Take Me High

The only bearable way to watch this film is to fast forward through all of the songs.So then you can watch George Cole before Minder,Hugh Griffith's overacting like mad and Richard Wattis making the most of his cameo and Anthony Andrews in his first film,before his role in Young Churchill.The brutalist architecture of Birmingham is unspeakably bad,like the film.

Back in the late 1960's, Birmingham's canal network was in sad decline - with more miles of canals than Venice, this undemanding story with tracks sung by Cliff had a reasonable story-line, but the REAL star is the City of Birmingham itself.

Since the film was made, the canal network has been given the respect it deserved and is now a working waterway, with new developments at Gas Street Basin (behind the 'Brumburger' shop) a testament to the regeneration. Since the 70's, Birmingham is probably unrecognisable, with many of the modern buildings shown already replaced.

The cast worked well, but it was often painful watching the Fox hunting scenes (now a banned activity) and seemingly added only to add some 'english quaintness' for non-native viewers.

Essentially an extended music video clip for Cliff Richards.

Richards is a merchant banker who is moved to Birmingham and what follows is a montage of the brutalist concrete architecture that made Birmingham worse, and shots of flyovers before they were covered in tags and vomit.

George Cole is there and there's a famous scene of shooting the television set. Later there is a 1980s direct-to-video film style plot line where Richards and his girlfriend plan to open a burger bar selling "Brumburgers".

There's quite a lot of embarrassed people in the street scene, as if having to live in Birmingham wasn't punishment enough ! Product placement - BOAC airlines.

While his 60s films fit in with the juvenile delinquent and teenage beach movies of the time, this one keeps up with those fans who were now in their 20s. Another romantic comedy with a memorable music score and set in the UK's second city, Cliff now has an office job but he's still a bachelor.

It would be a dozen years before Cliff would do the Dave Clark musical TIME in the West End (no longer in the office but a rock star) followed 10 years later by his version of Wuthering Heights. The musical Heathcliff was a life-long ambition of Cliff's (and he played the married, then widowed seriously misunderstood man quite well). TIME was never released in video format but Heathcliff was. Take Me High is also available on video. His voice only got better, so you can't go wrong with any of these releases.

I saw this movie this evening and found it not only entertaining but uplifting. There is a real story and no sparsity of Cliff's songs. Many of the songs are worked in by presenting them as Cliff's thoughts. The songs are good not silly. It is not a teen feel good movie .It is more of a young adult choosing what standards to live his life by kind of movie. Cliff, as always , is looking good. The casting on the whole is perfect. There were many performers I was not familiar with but they all performed wonderfully. I think I smiled through the whole movie. If you are a Cliff fan you shouldn't miss it. If you want a good old fashion love story this is it. If you want a movie the family can watch together.this won't let you down. It is the kind of family film Disney used to make. I can't think of one reason not to try it.