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Along with those classic old sit coms from the 70s there were those which were so dire your mind had erased from your memory. This pile of trash, like the worst regression therapy you could have, brings all those unwanted memories back.

The first Confessions film: Window Cleaner was kind of fun. Hardly what you'd pay good money to see but watchable. This one however felt like a rejected On The Busses story padded out to an hour and a half. This time, the writers have tried to make it into a proper comedy - not just a series of excuses for girls to loose their tops. It's not particularly saucy, not peppered with gratuitous nudity but neither is it funny.

This looks so slick, so well made and acted that you'd never guess it was made back in 1929. Often really old pictures are just interesting on an academic level but this is genuinely entertaining as well.

I don't think 'romantic comedy' accurately describes this. What makes this so fascinating and quite shocking is how such an unpleasant loud-mouthed yob, whom at one point you're thinking might be a rapist, can actually be the hero of a romantic movie. He's cocky beyond any limits of acceptability, disrespectful, cruel, racist, violent and sexist. For a character like this to be accepted as the hero of a story must reflect that to the demographic who loved Haines (there were many!), these sorts of attitudes were normal in 1929.

If you can put aside the awkward social commentary on 1920s attitudes to women, this picture is surprisingly watchable. Clarence Brown was one of MGM's most able and imaginative directors and here makes his first talking picture without any problems or difficulties as though he'd been making them for years. Similarly, silent mega-star, William Haines appears to have been making talkies forever as well.

Anita Page, playing the object of Haines's affection (or survivor, as she'd probably be called today!) wasn't in 1929, a natural talking picture actress but in films like this, the pretty girl wasn't expected to act - she was there just to be the pretty film star - and she fulfills this role brilliantly. A very, very pretty girl indeed.

Long before Jed Mercurio wrote the best cop (bent coppers) show ever, LINE OF DUTY, he created this brilliantly hilarious comedy masterpiece. If you grew up in the 1970s, this will make you cringe with nostalgia.

Although series three wasn't quite as good, the first two seasons, written by Mercurio have to be amongst the funniest retro comedies ever. Anyone who was at school in the 70s or 80s will recognise their own school down to the sadistic bombastic PE teacher - played brilliantly by Brian Conley and the teacher everyone fancies - Amanda Holden...talk about perfect casting! By the way, the episode with Amanda Holden in a basque is series 2, episode 3.