The Cracksman

No expense was spared on this lavish big screen vehicle for Charlie Drake, much of it filmed on location around a very wintry-looking London in CinemaScope and Technicolor with a supporting cast (in a nod towards 'The Rebel') headed by George Sanders. None of these blandishments (and certainly Ron Goodwin's galumphing score) made him any funnier, so he soon returned to TV.

Ironically Ronnie Barker's name doesn't even make the opening credits, yet the most enduring feature of the film is the first appearance - fully formed - of Norman Stanley Fletcher looking barely a day younger under an earlier alias and with a scar on his right cheek. Sixteen years later the character would return to the big screen (minus the scar) billed above the title.