Bless This House

Bless this house, was successful enough profitably and critically and commercially enough for ITV; the bosses at the corporation have it the green light to commission a feature film version made in 1972.

Robin Stewart who played Sidney's son in the tv series was absent so he was replaced by another Robin Askwith who was semi- famous due to his appearances in several low- budget arthouse movies which plagued cinemas at the time before finding fame as the lead in the cult sex comedy franchise ( confessions film series 1974- 1978).

In this uneven film version, the Abbott families lives continue as humdrumly as possible until Mike meets a local girl played by Carol Hawkins from the TV sitcom ( please Sir) and slowly they fall in love, whilst Sally Geeson and her group of environmentalists continue to pontificate their socio economic views at various conferences.

This Is an uneven sitcom film it introduces a few new situations and characters which weren't in the tv series and develops the relationships for the children the daughter and her environmentalist group coinciding with mike's wooing of the lady in waiting.

Overall: a few sight gags are funny a lot of it falls flat unfortunately the actors play their parts with alomp apart from Robin Askwith overreacting and hamming it up unhealthily. I'd say this is one sitcom family that should've stayed on the small screen where they belong.

Apr 2021

This is everything i expect from a classic british comedy, i never saw the series that this is based on, but the films works as a stand alone and apparently the events in this film were ignored when they went back to continue with the series.

Just great fun from start to finish, all the cast are your favourite faces and do a great job.

Really good fun family film, lets improve that IMDB score.

9 out of 10.

From what I have seen of the TV series, it is a very enjoyable one that is funny and relaxing to watch. This spin off movie is not too bad, but it is nothing exceptional.

The good things: It is nicely filmed, the cinematography is very nice and the scenery lush, and the music is beautiful, it has a nice whimsical feel to it. The costumes are also nice to look at, by today's standards perhaps the fashion may be outdated and perhaps naff but in a glorious way. The best thing though is the casting. Sidney James, who I have loved since the Carry On franchise(which I admit I still enjoy), is incomparable as Sid. He just has a warm and fun presence whenever he is on screen as the grouchy father, and it is this presence that saves the film. The remainder of the cast are good too, Sally Geeson is rather so-so in the acting department, though it was nice to see her in a bikini, but Peter Butterworth, Wendy Richard, Diana Coupland and June Whitfield are great value.

The not so good things: The film does feel a little too short, at only 85 or so minutes. If it was made 5 minutes longer, some scenes could have been expanded on. The script does have some funny exchanges such as "Has his steering gone?" "I don't know whether it is his steering, or him!", but some of the material doesn't quite make the most of the running time. The humour here is amusing but nothing quotable or side-splittingly funny, and there were times when the slapstick was a little too much.

Overall, not bad, but unexceptional. 7/10 Bethany Cox

1970's British light comedy based on a popular TV series.

It's soft, warming, harmless wallpaper. There's a lack of imagination about the whole thing - but it's gentle and inoffensive. The cast, including the minor roles, such as the waitress played by Wendy Richards, are familiar British situation comedy actors. It's that cosy familiarity that is the making or breaking of the piece. Making a film based on a TV series is rarely a good idea. What may be a pleasant half-hour spent at home while chatting to friends and family, can become stretched and dull over three times that length. There are plenty of better ways of passing the time than watching this damp squid.

The British TV Sitcoms of the seventies almost all had one thing in common: an inability to forecast changes in fashion and youth culture, and an instantly dated quality that created instant classics. Advice to all non-British surfers - catch this movie, it will give a better insight into life in the UK in the seventies than any more reputable source. Along with On The Buses, Porrige, and others, this movie stands out for great performances by Sid James (catch any Carry On.... movie he's in) , Diana Coupland, Sally Geeson and Robin Askwith as the disfunctional family that started it all!