This TV film is adapted from the hit musical farce that opened on London's West End at the Whitehall Theater on May 31, 1966. The show ran for 14 months and wracked up 468 performances.
Spy spoof has La Rue, a clerk at M16, enlisted as an agent when they learn that Sigmund Fink and his gang are after a secret formula invented by Professorvon Schlump. Since Fink knows La Rue, he dons a series of disguises ... as a woman. While it wears a bit thin and the songs aren't great, La Rue is run to watch as he plays an Irish nurse, a stripper in a cabaret, a great lady, etc.
Almost stealing the show from La Rue is Barbara Windsor as Mavis Apple the elevator girl who's afraid of heights. Windsor, well known for THE BOY FRIEND and TV's EAST ENDERS, sings up a storm and repeats her role from the stage show.
Others in the cast include Alfred Marks and Irene Handl as Fink and his mother, Patrick Cargill as Gribble, Kenneth Waller as von Schlump, Valerie Walsh as Tamara Flesch, and Harry Jones as Greensleeves.
But of course it's Danny La Rue who is the star in a series of gaudy dresses and out-sized wigs that looks like they came from Mrs. Slocombe on ARE YOU BEING SERVED. There's a split-screen bit with La Rue doing a duet with himself/herself that's rather badly done, but on the whole everyone has a good time.
