Nearest and Dearest

A friend of mine often cites this as the greatest film of all time: which just goes to show what too many drugs can do to your head...

It was for many years the received wisdom that the British Quota Quickies of the thirties were among the worst films ever made. The few of those fossils that still survive possess a certain period charm; however, utterly lacking in the average British feature film of the seventies, with their ugly colour, flaired trousers and dreadful haircuts. The top-grossing British feature film of 1971 was Hammer Films' big screen spin-off from the TV series 'On the Buses'; in consequence of which they promptly rushed a feature film reprise of 'Nearest and Dearest' into production, and there were two (repeat, two!!) sequels to 'On the Buses'.

For the rest of the decade the floodgates opened, with Britain's cinema screens awash with longer and generally coarser film versions of the likes of 'Up Pompeii', 'Dad's Army', 'Steptoe and Son', 'Man About the House', 'The Likely Lads', 'Are You Being Served?', 'Porridge', 'Rising Damp' and 'George and Mildred'.

The film version of 'Nearest and Dearest's bigger budget allowed for location filming in Blackpool, but the end result was still dashed off in just four weeks, complete with occasional fluffed lines by Hylda Baker. Two interesting additions to the regular cast are John Barrett as the Pledges' father Joshua who had originally died in the series' first episode in 1968 and whose final hours are here recreated; and Yootha Joyce, who naturally gives the film's best performance as a widowed Blackpool landlady desperate enough to be romantically interested in Eli.

Nobody enticed away from their TV set by the tagline 'From HAMMER who gave you 'ON THE BUSES'' was likely to have any problem with Nellie's constant excruciating malapropisms; but the endless sexual innuendo manages to sound more distasteful still when mouthed by a gallery of grotesques worthy of Breugel.

Yes this is rather non PC in today's PC world. But come on this is classic British seaside postcard humour. The film brings together main characters from the long running itv sit com, some of the settings you can tell What will happen but it's just fun.

People criticise this film for its dated humour, but it still holds up well alongside others like Are you Being Served & On the Buses

Hammer obviously thought that they would hit paydirt at the box office with ths television spin off. If you were a cinema goer at this time the choice would be either this type of film or a sex comedy. I would prefer the later but many would chose to stay at home leading to more cinema closures.

I never watched the TV series on which this film was based. All I can say is that if both TV and film were more or less equal how on earth did either get made let alone viewed.

The fact that so many companies were involved in it's making makes you wonder if raising finance for making the film provide to be difficult.

This is another 1970's spin-off film from a tv series of the same title. It's quite funny and is typical of the time. We went through all these spin-off films, Carry On films, Confession of a...films, which are really all quite innocent and humorous with added innuendo. Reading some of the other reviews on here makes me wonder what people actually expect from this genre!

I really liked this as a TV series in the past. I haven't seen an episode in many years and this film is the only evidence I've encountered recently. It is a desperate disappointment.

This feeling isn't that surprising. In the 1970's most major British sitcoms were turned into film versions, every time with inferior results. The best of these sitcoms, like "Steptoe and Son", "Porridge" and "Rising Damp" still managed to produce quite good films. However the results with the second rank comedies were generally poor. This is such an example.

It is difficult to turn a 25-30 minutes format into a workable feature film. The writers and producers always took the characters out of their original situation and then struggled to keep quality and pace going for 90 minutes. Here the characters are sent to Blackpool for part of the film (a holiday being a standard plot device) and then pad the rest out with a marriage. Where "Nearest and Dearest" especially struggles is its lack of real comic quality. The best sitcoms had really well-drawn characters and were capable of social comment and even pathos. It is one of those sitcoms that relies very heavily on innuendo, which has not fared well over time. There are the habitual comic confusions of the time over sex, with any suggestion of pre-marital action provoking apoplexy in those more traditional times. It also has the standard inclusion of some large-breasted young women for laughs, an approach we have rather transcended.

Other humour comes from Nellie's malapropisms. These are quite amusing in small doses but lose their impact over time. Most frustrating is the use of stupid behaviour in a feeble attempt to amuse.

There are some funny lines and the film will certainly hold some nostalgic interest for fans of the series and of the seventies in general. However after seeing this it is hard to seriously see those days as the halcyon ones they are often portrayed - certainly not in terms of comedy. I think we should be thankful that our modern favourites are not subjected to this sort of demolition on the big screen.