Go Kart Go

At its heart, a remake of 1958's Soapbox Derby, this film nevertheless is more exciting due to the motorized karts whizzing around the circuit. Kids' TV favourites Dennis Waterman and Frazer Hines, play members of rival gangs who race one another on the track in what were called Go-Karts at the time. These miniature, skeletal racing cars were powered by lawn mower engines but, due to some nifty track-level camerawork, they appear to get along at a fair lick. Needless to say, dirty doings abound as the baddie Cravens sabotage the goodie Damsons (where do they get these names from?) kart causing the wheel to come off. But, some quick thinking on the part of Damsons' fixer "Square-Head" Hedley, and some co-operation from scrapyard owner Wilfred Brambell, ensure that our Dennis crosses the line first with naughty Frazer deservedly ending up in the duckpond. As usual there is a sprinkling of well-known adult character actors including Graham Stark, Cardew Robinson and Harry Locke. And, coincidentally, Damsons' gang member "Patchy" is played by child actress Pauline Challoner whose sister Carla played a similar role in the aforementioned Soapbox Derby. Great nostalgia film for old codgers who probably watched it nearly 60 years ago at a Saturday morning matinee.

A mechanised version of Soapbox Derby made a few years earlier also by CFF. Slightly older child actors to appeal to an older audience with groovy twangy guitar pop music added to appeal to the older teenager. Great fun especially the runaway lawn mower incident.

Clips from this Children's Film Foundation movie is regularly used in shows that look back at Dennis Waterman's career.

A young Dennis Waterman plays Jimpy whose gang builds speedy Go Kart out of a lawnmower and some junk they have brought from a scrapyard owned by Wilfrid Brambell.

Their rival is the slightly older Harry Haggerty (Frazer Hines) who recognises that his go kart is no match when it comes to the need for speed.

So Harry's gang indulges in a spot of sabotage as well as shunting any one who dares pass him off the track.

A simple story with lots of hijinks. The go kart goes on the loose on the village streets causing chaos.

The main stars are the two child actors, Waterman and Hines who would sustain a long television career.

A fun family movie, a bit simplistic and moralistic but it still stands up well today.

Cameraman Johnny Coquillon limbered up for the four films he later shot for Sam Peckinpah with this semi-remake of 'The Wild One' with go karts rather than motorbikes, filmed round and about Harrow about a million years ago when Dennis Waterman and Frazer Hines were both teenagers and Waterman still had a full head of hair.

There's more emphasis on slapstick than usual, and unusually for a CFF production the plot doesn't involve a gang of crooks; although the film's villain gets the usual ritual dunking at the conclusion. The conflict is instead supplied by initial parental scepticism ("Buy you a go kart and the washing machine not paid for yet?"), but that's swiftly overcome and everyone goes home happy. Except the defeated rival, of course.

'Go Kart Go' (1964) is simply smashing, fast-moving, rough n' tumble, marvellously madcap kids comedy over the remarkably intense rivalry between two opposing Go Kart teams that culminates somewhat calamitously in a no less smashing whizz-bang conclusion where wholesome flaxen-haired hero 'Jimpy' (Denis Waterman) stoically takes on the conspicuously dastardly Harry Haggertty (Frazier Hines) in a terrifically thrilling, lemonade-spilling, axle-spinning climax of Daredevil Go Karting and delightfully disarming 'pluckiness' that makes 'Go Kart Go' one of the more niftily nostalgic, riotously rose-tinted examples of the ceaselessly edifying coda of 'good forever trounces evil' so beloved of the greatly admired Children's Film Foundation. With an exemplary supporting cast of expert comedy wags including the estimable pratfall-ready talents of Wilfrid Brambell, Graham Stark, Cardew Robinson, and a pacey, finger-poppingly rocking score by film & TV music legend Ron Goodwin, you'd be a rotten egg to miss out on these wizard larks!