Keep It Up Downstairs

KEEP IT UP DOWNSTAIRS is a low budget British sex comedy of the 1970s, with all of the connotations you'd expect from that particular genre. It's poorly made, and quite groan-inducing in places, an over-obvious spoof of the likes of UPSTAIRS DOWNSTAIRS in its tale of a bunch of sex-obsessed aristocrats and their equally randy servants.

As a time capsule of the era it was made, however, it's priceless. Holding the whole thing together is Neil Hallett, who's perfected his long-suffering look as the butler, Hampton, but he's given ample support from a whole bevy of familiar British faces. Watch out for OLIVER!'s Jack Wild as a mad scientist type, Diana Dors as a visiting aristo, and Francoise Pascal and Mary Millington as a pair of sexy maids.

The humour is decidedly smutty and the film as a whole relies on the whole sniggering nudity set up of the CONFESSIONS films, and to be fair with a script of this calibre it's not likely to win many awards. For me, though, these were halcyon days and an era that deserves to be celebrated with its own scuzzy charm, so you can't hate it too much. For nostalgia purposes only, then...