Sparrows Can't Sing

I saw this film when it first came out; it got very bad reviews at the time and most of my friends hated it, but I loved it then and have been haunted by the theme song ever since. For a while it was impossible to find any references to it--in fact, this is the first database where I have found the title or any information about it, though I have checked a number of commercial sites trying to find it on video. I still remember it as a charming (somewhat sentimental) and very funny comedy of a type that the British film industry did very well at that time. More recently their best work is more in a surreal or caricatural mode (such as _Cold Comfort Farm_, which is brilliant in its own way), but _The Full Monty_ caught some of the charm of the kind of comedies of everyday life that I think _Sparrows Can't Sing_ was one of. Now I just wish I could see it again.

As distinct from East Enders PC version..Get the impression that things really were like that in a neighbourhood where people still.spoke and looked English! Would like to see Lionel.Bart's musical version and wish Joan Littlewood had made more films!

I've never watched a movie with more shouting in it! Why does ever actor shout his lines?

James Booth's character is a boorish oaf. God knows what Windsor's character was supposed to have seen in him.

Only reason it gets two starts is because of the location shooting.

Wonderful British kitchen-sink comedy/drama from Joan Littlewood. Wonderful, beautiful Barbara playing the titular Maggie makes this film a true delight and a snapshot of the East End in the early 60s. Was it really like this? Who cares. A thoroughly enjoyable and repeatable watch.

Quite simply good or bad its a time capsule of once upon a time in London and great English Actors.