Yes, well, this is certainly a new territory for me.
Meadows. Lionel Meadows is just about as
rotten as they come. He doesn't talk with his mouth.
He uses broken bottles. He's that sort of a man.
However, I'm not the only actor in the film with an offbeat
role. Take Richard Todd, for example.
He plays the pathetically unsuccessful salesman Cummings,
whose car is stolen by my gang. Here's the scene where Cummings
and Meadows clash for the first time.
What are you once? What?
My car. You think I've got it?
I know you've got it. The police don't think so
directly. Well, Cummings drew a blank
there. So now he tries Tommy, a
youngster who Meadows pays to steal cars.
Tommy is played by Adam Faith, who up to now you've known only
as a talented singer of pop songs.
I think that Adam in this film is going to surprise you.
Well, look who's there. The lipstick there.
What are you? I want to talk to you about my
car. Well, as you get out, that old
man Alfie told me you took it. Yeah.
Look what happened to him. At least no man is dead.
And you're in it, Tommy. Not until you've told me where
my car is and who's got it. I'll have to tell the police.
I'll keep you out of it. Look, Mr. And no cost has split
on anybody. It was Meadows, wasn't it?
Leave me alone. Get out of here.
Hello and welcome to Goon Pod, a podcast with all the warmth and
appeal of a squashed Terrapin. My name is Tyler Adams and
joining me this week is returning guest Scott Phipps.
Good morning, Tyler. I love that reference.
By the way. We will talk about that scene at
some point, hopefully. Always set my teeth on edge
there. Hiya, Scott.
Good to good to get you back. Good to be back.
Thank you. Yes, prolific podcaster.
Scott Phipps. Oh, slowing down a little bit in
the old age, mate. Yeah, yeah.
So OK, I always have to do this. So we've got Real Britannia,
we've got Stinking Paws, we've got Rainbow Valley and of
course, Talking Pictures TV podcast.
That's it. There's.
There is no more, thankfully. Yeah, some of them not as
regular as they used to be. You know, some are spaced out
throughout the year, some are monthly, some are bimonthly.
Yeah, I've been doing this now. Celebrating my 11th year of
podcasting this year and still loving every minute of it mate.
It's addictive, isn't it? It is addictive.
It's it's a strange hobby when you tell people what, what you
do, firstly they're intrigued, then they're sort of baffled,
you know, and, and and then they, they sort of wonder why
you actually do it. You know, what's what's the
appeal of sitting in front of a microphone?
But when I tell them it's, it's, it's, I don't know, it's more of
a social thing for me. Talking to you, for example, you
know, these, this is how I'm spending my Saturday morning,
having a wonderful chat about a fantastic movie, which I never
would have had the opportunity to do if I wasn't a podcaster.
So yeah, looking, looking forward to today, mate.
Absolutely. I mean, it's a hoary old cliche,
but it is the new sitting in the pub with your mates on a
Saturday afternoon talking about TV and films.
It's, it's the Tony Hancock, the radio ham, isn't it?
It's like friends all over the world done in this country, but
friends all over the world. Hey Scott, ain't we got fun
today? This.
Is great. I'm so glad who chose this.
Was it me or you I. Think it might have been you?
Yeah, because it's a piece. We're discussing a Peter Sellers
film again this week, so brace yourselves, listeners, for for
boffo laughs. Well, maybe not so much.
No, no if if if you've never seen this film or sort of pre
warn the listener now that it's not your typical Peter Sellers
movie performance, is it? Absolutely not in this case.
No, it's it's the 1960 film Never Let Go.
It's not to be confused with I. I did notice that there's a
Halle Berry film in the cinemas at the moment called Never Let
Go. Yeah, yeah, dominate in the
Google searches when you try and do a bit of research.
Yeah, it's not, It's not. Let me just say it's not a
remake of. Sellers Film couldn't imagine.
It No, I read the. I read the the synopsis.
I don't think it is. Anyway, there's no terrapins
mentioned. So.
Yeah. So.
So this has never let go. So let me give you a bit of
background to the film. So Sellers was inching ever
closer to International Film stardom.
In 1960, early in the year, he'd won a BAFTA for his portrayal of
shop steward Fred Kite in I'm All Right Jack.
Yeah. And although that film was a
comedy and the Kite character had comedic flourishes, of
course, he had more depth than previous Seller's creations had
happened. There was stuff going on behind
the eyes. There was a a palpable sense of
vulnerability and even timidity, I suppose, beneath all that
bluster and the sloganeering and everything.
Yeah. So it's a much more 3
dimensional character I suppose, than you know the.
Likes of it's one of my favorite characters of his.
The the portrayal of Kite is just it's an amazing film
anyway, in regards to, you know, British cinema history, it's one
of the greatest, you know, British comedies ever made.
And he's he's down to Sellers performance throughout that that
this is the whole thing that makes that movie Sellers
himself. Absolutely.
And so he was developing into what the Americans might call a
damn fine actor and confounding critics who, you know,
previously airily dismissed him as a funny voice, as man only.
And and also he was really, you know, he's never one to repeat
himself. Well, unless, unless his career
was on the skids and the paycheck was big enough, like,
you know, the return of the Pink Panther.
But at this time, he was he was desperate to put himself out
there and try different things. You know, he was still making
fairly safe little British comedy films like The Battle of
the Sexes and and Two Way Stretch.
But then he was offered a chance to stretch himself and take on a
a totally straight role in a crime melodrama.
This was a role which required him to assume the form of a
despicably violent boss of a small time criminal operation, I
guess, and he grabbed this opportunity with both hands.
He wasn't the first choice, was he?
It was a reversal of roles, wasn't it?
I read though because it. It was, yeah.
Wasn't Richard Todd originally slated to play the sellers role?
And Sellers were slated to play the Todd role.
Absolutely. And I think Sellers like the
look of the the the villain role and he and he and Todd agreed to
swap, which very similar thing happened in Wrong Arm of the Law
with Lionel Jeffries. Yes, yes, I remember that.
Few years later now I'm not. I've seen Richard Totten things
like the Dam Busters. Yeah.
I, I, I haven't seen him in a lot of things, is does he have
the chops to play the villain in things or or what?
To me, he's always stiff British upper lip pilot or some sort of
military. You know, he's in the longest
day. Everybody was in the Longest
Day, but you know, that was another military role.
You know, he could have been, he could have played himself in the
longest day, couldn't he? Exactly this.
This is the thing he he's got that air of military competence,
you know, So for him to play something nasty, I don't know, I
can't remember seeing him in anything where he does play a
villain. You know, he was he was Robin
Hood in in a couple of movies. You know, he's that sort of
character. The I always sort of put in the
same bracket and say a lot of John Mills.
He's he's that sort of that sort of class, that sort of era.
And yeah, I mean, for him to play a villain, I think would
have been jarring. But then again, for Sellers to
play a villain is equally as jarring.
I mean, we'll talk about this as we talk about the movie.
It's it's, it's the thing that has attracted me to this movie
when I first discovered it was just how different a performance
Sellers puts into this movie. And it sort of puts you on edge
a bit because you don't know where he's going to go with it
because it is not your typical Sellers.
Absolutely not in this film at all.
You'll always do what I say, won't you Jackie?
Because I know how to handle people, you see?
Clean this place up for me Jackie, will you?
I like to see everything nice and clean and tidy.
He'd never OK he'd played comedy villains.
I suppose he'd the film before this that he sorry, the film he
filmed before this was two way stretch and obviously he was in
prison doing. Yeah.
I mean, there's always yeah it. Was a comedy, a comedy wrong in
basically, but he he played obviously Harry in the lady
killers again, who was a bit of a, you know, small time hoodlum.
And but then there's the there's the naked truth where he he does
show a bit of. Yeah, Edge, doesn't he?
Yeah, yeah. But for for most people, when
you say like Peter Sellers is playing a villain, it sees
pearly gates in wrong armour, the law or or dodge Elaine in
two way stretch, as you say. And this performance, it is just
played through gritted teeth. It's an absolutely believable
air of menace throughout this movie.
And I watched it, I think it was about the third time when I
watched it the other night, and it still shocked me at just how
amazing this guy was. Yeah.
So he he told a reporter in early 1960, before I guess what
that maybe when this film was in pre production, I don't know.
He said he's considering this role and it will mean playing
the part of a real horror, a real nasty bit of work, a role
which is entirely different from anything that I've ever played
so far. Now Roger Lewis, the great Roger
Lewis, he contends that he thinks picture this.
He contends Sellers should have played both roles.
Oh, Doctor Strangelove. Excellent.
Yeah. Can you imagine that that would
have worked? It would have worked.
Yeah, well, how would that have worked in the fight scenes when
they're rolling around on the floor of the garage?
Yeah. Yeah, one of the best parts of
the movie, actually, That fight. Is, yeah, we'll come to that.
So, OK, so this is I suppose you'd call this a A British film
noir thriller maybe or. Yeah, I've, I've got a bit of a
contention with that because I've seen it described as a
British film noir. For me, it's British cinema.
Take on the bicycle thieves. You think, think about it,
right? There's honest, hard working
family. Man has his only means of
transport stolen, unable to work and provide for his family.
You know, that's at the heart of this story.
Yes. For me though, there's a lot of
influence from the kitchen sink dramas, or more specifically
like the Social Problem movies that were sort of at their peak
at this point in time. But the Brit movie that sorry,
but the Brit noire thing for me. Bear with me on this.
I think it's more a modern day British equivalent of a western,
right? Yes, yes, think about it, right?
Clint Eastwood, for example, gets his horse stolen, goes into
town to get it back, ends up clashing with the local gang of
villains, and then there's some sort of final sort of
confrontation with Lee Van Cleef or Eli Wallach or somebody like
that. You know, transpose that to 60s
London, swap the horse for a car, swap Richard Todd and Clint
Eastwood and you've got High Planes Drifter or or High Noon
or something like that. It is very, very sort of like
Western influenced but in 60s London.
And I think I've seen somebody else sort of mentioned that it
reminded them of a Western plot. But as I say, there's also this
Bicycle Thieves thing that runs through the whole thing as well.
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, No, I definitely agree.
Now you put it like that because if there is such a thing or was
such a thing as British film, no, I, I, I think it's possibly
a bit earlier in, you know, maybe we're talking late 40s,
early 50s films with them. What's his name?
William Hartnell where he's playing the snake eyed.
All of those sort of like Bright and Rock and things they see the
Basil did and directed Social problem movies like Sapphire and
Pool of London, all of those sort of things.
The police procedurals as well, you know, they'll have Jack
Warner or somebody like that in them as well.
And there's a big influence from the Social Problem movie because
the gang of teenagers, you know, are prevalent throughout this
film as well. So that was always a theme of a
lot of movies, particularly sort of like 58 onwards where you've
got Cliff Richard started acting, Adam Faith and all those
all those pop performers are are starting to get their acting
careers as well. Well, it's all the fault of
Rock'n'roll. Because it I, I bless Bill
Hailey. Yeah, it.
It ushered in the teenager, didn't it?
And and then skiffle and and teddy boys and Oh dear.
Yeah, we think about we, we're 1960.
So all of those kids that were born in 4546 when their dads
returned home from the war, Yeah, were the first teenagers.
You know, the word teenager wasn't invented until mid 50s.
They never existed, you know, and they're now sort of in their
early 20s and it's the end of rationing.
Things are good at the moment. I mean, I'll give you a bit of a
Rainbow Valley 60s type overview of what's going on here mate,
because 1960 did the Lady Chatley trial introduction the
contraceptive pill, the permissive age has started this
year and it's evident in everything from from music and
and certainly in the cinema. They're starting to get a
grittier edge now the barriers are being knocked down.
And for this it's it's just a hard hitting movie that even 60
plus years later still has a punch.
It still packs a punch, this movie because you know, if you
were to show this to to one of your kids and say I'm going to
show you a movie from 1960, I think they'd be quite surprised
at how violent and how gritty this actually is.
I was also I was struck re watching it the other night.
They seem to get away with a lot of bastards or.
Bastards definitely, didn't they?
Yeah, this, this is the year of Psycho.
You think about the first movie to feature a flushing toilet.
This is my microphone. This is one of my favorite film
facts of all time. And Peeping Tom, you know, the,
the movie that killed Michael Powell's career.
It killed it for him, you know, because it was just too much for
some people. So, you know, 1960s, definitely
the turning point. You know, we refer to it on
Rainbow Valley as the decade that shook the world.
And it did in all aspects of, of culture.
Yeah. Totally, because you look at the
the quote teenagers in this film, the clothes they're
wearing. Yep.
Fast forward to 69. The the the contrast teenagers
the same age at the end of the decade in terms of the clothes
they'd be wearing. Absolutely chalk and cheese.
Yeah, we've we've got a great, great friend on Real Britannia
that comes over quite often who hosts the John Lennon podcast
Answer. Yeah.
And he always says, what do you think about it?
The Beatles recording career was only like 62 to 69, seven years.
And then you look at, as you're saying, the lovable mop tops in
62, actually in 1960, where they're in Hamburg at the
moment. They're dressed in leather.
You know, that was how they were.
And then you see the Sergeant Pepper era or, you know, the
long haired get back era, you know, on the rooftop, the Apple
building. Yeah.
And and like you say, it's, it's a very short period of time to
go from what we've got here to what happens at the end of the
end of the decade. Yeah.
Well. OK, we're in 2024.
Now you think back to 2014. Yeah, people probably more or
less look the same. I don't know we are we getting
older and we don't notice my are they but they probably.
I say I'm still wearing the same trousers I wore.
I've got a T-shirt older than my daughter upstairs.
Yes. But oh, look, I mean, yeah, it
was like you say, it was such a impactful decade, the 60s.
This is this is right at the beginning of it.
And it was. It was devised and directed by
John Gwilliman. Yep.
Who he's he's responsible for some of my favorite films,
actually. Like I'm a I'm a big fan of I
was Monty's double. Yes.
In fact, when you first came on to Goon Pod, it was to talk
about I was Monty's treble, wasn't it?
Which it? Was.
It was. Which was the goon's take on
that? Yeah, it was, yeah.
He also directed the day they robbed the Bank of England,
which? That's a great film.
I haven't seen that for so long. Yeah.
And a guilty pleasure of buying the remake of King Kong, wasn't
he? I think he was.
He was that was that was with Jessica Lang, was that.
Jeff Bridges. Yeah, yeah.
And he also did Death on the Nile, the Houston of Death on
the Nile, which is brilliant. And he worked with Sellers a
couple of years after this on Waltz of the Toreadors.
I've. Never seen it.
I I've it was one of those I saw it when I was younger.
I haven't seen it for probably 35 years.
I'll I'll have to rewatch it for this at some.
I might be pleasantly surprised when I rewatch it, who knows.
But he got the idea for this film because his car was stolen,
right? And he mentioned it to a
producer and they discussed what would happen if your livelihood
was thrown into disarray because your car had been nicked.
So that's what that's what gave him the idea.
They gave it to this guy called Alan Faulkner to turn into a
script. Now, I, I tried looking up, you
know, about this guy, Alan Faulkner couldn't really find
anything other than the fact that he, he's a New Zealander,
but he didn't seem to write very much apart from this.
So I'm not quite sure about his, his pedigree.
But originally the, this film was going to be called The
Moment of Truth. And filming began in November
1959. And that was just prior to the
10th series of the Goon show beginning.
And much of the shooting took place in, I guess, the
Paddington area of London. Yeah, which I think is sort of
roughly the same sort of area that the Lady Killers is set as
well. Yes, I think you're right.
Yeah, of course that the the the contrast there is that's in in
glorious colour, whereas this is this is very much grainy, gritty
monochrome. Yeah.
So we'll talk, I want to talk through the film, OK.
And we can talk about the the the various actors as they as
they come up. OK.
But before I do and let's let's talk about the fact that the
opening and closing credits feature the song, which I I
thought was quite unusual, but then once you actually get into
film, you kind of understand it when Johnny comes marching home.
When Johnny comes marching home again.
Oh yeah. Oh yeah, don't give them a
swinging welcome then. Oh yeah, Oh yeah, the girls are
screaming, the boys are shouting.
The old Fox 2 will all turn up and they'll all go, man when
Johnny comes mounting home. Will a ball be head when Johnny
comes mounting home? He actually, Adam Fyfe actually
had a hit with that. It was a AA side. 1960 was
dominated. The UK charts were dominated by
Adam Fyfe, Cliff Richard and Tony Newly.
Anthony Newly I think were the three main contenders at the top
of the chart that year. Faith had just had the Christmas
#1 he's first number one I think in the October in 59.
And he goes on to have a further two number ones and three top
five singles this year. This is a AA side he released.
And interestingly, I mean, it's it's John Barry who was his
arranger and his backing group throughout 60 to about 62, I
think. Yeah.
Like it's a traditional American folk song, isn't it?
We sort of associated with the American military, don't we?
I think credited as the writer of the song of the new lyrics is
a guy called John Maitland. OK.
John Maitland was a pseudonym for Lionel Bar.
Oh. And there's no explanation as to
why he goes under the name of of Maitland for this.
Well, well, Oliver began this year, didn't it?
Certainly, 5960, I'm sure it was.
Yeah, yeah, OK. Well, you say about it being a
military having military connotations.
The melody features quite prominently in Doctor
Strangelove. It does.
It does and Die Hard 3 as well. I had three.
Which one's that with the Vengeance?
Yeah, the one with. Sam Sam Jackson in it is that
the. One that one, yeah.
It's so that's it's the theme tune to Jeremy Irons every time
Jeremy Irons appears. It is absolutely.
Yes. Yeah, yeah, Yeah.
OK. So you mentioned Adam Faith
there. Now Adam Faith, as you say,
riding high in the charts. Teen idol, future, future star
of Budgie. And what's that thing called?
Love Hurts with Zoe. Want to make it?
Yeah, never watched it, but yes, yeah, yeah.
But perhaps best known to people like me as being a fierce critic
of Channel 5's output until it's a timely death.
I think that was his last words. What was it?
Something along the lines of he was he was watching television
and he said something like, why is everything on Channel 5 so
shit? That's the effect or words that
effect. But and then, and then he, and
then he promptly turned up his stairs, sadly.
We we watched him recently. People forget he appeared in
this. He appeared in Mcvicar with
Roger Daltrey. I didn't remember that.
Yes, he's he's he's best mate, Roger Daltrey's best mate in the
prison, right. Helps, helps him escape.
Yeah. And he's and he, he dyes his
hair black in the movie that, that, that white hair that he's
famous for. And he's very good in it.
Actually, it's, it's very good performance.
I mean, I loved him in Budgie above talking pictures of
showing Budgie at the moment. And it's certainly worth going
back to and catching it again because to me it was the
precursor to Minder. And in some ways he's better
than Minder. It's that sort of relationship
between the between the dodgy spiv and the and he's in his
lackey basically. So yes, so Adam Faith, he heads
up this group of youths in this film and and we see him stealing
a, a Ford Anglia from a busy street right at the beginning.
And this is a robbery to order because Faith's character who's
called rather implausibly Tommy Towers.
Tommy Towers just sounds to me like, I don't know.
It just sounds like a circus act or something.
I don't know. Yeah.
Music Hall act. Yeah, yeah.
Tommy Tout So he supplies local businessman and garage owner
Lionel Meadows, which is which is Peter Sellers with a smile
and a snarl. He supplies him with stolen
vehicles because Meadows well Meadows business is the the
legitimate front for this criminal enterprise and Meadows
buys the log books from scrapped cars and has corresponding
models well resprayed and given you plates essentially.
And we also see quite early on in this this beginning sequence,
David Lodge, who was in Cockleshell Heroes I.
Was waiting for that. He, he, he's, he's got a
prominent role as, as Meadows trusted #2 Cliff.
Yep. And Cliff provides the muscle
and menace when, when Meadows is too busy because, you know,
Meadows isn't too shabby himself when it comes to the muscle and
menace. And it's never made explicit.
But the implication is I felt that the two of them go way
back. There seems to be this mutual
respect rather than the the a sort of like a like a
subordinate relationship between Cliff and Meadows.
If we were to to overthink this, they were probably army buddies.
Absolutely. Yeah, That's what I was
thinking. That's probably the back story,
yeah. Keep knocking next time.
Sorry, I thought you want to know.
He's still outside. He was still outside.
That little knock who brought the coppers here?
So Tommy's nicked this Ford Anglia, but he made the mistake,
ultimately of choosing a Ford Anglia that belonged to terminal
loser John. Cummings.
Yeah. He's not the luckiest man in the
world, is he? No.
And we say you said before about, so it's played by, I was
going to say Robert, Robert, Ted, Richard Todd, Richard Todd,
who who's known, I guess, Yeah, pretty much known for these
dashing roles or these these war heroes and plucky Britishers in
in, in all these strings of films up to this point.
But he's playing this this cosmetic salesman.
Yeah. Working for this firm called
Burgess and without his car he he can't perform his job and and
not being great at his job in the 1st place he's pretty short
of hackers. So he's he's neglected to insure
the vehicle against theft, which is key.
He's he's always on the edge of of being sacked, isn't he?
Or being taken over by the younger.
Yes. Salesman and he's his boss has
certainly got wind of this and he's he's got it in for him from
the start to be honest you know Peter Jones yes well he's the
boss's son isn't he Peter Jones he's going to be taking over the
whole running of well he's. Taken over from the from his
governor and and he's decided that he's going to, he's going
to impose his authority by making cost cutting exercises
and and poor John Cummings, Richard Todd is squarely in his
sights. Yeah, yeah, he's, he's on his
hit list that you know, there's, there's some up and coming
younger, more hungry salesman on the on the team and and there's
no room for poor old Richard Todd in in the business.
I'm just thinking if I mean, he's really, you know, Robert
Todd, Robert Todd, Richard Todd love, you know, oh, sorry, John
Cummings, the character he plays is is is a is someone in his I
guess what is he? Is he in his?
30s if it's one of those bizarre things of the, you know, this
era of movie that everybody looks so much older.
We've said this before, mate, haven't we?
You know, school kids in police are being played by 30 year olds
and stuff like that. Richard Todd, perpetually old,
you know, he's one of those. He just had that old face.
And I'm going to definitely look this up in a second to find out
when he was born, but I bet. Well, I know when he was born,
1919. Oh, well then.
So he's faulty then, isn't it? So he's.
Just over 40. Well, yeah, he's about 40.
Yeah. So.
But he, but I'm assuming he's probably playing in his 30s.
Got a bit. But I'm just thinking, you know,
20 years later, if he was still in sales, I'm thinking he he'd
probably be a bit like the Jack Lemmon character from Glengarry
Glen Ross. Yes.
Yeah. The one that's always been
there. Just Shelly Levine.
Yeah. Yeah, I've met a few people like
that because years ago I worked in a sales office years years
ago and, and there was a couple of older guys, shall we say, who
probably my age now, for God's sake.
But they they were, you know, we used to sort of tissue behind
our hands when they walked in because, you know, they were,
they were not very good and they were verging on desperation.
Scott, actually, let me ask you this.
Have you ever had a car stolen? I don't drive.
Oh, you don't drive? Oh, no.
OK. I don't think I know anybody
that has. Well, I really you've had
personally had experience in this.
OK, I. Have, I'll very briefly tell you
this OK, because it's so I years ago I, I had a, a, a pool car
from work. There was a, we had a car at
work where whoever needs to go out to meet clients took took
the BMW and because I was deemed responsible, I was allowed to by
default sort of take it home every night.
Right. OK, But obviously I'd have to
relinquish it if someone needed it.
But anyway, but I, I remember driving home one night, parking
in the driveway the next morning came downstairs.
We've got like this frosted glass front door and you can see
you're going to sort of come down the come down the stairs.
And it didn't didn't strike me that there should be a sort of a
shape through that frosted glass.
You know, went into the kitchen, had cup of coffee, went out,
opened the front door. No car been been half inched and
it turned up. Six months later got a phone
call from Manchester Police to say that it it it turned up.
It had been used in a drive by in rush home.
There were bullet holes in it, yeah.
OK. But yeah, but I tell you what,
there's no feeling that that that my heart was in my mouth
the moment I opened the door and saw this driveway with no car
occupying it. It was the worst.
Thing, I mean, I, I've got a very dear friend of mine, Paul,
who Co hosts stinking paws with me and I'm always joking with
him that he's so reliant on his car.
He used to, he used to work 10 minutes from his house, a 10
minute walk and he would drive, you know, he's that reliant.
He will pop down to the corner shop in his car all the time.
And we go on holiday quite often, most years together.
And I'm a I'm a big fan of walking.
I don't, I love the old, you know, seaside walks and country
walks and stuff like that when I'm on all day and visiting
places and having a good Rep because you seaboard, don't you,
rather than in, in, in the car behind the wheel, you know, you
don't see as much. And he, he just really begrudges
the fact that he's not sitting behind that wheel sometimes.
And and it's like losing your right arm.
Like that's how I can imagine it being apart from the expense of,
of loss of a car when you're used to the convenience of it
was was I'm just used to public transport and walking.
I can imagine like in your situation, you relied on it for
work similar to this. So there's that aspect of it as
well as the financial side of things as well.
OK, So we've got John Cummings, Rob, Richard, Todd.
I'm going to keep calling him Robert.
I'm sorry. Shall we just call him Robert
Todd? Robert.
Yeah. Is there a Robert Todd?
That I'm accusing him with probably.
Is so he's married, So his character is is married to a
woman who who serves to give both John or she calls him
Johnny. She gives him the love and
attention that he needs, but she also reminds him of his
deficiencies and I find it, quite frankly, a bit annoying.
Yes, I can agree with that actually, yeah.
She's a bit too, I don't know, just ploying.
She's played by Elizabeth Sellers, no relation, and I'm
sure her character has a name but I can't remember what it is.
She given a name. She is.
Anne. Oh, there's Ironic, considering
seller's wife was called Anne. There you go.
Yeah. And and so they have a couple of
small children, including including former Doctor Who film
star Roberto Tovey. Yes.
Yeah, I spotted that. Yeah, because she would go on to
do the two Dalek movies with Peter Cushing.
Yes. Is she in relation to like,
what's her name? Russell Tovey.
I think she is. I think I look this up because I
thought that was so much of A coincidence because Russell
Tovey appeared in a lot of the, the earlier of the reboot Doctor
Who stuff and Torchwood. I think he was in as well.
Couple of episodes of that. OK, I, I, I remember looking
that up, but I can't remember what the outcome was.
I think there is some sort of relationship there, yeah.
OK, well, she's not really, we don't really see her in this
film, although she is there. There's a scene where she's
suitably terrified by Peter Sellers in the film and well,
who's to say she wasn't terrified by him off screen as
well? Because it's it's fairly well
documented that that Sellers took the the Lionel Meadows
character home with him and caused no end to bother with his
wife and kids by his his. Well, he basically was, yeah,
basically playing the character at home, raging, throwing vases,
and generally being a Dick. And what with that and the the
Sophia Loren business, which was to come along very soon, that
pretty much was the beginning of the end for his first marriage.
Yeah, yeah, it it was. He had the the the affair Well,
desperately wanted the affair with Sophia.
But but but does he say about the affair?
Do we? I mean, we don't know.
Did did Ann Sellers his wife at the time?
Did she even know about the fact that he was having it away with
Carol White, who played troubled teenage Run Away Jackie?
Carol White was. Carol White was having it away
with everybody. She seems so Adam, Faith, Faith
Faith Richard Todd. She wasn't evident away with
John Lamezier as well, was she? And the old guy that played
Alfie. Oh well, John Lamezier, you
know, he, he deserved a bit of luck after his wife, his wife
left him for No. Was it Tony Hancock's wife left?
No. Who?
Who left Who? Totally.
His wife left him for Tony Hancock.
That's right, it was, wasn't it? Sicily or Sicily?
Was it Sicily? So who was Freddie?
Freddie was it I, I, I'm not an expert on Hancock.
But yeah, but he stuck by her, didn't he, John?
The measure. He stuck by his wife even after
she left. Him, as he did with Hattie.
With Hattie Jakes as well. Yeah, yeah.
Carol Wyatt, child actress. Originally she was in a couple
of the Saint Trinians. She was one of the kids in Carry
On Teacher she was. She was young Sabella in kind
hearts and coronets. She was, she was, which we
reviewed on Real Britannia a couple of weeks back.
She was predicted to have a massive career that they sort of
pushed her into being almost a version of Julie Christie.
You know, this was the expectations that Carol and
there was glimpses of it. I mean, Kathy come home is
amazing BBC play that, you know, is, is more of a movie than a
play. She was in poor cow, you know,
the the last of the sort of true sort of British kitchen sink
dramas. And and she went off to
Hollywood, had a little bit of a career, you know, but it wasn't
anything spectacular. And and she died tragically
young, I think in the early 90s, substance misuse and alcoholism.
She was, she was plagued by, by alcohol issues and never really
got further than this. You know, she had a couple of
really great years following this and Kathy come home, as I
say, is an amazing performance, but never really amounted to
anything unfortunately. No, but like you say, she was
keeping busy during the filming of this.
It always. Movie, yeah, but OK, so so John
or Johnny Cummings having to rely on buses to get him from
one sales appointment to the next is is frequently running
late and is is winding up important department store
procurement managers like the aforementioned John the
Measurer. And as as you said, Peter Jones,
his his boss gives him an ultimatum if his performance
doesn't improve, he's out. And you see him trying to appeal
to Peter Jones's better nature. Well, I think I can surprise
you, Mr. Berger. We've had a lot of complaints.
Complaints. Yes.
You've been late for appointments.
Well, it has happened, I know, Mr. Berger, once or twice.
It's damn difficult getting around these days.
That's not just a question of getting around.
There are new methods of salesmanship today, convincing
people to buy instead of trying to pressure.
Well, I know, I know, I know. To be twice as effective.
There are a number of very astute young men coming forward
in this business. Quick, confident.
I know, and I realise it. Because we can't stand still.
We've got to do better, move faster to keep up.
Exactly, Mr. Berger. Exactly.
That's why I bought a car. Well, that's a step in the right
direction. When did you get it?
Last week. Good.
It'll make all the difference, Mr. Berger.
I hope so, Cummings. You can't any of us have all to
stand still. No, that's all.
Good night, Cummings. No, Mr. Berger.
He, he's very much a little man, isn't he?
And I wanted to ask your opinion of the there there is a a grand
tradition of the little man in in British cinema and literature
and culture, isn't there? Yeah, I think what is a bit sort
of disconcerting about this movie is we've never seen
Richard Todd lose in a movie. He's never been a loser.
He's always been a victorious military man in most of his
movies, you know, So to see him on the back foot all the time
and actually sort of being quite simpering and sort of cowering
sometimes. You know, he's he's quite afraid
of, of Peter Jones in a way, because he has the power to to
sack him at any point, you know, and he makes that quite clear.
And and the, the way that he he sort of toady's up to John the
measure. And it's like John the measure
has certainly got no time for him whatsoever.
It's like, well, give me that sample.
I'll I'll put it with all the others you've given me and all
that sort of stuff. And it is a real departure for
Richard Todd in this. And he does actually, as you
say, play play the little man perfectly in this movie.
Well, he's cracking wise with the with the counter girls in
the department store. And it made me think a little
bit of, oh, I've forgotten his name, Colin Hunt from the fire
show. A little bit, yeah.
Yeah, there is that element to him.
That desperation to be funny. Yeah, it is.
It is because being a salesman, you know, you've got to, to win
over the person to make the sale.
So he's, he's trying every trick in the book of, you know, the,
the, the book of the charm school, you know, to, to try and
secure a sale because Altby, that's what he needs to do.
And we know he's short of cash, as you say, because he's bought
the car but can't afford to insure it completely.
So we we know that every sale is is vital for him and he's just
having barriers put up at every single point that he turns.
Absolutely. So he's he's increasingly
desperate to find his car and he figures that street newspaper
vendor Alfie, who's this aged keeper of terrapins.
The great Mervyn Johns, father of Glynis Johns, who passed away
recently. Right now, what would I know him
from? Mervyn Johns was in every single
British British movie. Probably most famous for right
now. I'll tell you what you know him
from mate. He was Bob Cratchie in Alistair
Sims version of Scrooge. Wow.
OK. And.
You know him from. Was he?
Yeah, Blimey. OK.
Yeah. And dead of night.
He's in dead of night. That's where you'll probably
know him. Yes.
And I want to say he was in seven days to noon, but I'm not
entirely sure. I haven't.
Seen seven days to noon. Is that good?
Great film. Great film, yeah, but Oh yeah,
the bad bomb Man with the bomb. Oh, is that with?
Do you know what? I think I bought that on DVD but
I haven't watched it. Has that got someone like not
Cyril Cusac in it? Is that?
Oh no. I think it's Lawrence Naismith,
I think from Mr. Blunden, I think it might.
Be OK. Well, anyway, I'll.
I'll dig it out. I'll dig it out.
Yeah. So he so so he so Alfie is this
is this newspaper vendor who was on the street when the Ford
Anglia was nicked. So John feels that he must have
witnessed the robbery. And he pleads with him to it.
You know, at least give him some sort of information or or a tip
as to as to who the the perp was.
And very reluctantly, Alfie indicates that he that he might
like to start his investigations at the Victory Cafe, which is
very conveniently situated within Vas chucking distance of
Lionel Beddoe's garage. Was that a set or was that a
real St. I want to say it now you've
asked me that. I don't know.
I want to say it's probably a set.
It did did look a bit like it was filmed interior.
Yeah. But if it was a set, it's a
bloody good set because it's got, you know, huge roads and
cars and traffic and everything going by.
And it's a very good set if it is or if they've closed off that
particular part of Paddington, well done because it's, it's a
perfect set there. You know it's a good saying that
location. I don't know what the budget was
for this film. I'm guessing it was fairly low
budget really so it would have to to to make a set that good
would have cost a hell of a lot of money.
Exactly. Or was it existing for something
else you know? Maybe, maybe so.
So John or Johnny, What are we going to call them?
Johnny? Johnny goes to the CAF.
It's when Johnny comes marching home, isn't?
He yeah, and he's taunted by Tommy and his his gang of tear
away French, including. Did you spot Larry Martin?
Larry Martin. Larry Martin used to appear in
all the old Dick Henry shows, didn't he?
He was. Oh, who was he?
No, he, I tell. He was, he was Mr. Mash, and now
you're being so. Just about to say, I pictured
him in a in a grey moustache and grey hair and that was he.
He was Arthur English's replacement or predecessor.
Yeah, yeah. And, and I, I'm in a crowded
field of one when I say that I prefer Mr. Mesh to Mr. Harmon,
who is, who is Arthur English. But so, and, and this is where
we find out that Jackie, who's, who's Lionel Meadows reluctant
girlfriend, but she's also involved with, with Tommy, yes,
and Tommy in this. And I don't know, I, I, I
remember seeing Budgie, I've seen Love Hurts, I suppose, back
in the day, but I don't remember.
I've not. I can't say I'm an expert on
Adam Faith's normal speaking voice, but in this his voice
reminded me very much of Danny from Wissner when I.
Oh, he's yeah, because he's got that sort of rolling R, hasn't
he? Because he just where Danny says
I had to beat him to death with a pair of his own shoes.
That's it. Is that the one and Ozzy Osborne
made me take out all the brown M and Ms. Is that the?
Is that what I was like something?
Something like that. But it's just, it sounded.
I just couldn't get that out of my head.
And I was thinking because we don't know.
Tommy goes off at the end of this film.
You know, end of the 60s by 69. Was Tommy moaning about them
selling hippie wigs in Woolworths?
Oh, who knows? I mean, did Tommy actually go
and get a job and become a responsible adult?
We'll never know. Burgess Speciality soap.
All the best tasks in town. Use this, Fred.
He wants to know what sort of lipstick we're using.
Yeah, my partner's got a really good idea for making dolls.
His name's presuming heads. It's just to give him the idea
she got a doll on. Christmas what pisses itself.
Really. Yeah.
Then you got to change its drawers for it.
It's horrible, really. But they like that, the little
girls. And because of John's nosing
about Tommy and his gang terrorize Alfie.
Poor Alfie. And when when Meadows is told
about this, he crushes Tommy's hand under a record player lid.
Yeah. Which, Yeah, and and we, we
that's the first flash of violence.
It's the first indication, isn't it, that Sellers is, is
something different here? Yes, just prior to that.
I mean, I remember the very first time I saw this, it was
only a couple of years ago and I was in the process of sort of
mopping up a few of the Peter Sellers stuff that I hadn't
seen. And this was one of them.
And the first thing I noticed before we go into just how evil
he he is and becomes his voice, He's got this Northern accent
now as we know, Peter Sellers, the master of voices, you know,
throughout his career. And it's quite a distinctive
Northern accent. And we've heard him do Northern
accents. You know, George Formby, you
know, in particular, he used to do quite a decent sort of George
Formby impression and stuff like that.
But I don't think we've ever heard that voice in a Goon show
before. No, I was watching this the
other night with some friends, as I often do, and halfway
through, I said because I had it in my head from reading one of
the books, one of the biographies.
I don't know why. I just had it in my head that
Sellers was doing a Leicestershire accent, right,
OK, now. But then I'm halfway through the
film. I said, well, what accent?
Is he actually doing it? And there was a bit of an
argument between US and, but we we finally agreed that it was,
it was indeterminate Northwest. OK.
But that perhaps Meadows, not Cellars, but Meadows was trying
to disguise it or soften it and and that it comes out more
strongly when he's enraged, which which is most of the time.
Yeah. But but yeah, so because I
thought is it, is it kind of Liverpool?
Is it? Is it that area?
It's, it's not Yorkshire, is it? It's, it's not full blown
Yorkshire Northern accent. And this was the thing because
it was something that I had never heard sellers do before.
Instantly I was, I was not on the back foot, but he was like,
where are we going with this? Because this is something I've
never seen sellers do before. And then within minutes, we just
get to see just how evil he actually is.
You know, as he crushes Adam Faye's hand, that the lecherous
look that he gives Jackie, where he takes her top off, one of the
creepiest things he's ever done. And, and you saying earlier
about even taking the character home and breaking vases and
things like that. A little bit later on after
this, you know, where he forces his way into Richard Todd's
apartment and threatens him with a broken vase.
I'm, I'm convinced he would have killed Richard Todd if if they
weren't disturbed at that point. And and as I say, it's just
something that we haven't seen from sailors before.
And I think the voice is a is a big part of it.
Sailors is the best thing in this movie.
Head and shoulders above everybody else.
Oh, he is. I mean, that's not a comedy
voice, No, but yeah, so when when he so he crashes Tommy's
hand because he's displeased with him.
But but Hot foots at to to Alfie's patch and he he breaks
into his room above a pub and then terrorises poor old Alfie
even more. And that's where we see this.
Oh dear, this this terrible scene where he crushes one of
his terrapins under foot. You actually see it as well.
It's not like it's on the screen.
It's horrible. Yeah, by the way, when Lionel
Meadows is in the in the pub. Yeah.
So he excuses himself on the pretence that he wants to use
the outdoor Privy, but it's it's his.
It's his way of so he can break into Alfie's.
Yeah, horrible, horrible little room.
But he tells the now, what's the barmaid?
Marian Stone. It is Marian Stone, the Duchess.
It is the Duchess 272 TVA movie appearances.
We love this woman. You know full well, don't you,
That. Yeah, we we have a thing on Real
Britannia called the Village Hall of Fame.
Yeah, we can't afford a real Hall of Fame.
You know, we've just got a village hall.
We had this stupid idea seven years ago when we started Real
Britannia that anybody that appears on the show three times
gets inducted into the Village Hall of Fame.
Now, I think I've just released episode 160 this week, which was
Kiss of the Vampire Hammer movie.
Out of the 160 movies that we've reviewed so far, Marianne Stone
has appeared in 16, well, one in 10, and she's not the top of the
tree. I mean, that's Victor Harrington
and Cyril Chamberlain, I think he's second.
And a guy called Fred Wood, it's all the guy stand, even guy
stand evens 2. That's right, guy stand evens 2.
She is top of the female contingent.
I don't think anyone's going to knock her from that position.
We've got so many more movies that she's going to appear in.
I mean for people that don't know, Marion Stone probably best
known for Lolita with Sellers. Just going to say, we last
discussed her significantly on on when we talked about Lolita
where she's she's seller's companion.
Yeah, she's a reporter or a guest in Hard Days night at a
party where she asks Ringo if he's a mod or a rocker.
That's her. No mocha, mocha, mocha.
Yeah, that's her. And the one that most people,
when I mention it go, Of course it's her.
It's in one of the carry on doctors and she's the mother of
the child that's got the PO stuck on his head and he's
grand. He's it back, take it back to
the grandfather. So Jim Dale has to remove it
from him, and she's the mother. Yes, so she so she's got a blink
in your Missa. Yeah, parents.
And this is the barmaid and and and Meadows tells her that he's
going outside to water the horse.
Water the horse, yes. Yeah, I'll chuckle with that.
Yeah. Lovely little turn of Fraser.
And so, yeah, so he's, you know, he's terrorized Alfie.
And we learned later that Alfie, broken and his his whole life
destroyed, gassed himself to death.
So. Yeah, so anyone going to The
Regal in 1960 to see the latest Peter Sellers film, expecting a
cosy little comedy like The Mouse That Roared?
They were going to be questioning their decision,
weren't they? Around that point maybe they
should have gone to see Psycho Bit Light Affair.
You know, Peeping Tom, Yeah, Actually, can I just say the
output of of this year, apart from the revolutionary, as we
say, Peeping Tom, Psycho. And this I'm I'm going to say is
revolutionary. The British film industry was
stuck in a rut because this year we still get a normal wisdom.
We get Bulldog Breed, you get Doctor in Love.
Pure hell of Centrinians that the comedy output of this year
is still stuck in the mid 50s. Now what Carry On was out in 60?
Was it? Was it regardless?
Was it? It's going to be an early one
like that, a black and white, isn't it?
I mean, spying would have been a couple of years after because of
James Bond. Yeah.
So we were on sort of regardless, coming up to
cruising, possibly Teacher would have been a cabbie before Cabbie
61, I think. Yeah.
But then in America, Spartacus, Magnificent 7, you know, it's
the big colourful blockbusters. But the British film industry is
still stuck in this rut. And This is why this film stands
out as far as I'm concerned, because it is something
different. Yeah, but my second favorite
Peter Sellers film of course comes out in 60, which we've
mentioned before. Two way stretch.
My favorite as well.
Yeah, which came out, which was the Sellers film after this.
Yeah, so or they filmed before this?
Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
So John, Johnny, Richard Todd. Robert Todd.
Bloody hell, he'd seen, he'd witnessed from a fire.
Lionel Meadows talking to Alfie. He he puts two and two together.
And this is where he so he he's repeatedly attempting to to
interest the police in his case, but you've got this rather
coolly contemptuous inspector who's got bigger fish to fry.
And he recognises that Meadows has a wrong end and behind a
spate of vehicle thefts, but he needs time and evidence before
he can finger him for the lot. And and John, who's by now
become almost deranged by the successive need to recover his
car, he's not interested in in that.
He just wants his car back. Now that inspector, yeah, I
recognise him, but I didn't recognise him, if you know what
I mean. So who?
Who's he? It's no Willman man who knew too
much. Right what?
The original or the the remake? The the 50s one, the remake Dr.
Zhivago, he was in he was in a couple of hammers, right Kiss of
the vampire Doctor Zhivago, he was in as I said, the reptile I
think was a hammer. He.
He's, he's very stiff, isn't he? Yes, he's I always imagined him
to play like a Butler or something like that when I
picture him, but he doesn't. He doesn't.
I think probably his most famous
rather think I'm trying to think who he was in Doctor Zhivago,
but I know he was in that. Oh, well, it doesn't matter.
But he's, he's all right. He's he's got.
He's clearly exasperated by John Cummings.
Yeah. And he warns John to to leave,
leave it well alone, Let them deal with things.
Yeah. But but Cummings is just he's on
a mission, so he breaks into Meadows garage and gets royally
duffed up by Cliff. Which is it's quite disturbing
that isn't it. It's that Sellers and Lodge both
being a right pair of nasty bastards.
It just, it just cements what we've suspected all along,
doesn't it? Basically, we, well, if, if
crushing the Terrapin wasn't bad enough, you know, we, we now
know that they can perform acts of violence on, on people as
well. You know, it's yeah, this is
what I'll say. I'll keep repeating it.
This is a seller's performance that will take you aback if if
you've never seen this movie before because it's it's just
totally unexpected from him. You realize I could have you for
breaking and entrance, aren't you?
Actually, I think you'd probably get about two years.
So I'm a reasonable celebrate fellow, you know, have a look
around for you shall go on try and find it.
Oh, right. Are you satisfied now?
Get out Cliff face clip huge alone.
We discussed Cockroach All Heroes last week, and so
obviously we were talking about David Lodge a lot.
And he's very evanculate. He's very likeable in the
cocktail heroes. He's very likeable in most of
his roles. Even though he's a big guy and
he looks like he should play the heavy and the and the not
necessarily the villain, but the henchman or whatever.
There's not that many films or television appearances where he
does play an all an out and out, you know, bastard, really.
I don't think he does, no. This is the thing, I always
picture him because he was in like Q8 and all those sort of
Milligan stuff, wasn't he appeared and it's just him
corpsing all the time, just cracking up and, and just
hamming it up and just, you know, playing to the camera.
That's how I see him. It's it's, it's in those sort of
outtakes or those him just being himself, you know, just breaking
down. Absolutely adore him.
He's one of those guys that should have had a bigger career,
but I, I think he's still pretty recognised.
Well, I think people do know David Lodge.
You know, he's, he's just one of those character actors that was
not quite a list, but he was, he was competent in everything he
did. He was able to enjoy the
trappings of a list, celebrity and fame through sellers.
Yeah, because wasn't he shot in the dark as well?
Yes, he says lots of things like that.
Yeah. But he was able to to attend all
these parties and soirees and going on all these trips away
and meet people like Sophia Loren and Tony Snowden and you
know. Yeah.
Was he sort of part of the crew with like, say, Graham Stark as
well? Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, there.
Was all of those guys was. He and Stark were joint best men
at Sellers wedding to protect. Them.
Yeah, There we go. Yeah.
And so he was, and he and Sellers would, you know, they
would, they'd go on holiday together, the deal resource.
But yeah, so. So Johnny's bloodied, bruised
and battered and. He arrives home and and his
wife, whose name I've forgotten again, is Anne.
Anne. She's not got much to do, has
she? She begs him to, to leave it
like everyone's telling him, just leave it.
And this is where we discover that since D mob from the war,
John has struggled to find purpose in life and he's had
pretty poor judgement and that's led him to pursue several
disastrous enterprises. And.
And I was thinking here, I'm sure you'll agree with me on
this, Scott. Now, had John Cummings been of a
slightly more compromised character morally, he defeated
right in with the gang assembled by Jack Hawkins in the League of
Gentlemen. The same.
Yeah. Perfect.
You know what? I.
Mean, yeah, because they've all found it difficult to adapt to
civvy street, haven't they? Yeah, that's that's the whole
point of it, isn't it? They're all ex military, but
they've all got a particular talent.
And unfortunately in this movie, Richard Todd hasn't found what
his talent is since leaving the war, has he?
That's the thing. What what is his strong point?
He he hasn't found himself. That's the He can sell lipstick.
Sometimes a lipstick peddler. He's a lipstick peddler.
Always refers to him. Yeah, but but he has no, he's,
he's found no strong point, has he?
No, no guiding light in his life.
That's that's it's just led him to these second rate jobs that
he's not particularly good at. And so by this point, John's
been demoted to inventory. Clark, I suppose, is he?
Yeah, I suppose that's the best way I described the role.
Yeah, yeah. And and that twat of a colleague
who's taking his patch is giving him a bit of sight and and and
John loses rag and has a rage and then quits.
That's it, Luke. Yeah.
Walks out the job, Yeah. And it's at this point in the
film where I'm really beginning to to despair of him, of his
character and I, and I kind of wish he'd ignore the title of
the film and just and just just let go.
Yeah, yeah. They, they, you sort of wish
that there's a point now where enough's enough, you know,
that's it. You've you've you've suffered
enough and and everybody else is telling you to to leave it.
But he's not. Yeah, but what is what is
triggering him to be so determined?
Is is it the money? Is it the fact that he's always
been a loser? I think that's probably what it
is. Is it?
Just this reach breaking point. He's had so much sand kicked in
his face. He is that OK?
He's like Howard. What's his name from Network?
He's mad as hell and he's not. Going to take it anymore.
Yeah, yeah. That's.
It he's he's driven inexorably towards what will be the victory
or defeat, and it could be fatal defeat.
Oh yeah, there's, there's certainly that that element in
this movie. The, the, the threat of that is,
is quite, quite palpable actually, because we don't know
to what extreme sellers will go, you know, as I say, the the
point where he breaks into the flat and breaks the vase, if, if
they weren't disturbed, sellers would have killed him.
Well, yes, yes, we get to that because some I So John Cummings
finds the weak link in Meadows operation, which is Jackie, and
he invites her back to his house, I guess to get her away
from Meadows or I'm not quite sure what, what he has in mind.
Nothing, nothing carnal, of course, but no, no, not not in
the film anyway. But But then, yeah, like you
say, Meadows discovers where she's been taken and he does, he
stages like a home invasion, terrorises the whole family.
And like you say, he had probably killed Robert Todd,
Richard Todd, both of them. And that's the point after that.
And Cummings tells John that if he doesn't drop it, she's taking
the children and she's leaving. And that's quite sensible.
Yeah, she's she's, she's reached her breaking point as well.
Yeah, so naturally, of course John totally ignores her because
Tommy has been, he's been brutalised again by Meadows with
a broken bottle, I think hasn't. It There's a lot of broken glass
in this movie. A lot of threats were broken
stuff. Yeah, yeah.
And, And Jackie goes back to him and is it at this point that she
decides that she's actually going to give evidence against?
Meadows, yeah. Meadows at this point, isn't it?
So she's reached her breaking point now.
Everybody's sort of it's building up.
You can see this is all building up to the final act at this
point now. So I guess sensing things are
closing in, like the owner of the scrap yard is taken in by
the police, as is the man who swaps the plates and gives the
cars a respray. So sensing that things are
getting hairy, Cliff's anxious David Lodge character, and he
decides to cut his losses and have it away at his toes.
And. Yeah, and he and he gets away
just as the police arrive at the garage with, with Johnny
Cummings in tow. And although Meadows isn't,
isn't actually taken in because there's not enough evidence to
detain him. Yeah, they're they're they're
very close. And this is where we get to
essentially the the the climax of the film where Meadows is
alone in the in the garage with the lights off, driven half mad
by the fact that understandably, you know, because he's been he's
been a successful businessman as well as criminal.
But but he this insignificant little squid like Johnny
Cummings should have brought such unwanted attention to his
operation and and triggered it's unravelling.
So he's he's he's convinced that Cummings will return to the
garage, and he's lying in wait because he wants to kill him.
Yeah. He's pretty much he's determined
to keep the car and and kill Richard Todd at the same time.
Yeah, Oh yes, because conveniently, sorry, I forgot to
mention conveniently, the offending stolen Ford Anglia.
Is still there. It's still there.
All the other cars have been driven off somewhere else.
But yeah, yeah, it's, it's just, it's a marvellous ending.
The the fact that, you know, the whole, the whole crux of this
plot is still there, hasn't been sold quite conveniently, and
it's still in the garage. Although it's been resprayed a
dark colour, I don't know what colour it was because it's black
and white. I I like to think it was Canary
yellow originally. Oh, it'd be brilliant if it was,
yeah. And and Cummings has has spent
most of the day and into the evening up the road at the
Victory CAF nursing a cup of cold tea.
Yeah, despite the Cyril Shep's the if wet Mario Fritzi type
behind the counter telling him, telling him to give it all up as
a bad job. Mario for Brits is still alive
at this point. Yes, he is.
I think he died in 6263. A couple of years later, yeah.
Yeah. And as I say, we are getting to
the to the climax. We have this spit where both
Richard Todd and Peter Sellers, the characters are hearing
voices in their heads. I.
Didn't make one mistake. I didn't hang on.
I didn't see it through. I've got to see it through.
I won't be here when. You come back, I mean it to you,
I'll. Tell you why.
Because he thinks it's here, that stupid little bastard, he's
going to come back for it. And this time I'll kick.
I'll stick his body in his precious car, set fire to it,
and I don't. Know and all I could think of
was Daniel plan Lisa needs braces.
Yeah, it's, it's quite unnecessary.
You didn't have to have that. I think we, we knew what was
going on in their heads without having to be told at this point.
And, and again, this is quite a protracted fight.
It does go on for quite a while. It's not just a.
Couple of it's very convincing, yeah.
Because because he goes back, he does indeed go back to the to
the garage and they had this fight and it's very nice fight
choreography. Yeah, quite a few sticky, nearly
sticky moments. You know, we've got chains and
broken bottles and, and the, the car lift itself, you know, the
hydraulic lift being used as, as weapons.
And it's, it is, it's almost, almost worthy of a James Bond
sort of scrap at one point. And there is just murder in
Peter Sellers eyes. Basically, he's going to kill
him. He will kill him at the end of
this. Yeah, because he tries to crush
John under the wheels of the Anglia, but then he cops a
spanner on the back of the nut. Was that was that fatal or was
he just knocked out? I wasn't sure.
It doesn't say we don't see him being arrested, do we,
afterwards or being taken away in an ambulance or anything, but
does he actually hit him on the head or is it sort of like the
back of the shoulders? I couldn't quite.
See, we're not sure, but yeah, I think we must assume that it
wasn't fatal. Yeah, but the police, the police
arrived just at the moment because they've been tipped off
by Jackie and Tommy, and both of them make off on Tommy's
motorbike. And John tells the inspector to
let them go. And then.
And then in a very kind of, I don't know, kind of like a
Hollywood sort of way, I suppose he, he asked him to get out of
his way so he can drive his car home.
Clint Eastwood, get in on his horse.
That's what I said. Yeah.
Riding off into the sunset.
And at that point, you could expect the credits to roll.
But no, no, he arrives home to a cold, empty flat.
And this is, this is where, what's his name?
John Gwilliman. He could have opted to end the
film in a downer with, you know, John can be home, jubilant that
he's got his car back, but then realising his his family have
gone and he ends up leaping from the window while sticking his
head in the gas cooker. Yeah, but he's.
He's lost everything, but he's he's got the car back, he's got
the car back, so that's fine, yeah.
But I suppose they didn't want to end on a on a real downer.
So his wife, whose name I've forgotten again, and she comes
home and she embraces him and everything is right in his world
again. Well, apart from the fact he
hasn't got a job. That's true.
And he's unlikely to get one because he's probably going to
have to go to court for, I don't know.
Yes, I'd love to know what happened to Meadows.
You know, what did he, did he did he live?
Did he, did he live to crush a hoodlum's hand again or what?
I'm thinking, you know, as I said about Tommy Towers, did he
go on to become a purveyor of the Camberwell Carrot later on
in the decade? And Cliff, what happened to
Cliff? Did he, did he maybe, did he
fall in with the wrong crowd again?
You know those Jehovah's burglars?
There's a, there's another, there's another movie there
somewhere, certainly in Cliff's story.
That would be great to see him, you know, move on to something
else. I like to think that Peter
Sellers spent a few years in prison and came out equally as
nasty, just as bad. Right.
Well, that's because I was thinking this echoes of this
film in later films, I think, or at least in that character, like
in villain. Definitely in villain, yes.
Get Carter. All of those British gangster
type movies. On Good Friday and even sexy
beast. Yeah, I think robbery with
Stanley Baker, yes. Which we covered on I covered in
Real Britannia, you did. You did so all of those that
that particular genre of of brick gangster movies.
This fits in nicely. If you haven't seen it and
you're a fan of any of those, I would highly recommend this
because as we say, Peter Sellers performance is the stand out of
this. But the plot is pretty good in
this. The writing's great.
The cinematography is fantastic in this.
It is. There's no weak points in this
at all, apart from, as you say, the the character of Anne.
The wife can be a little bit annoying, I think, but just sort
of even even like, you know, your bit part actors like you're
Mervyn John's there and your Cyril shaps and your John the
measures and all of those guys. It's it's just a fantastic
sellers, but it's a fantastic movie from this from this era.
Yeah, it it really is. It really, really is.
And is the film right? The film is.
The film is about John Cummings. It's not about Lionel Meadows,
is it? I would say it's he's coming
story. Yeah, yeah.
And I've got on my notes here to ask you at the end do you, do
you buy sellers as this irredeemable monster?
I guess you do. I do.
It's a fantastic character. It's, it's so convincing.
As I say, I was just disappointed that I hadn't
discovered it earlier. I, I first watched it, as I
said, about two years ago, and I've watched it three times.
And on this particular watch, I I spotted stuff that I hadn't
seen before because I was expecting Seller's performance.
I was a bit more relaxed when I watched it, but I was still on
edge. It still got me some of that.
Like I say to the looks that he gives Jackie and the you could,
you could just see the evil behind his eyes.
And it is so convincing. And it just, you know, if
anybody has any doubt that Peter Sellers couldn't do drama, we'll
go and watch this. It's it's so convincing.
I absolutely adore this film. I remember reading Michael
Sellers, Peter's son. He wrote a memoir, I don't know,
40 years ago, maybe I don't have it anymore.
I remember reading it and he wrote about this film and, and
the fallout from it and, and Sellers taking the character
home and all that. And yeah, I mean, there's,
there's other stuff that went on and you just think, oh God.
You know, if, if, if Sellers was anything like the character we
see on screen at home, then my God.
As you say that this year is, is the year of the millionaire S
and the whole Sophia Loren affair.
And if you read, you know, the biographies and all of that sort
of stuff, you just get a real sense of how tumultuous his home
life was at this point and how much he was quite happy to let
some of the people that he loved in his life go, you know, and
he, he didn't care. He was very, very self-centered
at this point and he didn't care who he hurt.
A bit like a bit like Meadows, you know.
And, and it's a really fascinating sort of era in his
life, if you've got any interest in his background.
Quite prolific. He released 4 movies this year,
as you say as well, and each one of them were different.
So that's why it's a really good era in Sellers history for
anybody that wants to sort of dig a bit deeper into it.
And what would you say in terms of further viewing other films
like this? Not, I'm not talking about later
films like Villain or Get Carter, but around this time
that has got this kind of gritty edge.
I'd, I'd say go back a little bit to the social problem stuff,
certainly anything directed by Basil Dearden.
Oh yes, Pool of London. Sapphire.
Sapphire yeah, there's the long arm of the law with Jack
Hawkins. Bit more a police procedural
than a than a gangster type thing.
Go. You to the night.
Guilt to the night. But Dinah Doors, definitely, and
even Espresso Bongo or something like that.
Really, right? It's not a musical.
It's got Lawrence Harvey in it, as well as Cliff Richard.
Cliff Richard is is not the star of that film.
All right, OK. And I would, yeah, that that's
probably just just for the example of a British rock and
roller acting. But also it has this sort of
element of easy set in a nightclub, as far as I remember.
And I'll tell you the best one. Just come to me, Sammy Lee, the
indie. Movie actually.
Newly yes. Yeah, set in Soho strip clubs.
You know, failed comic trying to recover money to pay off a
gambling debt. Otherwise he's going to be
viciously beaten. That one surprised me as well.
Anthony Looney is absolutely fantastic in that film.
Yeah, that needs a rewatch actually.
Yes, absolutely. Very good.
So, Scott, is there anything else you want to did you wanted
to mention about this film or should we call it a day?
Call it a day, but just anybody that hasn't seen it, why not
please just go out and watch it, yeah.
I think it's, well, it's certainly available on DVD.
I've got it on DVD. It's probably on YouTube.
I don't know. It is on YouTube.
I've seen a copy on there. So yeah, it is.
It is available. It's out there.
It's. Deserving of a nice new Blu-ray
release. Yeah.
I would certainly buy it if that was the case, yeah.
Okey doke. So coming up on Real Britannia
and Stinky pause, What, what? What have we got to look forward
to? We're all up to date with
Stinking Pause, our last episode, Dave the Jackal, Yeah,
tied in quite nicely with the new Sky miniseries, which I'm
watching avidly at the moment. And.
Is it good? Because my favorite film of all
time is Dave the Jackal. Yes, I heard you told me.
I like what they've done with this new version.
Right. They've kept certain elements in
it, but they have completely changed everything else.
And for the good, I think. Don't watch it if if you're
expecting a remake of the Frederick Forsyth book.
It's it's it's, it's a twist on it, a complete twist on it.
So that's our latest episode of Stinking Pause.
We're recording a real Britannia tomorrow.
We're doing Green for Danger with Alistair SIM.
I I think I've seen a bit of that, but I haven't seen the
whole film. Great film.
It's one of those movies that Alistair SIM plays a character
that you wished he made more movies as that character.
He plays a detective and you think, ah, there's, there's so
many stories that guy could have been involved in.
Not the same sort of detective as he played in.
Inspector calls. Inspector calls.
No, no, quite different. He's got these strange little
quirks that make him really fascinating to watch.
And it's it's great. Leslie Howard's in it and and
Megs Jenkins and all those guys a great film.
But also coming up, we recorded the big job with.
James. Yeah, we've we've got a we've
got an episode on that kind hearts and coronets.
We've done an episode that's coming up and an early Olly Reed
have a movie called Paranoiac. So they're all coming up before
the end of the year on Real Britannia.
And as I say, I'm one of the hosts of the official Talking
Pictures TV podcast, which I'm sure a lot of your listeners.
To Watch is the, as they Say, the nation's favorite archive TV
and movie channel on Freeview. And just going from strength to
strength. It's showing all the movies that
you and I love, mate. Indeed.
Brilliant. Well, that's that's fantastic.
And let me just give a little plug to myself here as well.
By the time this show goes out, it should be, I think probably
next week, all being well because we haven't recorded it
yet, but hopefully for Goon Pod Film Club for December, I'm
going to be talking about the film version, the 1986 film
version of Whoops Apocalypse, and my my guests will be David
Renwick and Andrew Marshall. Oh fantastic.
Oh well done. Yeah.
So now I'm saying that we haven't recorded it yet, but
it's it's in the diary. So that should be around this
time coming out very, very soon anyway.
Wow I I watched the TV series I don't think I saw the movie
version. I've I watched both but not for
many many years. So I need I need to rewatch the
film. Yeah.
So we'll be doing that very soon.
And so, yeah, so that will be hopefully for December.
If not, it's it will be rescheduled, but it should be,
it should be December. So fingers crossed.
So Scott, as always, it's been a blast.
It's been wonderful. You're such a great guest to
have on because you know your your warmth and your knowledge
it it just brings so much to goon pods.
So thank you so much and and and I look forward one day to coming
back to real Britannia and talking about we were going to
talk about the Railway children, I think is so.
I'm I'm going to book you in as soon as we turn the microphones
off. Good, OK.
And and all the best with your future endeavours and I'm sure
we will speak again very soon. Thank you for having me, I've
been an absolute pleasure this morning.
One of my favourite Sellers performances.
Absolutely love this movie and absolutely love appearing on the
show mate. Thank you.
When Johnny comes marching home again.
Oh yeah, Oh yeah, They'll give him a swinging welcome then.
Oh yeah, Oh yeah, The girls were screaming, the boys were
shouting, The old fox too Will all turn up and they'll all go,
man. When Johnny comes marching home.
Will a ball be head When Johnny comes marching home?