All right, lads, let's get these out the way and lose those.
Now wait a minute. What are you doing?
I'm trying to keep us all out. The rattle.
That's what happened. Oh, but look, I had 17 and he
turned up. Will you listen to me?
Any second now, through that door is going to walk the new
command and officer of HMS Barclay.
No. Yes.
So you better look lively and get everything ready for him.
What do I do about my goods? How many have got 12 half
painted. Back them down.
Put an office on the door. Keep out rabies, lurgy, anything
you like. The.
Hello and welcome to Goon Pod, All aboard the podcast, which is
leakier than a mothballed Sloop with more fiddles than boozy and
Hawks. And my guest this week, allow me
to pipe you aboard. It's Rear Admiral Graham
Rinaldi. Rear Admiral, you had to make me
a rear. Admiral.
All right, Vice Admiral, then. Oh.
Dear. Is there a vice?
Admiral we're we're talking about a film from the late
1950s, not some some 1970s British sex comedy, although
well. What I'll what I'll do is when I
when I'm editing this, I will, I will superimpose the sound of a
swanny whistle when. I say that.
Oh, good. Yes.
Can you play the kazoo as well? Yes.
I once had to play a kazoo I went to see literally months if
not weeks before he died. Went to see live.
I'm sorry having a clue at the the Lowry Fairy in Salford and
got to take part in the Swanee Kazoo round.
You actually got to take part in it.
Oh no, the the whole audience, did they?
I was going to say. We went out for the interval.
We came back in and each on each seat there was a kazoo.
And I'm and I'm always one that's a bit I, I bridle at
those dread words. Audience participation
generally, but it was all right. I've played the kazoo at a
Goldfrap concert. Really.
Yeah, but I'm in the audience. There was a kasu and and under
everyone's seat at the at the Royal Festival Hall, and there
was a particular song that you had to join in and play the kasu
along with Alison Goldfrapp. I was quite a few rows back, so
she probably couldn't hear me. So I was.
That was fine. OK, Graham, so good to have you
back because it's the third time I believe.
Third time I'm lucky for your listeners, yes.
Yes, from memory, the first time you came home was to talk about
a Peter Sellers film, and the second time you came was to talk
about a Peter Sellers film. But but this week you've come to
talk about a Peter Sellers film. Yes, yes, just don't shake him
off. No.
So it was after the Fox, wrong arm of the law.
And today we're going to talk about, I would say, a lesser
known Sellers film. I guess yeah, I'd agree.
Still, still very charming. It's it's the 1958 black and
white comedy Up the Creek. There's no sleep for the wicked,
My land. Go and see Chubby.
Get a ruler and measure the lieutenant's boot.
Does he wear boots? Not his boat boot.
His car boot. What a bunch of Charles.
You don't think you're going to lend us his car to your boots?
Lend it to us. He's going to drive it for us.
Are you kidding? I'm not kidding.
If we can get into the village just once today, we can make all
our deliveries. What do you think you're doing?
Listening. Listening.
You're supposed to be measuring. Go on, get coconet.
Go on. Go on, go on.
Cripes me pies. Ah, well, there you are.
Now, if you worried more about what you're doing instead of
worrying yourself all the time about what I'm doing.
They're a bit small, aren't they?
I'm getting a bit short of filling.
Well, why don't you tell me about these things?
You don't have to keep it a secret.
Well, in den for some more sides.
I mean, it's simple. Hey, Bose, what's going to
happen to us when they find out down at the base that we haven't
got a full crew on board? That's a very long sentence, and
that's probably what you'll get on Wikipedia.
It says it was released in May 1958, but Ed sick off in Mr.
Strangelove the the seller's biography suggests that it was
released in early November 1958. Right, well, all I can tell you
is, is that further up the Creek, yes everyone there is a
sequel began filming on the 19th of May, which was two weeks
after Up the Creek was released. Oh, OK.
And that was released further up the Creek was released in
October of 1958. Right.
Well, Ed, Ed Sikkov, his information is hooey clearly.
So it was released. So we're looking at early May 58
that Up the Creek Coming Out, directed by Val Guest, the the
legendary Val Guest and written by Val Guest as well as Len
Heath and John Warren. And they, of course, were the
two men who collaborated, I think, with others though on
films such as Two Way Stretch and the aforementioned Wrong Arm
of the Law. And other films as well.
Have you? Life is a Circus, also directed
by Val Guest, a crazy gang film. Have you ever seen the Operation
Snatch? I've mentioned it on this
podcast a few times just in order to snigger.
I really want to see it because, I mean, it has Cherry Thomas in
it, and then I gather it's set in Gibraltar and monkeys are
involved. And I'm also going to throw this
one at you as well. Rotten to the core.
Oh, I've seen that with Anton Rogers, yes.
And Anton? Eric Sykes, I think.
Is that right? And Eric Sykes and Dudley
Sutton, but I I I want to come back to rotten to the core when
we talk when we talk about Val guests or shall we say recycling
material for up the Creek. I'll I'll come back to rotten to
the core as well. And also they wrote a film, I
imagine, I imagine that you put because you you like British
comedies of the 19 film comedies in the 1970s, yes.
Would that be the case? Yes.
No, Well, I'm just nearest and dearest.
Can I qualify that? I'm not so keen on the on the
sex comedies, you know, the confessions and adventures of a
plumber's mate and and the like? Not not those particularly, but,
but generally yes. So the Dick Emery film?
Oh you are awful. Oh, you're awful, which I which
I'm quite fond of and we are going to be covering next year
on Goon Pod Film Club. Quick plug there.
There's a very good plug. Yes, I'm, I'm going to be joined
by former guests Jeremy Lim and Paul Litchfield.
And we're going to be talking about that rollicking Dick Henry
film in which I which I remember there's a scene where he is
trying to isn't a, he's dressed as a policewoman or he's passing
himself off as a policewoman and he's trying to cop a glimpse at
a lot of sleeping police women's derrieres.
Isn't isn't that part of the plot to do with tattoos?
Tattoos with buttocks, yes. Yes, Yes.
No, it's not just, it's not an outtake of Dick Emery, just it
is part of the plot. Yeah, but we will be covering
that at some point next year. But all right, so, so Len Heath
and John Warren wrote that, did they?
I think it may have been just Len Heath.
Don't quote me on that though, because they also, I know the
two of them wrote for Dick Henry's TV on for television.
And also I think they wrote for Tommy Cooper and Darius
mentioned them, Mike and Bernie Winters.
And but Len Heath did create a character that is still popular
to this day. And you can now have your own
Playmobil character of this particular character.
You can now Playmobil have made this character.
Oh, OK. Is it some?
Is it a character from I don't know.
Is it from Doctor Who? No, it's a, it's from a an
advert commercial. Oh, television commercial.
Wasn't the the smash aliens was it?
Before the smash aliens. Before the smash aliens.
Go on, I give up. Who is it?
Captain Bird's Eye Oh, so if you if there are now mini Captain
Bird's eye fish fingers and if you bought, I think the offer is
now finished. But if you bought 2 packets of
mini bird's eye fish fingers you sent, you could send your
receipts and they claim they would send you a limited edition
Playmobil Captain Bird's. Oh wow.
So please feel free to edit all of that out.
No, I'm keeping it all in. It's nautical.
I suppose it's nautical. Of course it is.
It is nautical. It's very, very appropriate.
Now, John Warren getting back to John Warren.
Yes, he turns up in this film, unless it's a different John
Warren. No, it's the same one.
It's the same John Warren playing Cookie.
Is he, is he in, is he Australian?
Or is it just the voice he's adopting for this?
Whether we should we discuss accents now?
I mean because I'd like to speak to you at some point about Peter
Sellers Irish accent and see what your take on it is.
I'll tell you what, I'll tell you what, put a pin in that for
a moment, because before we start talking about the film in
detail, yes, I think it's just fair to to just have a moment to
talk about Val Guest because what a career.
Well, of course he's, he's his first name is Valmond.
And I, I gather that came from his, his mother, something of an
Italian Duke. But I'll, I'll cut to the chase
because, you know, even though he thought at the age of three
that his, his father told him that his mother had died, they'd
actually divorced. And he didn't discover this
until he was a teenager. But God, yes.
But it's, it's at the age of 16, he, his father found him a job
at the I think it's the Asiatic Asiatic Petroleum Company in the
accounts department. I gather that Val wasn't very
good at mathematics, but his mother had worked on the stage
as principal boy in lots of pantomimes and on his desk.
One day his boss walked past and saw a copy of the stage
newspaper and said, oh, you're, you're interested in, in, you
know, in theatre. And he said, yes, yes.
And he said, right, I've got a job for you.
We all, every year we have a charity show and it's the
Alhambra Theatre in Leicester Square.
I want you to find the artists for the show.
So he did and he managed to. I don't know how he did, I don't
know how he did it, but he managed to.
Ivan Novello and Ellis Shields of Burlington Bertie fame
appeared as well. So he wanted to be an actor.
He started auditioning and he was, he said he turned around to
his father and said, I, I want to be an actor instead.
And he wanted to quit his job. And his father said, right, you
have one month to find an acting job, otherwise you carry on
where you're working. So he went from 1 audition to
the next. And then in the end, he on the
same day that he was going for an audition for a, a play called
Unholy Orders, which was written by Arnold Ridley, Private
Godfrey, Dad's Army, the Ghost Train.
And on that very day, he was also meant to be having an
interview for the RAF. And he went for the audition.
He got the job. And his first role on stage was
playing a village idiot. And so he taught in that and,
and also at the same time with a friend of his called Ivan Keith,
he became a songwriter for the Feldman Music Publishing
company. And he's wanted to do this.
So he had all these things going on and he's, he thought, Oh my,
my father's not going to like all this.
So the best way to get away from his father's sort of the wrath
of his father was to leave home. And that's what he did because
it was it also coincided with this new contract with the
publishing company that that was the day he was meant to join the
RAF. So he went down the theatrical
route instead. He ended up writing articles for
film, pictorial Picture goer, Film Weekly, interviewing people
such as Alexander Corder, Paul Robeson.
And then he interviewed Lupino Lane, the director.
And Lupino Lane quite liked him and said, oh, I can you help out
on my latest film, which is I think called Made of the
Mountains in 1932 to help on the dialogue.
Uncredited. He liked his work.
He offered him a another job on the Innocence of Chicago, also
uncredited, working on the script.
And then he got another job. And this is the job that really
changed his career. So he became the London
correspondent of The Hollywood Reporter.
And in the his 4th edition, he wrote a review of a film called
Chando or Chando the Magician starring Edmund Lowe and Bela
Lugosi, and it was directed by a Frenchman called Marcel Varnell.
And in this review, Val Guest wrote something along the lines
of if I couldn't write something better than this with one arm
tied behind my back, I would get out of the business.
Marcel Varnell read the review, contacted Val Guest's editor and
said I'd like to see your I'd like to see this reviewer.
So Val Guest was told to go down to the film studios to see
Marcel Varnell. He was a bit worried so he
apologised to him straight away. And but Marcel Varnell said I
like what you write. I like the bikes that you have.
And he said, I want you to put some bite in my next film and
which was a film called No Monkey Business.
And he worked on that. No Monkey Business had has
Richard Hearn, Mr. Pastry in it dressed as a monkey.
So Val Guest and Marcel Varnell became this sort of double act.
And then Marcel Varnell moved on to Gainsborough Pictures and he
said you're coming with me. So Val guest ended up at
Gainsborough on 25 lbs a week. He he worked in the comedy
script writing department along with some gentlemen that
everyone's probably heard of Frank Launder, Sidney Gilead and
also some another newcomer called Marriott Edgar and
Marriott Edgar wrote the Stanley Holloway monologues Albert and
the Line or Leinen Albert and next door in their next door
office to them was Alfred Hitchcock.
And then from that moment on, Marcel Varnell and Marius Edgar
became attached to writing for the Crazy Gang.
And also somebody called Will Hay.
And then I could just bore you talking about Wil Hay, and I'm
not going to do that. I know you've written a book
about Wil Hay. Yes, I have written a book about
Wil Hay because literally you, you could just, you know, go to
sleep now and I'll just keep talking and talking and talking.
I'm just looking at, I'm looking at some of his later films, I
guess. Well, there's some cram films in
there. As a director, there's some
great films in there. The the runaway bus that's.
I said there were some great films in there, Tyler.
That's Frankie Howard. It's all right.
It's Frankie Howard. It's.
All right. Hello.
I won't be home till late because I'm going out of a job.
Yeah, a job, dear work. You know what Grandpa never did?
Oh, there's a cottage pie in the oven.
A cottage pie? Oh, let us come over.
Can you hear me now? How'd it do?
Look, dear, don't wait up for me because I'm going to be late.
No, no, dear, I'm not going out with a girl.
I'm going out with a coach. A coach?
You know, a big thing on four wheels.
No, not the girl. Look, I I must go now, dear.
There's a woodpecker tabby at the window.
Yes. All right.
Yeah, full idea. Well, keep warm.
Yes, we'll get in the get in the album with the cottage pie.
He did a film version of Life with the Lions.
Yep, that was a that was a Hammer film.
But Just this Up the Creek is a Hammer film.
The the Quatermass experiment, of course.
Quatermass 2. Yeah.
Carry on, Admiral, which is not part of the the carry on.
Cannon. Cannon, The Abominable Snowman,
the camp on Blood Island, which I saw for the first time just
the other week, actually. Was Brad's film was released
that was in the when Up the Creek was released, they were
both, so I think that camp on Blood Island was at the London
Pavilion and Up the Creek was on at the Warner.
So this is, you know, sort of we're talking West End area of
London. And both of them were huge
successes, huge box office successes.
And Val Guest said himself, he said, you know, you want box
office successes, but it would have been great if they'd
actually been apart from each other because he was thinking
maybe, you know, I, I, I, I'd make more money if, if they'd
been, you know, over the months, if they'd been apart from each
other. But yes, Camp on Blood Island
and another great Val Guest film, Camp on Blood Island is
also a hammer release as well, which is a an actor I know that
you you you love and I I love him as well this Stanley Baker
film. Yes, oh, yesterday's enemy.
Yes, yesterday's enemy. Yeah, I love that film.
I've seen that a couple of times.
And. Very, very bleak ending I'm not
going to spoil. Yes, I'm going to spoil it for
anyone. Yes, it doesn't go, it doesn't
go the way you think. A British film of that period
would go and then of course, we have hell as a city.
Stanley Baker again, which is a it's a wonderful film shot in
Manchester. And then you then there's, you
know, other films such as Espresso Bongo, The Day the
Earth Caught Fire, Jigsaw, which shot in Brighton, I think with
Jack Warner, 80,000 Suspects with Claire Bloom, Richard
Johnson shot in Bath. And then of course, we come to
the end of his career and the AU pair Girls and Confessions of a
Window Cleaner. It's of those, yeah.
It's an eclectic. I mean, if you look, look
through his filmography, it's so eclectic.
Oh, it is because I mean, of course, we've mentioned him
previously, relatively recently on Goonpod, of course, because
he was involved with. Casino Royale He was attached to
it, he kind. Of linking everyone linking,
wasn't he, didn't he? To sort of do all the link?
Tried to link the story together, yes.
Yes, yes, yes. And he did it.
He did the best he could. He did the best that he would
could. I think really.
But I'm looking at I'm looking at the the filmography, I'm
looking at what he's written as well.
Because of course he he directed The Boys in Blue, which parks
back to ask a policeman. It does.
I'll just leave it there. OK, OK, so so there we go.
So For more information on Val Guest, I'm sure, I'm sure
there's some. Well, there's his autobiography,
but some of it's very hazy because when we talk about up
the Creek, some of it doesn't correlate to up the Creek and
further up the Creek. OK.
But he was, you know, he, he, I mean, he lived into I think in
his late 80s. I may be wrong there.
Hang on, let's have a look. He was.
Born in 1913. It was about 2005 two. 1006 he
was 9494. He was great to me with my book.
He was. Oh.
Right. So helpful.
Oh, very helpful, very helpful. And I, I met him a couple of
times. He used to send me faxes.
I mean, he was. But he was great because when
the blue plaque was unveiled at Will Hay's house in Norbury,
which will, which is the house in the back garden where Wil Hay
spotted a spot, a white spot on Saturn.
And of course that became news all over the world.
He a blue plaque was unveiled which was organised by the Grand
Order of Water Rats, which Will Hay was a member of and Roy Hudd
was the master of ceremonies. And I managed to get Val to
write a speech for that event. Unfortunately I had to be the
person to read it out so but but yes.
So Val was very, very happy to do things like that and I, I met
him a couple of times as well in person, so.
Very helpful, very good. So yes, so obviously, as we say,
this is directed and partly written by Val Guest up the
Creek. I mentioned Ed Sikoff who wrote
the Sellers biography Mr. Strangelove and obviously Roger
Lewis is is a is a another famous biographer of Sellers.
Both both have pointed out that this film is kind of or seller's
character in particular is kind of like an Anglicized Sergeant
Bilko. Yes, because he he barks orders
quite a lot, doesn't he? I think.
So, but I because I interrupted you about 10 minutes ago because
you wanted to talk about accents.
So yes, to go on. Well, I found an interview that
Val Guest gave, I think it's for the sort of entertainment
history project in 1988 and he spoke about Sellers accent for
this particular film. Val Guest was a was a fan of Son
of Fred. Yes.
She's about 1956, is that right? Yes, it was.
Yep. Yep.
And it's it's actually here we go.
We're going on sort of like slight tangents.
So Val guest, mother-in-law, because Valges was married at
this point to Yolanda Donlon, American actress.
They were married for many, many years and her mother was she was
going back to California but she was going to lease out her house
or a flat Montague Square which is in Marylebone.
You love your Beatles connections.
I gather the Ringo Starr least a house on the same Rd.
I think because there's a blue plaque for John Lennon.
Right. Because John let John and Yoko
live there for about 3 months. Oh yes, that's right.
When he when he moved out of, was it Kenwood where he was
living with Cynthia? Cynthia yes.
Ringo let him stay at his gaff. That's right, it's.
Amazing that you, you, you can live somewhere for about 3
months. And they put a blue plaque up.
So she said to Val Guest, she said, oh, there's a, there's a
young sort of comic actor, actor who wants to lease the property.
And he said who? And she said, oh, somebody
called Peter Sellers. And he said, oh, you must, He
seems quite good. So he was a fan of Peter
Sellers. But Val Guest kept but he sort
of talks about Up the Creek and he and he says that Sellers
hadn't played a role all the way through a film through Up the
Creek. And I was thinking, well, you
know, there's Harry Robinson and the Lady Killers in 1955.
Sonny McGregor in Naked Truth. Yes, and the smallest show on
Earth is is also before as well and Tom Thumb, I think he's
before so. Yeah.
So I mean, maybe just Val's, you know, memory just sort of
playing tricks with him. So he said that Sellers, excuse
the pun, was on board for up the Creek and they started
discussing what accent the character should have.
And I found that quite interesting because I thought
the I, I would have thought with Val guess being a writer, that
the character would have been already sort of written with the
sort. But he sort of said we were
discussing what sort of accent the character should have.
And we, we thought about Irish and he said well I, I may have
the right Irish accent for you. So he drove piece of Cellars to
the back of the Shaftesbury Theatre.
And behind the Shaftesbury Theatre in London was sort of
the names of Peabody tenements, apartments.
And there was a car park and it was run by a gentleman called
Paddy who was from The Who was vow guessed that he was known as
the Uriah Heap of the Emirate Isles.
And all what Paddy would do is he would just would say full up,
full up sort of thing. No room, no room.
Where's your contract, contract, contract over and over again.
And he would get very angry with people trying to park their cars
in the car park. So he drove Sellers there and
they just parked. And then Val Gest got into
conversation with Paddy, Ted Baker, who was basically telling
him you can't park here. And then he just said to Peter
Sellers, is that all right? And celis it?
Yeah, that's fine. All right, he's got the clean
and he's on his way. Oh, Fairweather, not the
Admiral. Now, are all the fiddles out the
way? Yes, Right, right.
Right. Now, Now, Now, here's what we
do. Clean up and assemble on
domestic duty. Lucky get that deal the way.
Well, what are we going to do if he doesn't get here?
Oh, the Admiral. No, Fairweather.
You see, these Admirals are funny people.
When they come aboard, they expect to have an officer
waiting to greet them. Well, that's his problem.
Oh, there's gratitude for you. Last night you were scared to
death when you're going to spend the rest of your life in the
rattle Here. The Lieutenant gives us a second
chance of the goodness of his heart, and you don't give a damn
if yourselves up the Creek. So Valger said that's where the
accent for Docherty came from and then he also mentioned
about, and I think Roger Lewis also mentioned about this.
I may be wrong on that part that Stella's was now using a reel to
reel to record the choices at home.
Is that right? Yeah, he said he used to go
knock about with this reel to reel tape recorder and he'd
he'd, he'd sort of have an idea for an accent.
He'd ad Lib for about an hour or so, play it all back and choose
what bits he liked. And then he'd focus on working
that that particular bit with that particular accent.
So we were talking, you know, we're talking about accents
because it's interesting. Of course our our old friend
David Lodge is in up the Creek and his character is called
Scouse. Yes.
There there is one moment. There's David Lodge, sound as
though he's from Liverpool. He doesn't have a lot to say,
really, Dave Lodge, does he? But what he does say doesn't
sound he. Doesn't sound he sounds like
David Lodge. So what do you think of, I mean,
what do you think of Sellers? Because I mean Sellers.
I mean, as we know Sellers was was was was great with, you
know, voices, especially, you know, with Doctor Strangelove.
What what do you think of his Irish?
Because what, what other characters did he play in films?
Does he play using an Irish accent?
Well, he he, he as in the Naked Truth, he one of the disguises
that Sonny McGregor adopts in order to try and get some
explosives, secure some explosives.
He disguised himself as an Irishman.
Yes. With a very thick brogue and
that that famous scene where he is propositioning a couple of
what he deems to be IRA men in this.
I'm in the pub. Yes, yes, yeah.
He he ends up talking in Welsh and receives a punch up the
throat basically. And he, you know, he's done
Irish accents in the Goon Show. He did, he did a an impression
of Brendan Behan on the LP Songs for Swinging Cellars Hereafter
Up the Creek. I was sort of momentarily
surprised by Sellers when I first saw him in this because
he's very chubby. Yeah.
And I know that Sellers was chubby, but he kind of his
weight kind of yo yoed in the 50s, I think.
And this, this period, of course, he was filming Tom Thumb
around the same time or soon after or soon before or before,
I'm not quite sure. But it's it was either before or
after this film that he's filming Tom Thumb.
And he's quite, he's quite hefty in Tom Thumb as well, but he's
quite chubby and he's got these silly little spectacles.
And but I do, I totally buy him as an Irishman, as an Irish
character. It doesn't, it doesn't to me.
It doesn't sound like, you know, Dick Emery, for example, doing
an Irish character. But it's also interesting that
they have his character when he's in his cabin listening to
Irish music. And there's always even in the
music for the film, there's that sort of, you can hear the sort
of jauntiness of Irish music. He sort of layered on a bit
thick throughout with his character.
I mean, I think his Irish, you know, the accent is good.
But it's because I always, I always remember the fact that
Michael Caine used to tell that story that his answer phone was
Peter Sellers, it was Peter Sellers.
So Michael Caine's answer phone was Peter Sellers doing an
impression of Michael Caine. But isn't there?
Is it maybe on Parkinson? Isn't there a television
interview where you Sellers impersonates Michael Caine?
Yeah. It's not very good.
It's. Not very good.
It's not very good at all. And I was thinking, how did
people, how were people duped on Michael Caine's answer phone
thinking that was Michael Caine, unless Peter Sellers was
actually better at it at one point.
I think when he was on form, he was untouchable in terms of his
vocal dexterity and his the accents he could adopt.
But when he wasn't particularly in the mood or the the muse
hadn't taken him or he wasn't particularly inspired, he would
drag his feet a little bit when it came to impressions and and
voices and things like that. Because isn't the reason why he
didn't play Major Kong? Yeah, Strangelove because he I
mean, he pretended that he hurt his leg, didn't he?
Or something? But it was, they say, that he
couldn't master the accent. Yeah, the Texan accent, that's
right. He plays an American character
in the in a film. I think it's ATV film from
maybe. Yeah, it was.
I think it was. It certainly would have been
within 12 months of filming Strangelove, and it's a film
called A Carol for Another Christmas.
Now they want to talk, talk, talk, talk, talk about our
problems. They want to debate, debate,
debate about solutions until somehow they get their problems
solved. They want to waste our time.
They want us to commit ourselves to that kind of surrender.
So he could, he could pull it off.
I just think, I think with the with the major Kong thing each,
I just think he was worried he was going to bite off more than
he could chew really. And and I think it was probably
a wise thing as well, wise move because the three characters he
plays, with the possible exception of Strangelove
himself, who is a bit of a caricature.
I mean he's very good, but he's the other two are much more
fully rounded, the other two characters I feel.
Oh, the president and yes. And Mandrake.
Mandrake. Yes.
Still to this day, I I say that this string in my leg has gone.
You were talking about an American accent.
So when I know we're going off tangent here, kiss me stupid.
That his heart attack film, shall I say heart attacks?
I wonder what accent he was going to have in that particular
film. And he's and he certainly plays
an American character in I Love You, LSB Tuckless from what,
6768? So what?
What about your? What about your?
Hospital drama. Oh, I was just about to say, oh,
my dear, there's travesty, that is.
But yeah, you know, in fact, thinking about it, I think he
made more films where he did an American accent than not.
Because you think being there, it's kind of OK being there is
more sort of Stan Laurel, isn't it?
But with an American twang to it, a hint of an American accent
there. So we have this.
Shall I just briefly describe the plot of this slight?
It's it's a, it's a fun but slight film up the Creek, isn't
it? Let's let's be fair.
So we have Lieutenant Fairweather, played by David
Tomlinson. David Tomlinson, who would
appear with Sellers in Sellers last film.
In fact, it was also David Tomlinson's last film which was
the fiendish plot of Doctor Fu Manchu.
Which involves I gather that they have a reel to reel as was
part of their friendship, wasn't it?
Yes, I gather Sellers bought one for David Tomlinson on this film
and left him a note saying from a friend and then all the years
later with Fu Manchu. He he said, I think it was about
he gave him another present and more, you know, technology
agreed on. Yeah.
And he said, I think you, I think you need to have an
improved version. Yes, it's lovely, Lovely that
you know, I mean, I guess it was a kind of a friendship the two
men had. But it hadn't.
He did that thing of phoning him in the middle of the night, sort
of. Yeah.
Which he had AI mean. I think we touched upon this
with when we were talking about his working and private
relationship, friendship with Lionel Jeffries, because I think
with prisoner, prisoner Zender, he was sort of reaching out to
Lionel Jeffries and. Yes, yeah, that's so.
So it's again, because around that period of his, so towards
the end of his seller's life, he was always looking back, wasn't
he? Yes, he was revisiting old homes
and getting very nostalgic and like you say, reaching out to
people like Lionel Jeffries, who and and Tomlinson, who, both of
whom he'd worked with early on in his career when he was, you
know, fledgling, fledgling actor.
But he was still. So yeah, he was still relatively
young when he was doing this though.
I. Mean he was 50 early 50s he
wasn't he wasn't casting aside now he may have done in the 60s
as he was you know when he was huge international superstar.
He may have cast aside people then but by the 70s or the mid
70s towards the end of his life he was re engaging with people.
Wasn't he from his past trying to make peace almost, I suppose
if you want to get deep. But but David Tomlinson, no.
So he plays Lieutenant Humphrey Fairweather, who is a accident
prone naval officer and he's got this thing for rockets, which I,
I guess the the whole rocket subplot is just in order for him
to be posted to this, to this posted somewhere where he can
cause no more trouble really. He's given command of this
mothballed Sloop HMS Barclay, which has had no commanding
officer for two or three years. And so he's posted off there.
Now, the big right at the beginning of the film, we have
Wilfred Hyde White. A little goes a long way with
Wilfred Hyde White, I feel. Do you agree?
Yes, he's wild. He's great in it, but he always
is. Yeah, but he's always playing
Wolford Hyde White, isn't he? There's never any rich.
And I didn't, and I didn't pick up and I had to once the film
had ended, I had to go back and watch, Rewatch the beginning.
You've got Patrick Cargill in a small role right at the
beginning. Well, actually.
One of the funny for me, one of the funniest sort of throwaway
lines is in that section with Patrick Cargill, because of
course, David Thomason, one of his rockets went into Patrick
Cargill's bath. My missile is attracted to the
disturbance of water caused by an enemy ship's propeller.
My house hasn't got a propeller exactly, so I can only assume
that just as the rocket passed over the commander's house, some
sudden flash of water silent. I beg your pardon?
There appears to have been a similar judgment with a fair
weather map too. No Sir, that was quite
different. There was a faulty electrical
circuits and it seems to have changed the wavelength of every
radio controlled rocket on the base, to say nothing of the
Sutton Coalfield television transmitter.
It might be a bad thing. Shut up.
I beg your pardon? I mean, I don't want to
necessarily go through the film in a in a linear fashion, but
but we have this collection of characters that have been
effectively running the. The mothballed HMS Barkley as a
massive fiddle or series of fiddles.
So they're they're supplying the local village with what chicken,
laundry service, cakes, all sorts of things.
And they're very well thought of by the by the villagers, the
local publican in particular, Reginald Beckwith, who we talked
about recently in he was in a shot in the dark as the
receptionist at the nudist colony Turk Thrust.
Well, he was. Where Turk thrust, shall I say,
hangs out. Absolutely, absolutely same kid.
Of course, the ubiquitous same kid turns up same kid again,
very much in that sort of. I always associate him.
And what's this guy's name? Victor Madden.
Victor Madden? Yes.
Yeah, They're very much the same type, aren't they?
I think Victor Madden sometimes had a bit more to do in films,
which will come in when we come back to Rotten to the Core.
When I bring it back to Rotten to the Core, Victor Madden is in
that film and he actually has a more prominent role.
And anyway, they find out that, that, that Tomlinson, they've
got a new CEO being posted. So they have to try and they
have to try and carry on with these schemes and these scams.
So it's not a scam. It's just money making operation
really. They have to try and continue it
under the nose of Tomlinson. And it's very difficult.
It's, it's difficult to to talk a lot about this because it's
just a series of sketches, really.
You're not not even sketches. There's no, there's not a huge
amount of plot, is there? There's.
No, not Not a lot happens. Not a lot happens.
And also the love interest kind of is never really developed
it's. So you've got you've got Vera
Day, who plays Lily, who gets quite top, not top billing, but
she gets quite high billing, but she's barely on the screen.
Well, she, yeah, I mean, she'd been with Val Guest.
She, I mean, she's also, she's been with Val Guest in quite a
mass to. There's quite a few actors that
have appeared in Val Guest films previously.
You like to use the same actors. I was looking into the fact that
the UK, the British cinema in the 50s loved a nautical film.
There are so many of them. Captain's Paradise up to the
neck, which is Ronald Shiner. You know what sailors are.
I don't know if you're a doctor at sea.
Bogard and Brigitte Bardot, baby in the battleship.
Carry on, add more. Which of course is David
Tomlinson. And it's because of Tomlinson
that the film was given the go ahead because as Val Guest was
taking the script around and he had Sellers on board, No, none
of the studios didn't really want to take the film on.
And then Jimmy Carreras Carrera of Hammer, he took a punt
because he'd previously done so with previous Vale Guest films,
Life with the Lions. And he said, OK, but you need a
star. We can't just have Sellers and
carry on. Admiral David Tomlinson was the
lead and of course Peggy with Peggy Cummings in that
particular film. So once Tomlinson was on, here
comes that panic. Terrible Pan again on board as
they the the green light was given.
Again, apologies I'm I'm harking back to previous Goon Pod
episodes, but very recently we talked about the Goon Show
episode The Evils of Bushy Spawn, which is famous in that
it had a A rather ramshackle guest appearance by the actor AE
Matthews. Yeah, who's in?
Carry on, Admiral. Who's in, Carry on, Admiral?
There's a lovely the Goons and Matthews did a photo call and
there was a audio recording made of of the Goons talking to to AE
Matthews. It was before the recording of
the show. AE Matthews is 88 by this point,
and he's a little bit befuddled, and he's not quite sure what the
Hell's going on, you know? And they're trying their best to
be to to put him at his ease. OK.
And he says something, I can't remember exactly what he says,
but he says something like, I've done a little bit of acting or
something. And Harry Seacom says, oh, I
should say so or something, Something like that, Right.
And then you can hear very, very faintly, you can hear Sellers
saying, oh, you worked with Tomlinson.
David Tomlinson. And it would have been around
that time that Sellers was filming this David Tomlinson.
I went I I've been on the pictures as.
I. Was saying the British cinema we
loved, we seemed to in the 50s we loved a nautical film and I
just think this sort of followed on in that vein and it proved a
huge box office success. The reviews on the whole are
quite positive for the film. Sellers in particular get
received really good reviews. If any if anyone was highlighted
in the reviews it was always it's always Peter Sellers and
occasionally Tomlinson as well. Well.
I think, I think Sellers does really well because obviously
he's he's doing an accent which is quite a difficult accent and
he and he's having to deliver dialogue at at quite a clip.
I don't think he has many funny lines.
No, I suppose not, but he mentions lurgy at one point, did
you notice that? He says he gets to say blue
arsed flies as well. That's right.
Yes, that's right. I mean, it's not, it's not going
to be the wrong arm of the law's spare Dick at a wedding.
But I'm talking, so we were talking.
I think you've gone through the plot.
But what kind of what do you think?
The ending, the ending, the ending we need to talk about in
a bit. But yeah, carry on.
As I was mentioning, the sort of love interest is it's just not
developed at all really, because initially you think, oh, it's
going to be with Vera Day. And it's, it's amazing that they
have. There's that one moment in the
pub where Sam Kidd spits out his beer and it goes over Vera Day's
chest. So she has to dab her chest down
with, you know, a bar towel, which kind of makes you fixated,
makes your eyes turn towards her chest.
But then straight away, though, I said Lillian Sultan.
Sultan appears. And I mean, she didn't.
She didn't make very many films, but she was in the camp on Blood
Island. Well, guest film, but there was
a lot of female actors in the 50s would come over and make
British, you know, make British films.
As I mentioned them just a moment ago, Brigitte Bardot in
Doctorate Thee, the Claudio Cardenale is in, is in upstairs,
Downstairs, I think it's called. Lisa Castone is in Blue Murder
at Saint Trinians and I think there are more.
There's a few French actresses come over as well.
And I mean also she's very, she's quite far down the cast
list as well for the most prominent female role.
Absolutely, I couldn't work that out very days barely in it and
then she's she's the love interest.
This. Sorry, what was her name again?
Is it Lillian Sultan? My French is appalling.
But no, you're absolutely right. There's, there's, there's not
convincing at all. There's no there's no simmering
tension that crackling off the screen between David Tomlinson
and her. But then of course in further up
the Creek, he ends up attracting Shirley Eaton.
So obviously Tomlinson had something before he went off to
Walt Disney became rather more wholesome.
It just, I just feel like the the love interest plot is just
sort of thrown in but not really developed because I just feel
like a lot of the time the film meanders along.
It is as you say, here's a here's a scene, here's a sketch,
here's another sketch, here's another sketch.
And I mean, the film move, it does move along at quite a good
pace, but I don't think there's enough laughs in the film.
I don't think there's enough laugh out loud moments.
It's not like nothing like two way stretch, which would be a
few years later and. And wrong arm of the law.
Yeah, more or less the same writing team.
Yeah, I mean, the odd line comes through.
There's, I think there's a, there's a with Sellers and he
says aphrodisiac rising from the rising from the sea, aphrodisiac
rising. Oh, you see, I think that was
brilliantly delivered. And I do like when David Thomas
and discovers when he first goes to the Pig and Whistle pub that
the towels and the soap all have the initials HMS on them.
And when Sellers drops off the cigarettes to Reginald Beckwith
and he says, oh, we didn't have time to roll them properly and
of course they've all got HMS on them.
So he just says, oh, I'll call them homemade smokes.
So it was a nice, a nice line. Of course that pub has appeared
in it's in other films because the village where the Pig and
whistle, the actual pub is the Three Horseshoes and it's in the
Lechmere Letchmore Heath, which is in Hertfordshire and in that
village was used for the Village of the Damned.
Oh, right. And then about 6870, about 16
years later, Val Guest was back there for Confessions of a
window cleaner. Oh.
That was 70. 47474. Yeah, 75.
Yeah, I think about 74 and the station which is Brick Bricket
Wood, which apparently is between Watford Junction and
Saint Albans Abbey. It's the same station that's in
Knight of the Demon. Oh, I'm aware of it.
I've never seen it. You need to see it, trust me.
OK, all right. I need to see it.
So it's interesting that, you know, it was set in, I would say
far Superior, not not Confessions of a Window Clean,
but Village of the Tabbed and and nice nice of the Demon, Far
Superior films to up the Creek. But I just feel that a lot of
the time things are not really developed and it does take a
while for Tomlinson to discover what's going on.
And then when you think he's he's actually discovered what's
going on, they've duped him again.
And then it goes on and on and on.
And then there's blackmail in place as well.
I quite like the bit where because because again the the
cast are largely misused or underused, I should say.
Lionel Jeffries, who's in charge of the chickens.
His character is in charge of the chickens.
He plays steady. I think the only major bit that
he gets really is when he has to peddle this sob story to
Thomason's character to try and excuse he he's going to take the
rap for these schemes. Was it?
It all started with my mother and also she kept getting on at
my missus about how she married beneath her.
She kept going on about her other daughter what had married
a nappy canteen manager. Oh, yes, Alfred could always
bring home the odd crate of butter or a gash of tea.
Alfred had given his wife a Tele, Sir.
And a fridge, Sir. But what had I ever given my
missus? I will tell you.
I'd give her 13 little ones to look after, But was that enough?
No. Every letter is nag.
Every letter, Sir, is nag, nag, nag.
Why don't I get more money? Why don't I get promoted?
I'll keep telling them, Sir. I've spent all my last 18 years
trying to stay as a naval seaman.
But I don't mind, Sir, because I love the Navy.
You and the other officers, Sir, have been like fathers to me.
I never had a father, Sir. I see.
Well, what you're trying to tell me is you did all this for these
30 little barkers. Yes, Sir.
Then. And the honour of the Navy.
I couldn't have her mother going around P bodybuilding saying
that a man alone couldn't look after his wife and kids.
Now, could I, Sir? You can't go right But gashing
tea and flogging, selling eggs, barkers.
I know, Sir, but I only needed another £5 so that I could get
the furniture back. It was the thought of all those
smiling little faces, Sir, all snuggled up in a real bed.
I know I've done wrong so, but you can see how it was, can't
you? Tomlinson hands him a fiver
because he's so touched by the story, but then Seller's
character Docherty just gloms it off him.
Yes, that's a very good word. It's difficult.
Lionel Merton has a little bit more to do.
Who is? He's Perkins.
Perkins because Lionel Merton is one of those faces that he was
very good at playing Americans. He's he's one of he's so I think
he's in Goldfinger and a Dirty Dozen playing Americans.
See, he's a just one of those faces.
You you see a lot in British films of the 50s and the 60s.
He has, he has a bit more to do. His character is a little bit
more fully rounded than most of the other shipmates.
As my friend Tilt would say, for good and sufficient reasons,
later on in the film he has to pose as as Lieutenant
Fairweather when Wilfred Hyde White, the Admiral, turns up for
a surprise inspection. Wilfred Hyde White's character
greatly put out that he has to make this inspection because he
just wants to be on a race course somewhere, doesn't he?
So go on. You wanted to talk about
parallels between this and Rotten to the Core.
Well, before we get to rotten to the core, I mean, the main
reason why I I chose this particular film is because there
are lots of similarities to a far superior British comedy film
called O Mr. Porter, which was released in 1937 in London and
then then general release in 1938.
And I it's just interesting to see how Val Gest just recycles
lots of lines and just sort of moments from that particular
film. Not it doesn't hit the the you
know, one's chuckle muscles as as oh Mr. Porter does.
So one of the most famous lines from oh, Mr. Porter.
So of course in the in up the Creek, we of course know that
Humphrey Fairweather, David Tomlinson wishes he's interested
in rockets and his rockets are going to be delivered to HMS
Barclay and it's delivered to the local railway station which
is run by Frank Pettengall, who has a connection to Wilhay
because he plays Professor Hoffman in Wilhay's the goose
steps out. But when David Thomlinson
arrived at the station the first time you see Frank Pettengall,
he lifts up the booking office. You know, window says the the
line of it's running late and then closes it.
Whereas you know Mr. Porter, which is probably the most
famous line in the film. When Will Hay arrives at Buggles
Kelly Station More Marriott lifts up the booking office
hatch and just says next train's gone and closes it, which is a
far superior line to it's running.
Late shop? It's running late next plane's.
Gone, you know, we all like to name drop and or plug things
that we do or things that we've done.
So when when I when I interviewed Dennis Norden for my
book on Will Head, he told me so when Denis Northern of course
used to have long running ITV television nostalgia theories
called Looks Familiar which ran throughout the 1970s into the
80s. And he told me that on one So
what they would do, there would be 3 guests and then they would
watch clips from, you know, films, etcetera, etcetera, from
the 30s forties, whatever. And two of his guests that
particular day were Ray Gorton and Alan Simpson.
And they showed the clip from Mr. Porter with more merit
saying Next train's gone. And Denis Norden put it to them
that he said that he thought that it was those 3 words were
the the funniest three word line in the history of cinema.
And they agreed. And then they went out for a
drink and they discussed it even more.
And then in the end, Dennis Norton told me that he said not
the the actual line. They decided that the line could
also be used. I'll have to read this out to
you. The line could also be used to
illustrate the existential dilemma of modern man.
And I'll just leave that for everyone to think about that.
You wouldn't think that with it's running late, but I can I
can bore you now and just go through things that that.
So I'd like to thank you for making me watch a Will Hay film.
I haven't watched a Will Hay film for a long, long time.
So I rewatched Oh, Mr. Porter before this for this chat and
there are so many moments that Val Guest is just recycling
lines or ideas from that film. So when David Tomlinson speaks
to Frank Pettingall at the railway station, Frank
Pettingall says he says it goes old Porter's signalman, ticket
collector. It's me and you know, Mr. Porter
more married. As Harbottle says, I'm the
Porter, I'm the shunter, I'm the signalman, I'm the deputy
station master, Lieutenant Fairweather.
David Thompson is the uncle in the commander in chief.
That is why they can't get rid of it.
And you know Mr. Porter, the managing director of the
railway, is married to Will Hayes.
Sister Fairweather is he's told he's got to go to a place called
Meadows Head in Suffolk. And and then he says, oh,
there's there's a place in Wales called Land Flair.
I won't do it because I can't do it.
Go, go, go. And well, hey, when he's told to
go to, he said, we're going to send you to Buggles, Kelly, He
says, yeah, there's a place. He says there's a place in
Wales. So it's the same joke done again
over again. That land Welsh place name, by
the way, is is the Welsh place name that Sellers, as the
Irishman in The Naked Truth says.
Don't. I bet he says it perfectly.
Or does he? Not really.
Because David Thomason, actually, I think I mean, in Up
the Creek, David Thomason kind of says it goes all the way
through where Wil Hay. It's more of a joke.
He trips over it more. There are so many other things
where David Thomason is told where the boat is and he's told
it's off the beaten track and he says as long as it's near water
and Will Hay, you know, Mr. Porter was told it's a country
station off the beaten track. And Will Hay says I don't mind
as long as it's near a railway. There are so many the pigs.
So you have on on the boat. Lionel Jeffries is looking after
the chickens. There's the pig Esmeralda, and
there are other pigs, you know, Mr. Porter, Mr. Murphy comes for
his pigs that are kept in the railway station and then later
on in up the Creek. When he tells, he says to Lionel
Jeffries that, you know, he's told he's got to get rid of
them. And of course they then give him
chicken and bacon to eat. He's David Tomlinson says, oh,
you're all, you're all. He eats it, realises what's
happened, that he's eating Esmeralda.
He says that you're all you know, you're, you're cannibals,
cannibals, you're cannibals. You're nothing, you're nothing
but a bunch of cannibals. Which doesn't make sense.
Whereas in in O Mr. Porter, the same thing happens that Will Hay
realises he's eating the the litter of of the pigs and he's
it's the same life. He says.
You're a pair of cannibals, he said.
I mean, it doesn't matter. It doesn't make sense.
Today's meals come with the compliments of Abel Seaman
Barker. Sir.
Well, please convey my compliments to Abel Seaman
Barker. Did you say Barker?
Yes. This is not one of the.
You told him to get rid of them. I didn't tell him to turn the
ship into a slaughterhouse. I mean, it's Perkins.
Let's not Esmeralda. Well, so your orders, My orders
were to get them off the ship, not you all To sit around eating
like you're nothing but a bunch of cannibals.
That's a disgraceful. Sitting there like a couple of
pigs eating. Well, you're a pair of
cannibals. That's what you are.
He find, he follows the, you know, he finds the contraband.
There's the rum, the cigarettes, you know, Mr. Porter, you have
the bacon, you have butter. There's so, I mean, there's just
so many things that have been. Lifted.
So OK, was this because in 1958 people wouldn't?
Well, you didn't have videos then, didn't have video plays,
you didn't have access to films, old films that have been on at
the cinema years before. Was that because you wouldn't
have been able to? Well, again, it wouldn't have
been on television, I would imagine either.
Things like, oh, Mr. Porter around that time.
So Valgis thought he was on safe ground, just recycling material.
But it would have been, it would have, I think it would have been
on TV, but not, you know, not very often.
But the reviews for Up the Creek and I've found I can read one
out to you. This is from the Financial Times
12th of May 1958. Blah blah, blah, blah blah.
Everything falls into place when one remembers that the director
of our guest used to make those Will Hay films in which our hero
was packed off to a station master of little Puddlecombe or
some such. Tomlinson is no Will Hay,
etcetera, etcetera. There, there it was picked up
and even with Further Up the Creek, the sequel, the Evening
Standard even picked up once again saying, you know, this is
more this is a nod to the Wil Hay comedies of the 1930s.
It's just quite amazing that I think the first time I saw Up
the Creek, I can't don't know how long ago it was, but the
first time I saw it and I was just thinking because I was more
aware of the Wil Hay films. I was just thinking, hold on a
moment. These lines have just been.
Lifted. And even the sort of the whole
idea of Tomlinson's character, they they don't know what to do
with him. He's blowing things up.
They need to send him. You know, they think of sending
him. What's it to Scarpa Flow?
They want to get rid of him. And it's the same as, you know,
Will Hay as William Porter. He's he's they keep giving him
one job after another after another after another.
And in the end it's like, oh, great, we can send him to
Boggles Kelly. That's really off the beat
track. So he's just he's, they've
literally just recycled that part of Mr. Porter to create.
And of course, both films end with an explosion.
Tell you what the budget for up the Creek, I don't know what it
was, but they blew most of it on the special effects, I think
because I was convinced we have a we have a rocket being
launched into the sky and then very realistically coming back
down again and punching a hole in this Sloop and we see this
boat, which was filmed in a bathtub, I think, Patrick.
Cargill's bathtub, not. Not Petrick Cargill's.
No. Yeah.
I mean, that took me out of it as well.
But then you got to factor in that it was 1958 and it's a,
it's a low budget British comedy film.
What do you expect? They didn't have CGI back then,
did they? No, I mean, I mean, because you
know, Mr. Porter Gladstone, this is no, you know, this is no
spoiler for anyone. But Gladstone then blows up.
So it's just interesting that the sort of the beginning of oh,
Mr. Porter was used for Up the Creek and kind of the end of oh,
Mr. Porter was used to get to the denouement of Up the Creek,
but going because I'd rotten to the core.
So I was amazed to discover you're listening to the core and
you're you're probably going to tell me that you you knew this
already. So rotten to the core, which is
has Anton Rogers playing the Duke, who is a master criminal
who's on the outside. And his three sort of stooges
have just been released from prison.
And they're played by Dudley Sutton, Kenneth Griffith and
another actor called James. Oh, apologies for not
remembering his surname, but Dudley Sutton's character is
called Jelly Knight. Kenneth Griffith's character is
called Lenny. The dip they remind you of.
Some character names and and I haven't watched Rotten to the
Core for probably five years or six years maybe.
I do have it on DVD, right? I haven't, but I don't remember
if I picked up on that at the time.
And Victor Madden plays an Irishman who is surname, he's
called, he's called O'Toole. Oh, and he's.
Nervous. So tall.
Yes, but he's called anxious O'Toole Oh.
God, jeez. And that was only what and what
year was brought into the course 65. 65.
And and wrong arm of the law was 63.
Well, A2 way stretch. Well, yeah, but nervous are
tools from yes, wrong arm, isn't he?
Yeah, from wrong arm. So, so anxious.
Bloody hell, they just, they just, they all just sort of
recycled things back then, didn't they?
But I was hoping that I was, I, I, I would hope because I, I, I
rewatched it when I saw this, when I saw the, and I was hoping
maybe there was like some sort of character arc and maybe they
were kind of playing the same character.
Right. But they weren't.
No, no, no. No, I'll have to rewatch that
film. I think it's Charlotte
Ramplings, their first credited film.
OK. Can I tell you one other story?
Absolutely. Go on.
SO this is Val Guest's sort of memory, possibly playing tricks
with him. So he was mentioning about
Sellers and he mentioned that Kathleen Harrison, one of the
great British character actresses, he said that some of
her lines needed to be re dubbed, but she was in Ireland
so she couldn't come back to re dub the lines.
So she he ask Sellers, would he? So he called Sellers and said,
can you do Kathleen Harrison? And apparently Sellers replied,
do you mean physically or phonetically?
And Sellers then dubbed Kathleen Harrison's lines.
But Kathleen Harrison said that the way the story's told by Val
Guest, he implies that it's up the Creek.
But she's not in up the Creek. No, but she did make 1956 film,
which kind of ties in with the son of Fred, you know, and
leasing the flat from his, you know, Val Guest, mother-in-law
that he made a film called It's a Wonderful World, which stars
Terence Morgan and George Cole, where they play songwriters.
So you can see that's probably loosely based on the early part
of Val Guest's career. Kathleen Harrison does appear in
that particular film, so I'm wondering if that's the film
because he also well guessed that when Kathleen Harrison saw
the film, she was totally unaware that Sellers had dubbed
a few of her lines for the film. I think it does appear on
Talking Pictures. Right.
OK, OK. So I mean, that was another one
of the stuff because he he even in the introduction to his
autobiography, he says that he was chatting to Peter Sellers
in. He said he was on the set of Up
the Creek in Weybridge, but that's further Up the Creek,
Yeah. Which of course is Frankie
Howard. But he said that he the idea was
first mooted of him writing an autobiography.
He was asked when they were shooting the film, and he asked
Sellers, you know, what should I do?
Sellers said something along the lines of, I'll put it all in,
you know, tell it, tell it how how it is.
Because we spend most of our life in the crap, and it's quite
interesting to see how we get out of it.
But he kind of said, once again, his sort of memory is slightly
playing tricks. And of course, I think Val
himself kind of rewrote his own history.
So when he would talk about these sort of sex comedies
nearer the time when he made them or, you know, he, he, he
spoke of them in a, in a, in a much more, you know, in a much
more warmths and towards those films.
But when he spoke about them later on, he, he just sort of,
there was nothing to say. He just sort of put the shutters
down on those films. Right.
Yeah, Yeah. OK.
Is is there anything more about this film that you want to
mention that we haven't? I mean, we haven't talked a lot
about it, but is there anything? I just think that it's a film
that is, It's enjoyable, it passes the time, but I just
don't think there are enough funny lines in the film.
There are just, you know, it's beautiful, it's shot well, it's
the acting's great, but the script, it just, it doesn't
have, it doesn't have any punch to it.
No, absolutely. That's it.
Which is which is quite
surprising really when you know, when we we you know, if we go
back to, you know, we think about two way stretch or we move
forward to the wrong arm of the law.
There are lots of you know, there are lots of zingers in
those films. But then are also the the main
characters more fully rounded in those particular films because
there in this particular film up the Creek, apart from Sellers,
Tomlinson, a little bit of Lionel Merton as Perkins, the
the characters are just not really developed at all.
People just sort of appear appear in the scene and then
they and you may not you may never see them again or they
appear briefly in another scene. It's just, but it was a huge
success. Well, David Thomlinson is just
David Thomlinson just playing David Thomlinson.
Yeah, and I love David Thomlinson.
I mean, I've always loved David Thomlinson.
So how do you feel about David Tomlinson?
I I very much liked him in the film The Wooden Horse.
He's great. Yeah, he's three men in a boat.
I haven't seen that for years, but I don't think, and I say
this a lot and it's not fair to say this, but I don't think he
has a lot of range necessarily, although.
No, but The thing is, he those Disney films, there's some great
warmth to his roles in them in bed knobs and broomsticks and
the love bug and Mary Poppins. It's he's the sort of person
that you would think, Oh, he's he's a you know, as to be an
uncle or a father. He would probably be great fun.
And and of course, in The Love Bug, he plays against type
because he is the he's the villain of the peace in in the
Love Bug. And it's interesting.
I think it's in Roger Lewis's book, isn't there?
Isn't there the quote from Noël Coward that said that Damon
Tomlinson had a face of an old baby?
Yes, that's right. And then I found the, I found
the press book for Further up the Creek, the press book for Up
the Creek. There's very little in it, but
in Further Up the Creek it said David Tomlinson, he of the
expression of a Turkey or something you.
Can see that, yeah, you can kind of see.
That but then but then it made me think because of Noël Coward
saying of Tomlinson that he had the face of an old baby.
Myles Jump played on stage, toured as David Tomlinson and
Myles Jump has the same sort of baby I.
Suppose he has. Yeah, I suppose he has.
I just, I just, I just like Thompson.
I just said this and he's quite good as the buffoon.
And I do like the line when his name, his first name is
mentioned. Humphrey.
Terrible, isn't it?
How too young to protest. That is a very good line.
Yes, now the ending, the right the the the the film ends with
Humphrey getting the girl and the rest of the crew get a new
vessel, which is the HMS Incorruptible.
T he he and I did. I didn't particularly.
I was, I cringed a little bit at the right at the end when he
looks, he looks through the telescope, I think in the
sellers and the crew all waving madly.
Oh well, they're doing the hip prey.
Hip prey. Hip prey.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But did you notice them where he
is being sent to David Tomlinson?
Oh, it's Australia, isn't it? Yes, he's been sent to Woomera.
Woomera, which I gather was a rocket range site.
Yeah. And the outbaked.
That's right. It's only now you've said that,
that it's actually clicked with me.
Yes. So it fits.
I mean, that's, that's, that's very good writing.
It's, it's not Penny Chayevsky, but you know, it's, it's not
bad. Did you spot the connection for
EastEnders? I I have never seen a whole
episode of EastEnders, but I gather there's a connection with
EastEnders in this film. Right.
OK, OK, let me think. Let me think.
EastEnders connection. So you mean a cast member that's
also in EastEnders? Yep.
Without looking at IMDb. Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
no, no, no. I'm just trying to.
I don't think Wilfred Hyde White was one of the Beale family, was
he? No, I don't know.
So if do you remember when David Tomlinson, he's on his way to
the Army surplus store, he's in his car again and he is stopped
by traffic policeman. Yes.
And he asked for directions and he said, oh, I don't want to
take the shortcut again. Something wrong is nice.
The policeman is played by Leonard Fenton, who I gather was
Doctor Leg in EastEnders. Ether would always go to with
her ape and ailments, yes, and a little Willy, Yeah, right.
And there's a there's a brief appearance by Michael Ripper.
Oh yes? Well, it's a Hammer film.
So All in all, Yep, an enjoyable.
It's a very short film. It's only about 80 odd minutes
as well so. Which is the which is really the
length of comedy Should be. Yeah, yeah.
Talking Pictures TV does play it from time to time.
In fact, I watched, I recorded it from Talking Pictures last
year and I watched, I watched it at the time and then I watched
it, watch it again. I kept the recording and watched
it again. For this, Sellers is really
good. Tomlinson's great.
But there's not, you know, there's, there's not going to be
many surprises and not that many belly laughs.
In fact, there's very few. In fact, there's probably no
belly laughs. There's a few titters.
Of titters. Well, talking of titters.
But of course Sellers wasn't available for the sequel and was
was replaced by, of course, the grand titter master, Frankie
Howard. Francis and Francis didn't get
very good reviews. I gather they were because they
were thinking of making a third. Return of the.
Creek some whatever, yes, right up your Creek or something.
But I gather that Frankie Howard's agent was demanding
more money, but the film sank. Oh God, another terrible pun.
The film sank at the box office. So, but what I would like to say
is I actually think further up the Creek is funnier than up the
Creek. Oh right.
Well I have not watched it. I did not watch it for the.
Maybe I should have done for the to be?
And I can't believe that I have said that film starring Peter
Sellers and a film starring Frankie Howard where all the
cart the rest of the cast main, you know, the crew and Tomlinson
come back. Yeah.
And I can't believe that I've just said that the film starring
Frankie Howard is funnier than the film starring Peter Sellers.
Well, but obviously not as popular.
There's no thanks again to Graham, so don't forget a few
days ago the the brand new August edition of Goon Pod film
Club dropped, in which myself and Tim Worthington are talking
about the 1963 John Schlesinger directed film Billy Lier
starring, what's his name, Tom Courtney, Julie Christie.
It's also got Leonard roster, it's got Rodney Bewes, it's got
all sorts of familiar faces, Wilfred Pickles even, and you
can get access to that. Head over to patreon.com.
Goonpod the every month the library will grow as a new
edition of Goonpod Film drop. Film Drop put my teeth in a new
edition of Goon Pod Film Club Drops.
Last month it was Kind Hearts and Coronets with David Quantic.
As I say, this month it is Billy Liar with Tim Worthington, and
next month I think it's going to be Hard Day's Night with Eddie
Robson. So yeah, to access all of those,
just head over to patreon.com/goon Pod, get
yourself signed up, and I will see you next week with a very
special guest, I think for Goonpod, for the usual Goonpod
feed, a very special guest. Watch this space.
See you very soon. Bye.