, Don Henderson, Edward Jewesbury, Angela Easterling, Ian Embleton, Enzo Junior and Sarah George are among the good performers struggling in the deep and muddied waters. Several BDSM performance artists also appear, including Chaos Clowns, Luci the Axle Grinder, also known as Lucifire, Miss Kimberly, The Fetisnonn, Suzi Woodroffe and Tutu.

Christien Anholt plays computer wiz-kid Peter Emery who infiltrates the London S&M scene in the 1997 comedy Preaching to the Perverted.

Preaching to the Perverted is directed by Stuart Urban, runs 99 minutes, is made by Cyclops and PTTP Films, is released by Entertainment, is written by Stuart Urban, is shot by Sam McCurdy, is produced by Stuart Urban and Keith Hayley, is scored by Magnus Fiennes and Maya Fiennes, and designed by James Hendy.

The BBC developed the script but dropped it, believing it could not be broadcast on UK TV. However, BBC One screened the film in April 2004.