London Entertains

Anchored by a young Eamonn Andrews, desperately trying to not sound Irish resulting in an odd mid-Atlantic accent, this is very lightweight fare indeed. Andrews was a real fixture in British TV in the 50's, 60's and 70's and was a truly great presenter, making Stateside forays to appear in both the US and UK versions of What's My Line.

The girls all look older than 30 yet apparently are straight out of school, and the storyline is sweet, if not rather lame and certainly badly dated, even for something made in 1950.

The entire production weirdly has the look of a 1930's Hollywood movie, and showcases some up-and-coming BBC talent like one of the first episodes of the Goon Show, complete with Michael Bentine who apparently left after some friction between him and Spike Milligan. That alone is worth the price of admission and is of great historic interest by itself. As with many British films and TV shows of that era, American roles are filled by Canadians.

It's probably impossible to say for sure at this juncture, but it seems likely that E.J. Fancey wangled money (from a precursor of the London Tourist Board?) for a documentary about the Festival of Britain and then, in his inimitable manner, cobbled together a wrap-around narrative to make the film more appealing to general audiences. The story pretends that young ladies from a Swiss finishing school have formed an agency to conduct foreign visitors around the Festival. For no reason Eamonn Andrews is involved in the scheme. The chief interest today, because everything has now almost entirely been swept away, is footage of the South Bank site both under construction and in operation and the Festival Gardens in Battersea Park. But there's precious little of it. Instead we get night club acts and comedy routines. The clip that has been most often seen is of producer Dennis Main Wilson introducing The (four) Goons prior to a recording of the radio show referred to as "Crazy People". Otherwise there's a lot of library footage. The material purporting to be of a show at the Windmill Theatre seems to be from a pre-war film. Jimmy Grafton's sex-obsessed narration is boring in the extreme. For a similar Fancey production see "Calling All Cars" (1954), which may have developed from a documentary about the cross-channel car ferry. Spike Milligan does the again abysmal narration. It's one of the quirks of history that all The Goons' earliest screen appearances came about through E.J. Fancey. Clearly the boys were so keen on exposure in their early days that they didn't care what they did.

After nearly sixty years even an E.J.Fancey quickie like this made on half a shoestring acquires considerable archival fascination as host Eamonn Andrews himself observes "a souvenir of those six months" in those far off days in the summer of 1951 when Britain was preparing for the Festival of Britain and there were four Goons. (We are also treated to a rare glimpse of Jimmy Grafton and Dennis Main Wilson, whose names we often heard on the show but never saw.)

Possibly the last surviving cast member is a fresh-faced young Vincent Ball, now 97 years old. Joe Baker looks older here as 'Hiram' than he did on TV a quarter of a century later. And despite the annoying Hammond organ score, even a humble programme filler like this was in those days quite slickly put together with the aid of some snazzy optical whipes.

This curiosity was made in order to promote the Festival of Britain.

There is a threadbare storyline of some eligible young ladies from a finishing school who have formed an agency. Television and radio personality Eamonn Andrews has been roped in.

Andrews really presents some acts of the time as well as the development of the South Bank of London for the festival.

Some people like to say light entertainment is not like it used to be. The acts here are proof that it really was lousy in the old days.

The only standouts are the footage of the Goons. It may not be funny to modern audiences, but at least it was anarchic. They are also the only act that was diverse.

It also showcases Eamonn Andrews, although this is not his best representation. The former boxer was a major force on British television. Originally for the BBC and later for ITV as presenter of shows such as This is Your Life.

Of historical interest only as it's very sexist as was the situation way back in 1951. London in 1951, and the rest of the UK, looks like a different planet when viewed from 2020. What passed as entertainment in 1951 will certainly not be regarded as such now and probably not all that long after this film's release as it probably dated very quickly, especially the alleged humour.