You tell it again, Whiskers. You told me to dress for dinner,
so I put my dinner tongs on, and now I'm the only one.
We're not having dinner, Mr. Wendover, we're having luncheon.
What time is it, 1255? Well, it's dinner time when I
come from. If you'd taken the trouble to
read the brochure, as I suggested, you would have
discovered that we serve luncheon at 12:30 and dinner at
7:30. Something to do with crossing a
dateline, I suppose. Well, it's a bit of a relief,
really. Oh, this shirt's killing me.
Mr. Wendy over. Try and get it right.
We only wear a black tie at dinner.
Have you got it? Only wear a black tie at dinner.
Correct. I've got it and I've got
witnesses. I shall take Murray Pass in my
cabin. Thank you.
None. Because I've been rushing around
this evening, this afternoon and this evening.
I normally what I do is, you know, 5 minutes before we start
recording, I jot down a really crappy little intro and I've not
had a chance to do it. So I mean, Are you ready to just
to kick off now and we can just. Just bother.
Call. I'm in your hands.
Brilliant, brilliant.
So I'll just say hello and welcome to Goon Pod.
Ding Dong, how about that? Perfect.
There we go.
This week I am. I'm delighted to welcome now so
many strings to your bow here, John.
Correct me if I'm wrong. Actor, writer, director and Co
founder of Hambledon Productions, John Feuer.
John Feuer, Thank you. Very much indeed, yes.
Thanks for having me here. Did I miss any?
No, it's Jack of all trades, master of nonness.
Pretty much is, yes. I Can't Sing.
I can't dance. So I when I entered this
industry, it was very much a case of seeing what else I liked
doing. And writing is my main thing.
I like to do writing, but that pays the least, I've found out.
So directing very soon, followed that up and.
Yeah. And I've fallen into this craze
of, you know, reviving classic comedy.
And I absolutely love doing that.
Yeah. You're the relatively younger
man than than I am, John. But but you're but like myself,
you, you, you cleave very much to the older comedy and
comedians, I guess. Is that?
Yeah. Absolutely.
I'd say anything from 1917 to about 1998, it's kind of a kind
of where I sit. And in the middle of that it's
it's, it's the Fifties, 60s and 70s.
And yeah, I'm, I'm 36, turning 37.
And I, I always say I was brought up very, very well.
I was introduced to that kind of, you know, the golden age of
comedy, as we call it now by my, my, my dad in particular, who
was a, a school teacher, head teacher, very, very busy job.
But he would always free up Sunday evenings to spend some
time together and on BBC Two or Channel 4, they'd be showing
Carry ONS on Channel 4 and on BBC Two they'd be serving
Porridge and Fawlty Towers, the good life and that kind of
stuff. And my love for this kind of
classic comedy kind of all stemmed out from that.
And I gotta be honest, Carry On Films was my was my biggest
interest, probably still is. And of course, you exhaust those
31 films and you go and, you know, see James, Kath Williams,
Hattie Jakes, what else did they do?
And you go into Hancock's Half Hour and their own sitcom stuff.
And then that then transpired into the The Goon Show.
My grandfather on my mum's dad who's still with us.
He's 95 next month, exciting time.
And he's a huge Goon fan, loved Spike Milligan.
So I think quite anarchic or or zany, I'm saying in inverted
comments kind of came from my granddad.
So Marx Brothers are huge, huge influence on my on my work.
And the Goon Show, I think is a, is a, is very close follow on
from them. And and yes, so that kind of
side of my work definitely stems from my granddad and, and Spike
Milligan in particular. And I'm looking to have done
Spike works works, you know, with my company, with the bed
sitting room and the Milligan papers.
And it's, it's wonderful to be a very, very, very small wheel in,
in that whole, you know, reviving his work and keeping
his name out there. You've you've played Spike.
You've you've, yes. That was a weird.
That was a strange one, how that came about.
Jeremy Stockwell, who I'm sure you're familiar with, the
brilliant Spike in it transcends the impression it really, really
is. He was in line to play Spike in
the Milligan Papers tour we did in 2018 to, to to mark the
centenary of Spike, but he couldn't do it.
So I ended up stepping up to playing Spike Milligan in that
sense. But the betting room was the big
one. The betting room was the film I
watched in my teens. And so let's let's think now.
This has been about, yeah, the very early 2000s.
And it wasn't it on DVD. There was number VHS release.
You couldn't find it on YouTube or anything like that.
And it did crop up on on eBay. I think, you know, as one of
those we're in the public domain kind of film.
Oh yeah. But I remember buying it and I
remember being completely in awe of it.
It really was my favorite film for for a couple of years.
And and I just wanted to and it would base the play.
And of course, play is my main love, you know, theaters, my
main love. So when when I read the play
script, which of course very different from the film in many
ways, and I wanted to restage that.
And so we very luckily were given permission to do that in a
couple years ago now. And Jeremy Stockwell, we did fly
him over to to play Spike. And that was such a wonderful
evening. Jane Milligan was there.
It was wonderful to have to to have said that we did that.
It's it's very, very special to me.
And and was John and Travis involved at all?
John was John was very much, very much keen for revival.
He wanted to turn into a musical.
I, and I'm looking back on John's, you know, CV and musical
is kind of the only thing he hasn't done.
So I think, I think there's a part of that and he had these
wonderful ideas. But but sadly, the whole, you
know, well, not necessarily sadly, but the whole ethos
behind it was to do it as it was in 1962 or 63, you know, that
was kind of a big, big part of it.
But he was very supportive of us.
And I think he's still tinkering away on it, hoping to get
revival, you know, full production to be done soon,
hopefully. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Today, this week, we are talking about the 1970 film Doctor in
Trouble, starring Leslie Phillips, Harry Seekum, Robert
Morley, Robert Morley. Robert Morley.
I've got a bit of AI need. I need somebody to work through
my Robert Morley antipathy with, and it may as well be you.
Oh, yes, yes, I've got a real thing of not a real thing.
It's, it's an act, I suppose it's an act, but it's pomposity
and it's just the way he, he always looks permanently
startled, you know, so he. Is he is the same in in in every
film? I think that's that's pretty
tricky. Well, that's true.
I think it's in Roger Lewis's Peter Sellers book where he he
does something like comparing Robert Morley to like some,
some, you know, gargantuan elephant who just comes onto the
screen every now and then and completely tries to own the
whole scene. And I will quickly see where he
comes from in that. I've got to, I've got to pull in
Robin Molly. But it is an act.
And when you think, you know, if this was made two years earlier,
that part would have been played by James Robertson Justice.
And I think the film would have been a yeah, better been a
better outcome for that. But yeah.
Oh, and we almost forgot, Simon Dee, of course, is in this film.
Oh, yes. Now this is tricky for me
because, you know, I was wasn't around in 1970 or the 70s at
all. And so I, I didn't realize at
all who Simon Dee was. And I had to kind of figure out
and then to figure out this was probably his only, certainly his
only major film. And I don't know, a kind of a
flash in the pan kind of career. Would you say that?
I don't know. Well, I've done a bit of
research, quite a bit of research about Simon Dee.
So I want to at some point in our conversation, I want to talk
about his kind of downfall, right?
His rise and fall, as they say. Very interesting guy.
His own worst enemy, I suppose. And I only know, I only knew him
when I was growing up because Victoria would mentions him in
one of his sketches. That's the only I think, I
think, I think that's the only reference to Simon DI heard
growing up. But we'll we'll come to him.
We'll come to him. Tell me.
Don't tell me. The luxury Coronation Street.
No, no. The TV advert for Frosty.
I've got it. Doctor Philip Dare.
Yes. Yes.
Thought I recognized the old mush.
One of your greatest fans here, Phil.
Good. I'm the Well and Wendover.
I just won the pools. Don't spread it about.
Otherwise they won't be able to pull the birds off me fast
enough. Yes, I recognized you
immediately, Sir. The captain asked me to take you
down to your cabin and look after you, and he'll be in touch
with you just as soon as we're safety at sea.
Well, thank you very much. I hope to be asleep by the time
we're at sea. I'm afraid I'm not the.
Best of sailors for the first couple of days.
There's nothing to worry about on the Golden Horn, Sir.
We're as stable as a jihadisco. I'm very glad to hear that.
Here. Just a minute.
You'd like to come this way as I would.
What about me? I mean, if you're a bloke, What
tips of tickets I like? I don't want to shake down.
Now I do like to be thorough in my research as well.
If you Google Doctor in Trouble, you have to wade through pages
and pages and pages about GPG. PS: being struck off for the
various things but but I did manage to find quite a a a bit
to talk about with regards to this film and those who appear
in it. As I said about like Simon D So
but what, why, why this film? Is this one of your favourites?
I'm guessing it must be. Yeah, I I think it is.
It's certainly one of the Doctor films I go to more than the
others. And I guess if you were to look
at the, the the Doctor series very quickly there seven films,
19541970. This is the last one.
And they, they, they sort of fall into two categories.
There's the the very, you know, quintessential 1950s, kind of,
you know what I call the Carmichael factor.
Yeah, he got Michael not in these films, but it's it's kind
of got that kind of feel to it. Very, very.
He got Michael Dirk Bogart. Kind of.
Yeah, Dirk Bogart in them actually.
Bogart's in in a lot of them is, yeah, Doctor Simon Sparrow.
And that the first film from 54 is, is really excellent.
I'm, I'm, you know, honestly, it's it's very much timeless.
And he's supported by, you know, Kenneth Moore, Donald Sinden and
of course, Jane Robson Justice. And the first one is excellent.
And then they kind of did kind of not capitalize on that with
the sequels. You know, Doctorate C came along
in 55, Doctorate Large in 57, and they all kind of got
progressively weaker and Doug Bogart basically just wasn't
invested in it anymore. He then jumped ship and Michael
Craig came along in 1960 Co starring with Leslie Phillips in
Doctor in Love, which tried to kind of, you know, regenerate
the series, I suppose. And that didn't work.
And they they got back Doug Bogart for one final outing for
the fifth film, Doctor in Distress in 1963.
And and then it was decided to basically chase the Carry on
wagon as far as I could tell, with the sixth film, 1966 being
Doctor in Clover, where we have Leslie Phillips really taking on
the mantle by, you know, Donald Sindon and Kenneth Moore.
And and then that brought us to doctor in trouble.
And I think of the later ones, this is this is, this is my
favorite, you know, bizarrely, as it was the last one they ever
made, But I, I, I do prefer this to a lot of the earlier ones.
I, I think the first one is the best.
And unsurprisingly maybe, but I this one, it's not a classic at
all, but it, it is still a very good film.
And I watched again last night and I and it, it has got that
kind of familiarity feel with it.
And, you know, to go with those names already listed, Irene
handles in their John. The measure, of course, is
always in their Graham's. You know, they're, they're good
troopers, aren't they? And we're always grateful to see
them. Yeah.
Yeah, but what's really confusing is that why isn't this
called Doctor at Sea? Well, they made Doctor at Sea.
I think that's the problem. And sadly, there's a, there's a
couple of reviews online, official reviews from critics
saying, you know, this feels like the, you know, the off cuts
of Doctorate C, which I really do not agree with.
I think they are two very different films.
And this does feel very much like a, a carry on and Oh yeah.
And whether you and and it'll, you know, it'll stand up on, on
that, whether you like carry on or not.
And then but when I was watching it last night, it, it, it felt
like one of the later late carry ONS.
There's a lot of nudity going on in Doctor in Trouble and it it
felt to be spicy even for like the late 60s, early 70s.
Yeah, at one point Leslie Phillips says the word bastard
about 6 times and I know. Succession.
Genuinely shocking, yeah. And he's saying it to Simon Dee,
so he's probably had grounds for saying it if Simon Dee's
reputation was anything to go by.
But it's based on a book called Doctor on Toast.
Yeah, not Doctor on Toast. Yeah, I have not got to the
bottom of that one. Yeah, I've got most of the
Doctor novels, and I haven't got that one, but I'd be interested
to see exactly how much of this. I mean, it was screenplay by
Jack Davis, who had handled a few of these in the past, mostly
known in my books anyway, for writing on the normal Wisdom
films. And it's certainly got that
strong slapstick element to it, which again, if that's your if
that's your bag, you will love this.
You know, it might leave you cold, but it's, yeah, it's a
Jack Davis script. And exactly how much from doctor
on toast he took. You know, that's, that's
something I need to look into, to be honest.
You mentioned James Robertson Justice.
Now he does have a very small walk on part in this film right
at the beginning. And you can, you can, if you
know about it, you can see it. You can see he's got one hand
shoved into a trouser pocket and there's a kind of a, he's a
suppressed tremble of his arm. So he was, he was.
Was he effectively dying at that at this time or certainly very
ill? Yeah, he's, he's had a stroke a
couple of years before. He had an operation after stroke
which hadn't gone according to plan, I think.
And then he was, he was basically off another operation
with like a 50% chance of being successful or not.
And, and people were like, do you really want to go through
with this? But he, he, he did and, and, and
this is him basically coming out of it.
And I think this is his last, certainly his last mate.
I think this is the final film. Actually, I think he died about
five years afterwards. And you're right.
And I, I knew he wasn't well when I first saw it.
I, I'd read up on that much time when you know, you know, you,
you think so 'cause you know, he was, he was a good third in all
the other previous films and been doing had this kind of walk
on cameo really. Let's be honest, it was very sad
indeed. But no, when I did reread the
biography on him and I watched those early scenes with him in,
you could tell, you know, yeah, you're right.
He's got his left hand in his jacket pocket.
And also when he has some close-ups, you can tell he's
reading the cue the auto view car behind Simon Dee's head a
couple of times. It's it's good to have him.
You know, I wouldn't want to lose him.
But but it it, it is. It is sad and slightly awkward
that he's not in this one so much.
Absolutely. Oh, we've got to mention, of
course there's a, there's a Python, yes.
Film. There's an ASP and there's a
Python. The Python in the shape of
Graham Chapman, who plays a fashion photographer called
Roddy Rodney. Yes.
Or was it Rodney, I thought. It was.
I think it's Rodney, then Roddy, yeah.
Right and Graham Chapman very much against type, playing a gay
man. There's a couple of gay
stereotypes in his film. Roddy is one of them, and
there's a said particularly egregious stereotype at the
beginning when Simon Dee's character is being mobbed by
adoring females. That's right, yes, Which I
hadn't stopped until last night. And when that little bit came
up, I was like, oh, that's the thing that got under my radar
earlier. Well, that kind of
representation was was default homosexual around this period.
Wasn't it? Yeah.
Really. Yeah.
Now, did Graham Graham Chapman had some involvement with the
scripts on this? Did he?
Or not on the film script to my knowledge, but he and John
Cleese did both Co write the opening episode of the Doctor in
the House TV series which would start in 1969.
That's it. That's what I was confused with
kind of I think. I think the producers, Betty
Box, who produced all the seven Doctor films, I think she was
given first refusal to actually do ATV adaptation.
And then when, when James was and Justice was clearly not
going to be around for it to happen, you know, to work on it.
I mean, she she basically closed the book and I said not anymore.
So I think ITV or ATV, wherever it was the time, you know,
bought the rights from from from her and they they went with that
and and yeah. And it was a Chapman Cleese
first script and then the Goodies.
I think. I know Bill Adi and Graham
Garden wrote a lot of them. Yeah, well, Graham was a doctor,
wasn't he? Yeah.
And of course, an uncredited appearance in this by Jeffrey
Davis. Yes, he's there.
He pops up, yes. Like a like a like a ceremial,
you know, handing over the hat really, isn't it because he kind
of played that role that Leslie Phillips plays so well?
You know, the the Doctor Burke, I think he's called this one
Doctor Grimmstein keeps calling the previous one for the same
Leslie Phillips character. And I think he's got that kind
of lovable rogue kind of role. TV series.
Yeah, Jeffrey walks in on on Leslie Phillips character and I
I was saying to friends, I'm going to write someday I'm going
to write a monograph, a short monograph on the films from the
films and television programs from the 70s, which have scenes
where there are photographs of topless women pinned to the
walls because there's. And also, but we also create a
new list, a very short list as well, of films which have, you
know, various starlets going on photo shoots.
Yes. Because there's this, there's.
I don't even seen it. Vampira, 1974.
David Niven. Heard of it?
Yeah, it's a similar thing. They all, they all, all these
Dolly girls, you know, they all, they all get on a plane and they
go to Transylvania for photo shoot.
And then there's Spanish Fly 1917.
Heard of it? It's meant to be dreadful,
isn't? It it's Leslie Phillips and and
Terry Thomas and again, let's ship them all out to to to
somewhere hot and nice and to take some photographs like.
That. But yes, definitely a trend.
Definitely a trend. Yeah, barely mentioned Harry.
Now Harry, when we get to Harry, Harry is wonderful in this.
Harry is to me. And obviously I'm biased I
suppose, but. He is.
He's so, so good in all the films he did that he's, he's
really remarkable, I think. And yeah, so totally hold his
weight here against these, these people who have made, you know,
dozens more films than Harry had made by this point in his
career. And it's excellent, I think.
Yeah. Well, he's dialed it up to 11,
and he's playing a character called Clue Allen Wendover.
That's right, yeah. Cheerfully Crumpet Mad Pools
winner with no social graces, and I suppose you would kindly
describe him as common as muck. Oh.
Absolutely. Yes, it's his first time on a
cruise and he doesn't know the etiquette and he's got an eye
for the ladies and all sorts of shenanigans occur.
Is he? And I think he's is he is he
kind of is the whole purpose of the cruise for him to pick up
find, you know, find a wife potentially, Is that what is
that? I I think that's a polite way of
putting it. Yeah, I think so.
It's interesting because that the character name, not
Llewellyn, but there's a Wendover in the previous film,
Doctrine Clover, played by Arthur Haynes.
Oh yeah, I think passed away between that film and this film.
So whether he was lined up to be in this one as one, I'm not too
sure. But it's great to see Harry
Seacombe. I think he made quite a few
films around this. Time yeah, his sunstruck was
couple of years later there was song of Norway I think the same
year as this right Oliver of course the year before I.
Think it was the Yeah, it was. 68 Yeah, but he's Oh, and
there's the Magnificent 7 deadly sins.
Great. Yeah.
Hey, which I'm all, I'm all for that.
I'm all for that. Which also has Lizzie Phillips
in it. That's a guilty pleasure, yes.
And directed by Graham Stark, Yes, Yeah.
And I heard Leslie Phillips say about Graham Stark that very
nice man. Very nice man to act with, but
not a very nice man to be directed by, apparently.
Oh, really? Bit of a bit of a tartar on set.
Oh, OK, OK. So there we go.
I mean, I've come to there must be something because yeah, he
didn't do many, did he? So.
Yeah, I think he he did that. I think he did Simon.
Simon with Simon Sharp film. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
With Sellers in it briefly. Yeah.
You know, talk about the Carry ONS and how this is more or less
a carry on in all but name, I suppose in many ways.
Well, it's not actually, is it? Because there were, there were,
there's no, there's none of the principal cast apart from Joan
Sims. And yeah, I mean, Leslie
Phillips was sort of an early carry on regular wasn't even.
Only regular for the early days, yeah.
Yeah, but it opens with with very carry on style credits and
music. It's Eric Rogers behind them,
the music. Because yes, I, I, I do think
that the, the musical scores of this type of film, you know,
often goes unnoticed. And I and I do, you know, they
do punctuate so many of the gags.
And it's not just all, you know, long trombones and Swanee
whistles. You know, there's, there's some
really wonderful stuff going in there.
And I did notice that Harry Secombe actually has his own
like theme tune whenever he comes on, that kind of thing.
And it's it's lifted from Carry On Doctor.
It's Bernie Breslow's theme tune, if you like, from Carry On
Doctor, which was made in 1967. So it would be quite fresh.
Rodgers his mind that and I and I that, you know, recurring
theme. And there's a wonderful bit the
party which has got some music in from a similar party scene
from Karen again Doctor, which was made the year before.
And there's a there's the Janet Mahoney's striptease scene from
later on in the film, which includes a musical theme from
Eric Rogers, which he he he returned to constantly thought
the Carry ONS. Now there's some kind of saucy
dance. It's the same piece of music.
So I'm thinking of that. There's a striptease scene in
Carry On Behind in 1975 and a similar one in Carry On Emmanuel
for 1978. And it's the same piece of
music. So yeah.
So that piece of music, wherever it comes on, like, oh, there we
go. Just we're talking about that
striptease. I mean, that was that come as
that came as no surprise that it was that.
What's the character's name? Dawn.
Dawn Daley. Dawn Daley was referred to as a
dancer throughout this film. And then and then it's announced
that this this party, that she's going to dance for the delight
of the passengers. And we all, we all knew it was
going to be a striptease, didn't we?
Come on. I love the next scene as well
because you've got you've got the capability, Robert Morley.
You've got Robert Morley looking startled and saying to John
Lemaz. It's great, isn't it?
Yeah. You don't think she's going to
take everything off, do you? And and John in his best
Sergeant Wilson says something like, I rather hope she does.
Absolutely. Spot on.
Yeah, which you do not expect. It's wonderful.
No, he's delighted by it all. You.
Don't think she's going to take everything off, do you?
I hope she does. The film opens with an operation
happening and and the surgeon collapses and dies, but before
he does he. He not the last guys, not the
last. Yeah, he nominates the dishy Dr.
Dare as the only surgeon capable of completing this operation.
And we see, we then realize that it's actually a a television
show and and Doctor Dare is the actor Basil Beecham.
It is Basil Beecham. Isn't it played by Simon Dee?
And the name Doctor Dare? I'm assuming it's based on
Doctor Kildare. Yeah, I presume.
And then we see Leslie Phillips and about a dozen nurses
watching this on television at the hospital.
Leslie Phillips's character Tony says that he was at school with
Doctor Dare. Now, Phillips was 46 at this at
this time, and Dean was 35. But but Leslie Phillips really
trading on that sort of youthful good looks still or trying to.
He was and he he kept he kept that going for, you know, the
best part of the 10 years until, you know, this, this kind of
comedy, I guess this was not as fashionable.
There wasn't much money. You know, this was the last one
they could finance, wasn't it? And, you know, and then he he
wanted to ditch that, you know, persona and then, you know,
chase a second career, which he did very, very well, didn't he?
Of course. But now he's still is, you know,
rappish best here, I think. He's a bit put out by the the
clear adoration of the nurses for Simon D's character and he's
And then he's called out to a swanky house where the resident
is supposedly seriously ill and it turns out to be Basil
Beaches. Hen now, sorry to cut in there.
I I spotted it straight away. I spotted that that axe signed
it like serious straight away and it's I I ran ran to my carry
on books and it's a location used in the very closing scene
of Karen at the Jungle and it's a Le Baron's Crescent.
Wow, OK. Probably in Windsor, knowing
knowing carry on lot, probably Windsor and yes, it was used at
the jungle, which was filmed in 1969.
So I guess, you know, with the with the family background of,
you know, Betty Box B Peter Rogers, you know, I guess so I'm
looking for a house, you know, that can do this kind of
exterior location. Oh, you want this place.
Here's the tip of that kind of thing going on throughout
throughout the two franchises really.
But yes, there it is, 11 Clarence present.
Like you said before, the the the sort of the smutty tone is
crept in here and you've got these Dolly birds essentially
sort of draped over the banisters.
Around yeah, as as as. Tony Burke is climbing the
stairs and then he and then he examines Basil when it he thinks
it's his appendix, doesn't he? I think.
And then but there's he says something about, you know, take
your shirt off or unbutton your shirt.
And the girls start to unbutton, of course.
And then and Tony and he stopped them.
He would. But even though he says, well,
you might want to do that later, he says, like the old dog.
I really laughed when we see the next scene is Basil's taken to
hospital and Doctor Burke tries to tell the the nurses that he's
not all that. Oh, it's.
Doctor Phillip dead, but he's not bad.
He's got false teeth. Spots.
Yeah, wears a wig, not knees. Then what's going on here?
I just brought in a new patient, Sir.
An actor. Hypochondriac, of course.
Of course, what's the matter with him?
He says he's got appendicitis, so that personally I think he's
here for publicity purposes. There he is.
Is he? Well, I'm.
Not standing for that. You're quite right, Sir.
It could be a a carrying on from Doctoring Clover where the main,
well, one of the plot points in that film is Leslie Phillips's
character trying to get with it and trying to, you know, adapt
to to, you know, this, this swinging 60s permissiveness.
And it's it's a little bit like the end of carry on camping.
It's like, you know, Sir James and Bernie Brez are all are all
for the permissiveness until it turns up in the in the you know,
the field next door is some rowdy, you know, the flower buds
pop band, whatever. And, and they steal all the all
the young girls. So it's it's a it's a little bit
like that. It's kind of trying to tap into
the modern trends, but also kind of poking fun at it.
And I think there's a little bit of that in this film as well in
Doctrine where, you know, Leslie Phillips's character trying to
trying to adapt to, you know, to the latest hot craze, which in
this case is Simon Dee's character.
And and there's a lot of comedy to be taken out of that, I
think. Yeah.
Well, he's he's, He's also, by the way, carry on.
Camping was the hippies, wasn't it?
As well. Yes, yeah, yeah.
Don't essentially don't don't they don't they try and kill the
hippies. Yeah, they, they completely
spoil their fun. They, they, they blow up all
their, you know, electric guitars and they, they, they
pull them all through a hedge on a track to, you know, you know,
it's, it's, you know, they're trying to just, you know, go
away from all of that. So it's, yeah.
It's an interesting part in the series where basically Carry On
went from being, you know, trendsetters to, you know, kind
of falling behind the times a little bit, I think.
Yeah. And you said about Leslie
Phillips, well, his character in any case, trying to be a bit
groovy. And with it, he's obviously
he's, he's also got a young girlfriend, which is the actress
Angela Scholar, Scholar, Scholar, who I wasn't familiar
with in terms of I couldn't recognize it from anything until
I looked her up and she was in a couple of Bond films.
She was also she was in Casino Royale, you know the the sellers
casino well, but I recognized her because she had a regular
role in. You rang my Lord, as one of the
of. Course One.
Of the lady somebody rather well dispatched.
Well, but but yeah, so she so she plays doctor.
Oh God, this is going to be confusing.
Leslie Phillips character Doctor Tony Burke.
She plays his young, younger girlfriend.
That's right. And she what was that?
Ophelia O'Brien is their name, yeah.
Ophelia O'Brien. That's right.
I mean, if it had been the Carry On films, it would have been
something like Ophelia Knockers or.
Something, yeah. But she, the actress and
Phillips actually got together several years after this and.
They did, yeah. I, I thought, I thought they
they got together on this film, but no, you're right, it was a
bit late. So they just played together
called the man most likely to in the West End And.
And yes, she's she's back in this film and quite high billing
actually. I I thought, I thought it was a
a very secondary role, but no, she's there a lot more than I
thought she was remembered to be.
And yeah, I mean, she's she's great.
Yeah, that's very. She, I won't, I won't go into
detail, but she, she, well, she took her own life in 2011 in a
very, in a very dramatic fashion, which people could look
up if they wish, but obviously had a lot of things going on
and, but they had been together for many, many years.
When she was she was actually in the early stage of pregnancy
when she made doctor in trouble. So it was a under in trouble.
I think really, yes, from from her first, first marriage, I
think, and and yeah. And then I, I think, I think
Leslie very much became, you know, you know, the step dad
really when they did get together.
So yeah. Yeah, the the plot here is that
Doctor Tony Burke has got a job, a job offer in America, but he
needs to get married in order to clinch it.
Yes, they want they don't want an unmarriage.
And I don't know, back in those days, I don't know.
So he's he's going to propose to his his girlfriend Ophelia.
And so he goes to a flat and she's but she's getting ready to
go out with a film director who's a real drag.
Yeah, there's so many of these terms which are so this F for
Fariki. I actually put the subtitles on
to see what she was saying because she says it quite a few
F for Fariki. And I was like, she's actually
saying, I don't know if that was a common term at the time or
it's been thrown in the film. But yeah, there's quite a quite
a a few of those, those, those references in there, which is
great. You know, it's a bit of a time
capture. I know which way.
It's possibly about probably is about three years behind if you
know whatever. Yeah.
Just just like when Terry and June had that episode where they
dressed up as punks, you know they missed that boat by.
About four years in 1989, yeah. So he's so he's got to propose
to her, but but she's going out with some film director and she
she's not going to be able to see Tony because she's going on
a cruise to do some modeling as we referred to earlier.
So he decides, so he decides to try and go and you know, meet
her on the cruise ship before it sets sail and propose to her.
And the the ship is called the Golden Horn.
Yes, I did spot that, yes. Yeah, and as I say, we've got
we've got Basil Beecham as because because, oh, I've got to
say James Robinson justice as top surgeon Lancelot Spratt,
who's a fan of the television series or he's a fan of Doctor
Dare. He he diagnosis that his, his
illness was wind and recommends a holiday and he suggests a
cruise on the Golden Horde because his brother is the
captain. So, so, so there we go.
So we've got, we've got Leslie Phillips, we've got Simon Dee
both about to get on the on the boat.
And then we see Harry Seekum arrives and there's a lovely
little little scene there with Simon Dee, who he recognizes and
he thinks he may have seen him on Coronation Street.
And then he and then he twinks at his doctor Dare and he says
to Basil that he's a pools winner.
He says not to spread it about because they won't be able to
pull the girls off him fast enough.
Yes, but it's all it's all all all this stuff from Harry seek
and you know the scene and and stuff to come later.
It it's done with that, that winning, you know, almost like a
naivety about him. You know, there's something that
just makes it very forgivable about all these, all these stuff
we have coming up with him, you know, all the leering Lectury
stuff coming up. You know, it's it's completely,
he's completely forgiven for it because he's just such a warm,
charismatic man. And I think that's that's a big
thing take away from from his character here, I think.
He's got no hidden depths. What you see is what you get.
Yeah, he does his his emotions to turn on a dime, though,
because he he flies into a rage a couple of times, doesn't he?
But but no, generally speaking, he's just a very happy go lucky
avuncular chap that I'd quite like to be be stuck on a cruise
with. Harry seek him.
I think that would be a very fine thing.
Not playing this character but Harry seek him in general.
Absolutely. Yeah, Yeah, yeah.
I'll be right there. I'll be right there.
So Doctor, Doctor Burke, Tony, he can't get on the on the boat
because he hasn't got a boarding pass or something.
So he he, he pretends to be a crew member loading luggage so
he can get on. And then we see, we get our
first glimpse of the ship's captain, the ever dependable
Robert Morley. And I can always depend on him
to annoy the hell out of me and he bollocks.
Bollocks Tony. I think that's the the technical
term. He bollocks Tony for for wearing
suede shoes and drops them in the water.
Yeah. Oh, we've just missed.
We've just missed somebody just as somebody which I think will
be interest to the to the Goon fraternity.
John Bluthall pops up as a taxi driver for Leslie Flips in this
In this opening, he does. You miss him, yes.
It really is, Yeah. Looking very young, actually.
But yeah, he's, he's there at the, the Southampton docks.
I say Southampton docks. It's probably, you know, back of
Pinewood somewhere. Course it is.
And for and for reasons, Leslie Phillips, I'm going to just keep
saying Leslie Phillips. I think because it's Leslie
Phillips for reasons gets knocked out temporarily and by
the time he comes comes to it's dark, the ship is raised anchor
and the voyage has begun. So technically he's a star way.
And then I think a very fine actor.
One of my favorite films ever is The Elephant Man.
Yes, in which this actor plays a real shit, if you pardon the
pardon the expression Freddie Jones.
Freddie Jones, yes. Father of Toby.
Which I did not know until I did a bit of digging and I can kind
of see, you know, the, the comedy nuances, you know, been
passed down. But I, I did not know that.
And I was, you know, surprised to find that out.
Yeah. Toby Jones, who now is possibly
arguably the one of the biggest television stars.
I mean, he's a film star as well, but television stars in in
Britain off the back of what's that Mister Bates versus the
Post Office? Yes, he's very much behind him
at the minute. Yes, yes.
Yeah, and, and Freddie Jones has been in so many things over the
years. He's no longer with us, is he?
No, no, he's not. But yeah, a a very good turn,
you know, very good turn indeed. Did some of the Hammer horrors I
think and was very good in those two and yeah, yeah, fine sport
here, you know, playing that kind of almost like a a, a
Windsor Davis kind of role. You know, it's, it's all that
kind of. Yes, it wouldn't be that.
Kind of, you know, what's going on here kind of thing and you
know, great stuff. So what is he Master at arms.
So he's basically in charge of ship discipline and.
That's right and. He's got this kind of little
sort of moustache that Hitler. Yeah, little Hitler mustache.
Little bit of a twitch in one eye, you know?
Yeah. There's one bit later on when
he's just barking orders at these, these two sailors and you
can't really figure out what he's saying.
It's all that kind of stuff. It's very, very funny.
I think it's great. He pretty much twigs straight
away. Yes.
That Leslie Phillips is a star whale might.
Think it's a right? Yeah.
Something's a right, yeah. Leslie Phillips gives Ophelia's
cabin number as his and and when a little while later, Leslie
Phillips opens the door to Freddie Jones, there's a there's
a, what is it like a pink Fennie Bella or something or negligee
draped over his shoulders? And which makes I'm just keep
calling him Freddie Jones makes Freddie Jones assume that he's a
female impersonator. Yes, and it's just an
interesting scene because Leslie's character has to play
up that he's a cross dresser, you know, and this is 1970 and
and it's it's, you know, it's against that Leslie Phillips
masculine kind of image. And he's there, you know,
because he's not in drag. Don't forget at this point he's
not in drag. That's to come, isn't it?
But at this point it's just insinuated, you know, when to go
out this scrape that he cross dresses.
So he does this really playful, just like touching up a Freddie
Jones's outfit and this. You're one of them sometimes.
Oh, I was just asking because as a matter of fact, we often get
the odd female impersonation aboard from time to time.
Must you go? Just one more thing, Sir, for
anyone on this ship, young ladies are not allowed in single
gentlemen's cabins. Captain's orders.
He doesn't care for premarital relations, as you might say,
even if you do. I said.
I'll be popping on to the person's cabin to do a spot of
what you might call double, double checking.
I should see you later, Sir. I have no doubt.
I have no doubt either. Now Graham Stark, we see Graham
Stark wearing in brown face. Yes, I must say and and the
character is called strategy I think.
Yeah. And and it makes Sellers even
Milligan's portrayals of citizens of the Indian
subcontinent seem seem understated comparison.
You know, he's, he's really playing it up.
He does stick out as a sore thumb here.
I think you. Know he does.
Yeah. Because they have a miss because
he's talking to lovely little, well say lovely.
It's lovely because Harry's a bit, but there's a scene with
him him and because he's he's an A steward, an Indian steward and
he he has a a chat with Harry about there's like a
misunderstanding about Dunkirk, which involves the similarity
between the sound of the the 2 words bomb holes and bum holes.
And I must we forgot to mention Basil Beecham is terminally
seasick and he's confined to his cabin.
We don't we don't see him to a little bit later, but we have
the first evening dinner. How we seeking clue.
Allen arrives to dinner wearing like a dress and gown because,
because he's because for some reason he's chucked most of his
clothes in the ocean thinking the circular cabin window was a
washing machine, right? I wish we'd seen that scene.
I know it's a nice image without it, but I think Harry could have
the math no work miracles with that bit of.
Well, The thing is right question right it's and I
overthink these things. Two things I don't think cabin
windows open on cruise ships for.
That reason? And secondly, he's only been on
the boat a couple of hours. Why is he what, needing to wash
his clothes anyway? Anyway, Robert Morley is
startled by his dressing gown and sends him off with the flea
in his ear. And that's when Harry meets Dawn
Daley and she and you can tell she's she's put out that he has
to sit with her because he's common little fat man.
And but it's only when he mentions in passing.
Well, the first thing he says to her that is a polls winner.
And and that's when her attitude towards some changes.
It does, yeah. And.
We get that lovely shot. Lovely shot to end the scene of
Harry seek him ogling a pair of breasts.
That's only Harry. Seek him down.
Oh. Did you see that food?
You know the 70s fancy food. Some kind of rifle?
It's yeah. It's icing on it.
I. Don't know what it was.
You see photographs in like old magazines from the 70s of.
Exactly like. Desserts or or whatever.
And they just seem they're they're like a color that
doesn't exist anymore. So we see the next day Roddy
Graham Chapman and the models having photographs take taken
around a drained pool. Yes, Leslie Phillips has had to
sleep the night under the tarpaulin in a lifeboat.
Yeah, And there's a There's a bit of unnecessary
misunderstandings where Roddy the photographer thinks that
Leslie Phillips is coming on to him.
He's most upset when. He's not.
Leslie Phillips runs away. I'm being chased by Freddie
Jones. Being chased by Freddie Jones.
I thought you were going to chase me.
I suddenly felt terribly tired. Well, I'm very disappointed.
I'm terribly sorry, I just couldn't run another yard, not
one more yard. I think Graham Chapman doesn't
like him. Something like that is
priceless. Yeah, that's very good.
Very good. Yeah, so Leslie Phillips ends up
in Basel Beecham's cabin. Oh, this is a good scene.
This is a good scene where he basically, yeah, he pretends the
boats rocking all over the place and he lists all the fried eggs
and the bacon and all that kind of stuff.
And I I enjoy this. It's a good, it feels like a
good little pantomime skit that they would have, you know, you
know, Leslie Phillips and I'm talking about here would have,
you know, learned this kind of stuff and, you know, this kind
of level of overacting, You know, I I enjoy the scene a lot.
It's good fun, especially when he's knocking the chandeliers.
You know that bit. Oh, yeah, but it's purely,
purely in the spirit of mischief, just to just just to
agonize, agonize Basil further. Yeah, yeah.
But he, he, but also he wants to be able to, to share the cabin.
So he's got somewhere to keep. Nick his clothes, yeah.
Nick his clothes and eat his food.
Yes. And I must say, Simon Dee, you
know, at least he's in this film, but he's not in this film
a lot, really, if you think about it.
But he's not a bad actor, isn't he?
He comes across as quite a credible actor.
Oh, yeah, no, no, he's fine. He's he's very good.
He's a good. He's a good foil in many ways.
When he's opposite Phillips, you know it's yeah, very good.
I might as well take the opportunity now that we're
talking, we're talking about D yes, I just, I just want to talk
about him, but what do you say? What do you know about him
generally now in terms of just that he had ATV series and was?
He had, he was, yeah, he was like a, a, a chat show host.
I, I guess just before this, otherwise they wouldn't have,
you know, he was just high billing and mentioned a big deal
out of it, I guess. But that's that's and and that's
kind of all I know is that he slipped away.
And when and whenever Leslie Phipps kind of talked about it,
he's always been like, oh, it's very so happened to Simon and,
you know, he's trying to do another comeback, whatever.
And and that's kind of that is literally all I know about him.
I haven't spoke to my folks about him who were, you know,
they would have been 1415 when this film came out.
So they probably, you know, know of him, but I haven't understand
about him. So no, please educate me.
He became a a radio Caroline DJI think that's where his career
began. Did a bit on the home service or
the light program. And then he got, he got, he
broke into TV by hosting Top of the Pops a couple of times and
appeared regularly on jukebox jury.
And he and, and already at this point he was gaining A
reputation for being difficult, just clashing with directors,
with, with management, with crew.
But then in in 1967, the BBC commissioned D Time, which was
like a chat show and it, you know, attracting audiences of 18
million or more. And it was just anybody who was
it, you know, everybody who was anybody on D time to promote
whatever or just to talk about, you know, what was going on.
And it was it was all the sort of hip and happening people of
of the moment. So Lulu, Marty Feldman, Petula
Clark, of whom more later, John Lennon, Michael Caine, Jimi
Hendrix, you know, Spike. Spike was on D time.
And then he just was throwing his Simon Digg was throwing his
weight around and attempting to dictate what guests he would
have on the show, what hours he would work, what expenses he
would claim, what advice he would accept.
OK, he he was this is quite funny.
In 1969, he was at the top of a a blacklist drawn up by society
who were aiming to stamp out the use of the phrase, you know, on
TV. Wow.
Yeah, he he was quite critical. I mean, this is, you know, this
is this goes in the the the the tick column.
Because he was quite vocally critical of Enoch Powell.
Yes, he was he campaigned against nuclear testing,
apparently. So, you know, in some ways he
was, you know, he was on the right side.
But. But then he was lured away to
from BBC One to LWT and. And both the way at that point
was it really there's a lot like going on that time.
Well, yeah, but they they were kind of their their programming,
because they were launched in 68, their programming was quite
highfalutin, kind of arts and drama and ballet and opera and
things like that that, you know, the audience at home didn't
really want. So they were trying to, they
were experimenting with changing programming and all sorts of
things. So they lured Simon Dee from the
BBC and Dee tried to kind of get a counter offer.
He went to Bill Cotton and said he'd been offered this job with
LWT and pretty much sort of said you know how much you're going
to pay me to stay with the BBC. And Bill Cotton, he didn't
really like him, basically suggested that he should have a
pay cut instead of. Oh wow.
OK. You know, if you, if what you're
saying to me is true, that you value the BBC, then then, yeah,
you can stay here, but you'll have to take a 20% pay cut.
And so Dee didn't like that. And he, he left and joined LWT
and there was clashes between him and David Frost, who was big
within LWT. And it started I think in
January 1970, some something like that.
And three weeks after the release of Doctor in Trouble,
the show was cancelled and he was let go by WTLWT.
And he, he, he burned his bridges with the BBC.
So there was no chance of going back there.
One of the shows that on the LWT series had George Lazenby, who
was stoned it would appear and was going on about conspiracy
theories about the death of Kennedy.
Oh Blimey. And John and Yoko were on that
show and they were, they were sort of encouraging George
Lazenby in these, the sort of rambling and and then and then
Simon Dee kind of thought that shadowy forces were after him.
Simon Dee. Right.
So he was getting this kind of this paranoia.
And anyway, the point is he was, he was from, from being a huge
star. He was dropped by LWT, couldn't
get a job anywhere else. So by the time this film comes
out, he's, he's pretty much his career is on the skits. 6 months
after the film came out, the Daily Mirror reported that he'd
signed on. He he'd had to queue up at the
Fulham Labor Exchange to sign on and he was interviewed by the
Daily Mirror and he said he'd been offered a job as a frozen
food salesman, but he turned it down.
He was offered a few. He was there was the odd sort of
TV work that he was offered, but it was quite insulting I
suppose. Below him.
Below him, yeah. And then he was up in front of a
judge in 1971 for assaulting A bailiff who'd been attempted to
make an inventory of his home. And he separated from his wife
in 72. Good God, you know, just looking
at this, he was he was put in jail for non payment of speeding
fines in 73 until his friends paid the debt and he was
released. And this, this is the thing,
right? In July 1974, he was in court
for vandalizing a toilet seat right now.
Reach the bottom there, yeah. Now on wiki, if you read
Wikipedia, it says that the toilet seat it was like a it was
it was in some, I don't know, swanky emporium with kind of
weird and wonderful things in it, including a toilet seat with
the face of Peculiar Clark. Oh, I wonder where you're going
to bring them. Right.
And he, now that's in Wikipedia. That's on Wikipedia.
And, and in actual fact, because, you know, I've read a
newspaper report from the time it was actually Marilyn Monroe,
not Petula Clark. Now, I prefer, I wish it had
been Petula Clark because that would be better.
But he'd vandalized it with Marilyn Monroe on it because he
said he found it disrespectful. And this may or may not, I'm not
quite sure, have been the occasion when he'd face the
ultimate humiliation of being sent to prison by the part time
magistrate who happened to be his old nemesis, Bill Cotton.
Oh goodness me. No, really.
Yeah, in 70. At 75, he trained to become a
London bus driver, but he failed the test due to bad driving as
well as clashing with the union over not wanting to pay their
fees. And.
And he was due in 1976 to start a new job in a local radio
station in Reading, but walked out because he refused to
interview Alvin Stardust, saying I don't even know the guy.
And so on and so on and so on. And there was the odd sort of
sporadic attempts that had come back over the years, but it
never happened. It never happened.
And he just. He just.
Yeah, it's someone who star shone very bright before burning
out, as they say. So there you go.
And a cautionary tale, I would say.
He sounds like sounds. Like he had quite an ego.
Oh, yes. Which is weird because you think
that's the one thing you do not need to have as a chat show
host. Really poor.
But you want the job, really. You know, it's kind of the
point, is it really? But yeah.
So back to the film. Apologies listeners, if that
was, you know, too much of A ramble about Simon Dee, but I
thought it was interesting just. I did not know 90% of that.
So it's yeah, it's yeah. Wow.
When's, when the, you know, when's Toby Jones going to do a
biopic on him? You.
Know that would make a great biopic.
It would, you know. Biopic.
Yeah, Yeah. Now.
So yes, we've got Basel in bed, confined to bed because he's
really seasick, even though it's like a milk pond in reality.
And Leslie Phillips has been exaggerating.
But then we we get we get Robert Morley, the captain goes to see
Basel and just and just brusquely dismisses his his
protestations that he's yeah, yeah.
As soon as Basil gets out of bed and sees the sea is calm.
He he yeah, he's better, isn't he?
Pretty much. I've got my notes here.
Meanwhile, Henry Seeking is on deck perving at birds.
Yeah, which I just want to bring this up again.
Just the amount of of nudity in this film, I'm trying to put it
on a comparison with the Carry ONS, the time.
And so Carry ONS came out Up the Jungle came out early 1970, and
it was followed by Carry On Loving, which would come out
late 1970. And you know, they do have a bit
of flashing going on here and there.
But then I looked at this film. I looked at this film, and
Leslie Phillips gets undressed about four different times.
Yeah, he. Says.
Bum and Angela. Yeah, Angela Schuler's flashing
herself here and there. There's at least three separate
photo shoots of the the, the girls in the, you know, scantily
clad girls. And and then there's there's to
come, Harry Seacom's topless scene.
Of course, gratuitous topless scene we we see we get a very
brief moment with the great Fred Emmy.
Yes, you're brilliant. Yes.
Who was he again? Is he the dad of?
Is he the father of some girl that Harry tries to chat up?
Yeah, there's, yeah, it is at this point where Harris, he
comes. Sunbathy, isn't it going on?
And and this, this lass is talking with Marilyn Monroe
again. She stood above some kind of air
vent, isn't she? And every now and then, her
dress pillows. That's right.
And I know. And you know, and rather than
her moving, she just keeps pushing it down.
And it helps about three times. Oh.
Darling, I got the message. What's the next move?
I beg your pardon? Yeah, come off it.
You've been fancying me ever since breakfast.
I saw that Tom Jones film. You know, the way you ate your
grapefruit didn't leave much of the imagination.
This man annoying you, Melissa? Just a minute.
I saw her first. Besides, you'll be ashamed of
yourself. You don't have to be her father.
I am her father. 6 Maniac. And Leslie Phillips confesses
his situation to Basil back in the cabin.
Yes. And and and this isn't Basil the
character, this is now Simon D I think phones the the bridge to
grass them up. Yeah, opt him in.
That's when that's when he gets called a bastard about a dozen
times by Leslie Phillips, which I wasn't quite expecting.
And he, he, he's just, he's just clad in his vest in pants and he
has to run out of the cabin and oh, there's chasers with Freddie
Jones and he and he jumps, he falls down one of the one of
those things called the shoot that.
Yeah, it's some kind of thing, fog, fog thing, I don't know.
But yes, he he does fall down it.
And I wrote down at this point in my notes, Benny Hill
influence speeded up sequences. That's quite you in this film.
And of course, it was a, a trend at the time, but I think going
back to Simon D again, Benny Hill had just switched over onto
LLWT in 1969 as well. And, and, and then his, you
know, from BBC and then, and then the shows he's now most
remembered for, you know, his, his ITV days started then.
So this was clearly started around that time as well.
And, and yeah, there's some sequences which are speeded up
for no reason at all. I'm going back to that first
scene when Leslie Phillips arrives at 11, Clarence of
Crescent to go and see Simon Dee.
You know, it's all speeded up. Even the music speeded up like,
you're like, why? Yeah.
It's not making it any funnier going on.
But now there's quite a few of these Fred, Freddie Jones
chases, Leslie flips around the quarter deck, you know, going
on, and it's all speeded up. And the the xylophone music
speed up as well. And it just seems to have a a
very strong Benny Hill reference references, influence rather
this film. Yeah.
Do you remember that
compilation? There was a feature film which
was basically a compilation of Benny Hill televisions.
Yes, the The Very Best of Benny Hill.
Yes, 1974. Yeah.
Do you remember there's a sketch in there where he's, he's a,
he's a television personality. He's driving a sports car and
he's got a Dolly bird next to him and he's, he's, he's a, a
chat show host and he's interviewing.
Yeah, there's a Vicky with his flies open, I think at one
point. Yeah, yeah.
He's trying to move the vase, the flower vase with the mask,
the camera shot. Yeah.
Is it called Tommy? Tommy Time, Tommy.
D time or something. Yeah, so.
So yeah, that's so he was, he was.
That was a parody of Oh, Simon D Wow.
Bring it back full circle. Yeah.
My next My next guest. My next guest has has come from
the West End of London. He is one of London's biggest
West End size. I know you're going to make him
very welcome. Here he is.
Rodney Fairchild. Rodney.
Personally, splendid of you to
come along. And be my guest on this show.
I really AM. Has it thrilled that you haven't
been able to find time to come along?
You have this. You have a reputation of being
quite a quite a hell raiser. Do you feel this reputation is
justified in any way that, that, that you have this, you know, of
being of being a hell raiser. Do you do you feel in, in in any
way justified at all? It's a reputation that you have.
No. Well, there you are here.
That's my sound. It's just sort of newspaper
publicity. They put labels on, on people,
don't they? They sort of, you know, they
will put labels on, but I suppose they put a label on you
sort of more, you know, sort of like publicity.
We just said it was publicity. I suppose it's publicity, is it?
Well, yeah. Oh, well, honestly, you, you.
Yes, I'm quite surprised about that.
You tell me, does it worry you on this reputation?
Wrong and false, that may be. Does it, does it, does it worry
you at all the the reputation that you've got?
Does it, does it worry you In, in, in, in, in in any way at
all? No.
Well, there you are. Honestly, either go on talking
with you or. Not and the marvelous Irene
Handel makes her interesting. Yes, a late appearance I've
noted down here. I thought she was in this film,
you know, all the way through, so to speak, once they go on
boat. But no, it's quite a late
appearance here. And but yeah, I mean, I I could
have Irene handle, you know, how did the whole film.
All right. Well, I could, you know, I could
watch her in anything. And she, and she always plays
these supporting roles, isn't she?
And I just wish there'd been some films where she actually
did take the main role and, and, and been given that maybe she
didn't want it. I don't know.
Maybe she was just very happily, you know, supporting role and,
you know, coming on, doing her turn and getting the money with
her dog and then walking off, you know.
Yeah, but but you know, she's she's on fine form here.
And they were good at this the Doctor films, I think, you know,
all of them. They they had a very good call
tickle, very, very good call of, you know, your Leslie Phillips's
or your, you know, your dirt by guards and your Keith Moore's.
And, you know, judgement just isn't.
And Jo Sims as well. She's she's not a lot of them,
but they they always found room for really impressive guest
stars. Dartha Haynes and the previous
one, Fernando Fieldings and the previous one as well.
Dennis Price pops up in in one of them.
You know, just just really good character actors and, and here
we have, like it or not, Robert Morley.
Yeah. But I really handle this is here
and you know, I if if someone came into this this chat and
said I already handle steals the film, you know, I I'd be like to
know what you're you're probably quite right, to be honest.
Yes, yes, indeed. She refers to I think she's
angling she she wants to marry her daughter Dawn off.
Yes. And I think she's got notions
that she'd like to marry her off to the captain, to Robert.
Morley. Yes, yes, yes.
That's that's her a game, isn't it?
That's the top prize, yeah. Because he's a highly eligible
bachelor. Yes.
And then we've got lunch and is served and Harry arrives in full
evening wear and everyone stares him, including Robert Morley, of
course, and and he tells he disdainfully informs who Allen
that they only wear black tie at dinner.
Yes, and we and we get a lovely Raspberry from Harry's.
Yes, I noted that down. Yes, it's marvelous, isn't?
It and Leslie Phillips crawls out of whatever it was that he
fell down totally blackened. Yes.
And he and he has to explain. He goes to Ophelia's cabin and
explains the situation to her, and at one point he says he
really digs her. Yes.
Yeah, which just doesn't sound right coming out of Leslie
Phillips. No, it just doesn't, doesn't it?
No, it really doesn't know. And we have we have all the
events leading up to Freddie Jones arriving at the cabin and
Leslie Phillips in drag trying to obviously escape.
Yeah. Look, I wrote, looking like Roy
Barraclough doing an impression of Penelope Keith.
I'd watch it. I'd pay to watch that.
Yeah, character called Lavinia. Lavinia Paxenbury.
Yeah. Laugh for short.
Yeah, this is, this is a good old trope, isn't it?
And it was a matter of time until there'd be some, some drag
in it somewhere and, yeah, great, great fun.
And of course, he, he loses the moustache here, doesn't he?
And and he doesn't wait for the rest of the film.
So yeah, it's not not that many films, I think where Les Flips
is, you know, without his trademark moustache, really so.
Do you know, I didn't even notice that.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Now you mentioned it.
Yeah. I kind of thought it was, it was
that kind of a film, that kind of a, a, a, a period of time
where they might have tried to, he might have tried to have kept
it. And so the, the, the Freddie
Jones would have fallen for her. You know, she's very hairy up a
lip. That's all, you know.
And there's like, like great shots of of Freddie Jones when
he does literally tumble who Lavinia is where I think they're
doing a bit of, you know, a bit of Patty cake, Patty cake
amongst them. And then he he hits her too hot,
Phillips too hard. And Phillips falls backwards and
then he catches, he catches Lavinia.
He actually got his legs splayed around Freddie Jones rocks on
show and don't. His face is just so, so, so
good. It's so perfectly over the top.
It's wonderful. Unless he flips crawling back
up, you know, and his wigs off and all sorts of things.
Brilliant stuff. Brilliant stuff.
Yeah. I'm all.
I'm all that kind of that kind of comedy.
Good broad stuff, Yeah. So he's rumbled and so he he's
taken to see the captain and because Robert Morley's brother,
Lancelot Spratt. Remember him, folks.
Nose Nose doctor Tony Burke. The captain's inclined to be
lenient and appoints him as his personal steward, which
basically means being a skivvy ownership and he has to share a
cap a cabin with Graham Stark who is naturally is is learning
English very badly and standing on his head when doing yoga.
Yes, yes, that's all. Yeah, and then the next we've
got dinner and Harry arrives shot tastefully from from sort
of nipples up, I think more or less wearing just a black tie.
Yeah. Over the humanity.
I remember the first time I watched this film, you know, in
my early teens and I and I thought that was the, the best
joke in the whole film. You know, I told you to wear,
you know, bow tie, nothing else, you know, black bow tie, nothing
else. Either way, just kind of
laboriously just unravels with the whole room just by table by
table falling silence. Obviously you can just
descending those little set of stairs and just walking around
the tables and get the, you know, the high-ranking table.
And they're all just aghast. And it's, it's, it's, it's very,
very well played, I think. I think Ralph, Ralph, Rafe,
Rafe, Ralph Thomas, you know that that's a very good, you
know, top drawer scene, I think. No, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not
saying that Harry Seekin was kind of like, you know, the
Daniel Day Lewis of his day. But if if he had been method, Oh
yes, I'd like to think he would have gone with it and.
Oh, absolutely. Had his lad out on show, not for
us, but for the, you know, the rest of the cast and crew.
Yeah, it's funny that it's funny that around the same time in the
film, which I guess is over 2/3 of the film, they know that kind
of running gag is now milked for it's worth.
You know, that's that's kind of put to bed.
Likewise, the Freddie Jones chasing Leslie Phillips not
gonna say subplot, but you know, trait is is is put to bed.
And, and from here onwards, it's it's, I don't know, because
there's two elements have kind of gone a bit.
It does feel a bit like treading water until we get to the actual
carnival scene. But that's just my own opinion I
think. Well, falling into water because
I feel it falls overboard. And Leslie Phillips.
Yes, gets knocked in. Gets knocked in, but he can't
swim and she saves him now, blah blah blah.
And the ludicrous bit when they're back on board and Leslie
Phillips is being examined by the ship's doctor.
And then Tony quickest of flash, tells him that he's got
hepatitis. Africonia yes, which the
symptoms are these really unnatural looking red spots the
size of 10 P piece. I love, Yeah, this is, this is,
it's a wonderful actor called Jimmy Thompson, who worked a lot
for Betty Box and Peter Rogers in the in the 60s.
And yeah, he's here as the actual shipped Dr. isn't he?
And the way they do about it is they've literally just, you
know, screenshot his face. And then they just added two
more spots taking a photograph, added two more spots taking a
photograph. You know, they do that about
five times. And and that's because that's
what happened, folks. That's how it works.
And of course, it puts it puts the ship's doctor out of
Commission, which gives a great opportunity for Leslie Phillips
to be promoted to ship's doctor. And and I could have done
without the scene where Robert Moore is talking about as
Constipation. To be honest.
Oh, yes, yes, yes. That's just to set up the the
final bit, isn't it? Yes, yes.
I wrote down here, and this is probably an old joke, but I, I
wrote down, I wrote down verbatim what was said in this
scene. And I just wrote wow, because
I've not heard this joke before. And it's Irene Handel visits
Leslie Phillips, the doctor, and tells him that she wants the
pill for Dawn. Yes.
I don't know why she's gone because Dawn's a grown adult.
But anyway. And then and then there's this
dialogue between Irene Handel and Lizzie Phillips.
Has she had them before? Yes.
But they keep falling out. I think it'd be a good idea,
Mrs. Daley, for you to ask your daughter to come along and have
a little chat with me. Point taken.
Will do. And I'm inertly grateful to you,
Doctor. I mean, we are a bit too top
drawer to want to join the Pudding Club, aren't we?
We we get the the, the climax, I said the climax of the film
almost. It's the fancy dress cocktail
party. Yes, yes, yeah.
And and Harry seeking's cheesed off because he's not been
invited, but then he somehow manages to get in vague of
himself and and right. Basil turns out dressed as his
Doctor Dare character, but he's annoyed that half half of the
other male passengers seem to have done the same.
Irene handles kind of in this Marie Antoinette.
Outfit. Leslie Phillips has done up as
Julius Caesar. Yeah, Nero or something, Some
kind of yeah, he reminds me of Yeah, nauseas from a Pompeius.
Yeah, and then Harry arrives dressed as Robert Morley.
Yes, well, the captain, I should say with the with you know, and
and Molly's been sipping orange juice laced with Castor oil.
Yeah, yeah. For his Constipation.
So he gives it, he gives Harry the drink, which obviously means
that Harry starts, you know, having problems and has to nip
off to the the bog on a regular basis.
There's the, there's the dance. There's the he bumps into Harry,
bumps into someone dressed up as Cleopatra, and we get the
obligatory ASP gag. Yeah, always welcome.
Yeah, at 1.1 point Irene handles wig gets caught in his zip.
Flies. Yeah.
This is a, it's a, it's a lot. It's a lot more boardier.
It's, it's, it's a lot more laboratorial humor than that.
They know the days of Kay Kendall and, you know, Bogart
romancing, you know, in the 1950s.
You know, it, it, it is. It hasn't moved on so, so much
this series by this point. Yeah.
And then there there's the striptease, as we mentioned,
Yes. And it it's curtailed, I think
Robert Morley asks for there to be an alarm set off to try and,
yeah, bring an end to it all. And it panics the passengers and
we get Graham Stark falling into the pool and but remarkably, his
makeup doesn't wash off. Yes.
And Basil, or should I say Simon D?
Yeah, proves that he's like, you know, he's a shit on the scale
of that. What's that guy from the
Titanic? Bruce Ismay?
Was that his? Name.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, he pinched.
He pinches Leslie Phillips's Life Fest.
That's right. Yeah, Yeah, yeah.
And be first on the on the lifeboats.
And then it turns out obviously it's a false alarm.
That's right. And then we have this kind of
weird ending really, where there's an SOS.
Trying to feel the film sorted itself out.
But no, there's this extra Yeah, epilogue.
It feels like really extra. And I'd forgotten there's two,
there's two people in this film that I'd forgotten about.
I'd seen their names in the opening credits.
And it's not too. It's, Well, the last 10 minutes
of the film, Leslie Phillips has to be winched across water to a,
a, a like a Russian frigate. Yeah, because he needs to
perform an emergency appendectomy.
That's right. And the.
The captain, the Russian captain is is Joni Sims there?
We go, yeah, Joan's been in a few of these films.
She's in the 1st 1501954 and it was her cameo in that which
brought her to the attention. Peter Rogers.
So that's kind of how she loosely became involved with the
camera on series. And she's certainly in Doctor in
Love, she's in Doctor in Clover, and her roles got bigger with
the films. So I think in Doctor and Clover,
she actually plays the matron, which incidentally was how it
came about that she was offered matron in Carry On Doctor
because Hattie Jakes are not made to carry on for about 3
years by that point. So she kind of faded from the
series. And Joan Sims, God bless her,
when she read the character script, I was like, thanks for
offering me the matron. But, you know, it's clearly a
role written for for my friend Hattie Jakes.
And Peter Rogers gave it to Hattie Jakes, and she was, you
know, back in the series and Joan Sims, Excellent.
And you want to watch? She played.
She played Frankie Howard's a very doting, I guess, secretary
kind of role. And.
But no. So she's back here.
Yeah, very, very small role. And you're right, right at the
end of the film, kind of forgotten where she's gonna be
in the film. And she crops, crops up, yes.
And she, she opens, she, she applies the numbing age, doesn't
she, to the pat the patients, to just walloping her in the face.
Yeah. I make him sleep.
Bang, he's sleep. She could join Sims, she could
play simpering, she could play dowdy, she could play hard
faced, she could play glamorous. Yeah.
Yeah, yeah. You know, all in the same film
sometimes. Yeah.
And they were very good friends,
Leslie Phillips and Joan Sims. They they they loved working
together. They had the same kind of work
ethics and that kind of stuff. So.
So yeah, I know they always enjoyed it.
In fact, Leslie Phillips has gone down on record ISM saying
how much of A friend Harry Seekon became, you know, from
working on this film and. Oh yeah, he loved, yeah, he
loved me to go with his family and that.
And he said I've got it down here from his autography.
One of the nicest people I ever met.
There we go. Ah, let's see Bits and Harry
seek him. Very jolly.
Very. Yeah, and Harry, Harry's gone on
record and said that, you know, yes, he was making films around
this period, quite a few, but he was always kept down to earth by
Myra, his wife. When I came back from golf, it's
Arnold Palmer's old Men. When I got home from the film
studio is come on, Gregory Peck, get some coal of a fire.
When she came home from the nursing home with my fourth
child. I won't tell you what you said
anyway. Just starting with the kiss of
life anyway. But really, you know.
Yeah, and The thing is right, he does this pendant, I can't say
appendectomy successfully. And everyone applauds because
they're all watching all the Russian sailors.
So he's kind of getting, in a way, Dr. Doctor Tony Burke is
getting the sort of audience that Doctor Dare.
Yes, yes. But yeah, once he's finished,
he's dismayed to find the the Golden Horn has sailed off
without him. Which I think is a bit bit on
the nose, isn't it really? Just a bit rather.
And he he has to stay on the ship and they're off to Grimsby.
They're off to my hometown of Grimsby, yes.
Yeah, OK. So I love that.
Ridiculous though, you know, where are we docking our first
port? Grimsby always gets a little,
little little chair in the in the, in the John Hewitt
household. Yeah.
Cut to like, I guess a week or two passes and Tony pulls up
again in a taxi. Not driven by John Pluto this
time. No.
The golden horns just docked and the passengers are disembarking.
And he rushes up to a failure to to finally propose to her.
And then she tells him that she's she's married the ship's
doctor because she'd always wanted to marry a doctor.
Yeah. Phillips says, well, what about
me? And she said, well, you never
asked me. It's true.
Well, yeah. And Harry seek him, has also got
married. He got married to Dawn.
Yes, but it's only as the getting off.
The ship that he reveals to them, him, her and her mother,
that he's not actually all that rich.
He's got a motorcycle and a sidecar and a nice one room
flat. 30 Bob a week. Yeah.
Yeah, she's like, how I really handles, says something like how
how are you going to keep my daughter happy?
And he just lifts off this thing like, oh, there's a, there's a
white fridge, there's an ironing board.
All these mod ponds in the kitchen goodness.
Me, I really handles Face as black as Thunder.
Yeah. And then again, a name that I
saw in the opening credits and I'd forgotten.
Jackie Piper turns up because we've got Tony.
Doctor Burke, crestfallen. He's about to get back in his
taxi. And then Jackie Piper, she, it's
like she, she, she sort of tries to come on to Tony.
Yes. And ask if she can share his
taxi. But then it's it's just so that
she can she can call over her large family who will cram into
the taxi. Yeah, it's another one of those
endings where you think you know what's coming, and then no, it's
it's, but it's pulled away again.
And yeah, very nice little tag, nice little button on the whole
film. Yeah, so we've whipped through
that, but I mean at the bits, favorite bits, bits I forgot to
mention that you want to talk about.
I, I think it's, it's just, you know, like all these films, you
know, it's a film, it's time. And I think it was very brave in
many ways when you, when you watch it in the context in which
it was made, you know, they were trying to sort of, you know,
make it connect with the, the ITV series, the other T series,
which is clearly, you know, going from strength to strength.
And there had been a four year gap from the previous film.
And, you know, we're used to four year gaps, 5 year, 10 year
gaps in between film franchises, you know, these days.
But back then, you know, that that was probably quite a a
hefty gap. You know, the bonds would turn
them out every two years, you know, carry on every two months.
Yeah. You know, before a four year gap
probably did did say, you know, the writer on the wall and the
gig was up. Really.
So, yeah, I, I, I was amazed when I rewatched it just how
much is more akin to the the 70s Carry On films more than
obviously the 50s Doctor films or even the 60s Doctor films,
you know, which would keep up with the times.
And, and oh, one thing else I, I, I read was this is one of the
very few films that Philips owns a percentage of the bet.
Yeah, Betty Box was was struggling to raise the money
for this one. And so they they often have cut
the percentages which he took. So he's gone down his record
saying it's his favorite film. It'll be shown more so that
he'll get some residual fee. It's it's hardly Alec Guinness
and Star Wars there is it? Let's face it, very good, very
good. So before we wrap up, I just, if
you don't mind, John, I just want to mention sort of podcast
news here, OK. So what I hope to introduce on
Gubpod as additional content, bonus content will be a monthly
bonus episode in which myself and guests look at favorite
British comedy films in general. And these could be any, well,
classic or not so classic films, as long as they're British
comedy films and they can be from, they can be from the, you
know, 30s up to present day really, or earlier.
But the one stipulation is that they must not contain a single
goon. So no sellers, no Milligan
seeking or painting, but there'll be chats in the usual
goon pod house style all over the shop and rambling and
Wittering on and all that sort of thing, but hopefully
entertaining to listeners. And I've got a number of guests
scheduled to record later this year.
And and I'll share a handful of the films that we hope to cover.
Maybe not all this year, but certainly some of these will be
Billy Liar, Kind Hearts and Coronets stepped on some ride
again. Oh, you're awful.
Yeah. Oh, you're awful.
Shaun of the Dead, even, which is quite modern for this
podcast. And I've got I've got guests
that have agreed to to guest the likes of they've all been on the
show before these these people, Chris Diamond, Jeremy, Jeremy
Limple, Litchfield, David Quantic, Tim Worthington, even,
whisper it, David Renwick. Oh, I'm superb.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Who I'm hoping he said he's up
for it, will want to come on and talk about the film version of,
whoops, Apocalypse. Oh, that's no, I love that film.
I haven't seen it for years, so I'll have to reacquaint myself
with that. Now The this monthly bonus
episode probably be kicking in around sort of July, June, July,
something like that. And it'll be on Patreon.
So it'll be it'll be around if, if people want to listen to
it'll be around 333 quarter month, right.
But you know, when did you last spend 3 lbs on such a bargain?
And and in the future, I intend to offer other bonus content,
whatever that may be, but I'll be guarded by you lot on what
what they could be. And I know some people may
grumble that I'm monetizing to podcast, but it's it's you know,
the regular podcast, the week podcast will be totally freeze
the air that you breathe, you know, no change.
And it just it, it will help keep it running, it keep it
growing and also help cover costs and things like that.
But I'm. All for it I'm all for.
It I think it's great, yeah. And world.
Supported as well. So whenever that starts, I mean,
already there's you know, there is a Patreon goon pod page.
It's patreonpatreon.com/goonpod. And I'll be posting more and
more stuff there as the as it grows.
And you can join for free, you know, and then if you want to
get the bonus episode or episodes, you can then change to
the paid tier. I think that's how it works.
So, yeah, so that that will be happening.
As I said, you know, apologies for for going off on about that,
but I just wanted to I'm just starting to promote that now,
so. That's great, yeah.
So John, what what about you? What have you got in terms of
your professional career? What have you got coming up?
What are you working on at the moment?
I am touring a self penned theatre show called Maybe Dick.
Oh yes, I saw that. As in I saw I was reading about
that, yes. So that's great.
Yeah, it's it's, it's very much. I'm very grateful that I've had
some really nice reviewers come along and they've they've,
they've said, you know, if you want to see Carry on Moby Dick
and this is the show for you and you know little of me, I would
love to come and see Carry on Moby Dick.
So I'm very, very proud, very proud that people.
Kenneth Kenneth Williams was in Moby Dick.
He was, Yes, he was. Yeah, with Orson Welles behind.
Orson Welles, Yeah. Yeah, so I'm I'm touring that in
a minute and I'm really enjoying that.
And it's, it's, it's just a a really good night out.
And it's, it's, it's just all this kind of comedy.
And it's nice to listen to an audience for it, if I'm honest.
And then later on this year, we are staging a revival of the
lost TV episodes of Hancock's Off Hour.
So. And that's cool.
Yeah. So it's 100 years of Hancock
this year, 70 years radio. Yeah.
And the BBC done a great job in re recording the lost raid
episodes with Kevin McNally. And but there's still 2022 lost
TV episodes, you know, recorded, transmitted, missing between
wipes. Scripts still survive.
And they're very, very funny. They're very, very good.
And with a little bit out of adaptation and you know, they,
they suit the stage stage world very, very well.
So we're doing 3 episodes of that September to November and
I'm just currently in the pre production stages for that and
again, going across the UK with it.
And I'm, I'm so excited and, and you know, very, very lucky to be
entrusted with that, you know, because it's such that, you
know, it is, it's comedy royalty, you know, this kind of
stuff, isn't it? So to be entrusted with it and,
and to be doing it at all feels very, very, I feel very
privileged indeed to be, to be interested with that.
And, and it's again, nice to know there's an audience for it.
You know it's, it'll be very well supported, I'm sure.
Oh, Hancock's still very, very popular as a good.
Yeah, And of course there was the the a lost episode of the
radio show turned up recently, waiting to hear it with Harry
Seekin. Yes, that's a did, didn't it?
Yeah, I think. Is there any plans for that to
be? There is.
I think it's being. I presume it's being cleaned up
or or whatever. I'll be held back for Christmas
or something like. That maybe, yeah, because there
was the Peter Sellers episode of Hancock's Half Hour that was
filmed a year or so ago. So that.
Was theories 2 early episode series 2 wasn't at the radio
series when Hancock were saved. Pretty much.
Oh, the the Harry seeking one. Yeah, yeah, I think so.
Harry was in three episodes, yes, but the but the third
episode, which I think this one is he's only in it briefly
because I think Hancock's back by that.
He just he thanks Harry for looking after the shop or
whatever. Strange way.
Yeah. And so keep keep your eyes on
social media and and whatnot for news of, of, of that folks.
And and John, you know, please do come back sometime and if you
want to talk about something else, you know.
Oh, I'd love to talk about some, some of the other films.
Yeah, I'd love, love to love. Oh yeah, no problem at all.
I'd love to. It's exactly my realm when
everyone else was was, you know, either watching, you know,
football or, or the the films that they know that the Lord of
the Rings trilogy or whatever else was going on at school or
that I was, I was just completely enraptured by this
kind of comedy. And yeah, long may continue and
the work you do and, you know, into, into, you know, just
extend these legacies. It's it's fantastic and should
be applauded, I think all the time.
Yeah. Thank you very much.
Can I have that in money, please?
You can, John. Thanks a lot, mate.
We'll talk again soon. Dear Sina.